ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXXVIII
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.
(30)Jesus says: “Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him.“
(31) Jesus says: “No prophet is accepted in his (own) village. A physician does not heal those who know him.“
(32) Jesus says: “A city built upon a high mountain (and) fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden.“
(33) Jesus says: “What you will hear with your ear {with the other ear} proclaim from your rooftops. For no one lights a lamp (and) puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place. Rather, he puts it on a lampstand, so that everyone who comes in and goes out will see its light.“
(34) Jesus says: “If a blind (person) leads a blind (person), both will fall into a pit.”14
In the last essay we found some resolution to the dilemma in the thirtieth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and while this may seem inventive or even fanciful to some, it is based in our own understanding of Life that we have been presenting from the beginning of our writing over two years ago. Our own understanding has of course evolved over these two years to a point where we can put ‘Christian’ names to the phases of Life through which a man progresses as he strives toward his goal which we call today that deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Here in the Master’s words from Thomas we find that the three gods convey the idea of the multiplicity of those aspects of mammon that we serve as men in the world of men who have not yet heard the call of our own Souls. This is reflective of the Master’s words that we read yesterday from Matthew’s Gospel and which Luke presents as: “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). The difference between the two versions of this saying by the Master is in the idea of servant here and use of man in the other and while they do both mean the same thing, we can see a closer reality here today in the use of servant as the servant Truly does serve and here that serving is to mammon.
We can think of no other idea that would accept this parabolic saying from Thomas Gospel save this which we found in the Master’s repeating of the words from the Psalm and saying to the gathered Jews “I said, Ye are gods” (John 10:34) and while this idea is meaningless in regard to the first part where serving mammon is serving gods, it can be seen rather clearly in the next part where where the one or the two are involved. Here we must grasp the idea that whatsoever we serve can be seen from our own perspective as a god and this from the perspective of what we are striving toward or after as well as what devotion we may have toward that thing, or thought, or attitude or action. This IS likely a common idea in that day when Jesus spoke to the Jews, when He spoke to His disciples these words on God and mammon and the words from Thomas as well; whatever one goes after can be seen as a god, a control of sorts upon a man’s Life. The thread of this can be found throughout the Old Testament and although it is not called so by name the intent is much the same; we should understand that to worship the god of wealth in that day is no different that to whore after wealth in Christ’s day nor to make obsession of it in this day; we may be less superstitious today but our actions are much the same. We can get a hint of this from the Apostle Paul who tells us “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world….Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” (Galatians 4:3, 8-9).
These words from Paul can be seen then as an outline of serving mammon as gods as we understand this in the Master’s words in both the accepted gospels in His teaching on God and mammon and in the words on the three gods from Thomas which we can reconstruct to say that ‘when there is a multiplicity of things worshiped by the man in the world, they are his gods’ and this can be any that can fit into this rather simple definition of the verb worship: to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing)7. Carrying this idea to the next point is similar in regard to the two, as one of these will be this same god as it (he) is seen in those times when the man IS focused upon the things of the world and the other will be as the ONE, the Truth of the Master’s words that “I said, Ye are gods“. It IS when we come to the two that we find that sense of duality which IS a sign of the aspirant and the beginning of discipleship where a man is vacillating from pole to pole and about which our Tibetan brother comments saying about who we call the aspirant: He has tasted the joys of life in the world of illusion and has learnt their powerlessness to satisfy and hold him. Now he is in a state of transition between the new and the old states of being. He is vibrating between the condition of soul awareness and form awareness. He is “seeing double”**. This man who is seeing double, this aspirant who is enduring the duality that begins at his Repentance and ends when he is Transformed, Truly has the Christ with him and he sees this as the Christ Within from whence comes the strength to carry on. Finally, in the one we have the Transformed disciple; single-minded and focused only on the things of God and in whom is the essence of that reality; the realization that he is among the gods and the fullness of understanding the idea encapsulated in those words “I said, Ye are gods“.
Remembering that we had two versions of this in the Greek and the Coptic, we should look at the Greek again as we close out our comments on this thirtieth saying: “Where there are [three], they are without God, and where there is but [a single one], I say that I am with [him]. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there. Split the piece of wood, and I am there.” (Greek fragment; Attridge). As we said, we will address the ending here as we address the like saying in the Coptic. The first part is seemingly different from the Coptic but the reality is the same albeit from a different perspective and seems to be ignoring that sense of duality that we ascribe in our comments on the two. When there are three, the same multiplicity of thoughts, attitudes, actions and things, upon which a man is focused, that man is without God and this regardless of what he may believe about himself. Conversely, the Master says that when there is one, the single-minded man whose focus is upon the things of God, that He, the Christ, IS with him and this we see as the Christ Within. We cannot say why there is this difference between these versions of text and we cannot be sure which one came first, if one is copied from the other or if perhaps that are separately written, but we can say that these two sayings are largely the same from a spiritual perspective as to have one’s gods in mammon is in Truth to be without God.
