ON LOVE; PART CCCLVII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(8) And he says: “The human being is like a sensible fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea filled with little fish. Among them the sensible fisherman found a large, fine fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, (and) he chose the large fish effortlessly. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.”
(9) Jesus says: “Look, a sower went out. He filled his hands (with seeds), (and) he scattered (them). Some fell on the path, and the birds came and pecked them up. Others fell on the rock, and did not take root in the soil, and they did not put forth ears. And others fell among the thorns, they choked the seeds, and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced good fruit. It yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure.“
(10) Jesus says: “I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.”
In the last essay we believe that we made much sense of the seventh saying by the Master in this Gospel of Thomas that we are discussing in some detail as a part of our daily work. This saying again appeared at first glance to be perplexing as the Master says:
“Blessed is the lion that a person will eat and the lion will become human. And anathema is the person whom a lion will eat and the lion will become human.”
We reviewed the available scholarly interpretations and commentaries and none seemed to fit with our understanding of the parabolic nature of the Master’s teachings but we were able to find some space in our own understanding of the nature of Life and the separation of the Spirit and the Soul of ALL living beings from the gross body nature that they express that Life through and we re-posted our thoughts on this matter from an older essay. In our view of this saying, who eats who seems inconsequential as in either case the lion will become human, that is that the Soul of the lion will come to a state of individuality as we understand it and self-awareness. Now we are rather clueless as to the individuality of Souls expressing through all kingdoms lower than the human were individuality as a Soul and self-awareness are the prime considerations and, while there are existing esoteric teachings regarding such concepts as group Souls, we are not prepared to go there in our discussion today other than to say again that in the panoply of spiritual Life there is a drive that will bring every one to the state of being of an individual and self-aware Soul capable of expression in a human form and this new Life then will likely start in the most rudimentary society and culture available. So, in this context the lion becomes human and perhaps the lion that is eaten is blessed because of his own personal relationship with the human and, if we can extend this idea beyond the lion, can we see how other animals would be blessed by their relationship with the human kingdom as pets or trained animals. On the other side, the idea of being cursed is likely as misplaced and parabolic as is the idea of being eaten as men seldom eat lions; here we can see the ‘curse’ being the death of the man and the loss of whatsoever spiritual opportunity the lion took away.
To comprehend what we say here one must be willing to accept the idea that there is a grand migration of spiritual entities through the Kingdoms of nature, that we, as Souls in human form today, were at one time Souls in other forms of the animal kingdom and likely this idea can be taken back to the very basics of Life itself. And we should not confuse this with the multiplicity of different forms in physical presence where, although there is always Life of some kind in every form, these forms are but the expressions for the spiritual presence that has come to be able to express Life through them. Can we see the Master alluding to the complexity of Life itself in this saying and in this way and we should as: is this any more perplexing that the Master’s words from John’s Gospel that tell us that “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). We KNOW that the ideas of eating and drinking are used metaphorically or better, as Jesus speaks, that they are parabolic sayings that have some hidden meaning that we must discern. Here, much like eating the lion above, we should be able to see the spiritual context and meaning and understand that here with the Master speaking of Himself, that there is a significantly higher spiritual component. As we should likely see the lion as representative of the animal kingdom and the idea of eating seen as a way of partaking in the Life of that kingdom, we can also see the idea of eating the flesh of the Master as partaking in His Life and in His teachings and ALL that He represents and, in this view, this is much the same as believing in or believing on the Master which Vincent tells us should be seen as: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. And we can see the need for the parabolic approach as this is said to a group of people in addition to His own disciples who had asked, after their experience with the multiplication of loaves and fishes, for a sign. Here is this saying Jesus words are intentionally confounding to the people at large. Can then this saying on the lion be seen as a thing that the Master would say?
Our next saying is also perplexing although not as arcane as is the idea of men and lions; here the Master is purported to say:
“The human being is like a sensible fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea filled with little fish. Among them the sensible fisherman found a large, fine fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, (and) he chose the large fish effortlessly. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.”
The ending here is according to a saying that the Master often uses when His words are parabolic and as He encourages those who hear him to hear him in their hearts and not only in their ears and carnal minds. The rest of this is then for us a parable and a story about catching fish that must be related to some real Life and spiritual theme. Available commentary here again leaves us wanting for better understanding; looking at a few of these we find:
- Funk cites Aesop as follows: “A fisherman drew in the net which he had cast a short time before and, as luck would have it, it was full of all kinds of delectable fish. But the little ones fled to the bottom of the net and slipped out through its many meshes, whereas the big ones were caught and lay stretched out in the boat. / It’s one way to be insured and out of trouble, to be small; but you will seldom see a man who enjoys great reputation and has the luck to evade all risks. (Perry, 1965: 9-10)” (New Gospel Parallels, v. 2, p. 110); which is from more ancient writings that Mr. Funk may believe this saying is taken from. He goes on to quote yet another equally ancient story to support his unspoken opinion of the source of this saying from Thomas’ Gospel.
- John Dart writes: “One scholar, Claus-Hunno Hunzinger, says ‘the Man’ [in Guillaumont’s translation] can be understood as a gnosticizing substitute for ‘the kingdom of heaven.'” (The Laughing Savior, pp. 94-95). Here is an apparent attempt to liken this saying to the Master’s parables on to what the Kingdom of God can be likened; the treasure in the field, the pearl of great value, etc;.
