The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus — no narrative, no miracles, just the sayings themselves. A complete Coptic copy was found in December 1945 near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, buried since around the fourth century. You can read all 114 sayings free in the Gospel of Thomas app for Android.
A sayings gospel: 114 numbered sayings, called logia, with no birth story, no miracles, and no passion narrative. Its most famous lines are the ones people recognize without knowing the source — the kingdom is within you; seek until you find; split the wood, and I am there.
Four of the best known, quoted from Mark M. Mattison's public-domain translation, each linked to the full saying at The Gnostic Library:
In December 1945, near the cliffs of Jabal al-Tarif by Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, a farmer digging for fertilizer struck a sealed clay jar. Inside were thirteen leather-bound codices buried around the fourth century. Codex II held a complete Gospel of Thomas.
Before 1945 the text was known only from Greek fragments. The complete gospel had been in the ground for roughly 1,600 years — which is why its rediscovery reshaped how scholars read the earliest Jesus traditions.
The complete copy is in Coptic, the late form of the Egyptian language. Reading it word by word beside the English shows how each saying assembles — the way a fourth-century reader heard it.
Scholarly translations exist in many editions. On Android, The Gospel of Thomas Daily app carries all 114 sayings free forever — no ads, no account, no tracking — with word-by-word interlinear Coptic on a growing set of sayings and one line each day written for the path you choose. The complete text is also free on the web at The Gnostic Library, in Mark M. Mattison's public-domain translation, where the sayings index links to every saying, and offline in The Gnostic Library app on Google Play.
Last updated September 16, 2026.