The Gospel of Thomas (or: An Uncommonly Non-skeptical Post On Religion)
I watched one of the coolest shows on the History Channel last night when I should have been sleeping. It was about who wrote the Christian Bible, when they were written, and when they became part of the biblical canon or when they were omitted.
Being the skeptic I am, I've always found a certain kinship with Thomas, one of the twelve who vocally doubted Jesus' return and didn't believe when he was revealed to him. According to the story, it took Thomas placing his fingers in the holes in Jesus' hands before he believed.
I was surprised to hear ol' Thomas wrote one of them-thar books himself. Can't find it in your Bible?...there's a reason for that--it was omitted from the biblical canon a long, long time ago. Apparently the only tome that contains it is an Egyptian text complied by the Gnostic sect some 1500 or so years ago.
So I "aked the Robot" [looked it up on the Internet-it's all out there] and found the Gospel of Thomas. It's oddly cryptic at best, hard to follow, and incomplete, though it states some things Jesus supposedly said that other texts do not contain and includes others stated in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-more easily recognized texts we all know that lends an air of legitimacy and consistency. There's a lot of really simple, brutally honest wisdom contained therein. Think Mark Twain writing a book of the Bible.
Some of the quotes, generally called the 114 "sayings" rather than documented as books and verses, are pretty cool. My favorites [any commentary I make will be in brackets and be preceeded with a "MSPX"]:
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21: For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions.
As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. [MSPX: Watch your six! Carry a big stick! And, in the debate over whether deadly force is warranted to protect property, God comes down on the side of the shooter.]
42: Jesus said, "Be passersby." [MSPX: Don't attract attention to yourself--walk softly...]
35: Jesus said, "One can't enter a strong person's house and take it by force without tying his hands. Then one can loot his house." [MSPX: Uh...from my cold, dead hands? :)]
47: Jesus said, "A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows." [MSPX: IOW, loan your buddy an extra gun when the SHTF. At least that's what it says to me.]
32: Jesus said, "A city built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden." [MSPX: Jesus' commentary on open versus concealed carry. :)]
60: ...He said to them, "So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten." [MSPX: GET SOME SLEEP! Or you may get whacked when you're sleepy and unaware.]
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Some others I found interesting:
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3: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." [MSPX: Very Buddhist in flavor--the whole "the answer {God, salvation, truth, whatever} is within you" thing.]
113: His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."
17: Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
18: The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"
Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death." [MSPX: Another couple of verses oddly Zen in flavor.]
14: "...what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you." [MSPX: I think this is talking about how silly strict Jewish dietary laws are]
16: Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to casy [sic] peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. [MSPX: Maybe the anti-religious have a point here about religion causing more harm than it resolves...according to Thomas, Jesus just said so in so many words]
22: Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." [MSPX: Yin-yang. Two parts of a whole. Cause and effect cycles that are unendingly repetitive. Is this suggesting when we are able to create and improve on the human form, we will become God?]
28: Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.
But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways." [MSPX: Monks in any religion say chasing material things and pleasures of the flesh will get you nowhere. Oh, and drunk and stupid are no way to go through life. :)]
34: Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a bind person, both of them will fall into a hole." [MSPX: Hehe.]
37: His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid." [MSPX: Is Jesus encouraging us to get nekkid?]
49: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again." [MSPX: Reincarnation?]
70: Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."
72: A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."
He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?"
He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?" [MSPX: Jesus--the original "Uniter, not a Divider"]
81: Jesus said, "Let one who has become wealthy reign, and let one who has power renounce." [MSPX: Jesus was decidedly a capitalist.]
110 Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world." [MSPX: Or not.]
103: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive." [MSPX: Jesus apparently knew all about terrorists.]
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So there, I saved you from having to read ALL of it. :)
All in all, Thomas delves into the duality of man and the environment itself. Some of the sayings have a definite Buddhist flavor to them, though I doubt they were inspired by any of the Buddha's teachings. Not because they didn't preceed the writings of Thomas, but because it's doubtful anyone in the Middle East had exposure to Asian writings in that era...it wasn't exactly the Information Age.
All in all, I've come to the conclusion that the Bible, if taken at face value as a text compiled by dozens of authors with ideas likely borrowed from both Jewish and Pagan stories, translated an inordinate number of times, and having gone through the many rigors canonization of a religious text is prone to, it's still a good story. It's kind of a shame the majority of Christians haven't had exposure to texts contained in the Catholic bible and the so-called Apocrypha. Odd as some of the verses may be, I think some of it might be useful to people of faith.
Being the skeptic I am, I've always found a certain kinship with Thomas, one of the twelve who vocally doubted Jesus' return and didn't believe when he was revealed to him. According to the story, it took Thomas placing his fingers in the holes in Jesus' hands before he believed.
I was surprised to hear ol' Thomas wrote one of them-thar books himself. Can't find it in your Bible?...there's a reason for that--it was omitted from the biblical canon a long, long time ago. Apparently the only tome that contains it is an Egyptian text complied by the Gnostic sect some 1500 or so years ago.
So I "aked the Robot" [looked it up on the Internet-it's all out there] and found the Gospel of Thomas. It's oddly cryptic at best, hard to follow, and incomplete, though it states some things Jesus supposedly said that other texts do not contain and includes others stated in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-more easily recognized texts we all know that lends an air of legitimacy and consistency. There's a lot of really simple, brutally honest wisdom contained therein. Think Mark Twain writing a book of the Bible.
Some of the quotes, generally called the 114 "sayings" rather than documented as books and verses, are pretty cool. My favorites [any commentary I make will be in brackets and be preceeded with a "MSPX"]:
-----
21: For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions.
As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. [MSPX: Watch your six! Carry a big stick! And, in the debate over whether deadly force is warranted to protect property, God comes down on the side of the shooter.]
42: Jesus said, "Be passersby." [MSPX: Don't attract attention to yourself--walk softly...]
35: Jesus said, "One can't enter a strong person's house and take it by force without tying his hands. Then one can loot his house." [MSPX: Uh...from my cold, dead hands? :)]
47: Jesus said, "A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows." [MSPX: IOW, loan your buddy an extra gun when the SHTF. At least that's what it says to me.]
32: Jesus said, "A city built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden." [MSPX: Jesus' commentary on open versus concealed carry. :)]
60: ...He said to them, "So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten." [MSPX: GET SOME SLEEP! Or you may get whacked when you're sleepy and unaware.]
-----
Some others I found interesting:
-----
3: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." [MSPX: Very Buddhist in flavor--the whole "the answer {God, salvation, truth, whatever} is within you" thing.]
113: His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."
17: Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
18: The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"
Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death." [MSPX: Another couple of verses oddly Zen in flavor.]
14: "...what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you." [MSPX: I think this is talking about how silly strict Jewish dietary laws are]
16: Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to casy [sic] peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. [MSPX: Maybe the anti-religious have a point here about religion causing more harm than it resolves...according to Thomas, Jesus just said so in so many words]
22: Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." [MSPX: Yin-yang. Two parts of a whole. Cause and effect cycles that are unendingly repetitive. Is this suggesting when we are able to create and improve on the human form, we will become God?]
28: Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.
But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways." [MSPX: Monks in any religion say chasing material things and pleasures of the flesh will get you nowhere. Oh, and drunk and stupid are no way to go through life. :)]
34: Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a bind person, both of them will fall into a hole." [MSPX: Hehe.]
37: His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid." [MSPX: Is Jesus encouraging us to get nekkid?]
49: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again." [MSPX: Reincarnation?]
70: Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."
72: A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."
He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?"
He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?" [MSPX: Jesus--the original "Uniter, not a Divider"]
81: Jesus said, "Let one who has become wealthy reign, and let one who has power renounce." [MSPX: Jesus was decidedly a capitalist.]
110 Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world." [MSPX: Or not.]
103: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive." [MSPX: Jesus apparently knew all about terrorists.]
-----
So there, I saved you from having to read ALL of it. :)
All in all, Thomas delves into the duality of man and the environment itself. Some of the sayings have a definite Buddhist flavor to them, though I doubt they were inspired by any of the Buddha's teachings. Not because they didn't preceed the writings of Thomas, but because it's doubtful anyone in the Middle East had exposure to Asian writings in that era...it wasn't exactly the Information Age.
All in all, I've come to the conclusion that the Bible, if taken at face value as a text compiled by dozens of authors with ideas likely borrowed from both Jewish and Pagan stories, translated an inordinate number of times, and having gone through the many rigors canonization of a religious text is prone to, it's still a good story. It's kind of a shame the majority of Christians haven't had exposure to texts contained in the Catholic bible and the so-called Apocrypha. Odd as some of the verses may be, I think some of it might be useful to people of faith.
posted by MobileSuitPilotX at 2/07/2005 10:58:00 AM
4 Comments:
Justin, Thanks for the list of sayings. I'm going to print it out for future reference.
Woody
It's very interesting, isn't it? I was exposed to it a little bit during my religious studies at OBU; and it's neat to see how much of it matches up (yet is worded slightly different) to the other gospels.
But I thought the main reason it wasn't included in the canon is due to the question of authorship: most scholars (then and now) didn't think it was actually written by the apostle Thomas, and therefore, couldn't be trusted for accuracy the way the other gospels could. Most likely, it was written by someone very familiar with the other gospels, perhaps even someone who was alive at the time of Jesus (or shortly thereafter) but who didn't personally know Jesus, and therefore used Thomas' name to give the writing more "weight" and importance.
anyway, great post! I love reading about stuff like this.
Hi, My first visit and already something to comment on. I may be back...(came from THR, by the way)
As I understand it, there were a number of 'gospels' that didn't make the canon, for various reasons. Either didn't jibe with the others, or didn't have a clear history, or were dificult theologically for mainstream Christianity. Thomas shares all these problems. It is an interesting read though.
About Buddism, it is likely in fact that knowledge of Buddism had spread to the west. Trade between India and Persia was common, and ships traveled from Egypt to India regularly.
Homer here...
There are some great gospels other than Thomas'. Their reasons for being left out are pretty far ranging. The history of the bible is riddled with fun little inequities like this, which is what makes it such a magical and wonderful book. It's alos one of the very reasons that it should not be the lone, sole, and only voice of God or rule of christianity. The bible as we know it, is only a part of the whole picture.
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