ON LOVE; PART CCCXCIV
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.
(35) Jesus says: “It is not possible for someone to enter the house of a strong (person) (and) take it by force unless he binds his hands. Then he will loot his house.“
(36) Jesus says: “Do not worry from morning to evening and from evening to morning about what you will wear.“
(37) His disciples said: “When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?” Jesus said: “When you undress without being ashamed and take your clothes (and) put them under your feet like little children (and) trample on them, then [you] will see the son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.“
(38) Jesus says: “Many times have you desired to hear these words, these that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me (and) you will not find me.“
(39) Jesus says: “The Pharisees and the scribes have received the keys of knowledge, (but) they have hidden them. Neither have they entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves!“.14
In the last essay we began our look at the thirty sixth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and we noted how it is a seemingly shortened version of the synoptic versions and without the context that we produced yesterday, context that shows that these sayings in Matthew and Luke follow upon attachment to the world in that choice between “God and mammon” in the one and the admonition via parable that a man DOES NOT “layeth up treasure for himself” but rather looks toward God. We noted as well that the verse following the Master’s’ words on “take no thought” is that discipleship’ instruction that he “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:24, 25, 33); (Luke 12:21, 22, 31).
We had also our normal discussion regarding these words “take no thought” which we see as the True idea of the Master here; that His intent IS NOT the doctrinal approach of not to worry or be anxious or concerned about these things and in support of our claim we offer the context in which the Master eschews the focus of the man on the things of the world and admonishes him to focus his Life upon the things of God. To this we added yesterday the extra note, that in this discourse as presented by Luke the Master presents the idea of doubt about the future which includes the ideas of worry and anxiety and concern and that these words that are to be seen as an extra in His instruction that a man “take no thought” as He tells us “neither be ye of doubtful mind“. Of course we must understand here that the doctrinal approach is based in the view of man and his Life in the world as being the central point of all things rather than the Life in God which we can clearly read in ALL of the Master’s instructions on how on can achieve the Kingdom of God and discipleship.
In the saying from Thomas Gospel we noted that the translators most all use variations of the doctrinal theme as they speak about worry, being anxious, being concerned and fretting about while the Interlinear tells us that the Coptic words, literally translated, would be “do not take care” and in this sense we have the idea of “take no thought“. We noted how Vincent gives us the right understanding of these ideas while at the same time he himself leans to the doctrinal interpretation; repeating his words from yesterday we read: The cognate noun is μέριμνα , care, which was formerly derived from μερίς , a part; μερίζω , to divide; and was explained accordingly as a dividing care, distracting the heart from the true object of life, This has been abandoned, however, and the word is placed in a group which carries the common notion of earnest thoughtfulness. It may include the ideas of worry and anxiety, and may emphasize these, but not necessarily 4. Here we noted that we do not understand the reason for the abandonment of the first idea and we added that the words earnest thoughtfulness work as well in our concept of the Master’s teaching as we can read this as do not give any serious attention to these things of the world. Reading further on in Vincent’s words on this subject of “take no thought” we find perhaps a clue to the doctrinal approach which is of course misunderstood and which can be seen in the clearer Light that this admonition is to the man who desires spiritual advancement and not as a way of Life for the man whose focus IS in the world; this is a separation that the church seldom makes. Vincent says: See, for example, “careth for the things of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:32). “That the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Corinthians 12:25). “Who will care for your state?” (Philemon 2:20). In all these the sense of worry would be entirely out of place. In other cases that idea is prominent, as, “the care of this world,” which chokes the good seed (Matthew 13:22; compare Luke 8:14). Of Martha; “Thou art careful ” (Luke 10:41). Take thought, in this passage, was a truthful rendering when the A. V. was made, since thought was then used as equivalent to anxiety or solicitude. The word has entirely lost this meaning. Bishop Lightfoot (“On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament”) says: “I have heard of a political economist alleging this passage as an objection to the moral teaching of the sermon on the mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future.” It is uneasiness and worry about the future which our Lord condemns here, and therefore Rev. rightly translates be not anxious. This phase of the word is forcibly brought out in 1 Peter 5:7, where the A. V. ignores the distinction between the two kinds of care. “Casting all your care ( μέριμναν , Rev., anxiety ) upon Him, for He careth ( αυτω μέλει ) for you,” with a fatherly, tender, and provident care.”4.
Perhaps we can see a hint of our point in these thoughts from Vincent and we should add here that we are convinced by the preponderance of additional sayings by the Master regarding the Kingdom and discipleship that we are right in our assessment of these verses and the rendition of the words from Thomas Gospel should be seen in the same way as they are presented in the Interlinear which is that a man should not care about these things. We noted as well yesterday that the Greek fragment is rather lengthy compared to the Coptic and it more resembles the synoptic but with some significant differences and in the end of our last essay we added the thought that the Interlinear uses the words “you will put upon yourselves” which the translators automatically render as what one will wear. This may be an important part of our understanding of the Coptic version which we will discuss after these commentaries on the Coptic:
- Joseph A. Fitzmyer writes: “The thirty-sixth Coptic saying, which corresponds to this Oxyrhynchus fragmentary text, is much shorter than the Greek. It may represent a different Greek recension of the Gospel or a deliberate shortening of the text in the Coptic. At any rate, we can only use the Coptic as a control for the restoration of the first few lines of the Greek text.” (Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, p. 406).
