Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 10

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 9 with the following passages:

 

Jesus said, " I am the light which is before all things. It is I who am all

things. From me all things came forth, and to me all things extend. Split a

piece of wood, and I am there; lift up the stone, and you will find me. " [73]

 

(p.53) Yet, despite similarities between John's and Thomas's versions of Jesus'

secret teaching, when we look more closely, we begin to see that John's

understanding of Jesus' " way " is diametrically opposed to Thomas's on the

practical and crucial question: How can we find that light? Let us look first at

the Gospel of Thomas.

 

[Note]:

 

[73] Ibid., 77, in NHL 126.

 

 

When you read Part 10, it will be even more clear why Shri Mataji said:

 

" 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

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

Gospels In Conflict: John and Thomas - Part 10

 

(p.53) Thomas's gospel offers only cryptic clues--not answers--to those who seek

the way to God. Thomas's " living Jesus " challenges his hearers to find the way

for themselves: " Jesus said, 'Whoever finds the interpretation of these words

will not taste death,' " [74] and he warns the disciples that the search will

disturb and astonish them: " Jesus said, 'Let the one who seeks not stop seeking

until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled; when he becomes

troubled, he will be astonished and will rule over all things. " [75] Thus here

again Jesus encourages those who seek by telling them that they already have the

internal resources they need to find what they are looking for: " Jesus said, 'If

you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you

do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy

you.' " [76]

 

Yet the " disciples [still] questioned him, " Thomas writes, " saying, 'Do you want

us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give alms? What diet should we

observe?' " [77] In Matthew and Luke, Jesus responds to such questions with

practical, straightforward answers. For example, he instructs them that " when

you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so

that your alms may be done in secret. " [78] (p.54) When you fast, " put oil on

your head, and wash your face. " [79] And " when you pray, pray like this,

[saying], 'Our Father, who art in heaven....' " [80] In Thomas, Jesus gives no

such instructions. Instead, when his disciples ask him what to do--how to pray,

what to eat, whether to fast or give money, he answers only with another 'koan':

" Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate; for all things are plain in the

sight of heaven. " [81] In other words, the capacity to discover the truth is

within you. When the disciples still demand that Jesus " tell us who you are, so

that we may believe in you, " he again deflects the question and directs them to

see for themselves: " He said to them, 'You read the face of the sky and the

earth, but you have not recognized the one who stands before you, and you do not

know how to read this present moment.' " [82] Plotinus, an Alexandrian philosopher

baffled and apparently irritated by such sayings, complained that " they are

always saying to us, 'Look to God!' But they do not tell us 'where' or 'how' to

look. " [83]

 

Yet Thomas's Jesus offers some clues. After dismissing those who expect the

future coming of the kingdom of God, as countless Christians have always done

and still do, Thomas's Jesus declares that

 

the Kingdom is inside you, and outside you. When you come to know yourselves,

then you will be known, and you will see that it is you who are the children of

the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty,

and it is you who 'are' that poverty.[84]

 

This cryptic saying raises a further question: 'How' can we know ourselves?

(p.55) According to Thomas, Jesus declares that we must find out first where we

came from, and go back and take our place " in the beginning. " Then he says

something even stranger: " Blessed is the one who came into being before he came

into being. " [85] But how can one go back before one's own birth--or even before

human creation? What 'was' there before human creation--even before the creation

of the universe?

 

According to Genesis, " in the beginning " there was, first of all, the primordial

light. For Thomas this means that in creating 'adam' [humankind] in his image, "

as Genesis 1:26 says, God created us in the image of the primordial light. Like

many other readers of Genesis, then and now, Thomas suggests that what appeared

in the primordial light was " a human being, very marvellous, " a being of radiant

light, the prototype of the human Adam, whom God created on the sixth day. This

" light Adam, " although human in form, is simultaneously, in some mysterious way,

also divine. [86] Thus Jesus suggests here that we have spiritual resources

within us precisely because we were made " in the image of God. " Irenaeus, the

Christian bishop of Lyons (c.180), warns his flock to despise " heretics " who

speak like this, and who " call humankind ['anthropos'] the God of all things,

also calling him 'light', and 'blessed', and 'eternal'. " [87] But, as we noted,

what Irenaeus here dismisses as heretical later became a central theme of Jewish

mystical tradition--that the " image of God " is hidden within each of us,

secretly linking God and all humankind. [88]

 

Thus Thomas's Jesus tells his disciples that not only 'he' comes forth from

divine light but so do we all:

 

(p.56) If they say to you, " Where did you come from? " say to them, 'We came from

the light, the place where the light came into being by itself', and was

revealed through their image. " If they say to you, " Who are you? " say, " We are

its children, the chosen of the living father. " [89]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 2, p. 53-56

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[74] Ibid., 2, in NHL 118.

 

[75] Ibid., 3, in NHL 118.

 

[76] Ibid., 70, translation by Professor George MacRae, offered in class. As

stated in note 6, the NHL translation of this difficult saying differs, and I

find it less lucid.

 

[77] Ibid., 6, in NHL 118.

 

[78] Matthew 6:3-4.

 

[79] Matthew 6:17.

 

[80] Matthew 7:9-13.

 

[81] Gospel of Thomas 6, in NHL 118.

 

[82] Ibid., 91, in NHL 128.

 

[83] Plotinus, 'Ennead 5, Against the Gnostics'.

 

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

 

[85] Ibid., 19, in NHL 120.

 

[86] See, for example, On the Origin of the World 108.7-9, in NHL 177; Eugnostos

76.14-81.12, in NHL 228-232; Apocryphon (Secret Book) of John II, 14.13-15.13,

in NHL 113; for a more complete edition, comparing the available manuscripts,

see Frederick Wisse and Michael Waldstein, eds., 'The Apocryphon of John: A

Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II, 1;III, 1; and IV, 1 with BG 8502,2' (Nag

Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 33, Leiden, 1995), 82-89.

 

[87] Irenaeus, AH 1.30.1. For references, see Pagels, " Exegesis of Genesis 1, "

202-205; and for a masterful discussion, see Hans-Martin Schenke, 'Der Gott

" Mensch " in der Gnosis: Ein religionsgeschichtlicher Beitrag zur Diskussion uber

die paulinische Anschauung von der Kirche als Leib Christi' (Gottingen, 1962);

and the fascinating articles by Gilles Quispel, " Der Gnostiche 'Anthropos' und

die judische Tradition, " 'Eranos Jahrbuch' 22 (1953), 195-234, and " Ezekiel 1:26

in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis, " 'Vigiliae Christianae' 34 (1980), 1-13.

 

[88] For a classic discussion see Gershom Scholem, 'Major Trends in Jewish

Mysticism' (New York, 1965); see also Ithamar Gruenwald, 'Apocalyptic and

Merkavah Mysticism' (Leiden, 1980), and 'From Apocalypticism to Gnosticism:

Studies in Apocalypticism, Merkavah Mysticism and Gnosticism' (Frankfurt, Bern,

New York, and Paris, 1988); Moshe Idel, 'Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven,

1988); Elliot Wolfson, 'Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination

in Medieval Jewish Mysticism' (Princeton, 1994); and Peter Schafer, 'The Hidden

and Manifest God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism' (Albany, 1992).

 

[89] Gospel of Thomas 50, in NHL 123.