ON LOVE; PART CDXLIV
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(68) Jesus says: “Blessed are you when(ever) they hate you (and) persecute you. But they (themselves) will find no place there where they have persecuted you.“
(69) Jesus says: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted in their heart. They are the ones who have truly come to know the Father. Blessed are those who suffer from hunger so that the belly of the one who wishes (it) will be satisfied.“
(70) Jesus says: “If you bring it into being within you, (then) that which you have will save you. If you do not have it within you, (then) that which you do not have within you [will] kill you.“
(71) Jesus says: “I will [destroy this] house, and no one will be able to build it [again].“
(72) A [person said] to him: “Tell my brothers that they have to divide my father’s possessions with me.” He said to him: “Man, who has made me a divider?” He turned to his disciples (and) said to them: “I am not a divider, am I?“
(73) Jesus says: “The harvest is plentiful, but there are few workers. But beg the Lord that he may send workers into the harvest.“
(74) He said: “Lord, there are many around the well, but there is nothing in the <well>.“
(75) Jesus says: “Many are standing before the door, but it is the solitary ones who will enter the wedding hall.“
As we discussed this seventy third saying from the Gospel of Thomas, we noted that this is similar to the Master’s words as reported by Luke and Matthew and that while their words were each in a different context, the idea is the same over the three gospels. In Matthew the saying relates to an observation of the people by the Master and then His comments to His disciples; in Luke the Master offers these words to His disciple as He sends for the seventy and in the saying from Thomas there is no context at all which is his usual way of presenting the Master’s words. Nonetheless the saying has a specific purport from our perspective and that is as we discussed in the last essay, that the Master is telling His disciples of the work to be done and that they should pray for the wherewithal to accomplish this great task and to work in his stead; that many are at the precipice of Repentance and that this IS the harvest, to do as the Master does Himself, which we read as:
- Of the beginning of His ministry we read: “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Here we should understand as well that this continues the work of John the Baptist of whom we read: “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4), and also his own words which we cite in the last post saying “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Here we can see the natural relationship in that day to this idea of Repentance and the harvest.
- In His own words during His ministry we read: “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). We read also of the True importance of this Repentance by men as the Master tells us as well that “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” and then again that: “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7, 10). And we should understand here the nature of sin, that it IS NOT ONLY those gross offenses that a man may commit, it is the very reliance and focus upon the things of the world over the things of God; in this we should try to see the Truth of Repentance as we have been presenting this idea.
- Finally, as a part of His charge to His disciples in the end we read: “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-48).
We should try to see clearly here that it IS Repentance that IS the goal for the man focused in his self and in his self in the world and that this Repentance IS that decision to change which the Master tries to evoke from each and every man; this IS the harvest, and this IS what He sees; that “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few” (Luke 10:2) and this IS also the idea that we closed with in the last essay; these words as presented by John are found early in Jesus’ ministry and they are spoken to His disciples at Samaria where we read of the Samaritans that: “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:9-10). In this the stage is set, His disciples ARE NOT with Him but, when they do return to Him, we read that:
“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth , and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours” (John 4:34-38).
Here we can see the disciples reality, that it IS they who will reap the harvest and the harvest IS Repentance; to bring many to this state, to reap that change in a man that they as disciples may not have begun, that they may not have sown. Here the understanding could be that the Souls of men are the sowers of the seed that enables the man in the world to “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8) and this through the labors of the disciples which is the teaching and the preaching of the disciples of the Master. What other harvest can there Truly be? There are likely many ways to view this set of ideas regarding the harvest and the laborer but in our view this is the better view as it is in accord with the overall message and mission of the Master and in line with His instructions to His apostles and disciples.
