Wisdom in the Gospels of Thomas and John

I began doctoral studies in NT at Marquette University in 1990 with an abiding interest in the Gospel of John. Seminars taken during the course of my studies- The Johannine Tradition ; Hellenistic Backgrounds to the NT ; Qumran ; Gnosticism -developed my understanding of its milieu and piqued my curiosity about John\u27s relationship to other early Christian texts, particularly the Gospel of Thomas. The recognized but largely unexplored observation that these gospels have a conceptual affinity prompted me to pursue the question of how to account for the similarity between Thomas with its Synoptic-like sayings and John with its Synoptic-like format. This quest led me to propose one possible answer in this dissertation, an explanation that, at the same time, entertains both a glimpse of a preliterary wisdom sayings tradition and a fresh reading of the Gospels of Thomas and John