The Gospel of Thomas is the most important book by an early follower of Jesus outside of the New Testament. It opens a window into the struggles between early authors and groups for whom Jesus was their hero. Many of them agreed, his words were oracles, mysteries, and riddles. And the Gospel of Thomas does not disappoint. It is full of riddles. Just read it cold and see. What would it take to penetrate the obscurities? What would we need to do to read them as easily as we read the local newspaper? How could we enter the author's cultural world and language system so we could interpret all the riddles? How could we become an insider to his social network so we could see the purpose, structure, and message of his writing? Where would we begin? Darrell Udd takes up all these questions and leads readers on an intriguing journey of discovery. His work contains novel theses, an original translation, and a complete reading of the Gospel of Thomas. It independently corroborates the work of Stephen Patterson and Ivan Miroshnikov and extends their work to firmly establish Middle Platonism as the only adequate frame for understanding this ancient writing.
