ON LOVE; PART CDLX
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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.
(89) Jesus says: “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that the one who created the inside is also the one who created the outside?“
(90) Jesus says: “Come to me, for my yoke is gentle and my lordship is mild. And you will find repose for yourselves.“
(91) They said to him: “Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you.” He said to them: “You examine the face of sky and earth, but the one who is before you, you have not recognized, and you do not know how to test this opportunity.“
(92) Jesus says: “Seek and you will find. But the things you asked me about in past times, and what I did not tell you in that day, now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.“
(93) “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, lest they throw it upon the dunghill. Do not throw pearls to swine, lest they turn <them> into [mud].“
(94) Jesus [says]: “The one who seeks will find. [The one who knocks], to that one will it be opened.“
(95) [Jesus says:] “If you have money, do not lend (it) out at interest. Rather, give [it] to the one from whom you will not get it (back).” 14
In the last essay we came to our conclusion about the ideas presented by the Master in the eighty eighth saying from the Gospel of Thomas. When broken down from the Interlinear Version, along with some help from the other translators, we were able to take these words to mean much the same as what we ourselves have been saying in our blog for more than two years. We found a depth of meaning in these words that are only intelligible when one sees the aspects of man as they Truly are which IS that these ARE much like the Aspects of God; and, when one realizes that this form IS NOT one of these aspects, he realizes as well that it is the Life and the consciousness within the form that animate the human animal body and give it that self awareness that IS the hallmark of man. These qualities of Life in the world and the consciousness of the man are given by the Soul to the form for use during a Lifetime in this Earth; when a Lifetime in the world is over the Life force is extracted and the body dies but it IS ONLY the body that dies….the Life and the consciousness continue as the qualities of the Soul. It is not our place to get into the afterlife nor other related ideas in this essay and our ideas on these things have been covered much throughout our posts; they can be found by using the search bar on the home page. Here our point is the simpler, that when the body dies the Life and the consciousness continue as these ARE the True man and in this view we must see this Life and consciousness as the True man while in the world as well; this IS what is discussed in this saying from Thomas.
We must understand that in ALL scriptures there are different perspectives to be considered in the words of the Master and His apostles as they are essentially speaking to men in the world; at times to disciples who understand these concepts, albeit not necessarily in our terms, and at times to the multitudes who do not understand and to whom the parables and parabolic sayings remain as stories or as incomprehensible ideas. We see beyond this because in the 2000 years since the Advent of the Christ, the faculty of mind has evolved in the human race to a degree where the more abstract ideas CAN be discerned by men in a clearer and more cogent way as compared to the more emotional and devotional response of the past. Here, for those who can see more clearly, the understanding of the separation of the Soul from the form is more readily understood and accepted as one can now see this reality in the words of the Master and His Apostles who ALWAYS told us these things in their rather abstract and parabolic way. And the Truth IS there in their word the same as the Truth IS in these words from Thomas which we were able to use, in our own fashion, to reveal our own understood Truths and to unlock for us at the same time yet additional revelation. Here in this revelation is increased clarity as to the Holy Spirit as the teacher and the prophet and as the very Truth of divinity in form and for some of this realization we CAN NOT yet find suitable words for their expression.
And so our eighty eighth saying comes to Life and to our understanding, and as a result we see ALL things a bit more clearly. This saying from the Interlinear is choppy and in it we can see the many issues with relating Coptic thoughts into English ones and in this we should remember that it is the best suited word that is generally used in translation and not necessarily the correct one. The saying again from the Interlinear: “the-angels-come upto-you(pl) with-the-prophets, and they-will-give to-you(pl) those-which-have-you(pl)-them,>and you(pl) also-\-yourselves, those-who-are-of-\-you(pl), give-them to-them &-you(pl)-speak to-you(rselves) this- “Which-day is-it(m)-they-come &()take-he-who-is-theirs?“”. Remembering that most ALL that the Master says regarding Truely spiritual things is parabolic and that we should find the same idea here; we have taken to see this word rendered as angel as the Soul of man and we used the ideas from the synoptic gospels to qualify this two posts back. At the same time we take this idea of prophet as the teacher and we take this again from the synoptics along with the definition of the prophet as a messenger from God who brings to mankind some teaching or instruction from the lexicon; here we then take that same idea of a teacher and we apply to it the words from the Apostle John who tells us about the anointing as he says:
“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).
