ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXIV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(18)  The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.”  Jesus said: “Have you already discovered the beginning that you are now asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be too. Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning. And he will know the end, and he will not taste death.”

(19) Jesus says: “Blessed is he who was, before he came into being. If you become disciples of mine (and) listen to my words, these stones will serve you.  For you have five trees in Paradise that do not change during summer (and) winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever comes to know them will not taste death.”

(20)  The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us whom the kingdom of heaven is like!”  He said to them: “It is like a mustard seed.  <It> is the smallest of all seeds.  But when it falls on cultivated soil, it produces a large branch (and) becomes shelter for the birds of the sky.”

(21)  Mary said to Jesus: “Whom are your disciples like?” He said: “They are like servants who are entrusted with a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field arrive, they will say: ‘Let us have our field.’ (But) they are naked in their presence so as to let them have it (and thus) to give them their field.” “That is why I say: ‘When the master of the house learns that the thief is about to come, he will be on guard before he comes (and) will not let him break into his house, his domain, to carry away his possessions.’ (But) you, be on guard against the world! Gird your loins with great strength, so that the robbers will not find a way to get to you.” “For the necessities for which you wait (with longing) will be found. There ought to be a wise person among you! When the fruit was ripe, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand, (and) he harvested it. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.” ¹⁴

In the last post we discussed the twentieth saying from Thomas’ Gospel and find it similar enough to the words of the accepted gospels to view it along with the others. We noted how they all have a different approach to the method of sowing and to the soil in which the seed is sown and we concluded that this is not relevant to the intent of the Master’s words. We noted as well that doctrine sees this quite differently than we as they perceive this to be about the church and its establishment rather than the growth of the Kingdom within and this IS likely based in the refusal of doctrine to afford the Master’s saying that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) the True attention that it deserves. Here in these words that we see as a revelation of the True divine nature, they see as rather idle words addressed to the ‘evil’ Pharisee and in this refusal to see the reality of His words, they take these other words on the Kingdom and view them as they are of the church when clearly they are about the Kingdom, as the seed planted in the heart, and the growth of that seed into a mighty tree. In short, the view of much of the church can be readily seen in these words from John Gill regarding the version from Matthew’s Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: by “the kingdom of heaven” is meant, as before, the Gospel dispensation, or the Gospel church state, and the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances in it: by the grain of mustard seed, either the Gospel, or the people of God, or the grace of God in them; and by the man that took and sowed it, the Lord Jesus Christ; and by his field, in which he sowed it, the world, or his church throughout the world ⁸.

It is hard for us to understand this type of commentary regarding what appears a rather straightforward parable, not that there is no mystery as we are speaking about the Kingdom growing and to understand this one has to have some understanding of just what that Kingdom IS, but that the opening words ARE that “The kingdom of heaven is like” and there IS NO precedence for the thought that this should mean the Gospel dispensation, or the Gospel church state, and the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances in it ⁸. Somewhat in contrast, at least from the perspective of mentioning the church, we find this in the The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible: THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM FROM THE SMALLEST BEGINNINGS TO ULTIMATE UNIVERSALITY ⁸ is the headline used along with this commentary: Which indeed is the least of all seeds–not absolutely, but popularly and proverbially, as in Luke 17:6 , “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,” that is, “never so little faith.” but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs–not absolutely, but in relation to the small size of the seed, and in warm latitudes proverbially great. and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof–This is added, no doubt, to express the amplitude of the tree. But as this seed has a hot, fiery vigor, gives out its best virtues when bruised, and is grateful to the taste of birds, which are accordingly attracted to its branches both for shelter and food, is it straining the parable, asks TRENCH, to suppose that, besides the wonderful growth of His kingdom, our Lord selected this seed to illustrate further the shelter, repose and blessedness it is destined to afford to the nations of the world?⁸. Here, while there is no attempt to define the Kingdom as the church; the are using the branches and the seeds produced as the key along with the allusion of the attractive quality of the Kingdom. Again there is the failure to recognize the reality of the Kingdom Within.