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Do not worry about what you will wear (Matthew 6:25; Luke 12:22). ‘Morning and evening’ are presumably Thomas’s substitutes for ‘the morrow’ of Matthew 6:34. In the Greek version more quotations from the gospels are provided (Matthew 6:25, 28, 27; Luke 12:22, 27, 25). This fact may suggest that the editor of Coptic Thomas wanted to remove such obvious traces of his sources.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 152).
- Funk and Hoover write: “Verses 3-4 are gnostic additions. Thomas 37 is actually an expansion on these remarks, although 36:3-4 are preserved only in Greek Thomas. The notion that humans will return to the primordial state of sexual non-differentiation when they put off the body (their clothes) is congenial to the developing gnostic trend. These additions provide a peculiar setting for the sayings in vv. 1-2, but they seem not to have led to the revision of the primary sayings.” (The Five Gospels, p. 493).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “The key to the history of the tradition is provided by that part of the Greek version which goes beyond the Coptic translation. It contains, first, a modification of the Coptic version (underlined); secondly, at the end (= vv. 3-4), a Gnostic interpretation (the symbol of the garment); and thirdly, before that, a part (= v. 2) which recalls Matt. 6.25-31/Luke 12.22-29). As the Gnostic part is certainly secondary, the same conclusion may be drawn about the other pieces. The Coptic translation is probably an abbreviation of a Greek version.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 608).
None of these commentators see what we see in this saying from the Coptic and the Greek but rather use the doctrinal interpretations as their guide and in the first comment here Mr. Fitzmyer notes that the Coptic is used to restore the beginning of the Greek; it is here that they inserted the words “Do not worry f”. This is not using the Interlinear which we understand as more verbatim, but rather the translations for the restoration of these missing words. According to our interlinear source, the Coptic word that is rendered as “take care” in the Interlinear is used only in this saying and there are no repetitions of the other words used, worry, anxious and concerned elsewhere in the Coptic as well. Again, we are not fluent in Coptic so we CAN NOT tell how this word should be rendered but in saying this we add that it is our belief that the doctrinal ideas are based in the type of thoughts we see from Vincent above and the fact that this is how the synoptic versions have always been translated. It is much easier to say don’t worry about a thing than to say don’t even think about it but, for the spiritual progression of the aspirant and in the Life of the disciple, the latter is a necessary understanding.
Coming back to the ideas presented above from the interlinear reading of the Coptic we note again the phrasing of this part that says “Do not take care….. for what (it) is which you will put upon yourselves“. Here we have eliminated the reference to the morning and the evening so as to see the clearer picture of the way that this is framed. This is rather automatically rendered as what one will wear by the translators. As we began in the last essay, we should look here at some of the other New Testament ideas of “you will put upon yourselves“:
- “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:12).
- “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
- “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
- “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
- “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:10-14).
Do we see the point here? that to put on can be more than the outer garb that one wears and can refer to our very thoughts and attitudes. And in the idea of take no care for these things we can see the hidden idea that if one is focused upon the things of God that ALL these things will come upon him from the “armour of light” to the “ bond of perfectness“; it is these things that are the objective and the goal of the aspirant and the disciple. In this Light this saying is not all that unrelated to the words from the synoptic gospels and these ideas are likely covered under the Master’s primary thought of “Take no thought for your life” (Matthew 6:25; Luke 12:22). We should note here that in Matthew this is from the Sermon on the Mount that begins with “his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying” (Matthew 5:1-2) and here we should KNOW that Jesus words are directed to His disciples but are heard by the multitude; in Luke, as the Master begins this dialogue we read: “And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life” (Luke 12:22). Our point here is simply that from the perspective of the man who Truly seeks his spiritual reality, we must understand the True intent of His sayings; in the synoptic versions this is represented by the reality of His words “take no thought” and in the Coptic Gospel of Thomas this is likely represented in the Truth of “Do not take care….. for what (it) is which you will put upon yourselves” and the latter part should be reckoned as we understand the synoptic; as the whole of one’s Life, ALL that he would “put upon himself“..,..”take no thought” about it, just strive toward the Kingdom and discipleship.
In the Greek there is much confusion and several different ways of translating this fragment. In the last post we offered a rendering from the Interlinear Greek as translated by Bernhard where he fills in the blank spaces and adds his own thoughts as we see in the repetition of the idea of not to worry that we discussed in the last essay; his rendering again followed by another by Doresse:
- [Jesus said, “Do not worry f]rom early u[ntil late no]r from ev[ening until m]orning. Worry neither [for y]our [food,] what [you] will eat, [nor] for [your] c[lothes,] what you will wear. [You are] [mu]ch gr[ea]ter than the [lil]lies wh[ich n]either ca[r]d nor s[pi]n. When you have n[o c]lo[thing], what do [you wear]? Who can add to your time of life? H[e it is who w]ill give you your clothing” (Bernhard).
