The author of the Gospel of Thomas understood Jesus as a teacher who spoke with authority. The gospel celebrated his memory by preserving sayings in his name that sanctioned the formation of a distinctive community. The gospel situates its follower’s position within the Christian tradition as an independent movement. This movement persisted over the course of several generations without becoming an apocalyptic sect or attempting to convert a following. Even so, the gospel maintained its autonomy and distinct identity. In Thomas, Jesus was characterized as the embodiment of wisdom; his words, which could harness the very power of the universe, offered a path of ‘knowing’ as an investment of the imagination.
Followers of this gospel would have structured their society such that processes were developed where wisdom, insight and research could flourish. It seems logical the gospel, to this group, charted a the course to salvation as a study in interpretation of the sayings it provides. It provided the elixir of life to those for whom the secret of the kingdom is disclosed in the interpretation of Jesus’ words.