In 1945, a group of Egyptian camel drivers were digging for fertilizer when they came upon an earthenware jar containing the greatest collection of early Christian documents ever found. Among the ancient papyri was the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of over 100 sayings of Jesus that some scholars believe are older than the four gospels in the New Testament.
John Dart, a religion writer for the Los Angeles Times and Ray Riegert, author of The Lost Gospel of Q, tell the story of this discovery and provide an annotated translation of The Gospel of Thomas purportedly written by the doubting disciple. They note, "Here is Jesus as a sage, the personification of Wisdom, cast in the tradition of King Solomon or Buddha, a humble man with a powerful message."
There is a Gnostic coloring to these sayings, especially the following: "He who knows all but fails to know himself lacks everything." And another: "When you bring forth what is in you, what you have will save you. That which you do not have in you will kill you if you do not know it within you." The book concludes with an interpretive essay by John Dominic Crossan.