ON LOVE; PART CCCLVI
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.
(4) Jesus says: “The person old in his days will not hesitate to ask a child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become a single one.“
(5) Jesus says: “Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest.“
(6) His disciples questioned him, (and) they said to him: “Do you want us to fast? And how should we pray and give alms? And what diet should we observe?“
Jesus says: “Do not lie. And do not do what you hate. For everything is disclosed in view of <the truth. For there is nothing hidden that will not become revealed. And there is nothing covered that will remain undisclosed.“(7) Jesus 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.” 14
By way of our look at these sayings from the Gospel of Thomas, we are looking as well at the writings of the Apostles in the four accepted gospels and the epistles and we are finding similarities in the ideas of Jesus from Thomas perspective and our own view of what He says in the four. We should understand here that Thomas interpretation of the words of the Master is at odds with doctrine and the doctrinal presentation of the words and Jesus’ intent but then so is our understanding as we have been writing for over two years. However, it IS the doctrinal view that is the accepted way by the current world order and by the people of social authority who give much credence to the self-appointed religious leaders through history and this perhaps out of a fear that they are right; and there are not many who challenge this sense of authority. We of course are not challengers but rather just well meaning men who believe that we KNOW the Truth or at least a greater part of the Truth and that this Truth is both hidden in the Master’s words and left out for us in the light of day. It IS the deeper mysteries that are hidden and it is the everyday realities that ARE left open to ALL and this He reflects upon in sayings like that rhetorical question that He asks us ALL: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) where His intent is unmistakable. So much of the Way to the Kingdom is spelled out in clarity yet it is obscured by doctrines that cast True sin as only those gross mortal offenses while telling man that his salvation in in believing which is quite contrary to Jesus actual words that from the Sermon on the Mount or as we can see in this other similarly framed saying: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21) which should be perfectly clear to any who can understand the Will of God.
And perhaps it is this that has bee polluted by doctrine; perhaps it IS the Will of God itself which is made by many to be that we should live this Earth Life in comfort and plenty, but this too is contrary to the Truth of the Master’s words. In this attitude of ours we may seem to be challengers but we are not as we believe as well that there is yet a needed place in the world of men for such doctrines as are taught by the churches of most any religion. We believe that sudden change brought on by challenge would benefit no one and we believe as well that a slow and methodical change IS in order, one that can begin with the church’s refraining from declaring war on other religions and the more esoteric points of view merely because the do not agree with the current doctrine and that they can extend to a more ardent teaching of the Love that the Master teaches and the Truth of what that Love IS. And so it can be with these words from the Gospel of Thomas; one need not fully accept that this IS the writing of the Apostle Thomas and that it reflects the Truth of Jesus words but one can at the same time weigh the ideas presented against the Truth of the Masters sayings from the four accepted gospels and the epistles and let them stand on their own as spiritually oriented writings based upon the view of Christ as seen through the eyes of the writer. And if these are Truly Gnostic writings, perhaps it would be better to understand and discuss the Gnostic views instead of condemning them as the condemnation that is apparent today is not that they do not agree with the Master’s words but rather that they do not agree with doctrine, with the views of those who assumed authority and dictated doctrines that are not themselves in agreement with the words of the Christ.
In the last post we expanded a bit upon our view of the fifth saying and we should note that there is a Christian message here that we should come to understand the simplicity of the gospels, the instructions and the commandments of the Master, and that in doing so ever more revelation will be ours and NO ONE can sanely argue that if a man were to come to KNOW His words on Love, to understand them and practice them, that this would create a different and new man, a spiritual man, who would then, by his new sense of focus, come to a greater understanding of much more of His word. We looked then at the sixth saying which at first glance is perplexing as the questions and the answers do not seem to agree and we noted that even the questions seem unfounded as they are covered in His words. Closer scrutiny however showed us that the questions are valid as they are not so much the same as Jesus teaching; He never tells us that we should fast, nor that we must give, nor how to pray as compared with the prayer habits of others like the Jew and the disciples of the Baptist; and nowhere does the Master give instructions on what one should eat or not eat as does the law of the Jews. Valid questions then as we can see this now and valid answers as well as He tell His disciples that it DOES NOT matter except that one DOES NOT deceive any, including oneself, and that one does not put undue burden upon the physical, emotional and mental Life by choosing to do things that one may hate or not care to do and this especially what one may choose to do so for the benefit of others. If done from a spiritual perspective, which would disallow sin, most ALL things will be done right as one would understand the meaning of “everything is disclosed in view of <the truth>” which is better understood in the alternate rendering of “all things are plain in the sight of heaven“.