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Thomas contains a parable about a ‘wise fisherman’ who threw away all the little fish he caught and kept only a large and good one (Saying 8/7); this may be contrasted with the parable of the Dragnet in Matthew 13:47-50, where good and bad fish are kept together until the end of the age.” (Gnosticism & Early Christianity, pp. 188-189). Here, another attempt to equate this saying to a saying of the Master from the four accepted gospels; this one fails because there is but one fish left in the net.
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This, the first of many parables in the Gospel of Thomas, bears a superficial resemblance to the parable of the dragnet in Matthew 13.47-50,, but its point is closer to that of the parables of the treasure concealed in a field (Saying 109) and the pearl of great price (Saying 76), to gain which a man sells all that he has (Matthew 13.44-46). In this context the big fish is either the true Gnostic, whom Christ chooses above all others, or the true knowledge for which the Gnostic abandons everything else.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 115-116). Here Mr. Bruce combines the thoughts on both sets of parables from the accepted gospels and, in the end of his review here, comes across an idea that is more in line with the reality of what a parable should be although he leaves this not as men taught by Jesus but as the Gnostic.
In pondering this saying overnight, we did come to our own understanding which is away from the strict comparisons to the Master’s words in the accepted gospels which, while they may be helpful for some of these sayings from Thomas’ Gospel, are not when there is no discernible correlation. Here we see a unique saying that we can place into the general themes that the Master teaches us on and here particularly the idea of God and mammon. We read in the synoptic gospels that “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). Here, our understanding of this saying is beyond the constraints of doctrine as we see this as a complete saying regarding what it is that one believes is important in his Life. In Luke’s Gospel this saying follows upon the Parable of the Unjust Steward who, caring only for himself and his own wellbeing, did not do as he was supposed to as steward, he wasted instead of protecting his master’s goods; this steward was self-serving and thereby serving mammon; this was the focus of his life. And, even after he is caught and discharged he continues in his selfish ways instead of coming to Repentance; he continues in what he KNOWS and here the Master commends him, not for his actions but because of his wisdom that would keep him abreast with his peers. The Master’s comment here is that this man was wiser in his worldly ways than the “children of light” (Luke 16:8) are in their spiritual ways; the Master then facetiously admonishes those listening to do likewise, to be wise in their worldly ways so that the world can take care of them. Then comes our saying about God and mammon where, by the aforementioned parabolic example, we should understand that ONLY one choice can be made at any time; we must be serving one or the other; the self or God and here we should ever expand the idea of mammon into ALL selfishness in thought, attitude and action.
In Matthew’s Gospel the saying is similar saying: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and we should note here how Matthew references man while Luke, likely because of the context he writes this in, references servant. We show Matthew here as well because the context is different; here this saying follows upon the Master’s words about the treasure of the heart, what IS important to a man, followed by some words on being single-minded and here He is referencing single-mindedness from a spiritual perspective as the way of a Life of Light, that is single-minded focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True. We should see here the darkness then of mammon, of focus upon the self and the self in the world, as opposed to Light of God. We should note that the next verse after our subject verse is regarding the idea of “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25) in which we should read that in choosing God over mammon, that there IS freedom from the very many things that occupy one’s mind as they dissipate into meaninglessness and this IS much more that to “take no thought” in concern and worry.
And we can draw similar understanding from this saying in the Gospel of Thomas and see that the man can mean any man that IS being Wise is his prudent thoughts, attitudes and actions in the world. Some render wise as sensible as we see above, others as intelligent and even as skilled but for us this idea should remain as wise as this is the way it appears to us in the interlinear version, although we are novices at viewing this, and because this IS NOT about fish or the fisherman, this IS about Wisdom and the use of that Wisdom in the world. Ofttimes in the accepted gospels and the epistles many tend to take the story line as a spiritual clue but this IS seldom the case as we have found in the many parables of Jesus that we have discussed in the course of our blog posts. Here is no difference, the wise fisherman is merely representative of the Wise man and his net is his mind and emotions, his personality if you will, which is always cast about in the world of thoughts and feelings and is ever catching every which thing for the man to deal with. It is this mind “filled with little fish” that cannot find focus as there is so much to take away the mans attention. The Wise man, Wise from the spiritual perspective which is ever the subject matter of the Master’s speaking, throws back ALL these small fish, all these thoughts and desires and feelings of and for the things in the world, and sets his focus upon the single large fish which represents his own spiritual Life, his own Soul and Christ Within, and his path to the Kingdom of God. And, being the Wise man, he makes this choice effortlessly as we read above or as it is better rendered by others as without hesitation or without trouble.
Can we see the sense here and the relationship to the Master’s overall teaching on similar subjects? Can we see the idea behind the story as one that would be missed by the man who is looking only at the self and the self in the world. Can we see the simple idea that we should not care about all that takes our attention in daily Life but should maintain our focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True, the Life of the True man and his expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul.
Our next saying has parallels in the the three synoptic gospels and is one of the more important parables of the Master’ and, it IS one of the two that are told and then explained in the accepted gospels.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way
|
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
For us today this saying shows us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. We may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father.“
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