We noted yesterday that the ideas from one of the commentators on Thomas’ version of this saying opened up a new avenue of ideas regarding the mustard seed, that it is pervasive and that it will overcome the garden when it is grown and we commented on this from the perspective of the Truth of the Kingdom growing within the man who IS striving toward that end; that as his focus upon the Kingdom grows, the Kingdom itself grows within the man blotting out, if we can say it this way, the effects of the world upon him thereby ensuring yet greater growth. If we can imagine that the garden is the heart of the man, his consciousness, and apply to this the reality of a tree growing in the center of a garden, we can understand that as the tree blocks the Sun and some portion of the rain from nourishing the garden, the garden will die. Similarly, as the Kingdom grows in the garden of the heart, it blocks the ways of the world from taking root and growing; thus these ways are starved of their nourishment which is the focus of the man. Of course, key to the right understanding of this parable and ALL the parables regarding the Kingdom of God is to understand and accept the reality of the Kingdom Within, that it IS within ALL men and not some select few and that in the Master’s speaking of these words, the Kingdom IS within the Pharisee as well, albeit unrealized. And this IS the greater reality for ALL men: that the Kingdom is within as the natural abode of the Soul, the Christ Within and the God Within and ALL men have Souls and ALL Souls ARE seeking expression through Life in form.

The next saying from Thomas’ Gospel seems to be a combination of several thoughts and the latter part offers a view of the Master’s Parable of the Faithful Servant along with a different perspective at the end. Let us look at some of the available commentary here before we begin:

• Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Here Mariham (the Mariamme of the Naassenes – Hippolytus, Ref., 5, 7, 1 – also mentioned in Saying 112), asks a question and is told tha the disciples are ‘like little children’ (Matthew 18:3; cf., 1 Corinthians 14:20). The children live in an alien field, which must be the world, as in Matthew 13:38. ‘Leave our field to us!’ recalls the command of the farmer in Matthew 13:30: ‘Leave both to grow up together until the harvest.’ Moreover, in Matthew 24:40-42 there are mysterious references to ‘two in a field,’ to one’s being left, and to the coming of a master. Whatever synoptic reminiscences there may be, these have been subordinated to the notion of being naked (see Saying 38). The true Gnostic wants to strip off the body (contrast 2 Corinthians 5:4: ‘not to be stripped but to be clad upon’) and leave the world.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 141). “From the same context in Luke (as in Saying 100) comes the counsel, ‘Gird your loins!’ Thomas explains that this means to gird yourself with ‘a great power’ (the power of the kingdom) so that no robber may come to you (Luke 12:33). You will be given what you need (Luke 12:22-32). An ‘understanding man’ is mentioned in Luke 12:42. Because of such parallels, it is hard to believe that Thomas is doing anything but creating a mosaic of sayings chiefly derived from Luke.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 142).
• Jack Finegan writes: “Here the little children who live in the field are presumably the disciples who live in the world. When they give back the field to its owners they ‘take off their clothes before them’ which, in the present context, must mean that they strip themselves of their bodies in death, an end, to the Gnostic, eminently desirable (cf. §§236, 357).” (Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus, p. 254).
• Gerd Ludemann writes: “These verses are unique among the Jesus traditions and are hard to understand. If we begin with the evident recognition that the children symbolize the Gnostics, it is manifestly being said that they are staying in a strange field, namely the evil world, and that they are asking the owners for their own field. To this end, the exchange of fields, they bare themselves, which probably refers to baptism.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 601).
• Funk and Hoover write: “The conclusion in v. 4 is a metaphor with several possible interpretations: (1) It may be an allusion to Christian baptism, which would reflect the concerns of the emerging Christian community. (2) It may refer to gnostic and other early Christian notions that upon death the soul sheds the body (clothing) and proceeds to the heavenly realm from whence it has come (compare Thomsa 29; 87; 112). (3) Or it may symbolize the return to a primordial state of sexual non-differentiation, to an androgynous state (compare Thomas 37). At all events, the parable in its present form reflects theological concerns that did not originate with Jesus.” (The Five Gospels, p. 485) “This saying [Sickle & harvest] is an allusion to Joel 3:13. In Mark 4:29 it is attached to the parable of the seed and harvest. Its appearance in two different contexts suggests that it circulated independently at one time. Both Mark and Thomas have given it an arbitrary location. The image is usually associated with the last judgment, which is what prompted some of the Fellows to vote black. However, it may also refer to the bountiful harvest that Jesus anticipates as a result of the providence of God who causes grain to grow (this is one way to read Mark’s parable of the seed and harvest, 4:26-29). This possibility induced other Fellows to vote pink or gray.” (The Five Gospels, p. 486).

