I just came across this awesome online database.
Why would you be interested? Go to the link and search for “Thomas” in the title field. Church tradition has Thomas going east in the apostolic age. Eastern (Syriac) Christianity is a field / era that figures in both scholarly and wacky discussions about the Gospel of Thomas.
I got 339 hits for that search. Among them were things like:
Farquhar, John Nicol, ”The Apostle Thomas in North India”, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 10:1 (1926): 80-111.
Farquhar, John Nicol, The Apostle Thomas in North India. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1926.
Perrin, Nicholas, ”Thomas and Tatian: The Relationship between the ‘Gospel of Thomas’ and the ‘Diatessaron’”. Ph.D. dissertation, Marquette University, 2001.
Perrin, Nicholas, Thomas and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron. Academia Biblica 5. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2002.
Perrin, Nicholas, ”NHC II, 2 and the Oxyrhynchus Fragments (P.Oxy 1, 654, 655): Overlooked Evidence for a Syriac Gospel of Thomas”, Vigiliae Christianae 58 (2004): 138-151.
Perrin, Nicholas, ”The Aramaic Origins of the Gospel of Thomas ‒ Revisited”, Pages 50-59 in Das Thomasevangelium: Entstehung‒Rezeption‒Theologie. Edited by Frey, Jörg and Popkes, Enno Edzard and Schröter, Jens. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 157. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
Pretty cool.
But alas, I had to email them and tell them that their database wasn’t “comprehensive.” How do I know? I searched for Nicholas Perrin, one of the few scholars I know who make this field a specialty. I got a number of hits for Nick’s work, but I know that it missed at least these three items:
Perrin, Nicholas, “Thomas: the fifth Gospel?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 49 no 1 Mr 2006, p 67-80
Perrin, Nicholas, “Recent trends in Gospel of Thomas research (1991-2006): Part I, The historical Jesus and the synoptic gospels,” Currents in Biblical Research, 5 no 2 F 2007, p 183-206
Perrin, Nicholas, “Alleged Syriac catchwords in the Gospel of Thomas,” Vigiliae christianae, 63 no 1 2009, p 71-82
I presume it’s still a work in progress. But even as it is, this is an amazing resource.
Thanks, Mike (can I call you Mike?),
Studied with Arthur Voobus in the late 70’s at University of Chicago/ LST and have many good works by him, bless his lovely life. Anything that brings this side of the coin to light is a great thing for the history of the church.
Thanks for all you do.