The Hidden Teachings: The Gospel of Thomas and The Way

Part 3 of a 5-part series exploring Christianity’s lost path (read previous article here)

In December 1945, near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, local farmers digging for fertilizer made a discovery that would revolutionize our understanding of early Christianity. Muhammad Ali al-Samman (no relation to the boxer) hit something hard with his mattock — a sealed clay jar nearly a meter high. Inside, he found thirteen leather-bound books containing fifty-two ancient texts, preserved by the desert climate for more than 1,500 years.

Among these texts was a complete copy of the Gospel of Thomas — previously known only through scattered references by early Christian writers. This wasn’t just another version of the familiar Jesus story. Instead, it was something far more intriguing: a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, many of them mysterious and profound, some never seen before in any other source.

A Different Kind of Gospel

The Gospel of Thomas opens with a striking claim: “These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.” The name itself is fascinating — “Didymos” in Greek and “Thomas” in Aramaic both mean “twin,” suggesting this disciple was known as “the Twin.” Some early Christian traditions even suggested he was Jesus’s twin brother, though likely in a spiritual rather than physical sense. This twin imagery might be symbolic, pointing to the idea of finding one’s true self or spiritual double — a theme that appears in several of the sayings that follow. What follows bears little resemblance to the narrative gospels that made it into the New Testament. There’s no story of Jesus’s birth, no account of his death and resurrection, no lengthy narratives at all. Instead, Thomas presents Jesus as a wisdom teacher revealing secret knowledge about the nature of reality and human transformation.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we explored how Jesus taught at multiple levels and how this led to conflicts between his brother James and the convert Paul over who could authentically interpret his message. The Gospel of Thomas suggests a third group of early followers who took a different approach: preserving what they claimed were Jesus’s more esoteric teachings.

Dating the Hidden Sayings

Many scholars believe Thomas preserves some of our earliest evidence of Jesus’s teachings. While our complete version is in Coptic (an ancient Egyptian language), fragments of an earlier Greek version have been found dating to around 200 CE. Some sayings appear more primitive than their canonical versions — lacking later theological developments and showing simpler forms.

For instance, Thomas’s version of the Parable of the Tenants (saying 65) lacks the clear Christian allegorical elements found in Mark’s version. Where Mark’s version has been shaped to tell the story of Jesus’s rejection and death, Thomas presents what appears to be an earlier, simpler version about social conflict between landlords and tenants.

About half of Thomas’s sayings have parallels in the canonical gospels, but often with fascinating differences. Consider saying 113, where Jesus’s disciples ask when the kingdom will come. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus answers with apocalyptic imagery about the Son of Man’s return. But in Thomas, Jesus replies: “The kingdom of the Father will not come by expectation. It will not be a matter of saying ‘Here it is’ or ‘There it is.’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”

The Hidden Jesus

But it’s Thomas’s unique sayings that are most intriguing. They present a Jesus focused on self-knowledge and inner awakening:

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

“Jesus said: He who knows all, but is lacking in himself, is utterly lacking.”

“The kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are children of the living Father.”

These teachings emphasize direct spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over belief or ritual. Where Paul emphasized faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, and James emphasized ethical behavior and Jewish practice, Thomas presents Jesus teaching a path of self-discovery and inner transformation.

Echoes of the Mystery Schools

Thomas’s Jesus often speaks in paradoxes that connect with ancient wisdom traditions spanning from Egypt to Greece:

“When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below… then you will enter [the kingdom].”

This teaching powerfully echoes the central principle of Hermetic philosophy, famously expressed in the Emerald Tablet: “That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, for performing the miracles of one thing.” This idea — that the macrocosm (universe) is reflected in the microcosm (human being) — was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean world, appearing in Egyptian theology, Greek mystery schools, and various esoteric traditions.

Other sayings in Thomas reflect similar Hermetic themes. When Jesus says “The kingdom is inside you and outside you” and “Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there,” he’s expressing this same understanding of the divine presence permeating all levels of reality. The emphasis on uniting opposites — inside/outside, above/below — points to a mystical practice of transcending ordinary dualistic perception to recognize a deeper unity.

This isn’t abstract philosophy — it’s a practical teaching about transformation that would have resonated with initiates of various mystery traditions. Just as Hermetic practitioners sought to align their own nature with cosmic principles, Thomas presents Jesus teaching a path of conscious alignment with divine reality.

Some sayings explicitly reference this gradual revelation of truth: “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.”

Why Was It Buried?

The fact that these texts were deliberately hidden suggests their owners faced persecution. By the late 4th century CE, when Christian bishops were standardizing doctrine and declaring alternative interpretations heretical, communities that preserved texts like Thomas faced a choice: destroy their sacred books or hide them.

They chose to bury them, perhaps hoping future generations would better understand Jesus’s “hidden sayings.” The dry Egyptian climate preserved them for over 1,500 years until those farmers accidentally uncovered them, giving us a window into a very different understanding of “the Way.”

A Lost Path?

The Thomas tradition represents a fascinating “what if” in Christian history. What if this understanding of Jesus’s teaching — focused on inner transformation and direct spiritual knowledge — had become dominant instead of Paul’s emphasis on faith or the Jerusalem church’s focus on Jewish practice?

But Thomas wasn’t the only alternative to what became orthodox Christianity. Another group created a sophisticated philosophical framework that attempted to bridge all these different understandings of “the Way.” Their gospel would become arguably the most influential and controversial of all the early Christian texts.

In Part 4, we’ll explore how the Gospel of John reimagined Jesus’s message through Greek philosophy while preserving elements of mystery school teaching — creating a multi-layered text that still challenges readers today.

This is Part 3 of a 5-part series exploring the forgotten history of early Christianity. Follow me to be notified when the next installment is published.