The Gospel of Thomas and Plato

A Study of the Impact of Platonism on the “Fifth Gospel”

Ivan Miroshnikov, Leiden: Brill, 2018

Description

Now available in Open Access thanks to the support of the University of Helsinki. In The Gospel of Thomas and Plato, Ivan Miroshnikov contributes to the study of the earliest Christian engagements with philosophy by offering the first systematic discussion of the impact of Platonism on the Gospel of Thomas, one of the most intriguing and cryptic works among the Nag Hammadi writings. Miroshnikov demonstrates that a Platonist lens is indispensable to the understanding of a number of the Thomasine sayings that have, for decades, remained elusive as exegetical cruces. The Gospel of Thomas is thus an important witness to the early stages of the process that eventually led to the Platonist formulation of certain Christian dogmata.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Acknowledgements A Note to the Reader

1 Setting the Scene   

Middle Platonism: A Debated Concept

Early Christian Appropriation of Platonism: The Prologue of John

Preliminary Notes on the Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas and Philosophy: A History of Research

2 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on the World   

The Text of Sayings 56 and 80

The World as a Body and as a Corpse

Bodies are Corpses

What is Alive is Hidden in What is Dead

Conclusions

3 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on the Body and the Soul   

Interpretative Notes on Sayings 29, 87, and 112

Tripartite Anthropology in the Gospel of Thomas?

The Body vs. the Soul

Conclusions

4 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on Oneness   

The Androgynous Protoplast?

Becoming Asexual?

Platonists on Becoming One

Aramaic Background of the Term μοναχός?

The Meaning of μοναχός in the Gospel of Thomas

Conclusions

5 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on Stability   

DeConick, Williams, and Murray on “Standing” in the Gospel of Thomas

The Varieties of “Standing” in the Gospel of Thomas

Platonists on Transcendental “Standing”

Transcendental “Standing” in the Gospel of Thomas

Conclusions

6 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on Immutability and Indivisibility  

The Setting of the Dialogue

The Contents of the Dialogue

The Integrity of the Dialogue

Conclusions

7 The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonists on Freedom from Anger   

The Text of Gos. Thom. 7

Recent Research on Gos. Thom. 7

The Lion within a Human is Anger

Tripartite or Bipartite?

Platonists on Anger

The Meaning of Gos. Thom. 7

Conclusions

8 Thomasine Metaphysics of the Image and Its Platonist Background   

The Text of Gos. Thom. 83

The Two Types of Images in Middle Platonism

Εἰκὼν θεοῦ as a Paradigmatic Image

The Meaning of Gos. Thom. 83:1

The Meaning of Gos. Thom. 83:2

The Metaphysics of the Image in Sayings 22, 50, and 84

Conclusions

9 Concluding Remarks 

Appendix 1: The Greek Vorlage of Gos. Thom. 12:2

Appendix 2: The Secondary Nature of Gos. Thom. 5:3

Appendix 3: A Note on Gos. Thom. 77:1

Bibliography Index

Link

https://brill.com/view/title/38096

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