Perhaps it IS in these words from Matthew and Luke and even John, that the doctrinal approach shows that there are so many in this time and who, in their view, who were ready for the Kingdom of God but this IS not the case. The greater reality is that there are many who are ready for that decision to change that IS called Repentance and which IS in reality but the first step by a man onto the Path that brings him to God; this IS the Path upon which men strive and upon which the Transform their lives and make themselves into those who can be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. And we KNOW that this is so by the very nature of the Master’s words regarding the Kingdom of God the most important of which IS that we keep His word. And this is the nature of the Master’s words according to Thomas: “The harvest is plentiful, but there are few workers. But beg the Lord that he may send workers into the harvest“; this is a timeless quest and one that begins with the Master and passes on to His disciples and those that they can make disciples of. The harvest IS however Repentance according to the words and the example of the Master and not according to the wranglings of doctrine. This Repentance is to turn away from the ways of the self and the self in the world and to turn to the Way of God; there ARE NO shortcuts, there ARE NO affirmations or rituals that can bring one there, there IS ONLY the DOING.
Our next saying, the seventy fourth is a perplexing one as there is no ready reference to these thoughts in the accepted gospels. Again we have here some rather different views which can be taken from the various translations and so we list them here:
- He said: “Lord, there are many about the well, but no one in the well” (Blatz).
- He said, “O lord, there are many around the drinking trough but nothing in the cistern” (Layton).
- He said: “Lord, many are round the opening but nobody in the well!” (Doresse).
- He said, “O lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the <cistern>” (Lambdin).
- He said: “Lord, there are many around the well, but there is nothing in the <well>” (Patterson and Robinson).
- He said, “Lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the well” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said-he this: “()Lord, there-are-many (around) the-fountain; no-thing, hwvr, in-the-(cistern). (Interlinear Version).
We should note several things here; in the Interlinear we find the parenthetical cistern at the end of this saying above but in the companion copy of this which is generally identical, the word well in its place and without parenthesis. Also, the word that is rendered as cistern or well appears only here in this saying leaving us no help in understanding the idea which several bracket in their translations. The word that is rendered around is another where the True meaning is uncertain and while none bracket this except the Interlinear we can see equal confusion in another place that this word appears. In the sixtieth saying where this also appears we made these remarks: It appears that the idea that is rendered as stalking above is a rather difficult saying to discern for these translators as we see stalking rendered by Patterson and Robinson which goes with their idea of stealing while in the Interlinear renders this as around but does so parenthetically so as to show that they are not sure of the meaning. Others render this as the question by the Master to His disciples asking “(What will) this man (do) with the lamb?” (Blatz, Doresse) while Lambdin renders this as “He said to his disciples, “That man is round about the lamb” which removes the idea of the question but still leads into the disciples’ answer. Layton renders this as it is unknown saying: “He said to his disciples, “This <. . .> . . . the lamb“. Here in this word rendered here as around and about we found the ideas above which included stalking and Layton’s decision to not render this at all. Similarly the word that is rendered as fountain in the Interlinear appears here in this place only as well but there appears to be no confusion as to the meaning except that it is rendered differently by the translators; some as drinking trough, some as opening and some as well although the word rendered as well in this place does not appear to be the same as the word rendered by some as well at the end. Both Blatz and Patterson and Robinson call these words the same.
Finally there is the question of just who IS speaking here and in the combination of ALL of this we can only see the result being a best guess as to what is said, who is saying this and what it means. The available commentary includes:
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This appears to be said by one of the disciples to Jesus. The well is the well of truth: many approach it without getting into it. Celsus, the anti-Christian writer of the second century, quotes the saying (in Greek) from the Heavenly Dialogue of the Ophite Gnostics. [As quoted by Origen, Against Celsus viii. 16. For the general idea compare Saying 23 (p. 124). The form is similar to that of a Greek mystery-saying quoted by Plato: ‘The wand-bearers are many, but the initiates are few’ (Phaedo 69c).]” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 141).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “This remarkable aphorism, which Thomas probably attributes to Jesus (or is Jesus the Lord who is addressed?), has an equivalent in the anti-Christian philosopher Celsus (c. 180 CE), who read it in a writing with the title ‘Heavenly Dialogue’. It was in circulation among the Gnostic group of the Ophites (serpent worshippers). There it runs, ‘Why are there many around the well and no one in the well?’ Evidently the aphorism is meant to encourage the Gnostic to stop being a bystander and enter, in order also to be able to drink the water of knowledge.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 627).