Here then we have this idea of the prophet as the teacher and the instructor that we can see as the anointing that each man has as a part of His divine Life and who “teacheth you of all things” which of course we must understand as spiritual things and NOT carnal. Now we could leave this in our saying from Thomas as the anointing but this would not help us to see that it IS the aspects of the True man, the Spiritual Man, that are at play in Thomas’ words. Here in this saying we could likely use these words anointing and teacher interchangeably but this may not work out in ALL respects and so we take this idea of the anointing to its reality as an aspect of man which we KNOW as the Holy Spirit and we see reality in the words of the Master who tells His disciples that:
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).
Can we see here the interrelationships? This IS the Holy Ghost, the activity of the Christ Within in the Life of the man in the world which IS ONLY revealed to the man by the God Within; this IS how he says that “the Father will send in my name“. We can also see this reality in a previous saying from Jesus who says of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 16:17). Here we should see clearly that the “world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him” and this is because their focus IS upon the self and the self in the world and NOT upon the spiritual things of God. In these ideas from Thomas’ Gospel is the whole of our journey encapsulated in but a few words and this IS True of so many of the sayings that we read in the both the accepted gospels and here in Thomas; this journey IS of course that we find that Kingdom that IS within and to express the qualities of that Kingdom which IS the Will of the Father and the words of the Master. In the end ALL Truly spiritual ideas point a man to this state of being and beyond. And so we see this eighty eighth saying; it tells us that the Soul and the teacher as the anointing or the Holy Spirit, which are framed for us as the angel and the prophet, will come into the Life of the man in the world and will give to him those divine realizations of what things he already possesses in fact but does not yet KNOW nor realize. Repeating this then from another perspective, the Master tells us that is IS we ourselves, those who are of us as this combination of Life and consciousness and their activity in form, who actually give them, these divine things, to this combination of Life which IS the True man living through the form in time and space and it IS this that becomes the realization of the man in the world.
Can we see here the rather intentional obscurity in these words that on the surface make no spiritual sense at all from the perspective of the journey of man and can we see that the one part is a sort of repetition of the other and that the final question is the implied as from the disciple who has so realized these Truths asking himself when this whole journey will be complete; at what point can he stand with the Master and say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We have spent much time on this saying that was so obscure when we first read it a few days ago that we could see no way to make any True spiritual sense of it and perhaps here in this we can see a small bit of the reality of focus.
Our next saying, the eighty ninth, is similar to a teaching by the Master in the accepted gospels which of course has naught to do with the subject of the cup but with the nature of the man in the world. In the synoptic gospels the Master expands much upon this thought as His way of showing the Pharisees and the Jewish rulers of the inadequacy of their doctrines and traditions and to show His disciples and us as well that it is what a man expresses that is of moment….that it IS what comes from the man, from his heart, that defines his place in Life. Most all of the renderings of this are the same except that Layton reverses the idea and calls this about the inside; we list here our common version, the Interlinear and Layton:
- “Jesus says: Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that the one who created the inside is also the one who created the outside?” (Patterson and Robinson).
- “Said-JS81 this: Because-of-what do-you(pl)-wash the-side-outer of -the-cup? > Do-you(pl)-understand not that whoever-created the-side-inner, he also (is)he-who()created the-side-outer?” (Interlinear Version).
- “Jesus said, Why are you (plur.) washing the inside of the cup? Don’t you think that the one who made the inside is the very same one who made the outside?” (Layton).
It is possible that this IS merely a typographical error by someone as this same word that is rendered as outer by others here is rendered as outer by Layton in other sayings and with this in mind we will assume such. This saying here then is an abbreviated verison of the synoptic ideas which we read as:
- Luke offers the most direct view as he speaks about the cup in response to the Master’s lack of hand washing and we should note that Jesus goes from this saying into His list of woes against the Pharisee and the other religious rulers of the day: “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you” (Luke 11:37-41).
- Matthew broaches this idea twice; once as a part of the the list of woes as we read: “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matthew 23:24-26).
- In this rather lengthy discourse from Matthew’s Gospel we get the fuller flavor of His message: “Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition…..And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended , after they heard this saying? But he answered and said , Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted , shall be rooted up. Let them alone : they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said , Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man” (Matthew 15:1-9, 12-20).
- In Mark there is also a lengthy discourse and one which ties all of the ideas above together: “And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said , Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 7:2-16).
