Gospel of Thomas is right in front of them, similar to some passages in the canonical gospels like John 12:16 and Luke 18:34. The Gospel of Thomas is very different in tone and structure from other New Testament apocrypha and the four Canonical Gospels. Unlike the canonical Gospels, it is not a narrative account of the life of Jesus; instead, it consists of "logia" (sayings) attributed to Jesus, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes embedded in short dialogues or parables. The text contains a possible allusion to the death of Jesus in logion 65 (Parable of the Wicked Tenants, paralleled in the Synoptic Gospels), but does
Law and Gospel (Cranach) them with serpents; they need only look upon the serpent placed on a cross by Moses to be saved. Luther considered the story an example of faith and illustrative of Gospel. The mixture of Old and New Testament concerns in both halves of the panels illustrates that Gospel is not only found in the New Testament. For Luther and Cranach, artworks such as "Law and Gospel" were intended to instill understanding of scripture and Lutheran thought, and the images were deemed acceptable so long as they were subordinate to the written word. The role of these Reformation "Merkbilder" contrasted with