#12635 Did Catholics Remove the Gospel of Thomas? Canon Explained

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Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

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🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

“Did Catholics remove the Gospel of Thomas?” This question opens a discussion about the origins and decisions surrounding the biblical canon. The conversation also touches on why the letter of Clement was excluded, the identity of James in the New Testament, and the Catholic perspective on the Jewish scriptures.

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Questions Covered:

00:40 – Senator Talarico claims that Christian removed the Gospel of Thomas from the Bible. Can you tell us what the Gospel of Thomas is, and did Catholics remove this book, or any book from the Bible?
16:47 – Why was the letter of Clement not included in Canon?
19:49 – Is the Book of James the James who is the bigshot in Acts?
20:58 – Does the presbyterian church that Tarlrico belongs to believe that women must become men to enter Heaven as stated in the Gospel of Thomas?
29:16 – How does the Catholic faith view the books of scripture that Jews adhere hear to and which books of scripture are part of Catholic canon and not protestant?
36:55 – If Hannukah (a high holy day) which is only mentioned in Maccabees, but protestants leave Maccabees out of their canon, how can this be if they base their canon on Jewish canon?
46:04 – Are any of the letters attributed to Paul actually written by anyone else?
53:00 – What do you make of the stories of Jesus as a young boy?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent.
0:05.2	When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers.
0:11.5	Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Hello and welcome to Catholic Answers Live. I'm Cy Kellett, your host, and joining us today as theologian and historian Stephen Boyce.
0:36.5	In his studies, he focuses on which books belong in the Bible.
0:39.3	That's one of his focuses is.
0:41.3	And that's great for us because the clip, there's a clip out there from Texas State Senator James Tala Rico.
0:48.3	It just started trending on social media.
0:50.3	So I want to ask him about the clip. Let's hear it.
0:52.3	It's coming. Don't worry.
0:58.4	Here's a clip. State Senator James Tolarico talking about a gospel, at least that's the term he
1:03.9	used. In the Gospel of Thomas, which was later omitted from the Bible by church officials.
1:13.5	The Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying,
1:16.8	when you make the male and female one in the same,
1:21.2	when the male is not male, when the female is not female,
1:25.2	then you will enter the kingdom of God.
1:30.3	I'm sorry, I'm glad we got that in.
1:33.0	So this is quite a statement.
1:36.9	So Stephen Boyce, thank you so much for being here with us.
1:40.7	It sounds like Senator Talrico is claiming that Christians remove the Gospel of Thomas from the Bible.
1:46.8	Can you tell us what the Gospel of Thomas is, and did Catholics remove this book or any book from the Bible?
1:52.2	Sure. Yeah, the Gospel of Thomas is kind of an interesting text because it's not a narrative. It's a sayings gospel.
2:00.2	There's 114 sayings, and there's a lot of discussion about
	...

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