The next saying, the thirty first, is rather straightforward and is a combination of two separate thoughts from the Gospel of Luke where we read as below although the part of the physician is portrayed in a seemingly different context:
“And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said , Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:23-24).
A part of this saying is reflected in all of the accepted gospels as we read:
- “But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching” (Mark 6:4-6).
- “And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:57-58).
- “For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country” (John 4:44).
All of the translations from the Coptic and the Greek fragment are essentially the same and say as above that: “No prophet is accepted in his (own) village. A physician does not heal those who know him“. There is much commentary on this saying and we post a few:
- Funk and Hoover write: “The earliest form of the saying is probably the aphorism consisting of a single line found in Thom 31:1; Luke 4:24; and John 4:44 (the simpler form is usually the earlier). This adage is characteristic of the short, easily remembered, and, in this case, ironical remark that lent itself to oral transmission, and was typical of Jesus as a sage and prophet.”…”The two [doctor and prophet sayings] are connected in Thomas 31 as a proverb consisting of two lines. It is interesting to note that Luke seems to connect the two ideas also: the crowd asks Jesus to do in his hometown what he had done in Capernaum: namely, to cure people, which follows from the secular proverb they quote him, ‘Doctor, cure yourself.’ It is possible that Luke was aware of the two-line proverb preserved in Thomas but decided to revamp it to suit the story he was developing.” (The Five Gospels, p. 491).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “The saying about the prophet is found in the Synoptic and Johannine traditions alike (Mark 6.4; John 4.44). The saying about the physician resembles ‘Physician, heal yourself’, a proverb quoted in Luke 4.23 immediately before the Lukan occurrence of the saying about the prophet; Luke 4.23 f. may therefore be the source of this composite formulation.” (Jesus and Christian Origens Outside the New Testament, p. 127).
- Joseph A. Fitzmyer writes: “The first part of this saying should be considered as authentic as the canonical parallels. The second may be authentic, or may be merely a saying constructed as an answer to the retort, ‘Physician, heal thyself’.” (Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, p. 402).
- Gerd Theissen writes: “Form criticizm shows that this logion is more original than the apophthegmatic garb which Mark 6.1-6 gives to the first half in the framework of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth; it cannot in any way be a secondary derivation from Mark 6.1-6 par.” (The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide, p. 39).
- Helmut Koester writes: “This is a particularly instructive parallel. When the Greek text of Gos. Thom. 31 (Pap. Oxy. 1.6) was discovered, Emil Wendling demosntrated that Mark 6:4-5 was constructed on the basis of this saying. While Mark quoted the first part of the saying at the end of his apophthegma about Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth, he changed the second part into narrative. Rudolf Bultmann confirmed this observation through form-critical analysis. This saying, in the form in which it is preserved by Thomas, was the nucleus of the later development of the apophthegma that appears now in Mark’s text.” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 111).
There is not much to say about these ideas except that this idea that “No prophet is accepted in his (own) village.” IS a Truth not only for the Master but for ALL people and IS based in the carnal focus of men in the world. This is tied to the ideas in the verses that precede our saying above from Matthew’s Gospel where we read: “And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him” (Matthew 13:54-57). Perhaps here we can see the more modern proverb of ‘familiarity breeds contempt‘ which we can understand as: The better we know people, the more likely we are to find fault with them*** as we read in a modern dictionary.
The next part here in Thomas’ Gospel appears to say a different thing but if we take this in the context of what it IS that the Master is doing in His teaching and healing, then we can make sense of this in a way similar to Mr. Fitzmyer’s comment above where he says that this is perhaps an answer to the Master’s words on Luke saying “Physician, heal thyself’“. We see this however as more of a statement of the peoples thoughts, that in their thinking that the Master is unappreciated in both His teaching and His healing and as we read from Matthew that “he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” and from Mark that “he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them“. Here we can see that they were unwilling to be healed by the Master and hence His words that “no physician heals those who know him” (Lambdin), not because He does not want to, but because they are unwilling to accept Him. Here, based upon His view of their thoughts about Him, the Master says “Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself“. Here again we have a similar thought between the accepted gospels and Thomas’ Gospel that can ultimately be seen to say the same thing although from different perspectives.
We would like to mention here that one of our resources for information on this work in the Gospel of Thomas is a website called earlychristianwritings.com. This is the source for much of the commentary as well as some of the translation information.
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!
- 7 Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
- ** A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC OR THE WAY OF THE DISCIPLE BY ALICE A. BAILEY COPYRIGHT © 1951 BY LUCIS TRUST
- *** The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. from Dictionary.com