It is interesting that of all the renderings of this saying that we have available, this one above is the only one that answers the question saying “They are like servants who are entrusted with a field that is not theirs“; ALL of the others, including the interlinear, use a similar rendering to “They are like little children who have settled in a field which does not belong to them“. The idea of the disciples as little children is found in the synoptic gospels and while they may not say this in words, they do make it clear that the Master’s words ARE that “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” and this per force would include the disciples of the Lord. This IS the very nature of the disciple as we have previously discussed; it is the humble attitude of the child, the innocence and the trusting nature, and the state of mind before one is overwhelmed by the ways of the world.  Why our translation above chose to render this as servant we cannot say; perhaps they do not see the relevance that we and the others see in the idea of children. Some of the commentary regarding these rather straightforward words is also bewildering as the Master clearly says that His disciples are as little children and this IS clearly in answer to the question asked. This part and the rest of this are clearly parabolic as the idea of the children and their “dwelling in the field” which is the wording of the interlinear and one other that renders this as living; the others call this settled, or made their way to or, as above, are entrusted with. Regardless, they are as little children, humble, innocent and apart from the ways of the world and they are in this field which we can see as it IS the world and its ways. This is the natural state of the Way of the disciple as we can see in the Master’s words as He sends forth the Seventy saying to them: “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:2-3).

And this is the point of the next verse, that the lords of the field come; here we are using the interlinear word lords in place of owners as this makes much more sense in the presentation of the thought. The lord of the field, the lord of the self in the world, is the personality of the man to whom the disciples bring the message with which they are sent as we read in Mark’s Gospel where, when the Twelve are sent, “they went out, and preached that men should repent” (Mark 6:12). Here we see the negative side that is not offered in the synoptic gospels; here we read of those who do not accept the disciples nor their teaching and we can see that they are like the stony ground or as among thorns as we read in the Parable of the Sower which the Master explains to His disciples as:

“And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:15-20).

The relationships so far should be clear from the perspective of the Master’s teachings and then we come upon the idea of naked which is handled differently by the various translators:

• “When the owners of the field come, they will say: Leave us our field. They are naked before them, in order to leave it to them and give them (back) their field” (Blatz).
• “When the owners of the land come they will say, ‘Surrender our land to us.’ They, for their part, strip naked in their presence in order to give it back to them, and they give them their land” (Layton).
• “When the owners of the field come, they will say: ‘Get out of our field!’ They <then> will give up the field to these <people> and let them have their field back again” (Doresse).
• “When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Let us have back our field.’ They (will) undress in their presence, in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them” (Lambdin).
• “When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Give us back our field.’ They take off their clothes in front of them in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them” (Patterson and Meyer).
• “When they should come, the lords of the field, they will speak this “Give our field back to us.” They strip naked in their presence that they give her back to them and they give their field to them. (Interlinear Version)

And we have as well the Patterson and Robinson rendering above. Here we see that each translator has his own approach to this with Doresse not ever mentioning the word naked. Lambdin, and Patterson and Meyer, have the idea of undressing which takes the idea of naked to a strictly physical place when it is better left as parabolic. From our perspective the most direct approach to the Master’s intent is found in Blatz rendering and our translation above by Patterson and Robinson where we read simply that they “are naked before them” or “in their presence” as the meaning of this nakedness has naught to do with clothing. There is of course a parabolic meaning here and the very nature of the parable makes the meaning obscure and there is ever the air of uncertainty as well when one develops a meaning. Here we see the meaning as that the disciple and his message is rejected by the Lord of the field who is saying ‘leave me alone’ and seeing the message as those who were against the Master see His. In this idea of nakedness then is the reality of the disciple who as a little child shows his humble and innocent nature and that he is naked, he is unarmed and defenseless and has nothing hidden from view. This ideas of naked are from the English dictionary and the understanding here is that the disciple, as the worker in the field, does not force nor push, he merely utters the Truth and leaves all else to that saying of the Master: “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9).

We close here for today with this from the Apostle John that has much meaning in regard to these parts of this saying that we covered today:

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:4-6).

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.

Today’s quote of the day is a repeat of the Mantram of Unification which is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/