It is apparent here that some of the translators relied upon this idea of the Gnostic writing cited above but in saying this we are either saying that this is a hidden saying that is not revealed in the accepted gospels or that it is a later saying thereby disqualifying the Gospel of Thomas as an authentic gospel from Jesus time. The actual text translated from Origen, Book viii part 16 of Contra Celsus, goes thus:
The remaining part of the extract given by Celsus seems to have been taken from some other form of heresy, and the whole jumbled together in strange confusion: How is it, that while so many go about the well, no one goes down into it? Why do you shrink with fear when you have gone so far on the way? Answer: You are mistaken, for I lack neither courage nor weapons. We who belong to the Church which takes its name from Christ, assert that none of these statements are true. For he seems to have made them simply that they might harmonize with what he had said before; but they have no reference to us. For it is a principle with us, not to worship any god whom we merely suppose to exist, but Him alone who is the Creator of this universe, and of all things besides which are unseen by the eye of sense. These remarks of Celsus may apply to those who go on another road and tread other paths from us—men who deny the Creator, and make to themselves another god under a new form, having nothing but the name of God, whom they esteem higher than the Creator; and with these may be joined any that there may be who say that the Son is greater than the God who rules all things. In reference to the precept that we ought not to serve two masters, we have already shown what appears to us the principle contained in it, when we proved that no sedition or disloyalty could be charged against the followers of Jesus their Lord, who confess that they reject every other lord, and serve Him alone who is the Son and Word of God 13.
These words are Origen’s and the bolded words are quoted from Celsus work. Of Celsus we read from the Catholic Encyclopedia that he was: An eclectic Platonist and polemical writer against Christianity, who flourished towards the end of the second century. Very little is known about his personal history except that he lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, that his literary activity falls between the years 175 and 180, and that he wrote a work entitled ’alethès lógos (“The True Word”, or “The True Discourse”), against the Christian religion 13. Now we should understand here that this idea of against Christianity is against the Christian religion as is clarified at the end. Without reading Celsus’ words we are unable to KNOW his position but from the simple saying above we can likely see a philosophical and perhaps spiritual bent in his saying. And our point here is that for one to be against the established doctrines is heresy and there are likely many a heretic who were more established in the Truth than IS doctrine but whose words were shut up by those who took authority upon themselves to pronounce what IS and what IS NOT True. This IS the same that we have found happens to this Gospel of Thomas.
Returning to the uncertainty of our saying which is again that we DO NOT KNOW who says this, we DO NOT KNOW the True nature of the words translated, Nor what is the True reference, to a who or a what in the well; and of course we DO NOT KNOW the overall meaning of this most obscure saying. We can however say two things as we close for today; first that this idea from Celsus above may have some bearing upon this saying although if we ascribe this gospel to the Apostle Thomas this would have to be a saying that preexisted the writing of Celsus and that he merely repeats it. And second that this may follow upon the last saying from Thomas which, if we can relate it to the words on the harvest from John’s Gospel above, happen in this same place where there IS a well and where the Master gives us that profound saying that: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water“. This is the only reference to a well in the accepted gospels.
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.
As the Lord’s Prayer is given to us by the Christ for our use 2000 years ago, the Great Invocation, according to esoteric sources, was give from Him as well and whether we believe that this IS True or not we should look at this prayer as containing the same selfless invocative style as does the Lord’s Prayer and then any that are modeled after their style. We again encourage ALL to read and reread this Great Invocation and our comments as in these words can be found keys to our spiritual reality.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132
The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.
Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.
The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 13 The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
