ON LOVE; PART CDLXX
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.
(96) Jesus [says]: “The kingdom of the Father is like [a] woman. She took a little bit of yeast. [She] hid it in dough (and) made it into huge loaves of bread. Whoever has ears should hear.“
(97) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman who is carrying a [jar] filled with flour. While she was walking on [the] way, very distant (from home), the handle of the jar broke (and) the flour leaked out [on] the path. (But) she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down on the floor (and) found it empty.“
(98) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a person who wanted to kill a powerful person. He drew the sword in his house (and) stabbed it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong (enough). Then he killed the powerful one.“
(99) The disciples said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” He said to them: “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father.“
(100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar’s people demand taxes from us.” He said to them: “Give Caesar (the things) that are Caesar’s. Give God (the things) that are God’s. And what is mine give me.“
(101) “Whoever does not hate his [father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. And whoever does [not] love [his father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life.” 14
In the last essay we discussed the ninety seventh saying from Thomas’ Gospel which IS the second in a row that compares the Kingdom to a woman doing some thing. In this there is naught to do with sex as from the spiritual view this IS a non-existent division of mankind; we rather find here the idea of the woman as she is performing woman’s duties in those days, leavening dough for baking and carrying a container of flour home. Now this idea of sex IS NOT brought up by any that we are aware of and we take this opportunity only to put forth the Truth of sex as it should be seen in scripture; that sex is a physical plane separation that is ONLY in the world, there ARE NOT male and female Souls. That women are thought subservient to men in the world is ONLY a carnal issue and in the reality of rebirth or reincarnation is should be understood that each of us have likely incarnated as both over our long history; ALL ARE equal in these separations and this IS a notion that is slowly taking hold in the world of men; most ALL of the physical plane separations are slowly giving way to the reality of Unity and brotherhood. And this IS a function of the evolution of the race of men in the world which is hastened by the understanding of more advanced Souls incarnating as well as the force of evolution itself as we continually move further from that emotionally based center of the past to one that is more controlled by the mind, a move that is pushed forward by the ever changing energies that impact the consciousness of men of men in the world which can be seen in the inflow of the energies of the Aquarian Age. ALL works in accordance with the Great and Awesome Plan of God which IS the ultimate motivator as the His entire creation moves forward towards its established goal which for man is the expression of the divine Love and Power of the Soul through his forms in this Earth.
And in this saying from Thomas we can find a picture painted of this change as it affects the individual man in the world. Seeing the Kingdom as the woman carrying the jar gives us the notion that it IS the Soul in the Kingdom that can be seen as the woman and that the jar is this Soul’s worldly presence and, in hindsight, this same can be said of the last saying. There the Kingdom is the woman who is leavening dough and this too can be seen as the woman, the Soul, adding into the dough or the meal, which is the Life of the man in the world, the leaven which IS the agent of the Kingdom itself that will cause the growth of the dough and give it the ability to become a great bread or a man of God in the flesh. Now the ideas that we did put forth on this over the last two posts say this same thing but in different words and we repeat here what we did say yesterday that is of importance in understanding ALL of these parabolic relationships that are offered by the Master; we said that: we should understand but one thing: that few understand or appreciate the reality of the Kingdom Within as the Master tells us saying that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and it IS in the right understanding of these words that these other sayings from the Master can come to Life.
Our view here of this saying then is rather clear as we remember that this IS a parable and that the carnal thoughts need not be carried forward to the spiritual. The woman is carrying about the contents of the personality, the thoughts, attitudes and actions of one’s Life in the world and, remembering that this woman carrying the jar IS likened to the Kingdom, we can then see this as the Soul that IS in the Kingdom or we can see this as the Christ and the God within as these ideas are ALL synonymous. We have then the person in the world carrying about his carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions and by the words relating this to the Kingdom we can see that this is a person who IS pursuing spiritual ends. We find this person then “walking on [the] way, very distant (from home)” as our saying above presents this and in this idea we should try to see the Path that one must traverse, the spiritual Path that brings one home the Kingdom. In the idea of distance, framed by the Interlinear as “walking on -a-road ()faraway” we should try to see the nature of the journey, that is is an effort required that here is measured as distance. Then the jar breaks according to the Interlinear and it is curious to note that is breaks at the handle; here perhaps we can see that the handle could be likened to the grasp that each man has on his own carnal Life and remembering that this man IS on the Path we can see that his own attention to that part diminishes his hold on the carnal part. Then is the important part as the contents of the jar leak out and they leak out unbeknown to the man carrying this jar; not KNOWING that the contents are leaking our the man arrives at his destination, he arrives home at the KINGDOM and comes to find that the jar IS empty the contents of his carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions are gone.
