Of course, Philo was also a philosopher and religious thinker of the utmost significance, but the medium through which he expressed his ideas is scriptural interpretation. Eusebius sums up Philo's career in the Ecclesiastical History as follows: 'He reached a most sublime level in the study of the divine writings, and he produced a varied and sophisticated exposition of the holy texts' (2.18.1). Indeed, it was as a biblical commentator that he made his greatest impact on the Greek (and Latin) literature of the following centuries. Both the individual treatises and the structure of the corpus as a whole reveal that Philo had a systematic approach to the biblical text, and that the primary aim of his endeavors as a writer was to present and perfect that. View full-textĪs we have seen from the preceding chapter, the major part of Philo's works, about three-fourths of the surviving corpus, is devoted to the interpretation of Scripture. These are the option for Gnostics: either convert to the type of Christianity the Gospel of John teaches or being lost in darkness. Jude does not make such a conversion and disappears in the night. Thomas is a Gnostic who could fully understand Jesus’ words in a Gnostic way until he encounters the bodily risen Lord. The article demonstrates that the author of John’s gospel uses these passages in an anti-Gnostic discourse. These texts gain more profile than by a traditional reading which is often based on a psychological understanding of Jude and Thomas. The article aims at reading the scenes dealing with Jude and Thomas in John’s gospel with a Gnostic framework in mind. This challenges scholars to read these sections in relation to Gnosticism. conspicuous characters in the Gospel of John than in the Synoptics. It is remarkable that Jesus’ disciples who are prominently present in Gnostic texts, especially Jude, Thomas and Philip are also more. The discoveries of Gnostic texts since the mid of the twentieth century challenge biblical scholarship to read New Testament texts from new points of view. Jude and Thomas, were they Gnostics? Reading the Gospel according to John from a Gnostic perspective With the help of all the evidence that we will have gathered, we will finally see if it is possible to speculate on the origin and development of the motif of the five trees of Paradise in Antiquity. Coming from various sources, the Bible, the Jewish tradition, the intertestamental literature, the gnostic literature, and Manichaeism, these other attestations of the motif of the five trees will help us to get a larger perspective of its expression in the “Gospel of Thomas”, and contribute to a better understanding of the motif in general. Keeping these characteristics in mind, we will then shift our attention on the other texts where the motif is attested, and thus see where and how they are similar or different. This paper will start by looking closely at the characteristics of these five trees, as they are found in the “Gospel of Thomas”. Although present in texts known before the discovery of the “Gospel of Thomas”, this motif has intrigued scholars for more sixty years. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death” (transl. 19): “For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. This paper will investigate and try to uncover what can be known of the five trees of Paradise, a motif famous for being found in the Coptic “Gospel of Thomas” (log.
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