The document consists of 114 sayings that Jesus expressed to Thomas. Two-thirds are analogous to the synoptic gospels. It is the book of Jesus' proverbs. According to exegetes, it is the oldest gospel that has been found, dated approximately 60 AD. It is mentioned by several of the Fathers of the Church, as Clement of Alexandria, and is part of the Canon of the Coptic Christian Church. It is essential to understand that the Church of the first century did not have an immutable theological treatise to which all churches were subject but that Christianity spread in various forms until the fourth century when the Catholic Canon was consolidated. Not all apostolic writings reached Rome.