Thomas and the Gospels

Don't miss Mark Goodacre's Thomas and the Gospels, due out in May. It's a wave of sanity in Thomas scholarship, demonstrating with relative ease the gospel's derivative nature, and loaded with spoilsport wisdom that makes Goodacre so refreshing and necessary in this field. It's also the perfect sequel to The Case Against Q, and just as convincing. I had the privilege of reading a draft, so I know... But here's the Eeerdmans blurb:

"The Gospel of Thomas -- found in 1945 -- has been described as 'without question the most significant Christian book discovered in modern times.' Often Thomas is seen as a special independent witness to the earliest phase of Christianity and as evidence for the now-popular view that this earliest phase was a dynamic time of great variety and diversity.

"In contrast, Mark Goodacre makes the case that, instead of being an early, independent source, Thomas actually draws on the Synoptic Gospels as source material -- not to provide a clear narrative, but to assemble an enigmatic collection of mysterious, pithy sayings to unnerve and affect the reader. Goodacre supports his argument with illuminating analyses and careful comparisons of Thomas with Matthew and Luke."