ON LOVE; PART CDLXIX
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 two variations of the proverb or parable that likens the Kingdom of God either with the woman using the leaven or with the leaven itself and here we can see that either idea works in the context of the Master’s intended teaching. Why there should be this difference is not Truly KNOWN but in our premise regarding the totality of the writings of the apostles, that they write what they recollect in the way that they individually understand the Masters’s words, we can see the better reason for these differences rather than those other ideas that they copied from each other or from the infamous Q version of the synoptic gospels. Even the ideas of the verbal tradition of the words of the Master being eventually written down by the apostles would leave us in the same quandary and leave our understanding as the more logical explanation. While the ideas of the inerrancy of the scriptures is held out by many denominations and sects as a major foundation of their beliefs and traditions, there IS NOT, nor can there be, any Truly viable explanations of the differences in the various accounts of the gospels save the reality that these writers ARE men in the world and ALL that they say and do is processed through the personality which IS a carnal aspect of Life and IS that aspect that must be transformed in the Light of the Soul. And this transformation IS by degree as the Kingdom and the Light grow in the man in the world so as to become and ever increasing part of one’s expression to the world of men.
This IS the very nature of this parable that we are discussing, the growth of the Kingdom of God within and while we do not KNOW the spiritual status of the men who write the gospels and the epistles, we only KNOW of Peter and Paul and to some degree John on a rather personal level, we can assume that while divine, their expression of the Love and the Power of the Christ Within varies as does their vision, their understanding and their degree of KNOWING which IS the ultimate of faith at that degree where one can say with the Master “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There is little confusion about the reality of this Parable of the Leaven or of the Woman with the Leaven, most ALL would agree that it is about the growth of the Kingdom but there IS confusion regarding just what the Master is telling us grows. For us it IS the Kingdom Within as an unstoppable force as once the leaven IS introduced into the dough, the reaction is unstoppable; so with the Kingdom of God in the man in the world and if we see this as the leaven that is hidden in the man as the Kingdom Within we should see that the reaction for the man who has such realization and acts upon it is unstoppable as well….the Kingdom grows within and IS then expressed by the man in the world by the same degree as which he can see this growth. Remember here that this IS a parable and that there IS no need to see bread nor yeast in the message, there IS ONLY the need to see the idea, the thought of the Kingdom acting in one’s Life as would the leaven in the dough. And this IS NOT a perfect analogy as the leaven does not grow; the leaven only offers increase to the size of the lump as Paul calls it. We should then be able to substitute the woman into this equation as if we can see that it IS the Kingdom, the woman of the story, who leavens, who applies the activity of the leaven to the man in the world, we have this same growth; again it is the lump that grows and this because of the leaven as the Kingdom and here again we do not have a perfect analogy.
Perhaps it would have been better to liken the Kingdom to the dough or the lump as this IS what Truly grows as the leaven IS introduced but perhaps this would be too clear and too revealing to the common people of that day and, after all, the purpose of the parable is to conceal the hidden Truth. In Thomas version as we read it from the Interlinear; “the kingdom of the father, she is comparable to a woman; she took a little bit of leaven; [she hid] in (some) dough; she made him (into) some great (large) breads. He who has ear of him, let [him] listen” we can actually take away the idea of the bread or the dough as what is the result of the leavening; here we can see more clearly that the Kingdom, as the woman applies, the leaven to the dough and produces great breads which can be seen then that the Kingdom of God within the man offers its prompting, as the leaven, into the Life of the man in the world creating that reaction that results in one’s divine expression as the great breads. Granted the idea here may be choppy but the beginning and the end are the reality of the whole idea and, as we have said, this is perhaps just the way that Thomas viewed this IDEA as it was presented by the Master. In the synoptic versions there is perhaps a different clarity to be expressed in he vision of the writers who care not about the bread but see the man as the lump or as three lumps. Here also there is not a complete nor perfect analogy as while the leaven can be added or hidden in the meal which we should view as flour, the reaction of that leaven does not occur until the water is introduced; the whole would be leavened only when the meal is mixed, and it would be active only when it is mixed with the necessary water. However, we should see here in the synoptic versions the same result, that as the Kingdom in the form of leaven, is added to the meal in the form of the man, the whole grows; the dough rises as the EFFECT of the Kingdom grows within the man. We can also see the deeper meaning in the synoptics of the nature of the man, the dough in the world into which the leaven is introduced; we can see that there is a threefold man who is in need of this leavening; we can see the body nature, the emotional nature and the mental nature as well. This may not be the intent but it is a way of understanding the relevance of the three measures of meal and the one whole.
We can see then this man in the world as the great bread or the leavened whole and we can see the Kingdom as the leaven or the woman who applies the leaven but in the end the result is the same; it is the Kingdom Within that has grown within the man or it is the divinity of the man in the world that has grown to express more of the Kingdom and it likely does not matter which way this IS viewed. And in this Kingdom IS the Christ and the God Within and the result of this growing IS the greater expression of these divine ideas through the Life of the man in the world. As we closed the last post we did leave some of the more negative ideas presented by the Master and Paul regarding leaven, that these negative traits can grow in the man as well. Paul tells us of the “leaven of malice and wickedness” and the Master tells us of the “leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” and these we KNOW come from the world, from the carnal thoughts and ideas of men. The leaven in our parable is from above, from the Soul and the Kingdom and it is the choice of every man as to which one he will allow to grow as his expression of Life to the world. Our thoughts here are contrary to the established doctrine and our ideas on the sameness of the idea between the synoptics and Thomas are contrary as well and here 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 next saying, the ninety seventh, is another that has no similar ideas presented in the synoptic gospels and it is as well another where the Kingdom is likened to a woman, here a woman carrying a jar of meal. This is another also that is rather obscure on the surface and we should remember here two things; first that we are speaking about the Kingdom of God and second that this saying IS parabolic and that there IS a truth behind the words. We looked at a part of this saying in a previous post regarding the fifty eighth saying and the use there of the Coptic word that is rendered in the interlinear as trouble and of which we said this regarding this world: Rendered in the Interlinear as troubled and by the other translators as suffered, labored, toiled and struggled in the context of ”Blessed is the man who” followed by either has or is and then our word. The same thing can be noted here and again we take from our previous post that we said:
- Saying 97: Rendered in the Interlinear as a trouble, this is seen by the other translators in a variety of ways that we can only view in their context. The saying is about a woman who loses the meal in her jar as she walks along the road.
