대한민국 외국인교수협회 (NAFSIK: National Association of Foreign Scholars in Korea) 회장이며 영국왕립아시아학회 (The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland)의 석학회원인 교양대학 데이비드 윌리엄 김(David William Kim)교수는 지난 6년간 기원후 1 - 5세기 고대이집트 나일강 상류 사막지역 (Oxyrhynchus)에서 기록된 Nag Hammadi Library의 일부 비밀문서인 Coptic Codex를 초대 기독교의 원문서인 Greek Manuscripts과 정치-역사적 관점에서 비교분석한 연구서적 (The Words of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas: The Genesis of a Wisdom Tradition)이 그분야 세계적인 학자들로 인정받아 영국 옥스포드에 위치한 인문.사회분야의 Routledge 출판사에서 출간되었다. 이 책은 Gnostic사상을 따르는 이집트인들에게 지중해의 유대인기독교가 전해지면서 새로이 출현한 Thomasine 신앙공동체의 존재와 정체성에 대한 새로운 가설을 주장하여 지난 70년간 내려온 학계의 학설에 변화를 가져온 사례로 받아 들려지고 있다. 아래는 원문의 서론 개요의 일부를 소개하고 있다:

   

 Asso. Prof. Dr. David William Kim 

 

This book offers a detailed analysis of the Gospel of Thomas in its historic and literary context, providing a new understanding of the genesis of the Jesus tradition. Discovered in the twentieth century, the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas is an important early text whose origins and place in the history of Christianity continue to be subjects of debate. Aiming to relocate the Thomasine community in the wider context of early Christianity, this study considers the Gospel of Thomas as a bridge between the oral and literary phases of the Christian movement. It will therefore, be useful for Religion scholars working on Biblical studies, Coptic codices, gnosticism and early Christianity.

 

Figure 1: published by Routledge, Oxford, United Kingdom

 

This volume is structured around a reading perspective in which each Logion (114 in all) of the Gospel of Thomas is approached equally and interpreted logically to redefine the genesis of the Jesus tradition in the history of early Christianity. The new hypothesis is demonstrated in the way that the original text, during the time of a generational transition, was creatively written by the ‘one point five (1.5: child eyewitnesses) generations’ of Jesus, out of oral tradition and casual notes once possessed by the historical figure of Didymus Judas Thomas. If the ‘genetic address of Thomas,’ indeed, is in the stream of the written Logia tradition (45-60 CE) before the canonical Gospels, one should not only not deny that the Jewish wisdom (sophia) tradition survived the transitional process, but also recognize that there may be yet more undiscovered Qs. This book, with a pioneering spirit, argues that Thomas does not exactly fit into the traditional Q, but uniquely contains ‘the Thomasine-Q tradition of Jesus.’

 

For the new book published, see: https://www.routledge.com/The-Words-of-Jesus-in-the-Gospel-of-Thomas-The-Genesis-of-a-Wisdom-Tradition/Kim/p/book/9780367629229