What should you think of things like the Gospel of Thomas?

"Thomas" is merely a bad, false "cut and paste job" using some of the original Gospel text and adding popular "BS" of the time. It does the Apostle a great disservice.

If you want a real piece of discarded garbage, read the Gospel of Barnabas.

The Gospel of Thomas presents some particularly ugly problems because of its provenance. We have only a couple of pages of the Greek original (and yes, they were actually found in a "garbage dump"--an ancient repository of scrap paper). We have a later translation into Coptic (an Egyptian dialect written with Greek characters), and we know from comparison with those couple pages of Greek that the contents were, at least, rearranged. It's likely there were other changes, or additions.

Some of it suggests the collection started as a compilation of material from other gospels which happened to appeal to the collector's particular sense of style. Those might offer some insight into earlier versions of stories now in the canonical Gospels, but unless they're among the bits we have in Greek, the translation to Coptic limits the amount we can rely them as traces of source material.

There are also stories which do not appear in the canonical Gospels. We've got no solid basis for thinking they were present in earlier sources; they're just as likely to have been added by the translators or other later handlers of the Thomas collection, as extensions of the peculiar style that appealed to them.

From their comments, the Jesus Seminar's editors appear to have cared more about claiming credit for authenticating early apostolic writings than they cared about whether they were really authentic. There's a very ugly bit of sniping against the members of their hand-picked group of scholars who didn't vote their way.

The only thing you can rely on in the apocrypha are the things that are also found in the acceptedcannon of the Bible. Otherwise, books like The Gospel of Thomas are not to be trusted.

The choice of which books that are included in your version of the Bible was relatively arbitrary and there are multiple different cannons of scripture that include different sets of books, most of them being more limited, i.e having less books.

How you "should" think about all these books is to have a solid foundation in how they are translated, what we know about where they came from and what sources are used as well as why we consider some sources to be more reliable. A good understanding of the actual history of the times is also essential.

The fact is, you can find 'truth' concealed anywhere, since scripture tells us that all tribes once recognized GOD through Creation itself and continue to reflect His nature and the 'form of godliness' even while denying or rejecting Him, (Romans 1:18-24, 2 Timothy 3:5).

The most crucial question is about which 'interpreter' you have opening your eyes to truth. If it is the Holy Spirit of Christ, truth can be revealed hiding virtually anywhere. If it is some 'other' source of inspiration doing the interpreting, scripture itself only becomes a powerful source of your own destruction, (2 Peter 3:16).

When the 'food' has already been unwrapped and interpreted through a sound mind inspired by Christ, (such as in the holy canon), brother Jerome is quite correct in his assessment and comparison with non-canonical works. I would only add that a knowledge of these other books and expressions serves us well through contrast and as a 'language' through which we may convey the holy precepts and commands to others, as well as their need for a Savior Who literally interprets His own words for us in the most intimate possible manner once we join Him in His Covenant of universal forgiveness, peace and brotherhood.

"As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." (1 John 2:27).

Its all garbage

"St Jerome" was a false teacher. And the "gospel of thomas" is garbage. There are 66 Books in the Bible, and not one book more. Virtually nobody reads the 66 Books, and yet they all want to add more books.

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The Bible is the absolute Word of God and is 100% true.

Nobody can be good enough to avoid hell. The truth is that death leads to immediate heaven or hell, depending only on whether the person believed in Jesus for eternal life, or not.

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The truth is that Jesus loves you and wants to bless your life freely :) Most of all, Jesus wants you with Him forever, and not in hell. The truth is that every belief except one will lead to eternal torment in the lake of fire for every person. Because nothing pays for our sins except the death and blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus that is already accomplished by Him . Jesus loves you! The truth is that Jesus is God, and Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of our sins in full, and then Jesus resurrected from the dead. Nothing else pays for our sins, not works, not deeds, not religions. So the only way to heaven and to avoid hell, is by believing in Jesus for eternal life (John 6:47), without adding any of your own works (Romans 4:5). Believe in Jesus to take you to heaven, and you will be in heaven, no matter what, guaranteed. That easy, thanks to Jesus! Tell Jesus that you thank Him that you will be with Him in heaven when you die, because you believe in Jesus! It is too late to be saved, after death

Mythology beginners like Green Eggs and ham

Nothing is garbage if you see it with the mind of Spirit to show you the truth in it.