So we can make good Christian sense out of the fifth and the sixth as we were able to do with the first four previously and now we try ourselves with this most obscure saying that “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.” Let us look at a bit of commentary on this before we proceed:
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “Verse 1 is about the humanization of bestial forces in human beings, v. 2 about human beings lapsing into a bestial nature. Because of the parallelism, I have emended the text in v. 2b, ‘and the lion will become man’, to the text above [‘and the man will become lion’]. The logion fits well with the ascetic-Gnostic circles which are interested in taming or humanization of bestial passions. They are often concerned with taming bestial natures, of which that of the lion is the strongest.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 593). The ideas here of humanization may have some credence but this is lost in the changing of the text to suit the theory.
- Marvin Meyer writes: “This riddle-like saying remains somewhat obscure. In ancient literature the lion could symbolize what is passionate and bestial. Hence this saying could suggest that although a human being may consume what is bestial or be consumed by it, there is hope for the human being – and the lion. In gnostic literature the ruler of this world (Yaldabaoth in the Secret Book of John) is sometimes said to look like a lion. This saying may ultimately be based upon statements in Plato, for instance his comparison (in Republic 588E-589B) of the soul to a being of three parts: a many-headed beast, a lion, and a human being. Plato recommends that the human part of the soul (that is, reason) tame and nourish the leonine part (that is, the passion of the heart).” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, pp. 71-72). Here we have no realy theory but rather a search for where the writer may have taken this saying from and while Plato’s ideas contain some Truth of the relationship of Soul to form albeit not in our terms, this IS not likely what Thomas is writing about.
- Jean Doresse writes: “No doubt the lion here represents human passions, or more precisely, the lying spirit of evil. This is suggested by a passage from a Coptic Manichaean Psalm (CCLVII): ‘This lion which is within me, which defiles me at every moment, I have strangled it and cast it out of my soul. . . .’” (The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, p. 371). This IS of course a broad assumtion but one that does not agee with the translation of the subject text as this would say that the if the man devours the evil that the evil beomces human and blessed is the evil??? We should be careful here as this commentator also renders the entire verse differently saying: “7 [7]. Jesus says: “Blessed is the lion which a man eats so that the lion becomes a man. But cursed is the man whom a lion eats so that the man becomes a lion!“”
- F. F. Bruce writes: “The point of this seems to be that a lion, if eaten by a man, is ennobled by rising in the scale of being, whereas a man, if eaten by a lion, is degraded to a lower status than was originally his and may even risk missing the goal of immortality. It is not that we become what we eat but that what we eat becomes part of us (as in Walter de la Mare’s poem ‘Little Miss T-‘). Whether, in addition, there is any special symbolism in the lion, as in 1 Peter 5.8 (‘Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour’), is exceedingly difficult to determine.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 115). This is doctrinal in nature as we can see in the sense of gaining immortality which we understand as the way of the True man, the Soul. There may however be some reality in Mr. Bruce’s idea that “it is not that we become what we eat but that what we eat becomes part of us“.
