Origen's Use of the Gospel of Thomas

Origen is especially well-suited for a study on the reception of the Gospel of Thomas in antiquity. He was perhaps the most well-read Christian intellectual of the third century and he amassed a huge library to support his prolific output of exegetical writings, many of which have survived. Moreover, Origen was more open-minded about citing “apocryphal” works than many other ancient Christian writers, so his vast body of work promises to contain several examples of his use of the Gospel of Thomas. This paper surveys a half-dozen cases where Origen used the Gospel of Thomas, both by name and anonymously—including one previously unrecognized instance—and assesses his attitude toward this text. In short, this survey shows that, despite Origen’s recognition that the Gospel of Thomas did not rank with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and despite the presence of some content he must have found objectionable, Origen nonetheless thought that the Gospel of Thomas contained historically useful and homiletically edifying material.