- “She was unaware, she had not noticed the misfortune“
- “She was not aware of the fact; she had not understood how to toil“
- “without her knowing it and stopping it“
- “She did not realize it; she had noticed no accident“
- “she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem“
- “she-knew not (it) to be; did-not-she-realize a-trouble(?)“
Now, having arrived at the ninety seventh saying, we note that the Interlinear puts a question mark after this word to show that its translation is in question and we find this in both versions of the Interlinear. While we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves here, the idea of this word is an important component of understanding this saying and since this IS the only major difference, we will only post the Interlinear for comparison:
“Said-JS86 this: the-kingdom of-the-father, she-compares to-a-woman ()bearing under-a-jar, ()-full of-meal; > ()-walking on -a-road ()faraway; did-the-ear of-the-jar break; did-the-meal empty(out) after-her on-the-road; > she-knew not (it) to be; did-not-she-realize a-trouble(?); > when-she-opened in to-her-house, she-put-the-jar (down); she-fell on-him, he-being-empty“.
The available commentary on this saying includes:
- Marvin Meyer writes: “This parable is known only here in early Christian literature, although ‘Macarius’ of Syria tells a somewhat similar story of a bag full of sand that is leaking out through a tiny hole in the bag.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 103).
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “This parable also compares the kingdom with a woman; it is not found in the gospels. Perhaps its meaning is given in the parable of the secretly growing seed in Mark 4:26-29. Doresse (page 198) cannot decide whether it refers to the imperceptible loss of the kingdom or to the contrast between its coming and the woman’s failure to notice her loss; neither can we.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 187).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “Here is a parable of the kingdom which has no canonical parallel. The point seems to be a warning against self-confidence, against thinking that one possesses the saving knowledge when in fact it has trickled away.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 148).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “The parable is preserved only here in the early Christian tradition. But its images do not match. Why should all the flour pour out of a jar if only a handle breaks? How is it that the woman did not observe this? So the parable must be interpreted in the light of these contradictions. In that case Thomas wants to say that knowledge (v. 3) is important at any point in time. The reader should always be on guard. . . . The parable is inauthentic, as it is an admonition to the individual Gnostic.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 637).
- Jack Finegan writes: “This is a relatively simple, direct parable, introduced much as are parables in the Synoptic tradition, e.g., Mt 13:31, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like . . .’ The peril of inattention and unnoticed loss is stressed, a teaching well enough in harmony with the teaching of Jesus otherwise in the Synoptic Gospels about the value and the possible loss of the kingdom.” (Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus, p. 260).
- Funk and Hoover write: “The structure of this parable, recorded only by Thomas, is similar to that of the parable of the leaven (Thom 96:1-2//Matt 13:33//Luke 13:20-21). It has a surprising and provocative ending: the woman comes home with an empty, rather than a full, jar. A full jar would be the expected metaphor for God’s imperial rule, so this ending is startling. 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, Thom 20:2//Mark 4:31-32//Matt 13:31-32//Luke 13:19).” (The Five Gospels, p. 524).
- Christan Amundsen writes: “Like people who are unaware that they are leaking the stuff of their being, they walk along a road mindless until they find themselves empty. . . . Our lives, Jesus is saying, are lived by accident. We become ‘broken jars,’ with nothing inside. Finding ourselves empty is a devastating affair. . . . This story, like any good parable, leads us up to a question. What does the woman do when she finds her jar broken and empty? It is like seeing that one’s life is meaningless and without true substance. What now? This is where the true drama unfolds, and so we are left to fill in the blank. The meal that was contained in the jar is the important thing. 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.’ Many responses and interpretations are possible and necessary.” (Insights from the Secret Teachings of Jesus, pp. 274-275).
All of these ideas fail to see the basic reality that this woman with her jar are likened to the Kingdom and while some here may expect the more positive note of the full jar and while others want to paint this as a loss of the Kingdom or some aspect of it, it remains that this IS the Kingdom. Here while there is seldom a relationship between the carnal realities of the story and the spiritual ones, there should be nonetheless some common thread or meaning upon which the story is built. As we see in the last saying the ideas behind the leaven remain and the function of the leaven has a bearing on the story on both sides, the carnal and the divine, we should see as well some common thread here between the woman with the jar and the Kingdom of God. We should also try to see that this IS NOT a predictable relationship as to what one may expect nor is there a requirement of logic as here the handle breaks and the meal or the flour leaks out. It is ever for us to find the resolution to these ideas, to find the divine intent in the carnal words.
Here, if we can use the idea of “a trouble” and borrow from Patterson and Robinson above who render this as “a problem“, we can find the basis of an idea regarding this meaning and intent. Let us try to see here that this IS NOT misfortune nor is it an accident nor can we say it is a toil, we do not understand this relevance of that word here; let us try to see the greater reality, even that it IS NOT Truly “a trouble” nor “a problem” when viewed from the perspective of the Soul; this IS merely what happens in the Life of the man in whom the Kingdom IS growing. 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. This is the greatness and the Power of the focus of the man upon the things of God.
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/