- [“…] from morning to [evening and] from evening [to mor]ning, nor for [yo]ur [food] that you shall ea[t, nor for your] cloth[ing] that you shall put on. [You are mu]ch super[ior] to the lilies which gor and do [not sp]in. If you have a garment, what do you la[ck?] Who can add to your height? He himself will give you your clothing!” (Doresse).
We can clearly see that there are problems with this Greek fragment and that the translators do not see the same things. In Doresse we find that he does not add words that are missing save to complete some from their context and we see three major differences between these two. First that the insertion of worry by Bernhard and others is not a strictly doctrinal insertion as there is no way to KNOW what the intent was; second there is a difference between the idea of “time of life” and “add to your height” and, since neither is bracketed, we should assume that the words are complete in the Greek and translated differently. Of the three translations that we have two frame this as height or stature and and one, Bernhard, as Life. Again, we are not Greek nor Coptic scholars and what we say here is only intended to reflect what we see; here the Greek word used does not resemble the word psuche that is used in the synoptic version for Life and which can be rendered as Soul or Life nor does it resemble the word zoe which is otherwise used for Life. Tracing this word through Vincent’s writings we find the same Greek word (the Greek form of letters) set to mean stature in the same verses we are using from Luke and here we could see that stature is a right rendering and that there is precedence for “time of life” and height as well. Vincent tells us here that: Stature (ηλικίαν); The original meaning of the word is time of life, age. So, commonly, in classical Greek. See, also, John 9:21, John 9:23; Hebrews 11:11. The other meaning, stature, also occurs. Herodotus speaks of one who was of the same height (ηλικιήν) with another (3:16). But both the usage and the connection are in favor of the meaning age. A measure of time is sometimes represented by a measure of length, as in Psalm 39:5; but, most of all, the addition of a cubit (a foot and a half) to one’s stature would not be a small one, as the text implies (that which is least )but a very large one. Moreover, Christ is speaking of food and clothing, the object of which is to foster and prolong life. Rev., age, in margin 4. While it is not our place here to argue against scholars, we should add here that this idea of height does not work as well in this context and that in looking what we believe is Vincent’s reference to Herodotus, stature works just as well away from the idea of height as it would include the totality of appearance. Here we can accept either Life or stature but based in our understanding stature would be the better choice and we should note here that this same controversy appears in the different translations of Luke where some render this as Life and convert the idea of cubit to be a measure thereof. Can we see the wranglings and the influence of the doctrinal view in all of this.
Our third point is the more important and this is the difference between the ideas “If you have a garment, what do you la[ck?]” and “When you have n[o c]lo[thing], what do [you wear]?“. From our perspective the former rendering brings to mind these words to the apostles as the Master instructs them, reminding them of when He had sent them out with nothing but what they wore: “And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing” (Luke 22:35).
Of course the idea of overriding importance here is not these differences nor the way that the translations differ; the common thread through ALL of this is that we should “take no thought“, that we “do not take care” and while the rendering of this as not to worry, or be concerned, or anxious or that we should not fret may work well for the average man, this is not sufficient for the aspirant and for the disciple who the Master clearly tells that he must forsake ALL; it is this aspirant and this disciple who must be convinced that his focus must be upon the things of God and not the temporal things of the flesh and therefore he must “take no thought“.
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.
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.
As with any ancient manuscript from a foreign land, there are many interpretations and translations of The Gayatri available. The version that appears here comes to us in every day English and without the need to have a Sanskrit reference as a key; it is constructed so that all can understand it and use it.
The Gayatri is really quite simple and straightforward in the form that we have here. It begins, as does the Lord’s Prayer, with an acknowledgement of the Majesty of God as the Giver of all Life and as our Source of all things. We ask only one thing in this prayer; that the true spiritual light of God be unveiled to us so that we may see it clearly. The Sun is the giver of light and life to our planet and all that is on it and, just as each of our forms veils the Spirit within, we ask to see and to know the Light that is behind the Sun that which we see.
In saying this we believe that by seeing the true Spiritual Light that we will be able to see and to know the Truth that is in that light. This is the Light that the Buddha and then the Christ brought to us through their lives on Earth. This is the Light that shines in our hearts from our own spiritual selves, the Christ Within.
We close by acknowledging that we have a duty to God, to our brothers and to His Plan and it is this duty that we will perform when we realize the truth as we journey back to God.
Others have said about this prayer that “The Gayatri is one of the oldest invocations, or mantrams, know to man. It carries the power of purpose, the plan of love and the light of truth. It reveals human relationships as vertical alignment with the source of all Energy and horizontal service in the right use of energy. It is a potent tool for use with the inflow of new age energies” (from The Gayatri prayer card of World Goodwill; NY, NY).
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/