Can we see this story within the Master’s parable? Can we see the shorter version of this as well as we presented it in the last essay as that: This man is walking through Life carrying with him the contents of his own personality, his mind and his emotions, the totality of his carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions. It is these that are leaking from the jar and this leaking is unbeknown to the man as he travels the Path to the Kingdom. It is only when he looks at the empty jar that he realizes what has happened….everything carnal is gone. And, can we see our own conclusion more clearly? that as one fills his Life with the things of God, the things of the world disappear. We CAN NOT see any other logical resolution to this parable about the Kingdom of God? One of our commentators told us that The peril of inattention and unnoticed loss is stressed but we should ask here how this could relate to the woman carrying the jar as the Kingdom? Another commentator said that The symbolism may fit with Jesus’ tendency to portray the kingdom as having to do with the unnoticed or unexpected or modest (this is true also of the parable of the mustard seed; and here again we ask the same question as the Kingdom IS portrayed in the parable as the woman carrying the jar and in this commentary we must ask what it is that is leaking out? There are other ideas in the comments as posted in the last essay and here we should credit the commentators for offering True comments. Mr Amundsen offers this which can be seen much the same as our view: Perhaps the spirit cannot escape its bondage until the jar is broken, until all our avenues of material reality are discovered to be simply a ‘broken jar.
Our next saying, the ninety eighth, is another parable about the Kingdom of God and another that at first glance IS very difficult to understand as regards the Kingdom of God. The various renderings of this saying, while all saying the same thing, approach the words differently with some using the word murder and others qualifying just who the person may be. We list our normal translations:
- Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a man who wanted to kill a powerful man. He drew the sword in his house and drove it into the wall, that he might know his hand would be strong (enough). Then he slew the powerful man” (Blatz).
- Jesus said, “What the kingdom of the father resembles is a man who wanted to assassinate a member of court. At home, he drew the dagger and stabbed it into the wall in order to know whether his hand would be firm. Next, he murdered the member of court” (Layton).
- “The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who wants to kill an important person. In his house he unsheathed the sword and stuck it in the wall to assure himself that his hand would be firm. Then he killed the person” (Doresse).
- Jesus said, “The kingdom of the Father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house, he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the powerful man” (Lambdin).
- Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a person who wanted to kill a powerful person. He drew the sword in his house (and) stabbed it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong (enough). Then he killed the powerful one” (Patterson and Robinson).
- Jesus said, “The Father’s kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said-JS87 (this) “the-kingdom of-the-father, she-compares to-a-man ()wanting to-kill-a-man powerful. > He-drew-the-sword in-his-house; he-stuck-her into-the-wall, so-that he-might-realize that his-hand (would)-be-strong inwardly(?), > then he-slew the-powerful-one” (Interlinear Version).
The later version of the Interlinear is nearly the same as this older one above and we should note the self-questioning of the rendering of the word inwardly, a word that is rendered as only ‘in’ in several other places. Here in this saying the idea of inward works logically and in others the idea of ‘in’ appears to work; perhaps there is a middle idea in which this would work in all instances but we have no such word to use. From the interlinear we find:
- In the twenty second saying this Coptic word is used three times and each in regard to entering ‘in’ “to the kingdom“.
- In the twenty first saying this word is used in relation to the robber and is framed as “if he should-realize, viz-the-Lord-of-the-house, that he-is-coming, viz-the-robber, he-will-keep-watch before-he-\-come &()-not-permit-him to-tunnel in to-his-house of-his\-kingdom that-he-take his-\-goods“.
- In the fourteenth saying this word is user in regard to the Master’s teaching to the disciple, that whatsoever house he may go ‘in’ that he should eat what is offered because it IS NOT what goes ‘in’ “your mouth“……
- In the thirty third saying the word is used with the light on the lampstand, that any who go ‘in’ and out “they may look to his light“.
- In the seventy fifth saying we read “there-are-many standing()at-the-door; but the-single-ones (are) those-who-will-go in to-the-place of-marriage“.
There are more that we did not review but in this selection we have a spiritual idea linked to this Coptic word in every instance and this enhances our sense that perhaps there is a deeper meaning than just ‘in’ intended here and we note that the more simple ideas of ‘in’ do not come from this particular Coptic word. We must say here again that we ARE NOT Coptic scholars and we DO NOT KNOW that this idea is True but in our own view of the way this is used and the intent of the sayings we can see this rather clearly. Accepting the idea here of inwardly and comparing this to the other renderings of these words we can also see the reality that IS missed by the other translators and we should remember here two things; first that this IS a parable and second that the man wanting to kill IS compared to the Kingdom of God. In this sense the ideas presented in translations above make no True sense as this idea of killing and or murder IS an anathema in relation to the Kingdom of God. The available commentary for this saying includes:
- Joachim Jeremias writes: “Just as this political assassin first makes a trial of his strength before he embarks on his dangerous venture, so should you test yourselves to see whether you have strength to carry the adventure through.” (The Parables of Jesus, p. 197).
