The Psalms of Thomas (more correctly Psalms of Thom) are a set of third-century psalms[1] found appended to the end of a Coptic Manichaean psalm book, which was in turn part of the Medinet Madi library excavated in 1929. The psalms were originally published in 1938 by Charles Allberry.[2]
The meter and structure of the psalms suggest that they were originally written in Eastern Aramaic. There are 20 psalms in total.[3] The themes and content of the psalms bear a considerable resemblance to the Hymn of the Pearl from the Acts of Thomas.
Considerable controversy continues as to whether the Thomas or Thom referred to could be the Apostle Thomas, Mani's disciple, also called Thomas, or the Gnostic concept of the divine twin. This is because the latter is referred to in other parts of the Coptic Manichaean Psalm-book as a distinct person from the Apostle. The enigma has since deepened with the publication of the Cologne Mani-Codex in the 1970s, which showed that Mani himself came out of a baptizing Christian sect called the Elkasaites (= Elcesaites).
In 1949, Torgny Säve-Söderbergh suggested that the psalms were largely based upon canonical Mandaean texts (despite Jesus being mentioned positively in two psalms). Säve-Söderbergh's work on the psalms demonstrating that Mandaeism did not derive from Manichaeism, as was formerly commonly believed.[4][5] For instance, Psalm 13 has parallels with prayers 125, 129 (cf. Psalms of Thomas 13:1–8), and 155 (cf. Psalms of Thomas 13:37–45) in the Qolasta.[6]
Säve-Söderbergh (1949) notes Mandaean parallels such as the following.[4]
The parallels are summarized in the table below.
| PsTh | GL | GR | CP | MJ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3.15 | |||
| 5 | 2 | |||
| 6 | 3.43 | 66 | ||
| 8 | 2.15 | |||
| 12 | 47 | |||
| 13 | 3.2,22,41 | 24, 125, 129, 155 |
||
| 14 | 6 | 47 | ||
| 17 | 12 | |||
| 18 | 3.2,19 | 96 | 15 |
Van Bladel (2017) suggests that an equally plausible scenario is that of Manichaeism and Mandaeism both having borrowed the hymns from another common source, likely the funeral prayer(s) of an Aramaic-speaking Judeo-Christian group in Mesopotamia such as the Elchasites.[7]