September 2005 Archives

I bought this over 2 years ago out of curiosity. I've heard about "other" gospels. I knew that the current 66 books in the Bible was collected by the Roman Church. There must have been other books and I am sure they acted as editors to deliver coherent messages.

Anyway, this short book contains translated text of what is believed to be the Gospel of Thomas (collection of writings by Thomas of what Jesus said) which is a part of the Nag Hammadi collection. It also includes rather bland writings of how the discovery came about and the history of the scroll since.

First things first. I don't know how valid this gospel is. It could be real or not. Just because a book was not included in the 66 books does not mean that it is not genuine.

But I can say this about the actual text in there: the collection of sayings weren't that impressive. Maybe it is to biblical scholars. But to me, it seems to be a very random collection which is difficult for me to find a common message. I guess I had too high an expectation. I thought it would be something truly "secret" and amazing.

Anyway, this did peaked my interests in other Nag Hammadi scrolls and other Gnostic scriptures because I just can't believe this is it.

Frankly, I am not that good of a poker player, so I am not sure if I am qualified to evaluate the book, but I felt that the book's "theory" was too incoherent. To me, it seems a lot more anecdotal than I wanted.

I think nothing beats actual playing (just don't expect to see me on a televised final table :p).