The Gospel of Thomas

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Description

Religion, archaeology and understated drama intertwine in the story of the discovery of ancient papyrus manuscripts in a sealed jar in a cave in southern Egypt in 1945. Written in Coptic, an old Egyptian language, one of them turned out to be a lost gospel containing the words of Jesus, the so-called Gospel of Thomas. A young Dane, Soren Giverson, was the first scholar to examine them in 1957. He dedicated his life to their study. The opening words of the manuscript, which dates from 340-343, reads "These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the Twin recorded." The twenty-two pages contain one hundred fourteen parables ascribed to Jesus and differs from the four other Gospels in that it is directed to his intimate disciples and not to a larger audience. Filmed against the stark desert landscape, the documentary brings out the simplicity and mystery of the parables, as well as the zeal that went into tracing their origins.