Each of these IS different in approach but the same in meaning and it is in reading them ALL that we find the completeness of the Master’s thoughts as the combination of the washing of hands and the washing of cups in general as well the washing of the outside, and how these relate to the overall teaching that is behind the words. In the end the message IS as the Master ends here in Mark’s version; that it IS ONLY the expression of the man to the world that can defile him OR that can lift him up to heaven. Some of the commentary on this verse includes:
- Marvin Meyer writes: “Note also the Babylonian Talmud, Berakoth 51a, with its provisions for rinsing the inside and washing the outside of a cup; also Kelim 25.1-9, with its discussion of laws concerning the inner and outer sides of various vessels.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 102).
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “This saying, directed against ritual observances, is based on Luke 11:39-40. The reversal of inside and outside in the second half of the saying is also found in some early manuscripts of Luke, and in patristic quotations.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 184).
- R. McL. Wilson writes: “The parallel here is Luke xi. 39-40, which itself has often given rise to perplexity. It can be punctuated as a question, ‘Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?,’ in which case the meaning may probably be summed up in the words of verse 42: this ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone. The merely external and ritual observances are worthless without purity of heart. It is also possible, although perhaps less probable, that we should punctuate as a statement: ‘He who sets the outside right does not set the inside right’; but this seems flat and tautologous. More important is the fact that some of our authorities in Luke reverse the order of ‘inside’ and ‘outside,’ exactly as in Thomas. This raises questions of textual criticism, which will be considered later. Quispel has suggested that Luke, as presented by the majority of our manuscripts, has preserved one half of an original parallelism, Thomas and the remaining manuscripts the other; and he adds the further suggestion that this logion may be from the Gospel of the Hebrews, and may be the text underlying logion 22, which, as already noted, has been identified as from the Gospel of the Egyptians. The suggestion has much to commend it, but if it is correct Luke must have adapted the saying for his own purposes; the relation of Luke to Matthew here, and to their common source, has been variously interpreted. On the other hand it may be doubted if the parallelism is really authentic and not the result of a playing with words by a later hand. The textual variant might be merely accidental; the one fact which gives it a claim to further consideration is that it occurs not in Thomas only but in other sources.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 83-84).
- Helmut Koester writes: “This is the first of the two sayings which Thomas shares with the synoptic speech against the Pharisees. However, it can be understood as a community rule rather than a polemical saying. There is no reference to the Pharisees; the accusation that those who practice such purification ‘are full of extortion and wickedness’ is missing, as is the slanderous ‘You fools!’ That Gos. Thom. 89 reverses the order ‘outside/inside’ in the second part of the saying is of no consequence because there is no polemical intent.” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 92).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “The logion has a parallel in Matt. 23.25-26/Luke 11.39-41 (=Q). But it seems original by comparison with the Synoptic parallels, as it emphasizes one notion (and does not, like Matthew/Luke, include the inside of the person as well as the outside of the cup). Because the one who created the outside of the cup and what is inside is the same, washing the inside and the outside are made equal. Hence the following conclusion suggests itself: if the inside is not washed, the outside does not need to be washed either.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 634).
None of these commentaries seems to grasp the reality of these ideas from the Master.
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 we repeat the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day and we should note the very Christian ideals that are embraced by these words; not the doctrinal Christian ideals but rather the ideals annunciated in the words of the Master and of His apostles. This idea of ONENESS IS a component part of the Love that the Master teaches as He tells us that we should Love ALL and this ideal is repeated by His apostles who clarify it and expand upon it in their pronouncement that we should NOT show respect to persons that we should not prefer one above another, and this of course includes groups of persons who may differ from us in color, in nationality, in religion….in any way. We are told this by the apostles who tells us that God DOES NOT show such favor to individuals nor to groups as we read that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) which IS here offered in the context that ALL are treated equally. There are several instances of this saying interweaved with the idea that we should Love our brother, our neighbor and one another as these ideas are framed and, with this stated concept of this respect, we should be able to glimpse what we have been preaching here in this blog and which is the Truer nature of this Love. We should understand that in our zeal to be among His disciples that we must pay keen attention to the totality of the Master’s words which tell us that we should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and it is in this reality that we should understand this idea of respect, that if this is the Way of God that it should be the way of man as well. And, if this were not clear enough, the straightforward words of the Apostle James helps us saying “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).
This IS the greater Truth of this Mantram of Unification; that we understand the reality of our ONENESS, our essential Unity, that we Love as the Master teaches, that we allow the Inner man, the Soul, to be the controlling force in our lives; that we come to see the Truth, that we break down the walls of illusion and glamour and eliminate ALL things that separate us from the Truth and from each other. And that we Love and encourage that Universal Love which is our essential destiny by our own example and in ALL that we say and do.
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!
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
