Thomasine Metamorphosis: Community, Text, and Transmission from Greek to Coptic David W. Kim University of Edinburgh The Thomas people were initially a branch of the Jesus movement, composed under the individual leadership of Thomas, based on his own revelation and belief. If this is so, some questions should be considered, such as: What was the social policy of the Graeco-Roman Empire in which the leader(s) of the community had to make decisions about the texualisation of the community canon? Where was the geographical and religio-cultural genesis of the Thomasine community? What was the initial language of the ancient text? And why did they choose that language among many other languages of the era? The three fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 654, 1, 655, together with the Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2.32:10–51:28, not only present a new perspective on the genetic DNA of the Thomas people, but also reconfirm the linguistic insight that the Greek Thomas was cross-culturally translated into Coptic for those outsiders of ancient Christianity. The Jesus people were persecuted from the time of the Founder to the reign of Constantine (313 A.D.). Many of the Roman Emperors, as well as the local rulers of the Eastern region, directly or indirectly impacted the process of the Christian persecution during their official period. 1 Domitian (81–96 A.D.) 2 , after his father Vespasian (69–79 A.D.) and his brother Titus (80–81 A.D.), continuously afflicted Christians in connection with other Jews in various ways, although Richardson and Moreau doubts the separate identities of Christians and Jews in the time of Domitian. 3 When the Caesar, for example, compelled the two groups to pay the Temple tax to the Jerusalem temple of Jupiter (Zeus) 4 , Christians were executed for refusing to offer sacrifices before Domitian’s image (92 A.D.). 5 The cruel behavior of Domitian is likewise applied in the event of the capital punishment of his own