I had the same impression when I first read the Gospel of Thomas many years ago, though I’ve come full circle on it and now believe these are authentic sayings from Jesus that were written down one by one over time as Jesus taught his disciples.
The movie Stigmata has a strange mix of themes. On the one hand, there are dark overtones of occult possession (which I don’t like). On the other hand, there’s the niggling sense that the Gospel of Thomas really does have something important to say to us – something the Church might find inconvenient.
As you say, there’s been a lot of debate among scholars about whether the Gospel of Thomas should be considered a Gnostic text. It was found, of course, with a lot of other Nag Hammadi texts that are most definitely Gnostic, and this may have influenced early scholarly thought. Biblical Archaeology Review ran an article on this topic in 2015, and in it Simon Gathercole points out a number of features of Thomas that aren’t Gnostic.
Like you, I’m no fan of Plato or the Gnostics. I see complexity in the Gospel of Thomas, but I don’t see Gnosticism. I think we sometimes want to take the difficult texts and lump them together under an umbrella term like Gnosticism so we don’t have to do the hard work of uncovering the meaning. Having said that, there’s no doubt the Gospel of Thomas is a difficult text.
Many of the sayings in Thomas found their way into the Synoptics but not into John. Stephen Patterson has made a thorough analysis of the parallels in his book The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus.
Because the sayings are just that – a series of sayings without a narrative context to bind them together (a problem which Mark later fixed) – it’s hard to see the overall pattern. But there is a pattern, and it’s best seen by observing what’s not included in Thomas.
As you pointed out, there’s no account of Jesus’ death. But many other things are missing, which can reveal to us what Jesus wasn’t concerned about. When you compare what’s missing in Thomas to what is included in the Essene scrolls found near Qumran, you start to wonder whether Jesus was trying to talk his disciples out of the doctrines they’d been hearing about from other Jewish sects (especially the Essenes).
Here are some of the things I’ve found so far that are missing from Thomas:
*no mention of a Messiah
*no mention of Christology
*no mention of “the Devil” or demons
*no praise for the Jerusalem Temple
*no praise for Jewish priests or scribes
*no praise for the Essenes (so no “good versus evil” theology)
*no praise for the Pharisees
*no praise for the divisions (i.e. tribes) of Judaism
*no mention of Moses
*no Eucharist
*no Baptism
*no status-based or sympathetic-magic-based rituals
*no sin (that is, no theological sin of the “original sin” type)
*no miqvahs
*no justification of slavery
*there is a rejection of purity laws
*there is a focus on the present, not the past or the future (so there’s a lack of apocalyptic or eschatological elements)
*there is a focus on the treasure/wealth of relationship with God (the “blessings”)
*there is a lack of emphasis on justice, righteousness, or justification – but there is a powerful sense of morality throughout
*there is no mention of external salvation, but there’s a repeated emphasis on internal redemption (“knowing yourself”)
These absences are consistent with the overall message of Jesus as found in the Synoptics (especially Mark) and in parts of the Letter of James. It’s a radical theology that says everyone can be in relationship with God, but there are no easy ways to “enter the Kingdom.”