As we can see there IS NO agreement between these commentaries and from our perspective ALL miss the point of the saying overall. In looking at the scope of Life as we understand it, we, as individuals ARE NOT this human form, we ARE NOT this body; We ARE the Soul, the divine nature or the True man. Whenever the subject then comes to defining man there comes confusion as both the body and the Soul are referred to in the same context. In the saying above about becoming what one eats, the reference CAN ONLY be to the body, the Soul does not change by what is consumed by the man in the world and in this idea of referring to both as man we can find some of the difficulty on understanding and of expression. In a past essay, In the words of Jesus part 354, we set out an explanation of Life that we repeat here and while this IS NOT to be seen as the final understanding, this can help us to understand the words of Jesus here according to Thomas; speaking of the form of man we write:
In an unsure look at this reality we can, if we try, see the creature as the highest of the Earth’s animal kingdom, capable of thought and independence yet possessed of all of the traits that this kingdom affords. Into this world the Souls that are the reality of man descend and it is to these bodies of flesh that they give their individuality through their Life and consciousness. We should remember that ALL IS Life albeit not ALL is Life as we understand it; it is into this world that the divinity which is the Soul and the Spirit come and by their very nature they set aglow the forms into which they are born. And, when the fullness of the Godhead is able to flow through this form it can be then said that the body is Truly redeemed and in this can be seen a glimpse of the act of transfiguration. While this may sound to some as an absurd premise, it is no more absurd than any that are offered by religion and by the misinterpretation of the words of the Master and His apostles. There is much mystery in Life and in God and the above portrayal, while not accurate, can be seen in the real history of our planet and in the evolution of the species that becomes the human form; one does not have to subscribe to all of Darwin’s theories to see the relationship and growth of the species human from its earliest beginnings to what we see today. When and how this all happens is a mystery as well and when the Soul’s came to interact with this human form is yet beyond our comprehension but it is likely in relation to the beginnings of Life where the motivation became more than just instinct.
Looking from here at the forms in the world, we come now to a new revelation as it concerns the saying of Thomas and the lion. Just as the Spirit as manifest through the Soul of man is capable of Life in the complexity of the thinking and emotionally driven human form, there are as well Spirits that are manifest through Souls that have not yet achieved this ability and who are found in the various grades of existence withing the animal kingdom; hence we can see higher animals and lower animals, animals that have some degree of rudimentary intelligence and animals that plainly do not. In this view of the animal kingdom we should be able to see a similar undertaking as we oft describe in the human kingdom although in the human there is the interaction of an individual Soul that chooses his type of birth and Life for an incarnation; a choice that offers even the fledgling individual Soul the best opportunity as may be found in Pirahã tribe in South America (In the Words of Jesus part 723). This idea of the capability of the Soul then can work in similar fashion through the animal kingdom with the more capable Souls incarnating into the higher animals. While the difference between incarnating as a human or an animal is rather clearly the achievement of individuality which provides that separating point for incarnating in a human form, we DO NOT KNOW the status of the higher animals against this nor do we KNOW the relative status of the lion. In this view of Life there is a steady and constant march toward the expression of divinity in form and this IS ONLY the providence of the individualized Soul that we call man.
With all this in mind can we see the idea here that Jesus is telling us of this relationship between man an lion that it matters not who eats who as in either event the animal, the lion in this case, will become human; that is that the Soul that IS using the lion as his form of expression in the word will someday be able to use the body of the human animal and thereby be called man? And can we see as well the idea that the interaction between man and beast blesses the beast and we should likely see this in more ways than just man devouring the beast; like many words perhaps there is additional meaning to this one rendered as eat being only the devouring of flesh. As for the beast, the lion, eating the man, the idea of cursed is misplaced as no man is cursed from the perspective of God; perhaps here we can see some reality in the idea that if the beast eats the man, the body is dead, it is no more. Are these Gnostic ideas, we do not KNOW; they are however our ideas based in the continuum of Life and in the reality that IS God, nothing is ever lost…..changed but never lost. We should remember here that there is nothing in the New Testament that speaks against what we say here and there is much to confirm that there is a divide between the Spirit that is the True being and the forms that are in the world.
The next verses that we will discuss are:
(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.”
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!
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
