The Gospel of Thomas and Early Christian Monasticism in Egypt

This article tackles the issue of the possible Egyptian provenance of the Gospel of Thomas (GTh). By the beginning of the third century, GTh already circulated in the Christian circles of Alexandria. Furthermore, at least one version of this document had been transmitted to Oxyrhynchus before 200 C.E., that is, prior to the terminus ad quem for one of the Greek manuscripts of Thomas. In order to reassess this hypothesis, the author delves into the problem of origin of Egyptian monasticism and examines the earliest attestations about the use of GTh in Alexandria (Origen) and Asia Minor (Hippolytus). This inquiry leads to a negative result concerning the possible Egyptian birthplace of Thomas, and allows for the existence of an earlier stratum of sayings in GTh deriving from a first-century source. Due to the paucity of historical data, such a hypothesis would hardly be tenable in the Egyptian context. Therefore, the most one could suggest at this point of research is that the GTh reached Alexandria from Palestine or Asia Minor, where it had already been known in the first half of the second century.