I was reading through a fairly complex narrative by Pierluigi Piovanelli titled “Thomas in Edessa? Another look at the original setting of the Gospel of Thomas” and ran across an interesting observation made by April D. DeConick on page 451 of this PDF File.
While the paper is about describing the efforts undertaken to see if Thomas was in Edessa, it produces an amazing ‘hidden’ detail about the Gospel: It seems that the Gospel of Thomas has 5 ‘chapters’ or discourses. Each begins by telling the audience to seek the truth and each ends with a saying or statement about the end of the world. To see how Ms DeConick arrived at this conclusion you’ll need to read the article or, as a short cut, here are the 5 discourses she has has discovered.
Saying #’s Discourse On
2-16: eschatological urgency
17-36: eschatological challenges
38-61: exclusive commitment
62-91: the worthy few
92-111: the imminent Kingdom of God
We know 1 is the opening, so that would leave 4 ‘orphan’ sayings: 37 and 112 through 114.
Oh, by the way: eschatological means:
1. The branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind.
2. A belief or a doctrine concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment