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Gospel of Thomas

Jul. 13, 2017

Read time: 11 minutes and 48 seconds.

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A Review

Found in the Nag Hammadi, the Gospel of Thomas is the best interpreted document. It’s a religious book about the sayings of Jesus who preaches of the coming of a new man, the man of knowledge. Jesus is quoted delimiting knowledge by encouraging independent thinking and going deep into what you might believe. The beauty of the document is that it promotes the ideas of Christ from a position that is non-partisan and encourages independent thinking about how to interpret the teachings of Christ. Although it’s heretical to some, the Gospel of Thomas is an alternative gospel to the several permitted in the bible. Read at your own discretion

Highlights

Jesus said, “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]”

- Page 1 (location ~ 4-6)

Jesus said, “The person old in days won’t hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live. For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one.”

- Page 1 (location ~ 10-11)

Jesus said, “Don’t lie, and don’t do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed.” 7 Jesus said, “Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human.”

- Page 1 (location ~ 15-18)

Jesus said, Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn’t take root in the soil and didn’t produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure. 10 Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I’m guarding it until it blazes.”

- Page 2 (location ~ 20-24)

Jesus said, “I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended.” And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you.”

- Page 3 (location ~ 34-37)

Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits. When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them. After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it’s what comes out of your mouth that will defile you.”

- Page 3 (location ~ 37-40)

Jesus said, “Perhaps people think that I have come to casy peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in a house: there’ll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone. 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.”

- Page 3 (location ~ 42-45)

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.”

- Page 4 (location ~ 47-50)

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. Let there be among you a person who understands. When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!

- Page 4 (location ~ 57-62)

His disciples said, “Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it.” He said to them, “Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.” 25 Jesus said, “Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye.” 26 Jesus said, “You see the sliver in your friend’s eye, but you don’t see the timber in your own eye. When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend’s eye.” 27 “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father.”

- Page 5 (location ~ 70-75)

Jesus said, “If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty.”

- Page 6 (location ~ 79-81)

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.” 38 Jesus said, “Often you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me.”

- Page 7 (location ~ 93-96)

Jesus said, “A grapevine has been planted apart from the Father. Since it is not strong, it will be pulled up by its root and will perish.” 41 Jesus said, “Whoever has something in hand

- Page 7 (location ~ 99-100)

Jesus said, “A grapevine has been planted apart from the Father. Since it is not strong, it will be pulled up by its root and will perish.” 41 Jesus said, “Whoever has something in hand will be given more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little they have.”

- Page 7 (location ~ 99-101)

Jesus said, “Be passersby.” 43 His disciples said to him, “Who are you to say these things to us?” “You don’t understand who I am from what I say to you. Rather, you have become like the Judeans, for they love the tree but hate its fruit, or they love the fruit but hate the tree.”

- Page 7 (location ~ 101-104)

Jesus said, “A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows. And a slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other.

- Page 8 (location ~ 111-112)

Jesus said, “If two make peace with each other in a single house, they will say to the mountain, ‘Move from here!’ and it will move.” 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.”

- Page 8 (location ~ 116-118)

Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’ If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.’”

- Page 8 (location ~ 119-122)

Jesus said, “Congratulations to the poor, for to you belongs Heaven’s kingdom.” 55 Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be my disciple, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters, and carry the cross as I do, will not be worthy of me.” 56 Jesus said, “Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a carcass, and whoever has discovered a carcass, of that person the world is not worthy.”

- Page 9 (location ~ 128-131)

Jesus said, “Look to the living one as long as you live, otherwise you might die and then try to see the living one, and you will be unable to see.” 60 He saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb and going to Judea. He said to his disciples, “that person … around the lamb.” They said to him, “So that he may kill it and eat it.” He said to them, “He will not eat it while it is alive, but only after he has killed it and it has become a carcass.” They said, “Otherwise he can’t do it.” He said to them, “So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten.”

- Page 9 (location ~ 137-142)

Jesus said, “I disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” 63 Jesus said, There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, “I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing.” These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!

- Page 10 (location ~ 146-150)

Jesus said, “Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.” 67 Jesus said, “Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking.” 68 Jesus said, “Congratulations to you when you are hated and persecuted; and no place will be found, wherever you have been persecuted.”

- Page 11 (location ~ 165-168)

69 Jesus said, “Congratulations to those who have been persecuted in their hearts: they are the ones who have truly come to know the Father. Congratulations to those who go hungry, so the stomach of the one in want may be filled.” 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.”

- Page 11 (location ~ 168-171)

A woman in the crowd said to him, “Lucky are the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you.” He said to [her], “Lucky are those who have heard the word of the Father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, ‘Lucky are the womb that has not conceived and the breasts that have not given milk.’”

- Page 13 (location ~ 185-188)

Jesus said, “Whoever is near me is near the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom.” 83 Jesus said, “Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the Father’s light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light.” 84 Jesus said, “When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!” 85 Jesus said,

- Page 13 (location ~ 190-194)

Jesus said, “Whoever is near me is near the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom.” 83 Jesus said, “Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the Father’s light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light.” 84 Jesus said, “When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!”

- Page 13 (location ~ 190-194)

Jesus said, “[Foxes have] their dens and birds have their nests, but human beings have no place to lay down and rest.” 87 Jesus said, “How miserable is the body that depends on a body, and how miserable is the soul that depends on these two.”

- Page 13 (location ~ 195-197)

They said to him, “Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you.” He said to them, “You examine the face of heaven and earth, but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine the present moment. 92 Jesus said, “Seek and you will find. In the past, however, I did not tell you the things about which you asked me then. Now I am willing to tell them, but you are not seeking them.”

- Page 14 (location ~ 201-205)

“Don’t give what is holy to dogs, for they might throw them upon the manure pile. Don’t throw pearls [to] pigs, or they might … it […].” 94 Jesus [said], “One who seeks will find, and for [one who knocks] it will be opened.” 95 [Jesus said], “If you have money, don’t lend it at interest. Rather, give [it] to someone from whom you won’t get it back.”

- Page 14 (location ~ 207-210)

Jesus said, The [Father’s] kingdom is like a woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking along [a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her [along] the road. She didn’t know it; she hadn’t noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty. 98 Jesus said, The Father’s kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one.

- Page 14 (location ~ 211-216)

“Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life.”

- Page 15 (location ~ 220-221)

Jesus said, The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety- nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, ‘I love you more than the ninety- nine.’

- Page 15 (location ~ 230-232)

Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”

- Page 16 (location ~ 232-233)

Jesus said, “Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh.”

- Page 16 (location ~ 238-239)