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “It is better to compare the kingdom of the Father with a man (as here) than with a woman (as in the two sayings preceding this one); see Saying 112 [114]. The parable vaguely reminds us of Saul’s throwing his spear at David, in the Old Testament, but Thomas is not interested in Old Testament allusions. It is more like the parable of the king going into battle who first makes an estimate concerning his prospects (Luke 14:31). He who would find the kingdom must first count the cost. If he is strong enough, he can slay the ‘great man’ (probably the world; see Saying 78).” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 188).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This parable, also unparalleled in the canonical tradition, may have come from a period when Zealot activity gave it contemporary relevance. The point seems to be that any one who embarks on a costly or dangerous enterprise must first make sure that he has the necessary resources to carry it out. There may be a link with the strong man whose house is ransacked in Saying 35.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 148).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “The parable appears only at this point in the early Christian Jesus tradition. It has a high degree of offensiveness, since as in Luke 16.1-7; Matt. 13.44; Matt. 24.43-44/Luke 12.39 Jesus uses an immoral hero to make a statement about the kingdom of God. Cf. in addition the original version of the saying about ‘men of violence’ in Matt. 11.12/Luke 16.16 (= Q) as a further example of Jesus being deliberately offensive in what he says. . . . The parable is authentic. Because of its offensiveness it probably fell victim to moral censorship at an early stage and therefore does not appear in any other text.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 637).
- Funk and Hoover write: “It appeared to some of the Fellows that the story line of the parable originally had to do with reversal: the little guy beats the big guy by taking the precautions a prudent person would take before encountering the village bully. This, together with the scandalous nature of the image, prompted a majority of the Seminar to vote red or pink on the third ballot.” (The Five Gospels, p. 525).
While we do again have some True commentary on this saying, there is very little that we can agree with. Mr. Jeremias seems to ignore the fact that this killer is likened to the Kingdom of God; and Grant and Freedman make our previous discussion on sex the more appropriate in this essay as they also offer some enlightenment in the idea of counting the cost and the great man being the world. Mr Bruce also goes to the idea of counting the cost but in our view this is but a sidebar in this particular saying and his ideas on the strong man, while perhaps suitable, does not seem to be the Master’s intent here as in that context there is the strong man and the stronger man who can bind him. There can be a relationship here which we will discuss further on. Mr. Ludemann sees this parable as offensive and while this may be apparent on the surface, we believe that we can find resolution to this in the reality of one’s journey to the Kingdom of God. Funk and Hoover appear to be just plainly off base.
Again, remembering that we have a parable and something that is likened to the Kingdom of God, we should able to see that there CAN NOT be any True killing involved in the Master’s words. If we can see the man in question, the Kingdom of God Within, the Soul, as the one who IS wanting to kill the powerful man and understand that this powerful man IS the carnal man in the world, then we have found the resolution to this parable. Here we have the aspirant and the disciple who are working out their spiritual reality in the world and whose only opposition is the carnal man and his thoughts, his attitudes and his actions as the self in the world. Here in this analogy the Master is showing us how the inner man must measure his own ability to overcome before he sets out to accomplish this act of overcoming the flesh, killing it if you will. Here we can see the strong man as the man focused upon the Truth as the aspirant and the disciple and we can see, as we see in our own lives, how the carnal self can at times be the stronger man and how the struggle must ever ensue. This parable is about that struggle and about the steady view of the Soul, expressing by degree through form, as he looks at the combative nature of the personality that ever desires to keep the man’s focus upon the self and the self in the world. Paul offers us these words in this regard:
- “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:19-25).
- “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).
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.
We are using yet another mantram as our new Quote of the Day and this is again one that we have posted many times. Here in the form of an affirmation we should be able to understand the intent which IS to make these realities as part of our everyday thinking and our everyday understanding of our nature. Here again, as we see in our words above on the Mantram of Unification, we have the same dynamics: Love, service and healing. Here however the motivation IS more upon the idea of service and when we can see that this service is offered in Love and that this service IS one of healing we can Truly understand this affirmation.
Affirmation of the Disciple
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
From previous posts we repeat that today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
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/
