# Does the Gospel of Thomas Teach the Trinity?
The Gospel of Thomas consistently presents a vision of God and Jesus that is incompatible with the Trinitarian doctrine of one God in three coequal persons. The text emphasizes the distinction between the Father, referred to as the Undivided One, and Jesus, who is portrayed as a subordinate revealer and recipient of life from the Father. By examining key sayings, it becomes clear that the Gospel of Thomas upholds a strictly unitarian view of divinity, rejecting the notion of a tri-personal God.
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### **Saying 3**
> “The kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the sons of the living Father.”
This saying emphasizes **direct access to the Father** without mediation by a coequal Son or Spirit. It portrays the Father as the sole source of life, revealing himself through self-knowledge rather than a tri-personal relationship. The Son is not presented as ontologically equal but as one who guides humans toward recognition of the Father.
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### **Saying 13**
> “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have tended.”
Here, Jesus explicitly denies being the disciples’ God or master. He functions as a **revealer and servant**, not an equal member of a triune deity. His authority is instrumental, pointing to the Father, not independent or coequal as in Trinitarian theology.
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### **Saying 15**
> “When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves and worship him. That one is your Father.”
This saying reserves worship exclusively for the Father. Jesus, being born of woman, is clearly **distinguished from the Father**, which refutes the idea of ontological equality between the Father and the Son.
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### **Saying 28**
> “I stood in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found all of them drunk; I found none of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of men…”
Jesus presents himself as **sent by the Father** and distinct from him. He is a messenger and not the origin of life, indicating **subordination** rather than coequality with God.
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### **Saying 30**
> “Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there is two or one, I am with him.”
This saying can be interpreted as a **critique of Trinitarian thinking**. The text contrasts multiple gods with the singular, emphasizing that true divinity resides in **oneness**, not in a tri-personal deity. Jesus’ presence is with the one, highlighting unity and rejecting the logic of three persons constituting a single God.
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### **Saying 50**
> “If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’ say to them, ‘We came from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established itself, and appeared in their image.’”
The Father is portrayed as **self-existent light**, and Jesus along with his followers merely emanates from it. This contradicts the Trinitarian claim that the Son is of the same essence as the Father, asserting a **derivative, not coeternal, relationship**.
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### **Saying 61**
> “Two will rest on a bed: one will die, and the other will live.”
> Salome asked, “Who are You, man, that You, as though from the One, have come up on my couch and eaten from my table?”
> Jesus replied, “I am He who exists from the Undivided One. I was given some of the things of my Father.”
> “If he is undivided, he will be filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be filled with darkness.”
This logion explicitly distinguishes Jesus from the **Undivided One**, the Father. Jesus receives things from his Father, indicating **subordination and dependence**, contrary to Trinitarian claims of coequal persons. The saying also establishes a moral and spiritual hierarchy: connection to the undivided source brings light, separation brings darkness.
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### **Saying 77**
> “I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood, I am there; lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
Jesus is described as the **manifestation or emanation of the Father’s light**, not the Father Himself. This distinction again contradicts Trinitarian consubstantiality, presenting the Son as subordinate and derivative.
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### **Saying 79**
> “A woman from the crowd said, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nourished you.’ He said to her, ‘Blessed are those who have heard the word of the Father and have truly kept it.’”
Jesus redirects praise to the Father, reinforcing the Father’s **supremacy** and denying equality between himself and the Father.
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### **Saying 99**
> “They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, ‘Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.’ He said to them, ‘Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give the Deity what belongs to the Deity, and give me what is mine.’”
Jesus distinguishes **three orders**: the worldly (Caesar), the divine (the Deity/Father), and himself. He does not include himself within the same category as God, emphasizing **ontological separation**.
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### **Sayings 100 and 101**
> “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot be my disciple. My true mother gave me life.”
Jesus highlights that **life comes from the true mother, a symbol of the divine source**, showing dependence. This further rejects the Trinitarian concept that the Son is self-existent or coequal with the Father.
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### **Saying 108**
> “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”
The sharing of Jesus’ nature implies **derivative participation**, not inherent equality. The Son’s nature is accessible and partaken of, unlike the Trinitarian idea of a single immutable substance shared by all three persons.
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### **Saying 112**
> “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh.”
This distinction reflects a **hierarchical understanding of existence**, analogous to the relationship between the Father and Son in Thomas: the Father is supreme, and the Son occupies a subordinate position, rejecting the coequal concept of the Trinity.
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### **Conclusion**
The Gospel of Thomas consistently presents:
* A **single source**: the Father, referred to as the Undivided One.
* A **revealer and mediator**: Jesus, dependent on the Father and not coequal.
* No **coequal third person** or shared divine essence.
Through these sayings, Thomas emphasizes a **unitarian vision of divinity**: the Father alone is unbegotten and absolute; the Son is begotten, subordinate, and an emanation of the Father; the Spirit is an aspect or activity of the Father, not a separate person. Far from teaching the Trinity, the Gospel of Thomas presents a framework in which Jesus is distinct from and dependent upon the one true God, consistently rejecting any notion of tri-personal equality.
This collection of sayings demonstrates that the Gospel of Thomas aligns with early non-Trinitarian thought, presenting a **clear hierarchy and distinction between the Father and Jesus**, incompatible with later Trinitarian theology.
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