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Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 8

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Dear All,

 

On Christmas Day in 1987, Shri Mataji expressed Her thankfulness that the book

written by Thomas had been found:

 

" Actually, thank God they have found out now the book written by Thomas who has

described Gnostic way of life, where gnya means 'to know.' In Sanskrit language,

gnya means 'to know,' gnya. So he has described very nicely the gnostic life.

This was the Gnostic Bible, or whatever we call it, saying about a personal

experience of achieving God realization, self realization. It talks about Sahaja

Yoga out and out. Thomas on his way to India, went to Egypt and there he has put

this in a big vessel of some metal. Thank God it was done in Egypt, otherwise in

any other place they would have used it for some other purpose. And already it

would have been perverted. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Christmas Puja, Pune, India, 25 December, 1987

 

 

Part 7 concluded with the following:

 

" But according to both the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of John, Jesus

reveals that the kingdom of God, which many believers, including Mark, expect in

the future, not only is " coming " but is already here--an immediate and

continuing spiritual reality. According to John, Jesus announces that the Day of

Judgment, which the prophets call " the day of the Lord, " " is coming, 'and is

now', " [58] and adds that the " resurrection of the dead " also may happen now.

For when Jesus consoles his friends Mary and Martha on the death of their

brother Lazarus and asks whether they believe he will rise from the dead, Martha

repeats the hope of the pious, saying, " I know that he will rise in the

resurrection on the last day. " [59] But in John, Jesus astonishes everyone as he

immediately proceeds to raise Lazarus, four days dead, calling him forth alive

from his grave. Thus the great transformation expected at the end of time

can--and does--happen here and now. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 2, p.49

 

Notes:

 

[58] John 5:25.

 

[59] John 11:24.

 

 

Here now, is Part 8.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 8

 

(p.49) According to the Gospel of Thomas, the " living Jesus " himself challenges

those who mistake the kingdom of God for an otherworldly place or a future

event:

 

Jesus said, " If those who lead you say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the

sky,' then the birds of the sky will get there before you....If they say to you,

'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get there before you. " [60]

 

(p.50) Here Thomas's Jesus ridicules certain unnamed leaders--perhaps even Peter

himself, or his disciple Mark; for it is in Mark that the troubled disciples ask

Jesus what to look for as " signs of the end, " and Jesus takes them seriously,

warning of ominous events to come, and concludes by admonishing them to " watch. "

[61] But Thomas claims that Jesus spoke differently in secret:

 

His disciples said to him, " When will the resurrection of the dead come, and

when will the new world come? " He said to them, " What you look forward to has

already come, but you do not recognize it. " [62]

 

When they ask again, " When will the kingdom come? " Thomas's Jesus says,

 

" It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying, 'Here it

is,' or 'There it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the

earth, and people do not see it. " [63]

 

The Gospel of Luke includes passages suggesting that other believers agree with

Thomas that the kingdom of God is somehow present here and now; in fact, Luke

offers an alternate version of the same saying:

 

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, [Jesus]

answered them, " The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be

observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!,' for the

kingdom of God is within you. " [64]

 

(p.51) Some have taken the phrase " within you " to mean that the kingdom is among

the disciples so long as Jesus is with them, while others take it to mean that

the kingdom of God is embodied not only in Jesus but in everyone. The New

Revised Standard Version of the Bible adopts the first sense--that Jesus alone

embodies the kingdom of God. But a century ago, in a book called 'The Kingdom of

God Is Within You', Leo Tolstoy urged Christians to give up coercion and

violence in order to realize God's kingdom here and now. Thomas Merton, the

twentieth-century writer and Trappist monk, agreed with Tolstoy but interpreted

the kingdom of God mystically rather than practically. [65]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 2, p.49-51

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[60] Gospel of Thomas 3, in NHL 118.

 

[61] Mark 13:2-37.

 

[62] Gospel of Thomas 51, in NHL 123.

 

[63] Ibid., 113, in NHL 130.

 

[64] Luke 17:20-21.

 

[65] Thomas Merton, quoted by Marcus Borg, in 'Meeting Jesus Again for the First

Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith' (San Francisco,

1994).

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