This amused me. Mark Goodacre, over at NT Gateway Weblog (he’s a Scripture scholar, currently teaching at ….) notes that in the General Audience on Wednesday, Benedict referenced the Gospel of and Acts of Thomas.

From the GA:

The fourth Gospel has preserved for us a last note on Thomas, on presenting him as witness of the Risen One in the moment after the miraculous catch on the Lake of Tiberias (cf. John 21:2). On that occasion, he is mentioned also immediately after Simon Peter: an evident sign of the notable importance that he enjoyed in the ambit of the first Christian communities. In fact, in his name, were later written the "Acts" and the "Gospel of Thomas," both apocryphal, but in any case important for the study of Christian origins.

What made me laugh was a comment at the site:

The Holy Father’s recent quoting of a Byzantine emperor turned him into an anti-Islamic fundamentalist in media coverage. Now we are looking forward to see the headline printed in bold, "POPE AFFIRMS GNOSTICISM: Billions of Catholics to accept apocrypha as inspired by God". Then quote some expert in religious studies who can explain how the Pope’s love for the Gospel of Thomas is of course due to this Gospel’s antipathy towards sex and women. Then quote some anonymous source from inside the Vatican who can call to mind those happy days of John Paul II, who would never have given in to gnostic tendencies…

Goodacre also has a couple of long, running posts looking at the discrepancies between the Galatians and Acts accounts of the Council of Jerusalem.

Speaking of early Christian things, today is the Feast of the Archangels, and Mike Aquilina has a nice background post – on a particular ancient work that was very infuential on the Fathers as they wrote of angels.