ON LOVE; PART CDXLVI
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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.
(76) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a merchant who had merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant is prudent. He sold the goods (and) bought for himself the pearl alone. You too look for his treasure, which does not perish, (and) which stays where no moth can reach it to eat it, and no worm destroys it.“
(77) Jesus says: “I am the light that is over all. I am the All. The All came forth out of me. And to me the All has come.” “Split a piece of wood – I am there. Lift the stone, and you will find me there.“
(78) Jesus says: “Why did you go out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind, and to see a person dressed in soft clothing [like your] kings and your great/powerful persons? They are dressed in soft clothing and will not be able to recognize the truth.“
(79) A woman in the crowd said to him: “Hail to the womb that carried you and to the breasts that fed you.” He said to [her]: “Hail to those who have heard the word of the Father (and) have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say: ‘Hail to the womb that has not conceived and to the breasts that have not given milk.’”
(80) Jesus says: “Whoever has come to know the world has found the (dead) body. But whoever has found the (dead) body, of him the world is not worthy.“
(81) Jesus says: “Whoever has become rich should be king. And the one who has power should renounce (it).“
In the last essay we looked at the seventy fifth saying from the Gospel of Thomas which reads in the Interlinear as “there-are-many standing () at-the-door; but the-single-ones (are) those-who-will-go in to-the-place of-marriage“. We chose this version from our list yesterday because it does not render the words cited here as “the single ones” as solitary or solitaries or as being alone; in our view this idea from the Master via Thomas means those who have become such, become single minded as IS the Way of the disciple and the man accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. It IS these who are allowed to enter the place of marriage which we can see here as the union between the Soul, the Christ Within and his expression in the world. There IS NO other way that this saying can make True spiritual sense. We chose this translation also because it rendered the idea of the “place of marriage” while most others render this as the bridal suite which takes the outer story from this parable into the bedroom or else there is some hidden idea that we are missing; additionally, this same Coptic word that is rendered here as marriage is rendered in the sixty fourth saying as married as in the man’s claim that “my friend will be married and I who will make dinner, I can come not” (Interlinear Version). Here in this saying, all of the translators agree with this rendering of married and it seems a better choice to use the phrase “the-place of-marriage” than to go off into ideas that can be confusing and which ARE NOT necessary to the story line.
One of the commentaries from yesterday related this saying from Thomas to the sayings by the Master that tell us that “Many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22.14). We should understand here that our perspective on this and on like sayings IS NOT that the choosing is done by an outside party, that is, that it IS NOT done by God or by Christ or by some angel or some special force; this choosing is done by the man who chooses Repentance and Transformation as he is focused upon the Truth of his own Soul. This saying, as it is found in this part of the Gospel of Matthew, is a part of the same story that we find in the sixty fourth saying that we reference above and it follows upon that part of the story that references the “wedding garment“, that one of the accepted guests did no have one. Here we see the deeper understanding of this; in our last discussion of these words we positioned this man as coming to the feast without a clear heart, that he still had the world and the self on his mind, and in this we should try to see this idea of choosing. This man is attending the feast which we see as the Kingdom and that he tries to come unprepared in his own heart but, in the Truth of our spiritual reality, this DOES NOT and CAN NOT work and here we should try to see the idea that while he may have been able to convince himself that he is ready for the feast, he is not, he is unprepared, and he will not be allowed to stay. It IS of his own choosing that the man remains unprepared. This same idea is encapsulated in this seventy fifth saying from Thomas’ Gospel as we see that it IS ONLY those who have overcome, those who are single minded and focused upon the Kingdom, the feast, who will be allowed to enter into that union of Soul and his expression to the world of men.
Our next saying, the seventy sixth, is a familiar theme in mainstream Christianity as it follows along with the Parable of the Pearl of Great price. We have also in this same saying the Master’s teaching, or part of His teaching, on the treasure of one’s heart. While the various translators each use different words to express these ideas, they are all here saying the same basic things albeit dressed in their preferred terms and so there is no need to repeat their words here. From the synoptic gospels we find these ideas that we will look at in conjuction with this from Thomas:
- “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).
- “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
- “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33-34).
On the first idea of the pearl Thomas seems to offer more information and the story varies a bit based in the different recollections of these two apostles. On the second idea of the treasure, Thomas leaves out the part “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” which is the culmination of the saying in the synoptics and this perhaps because he assumes this from his preceding words as here again we should assume that Jesus is speaking to disciples. We should note as well that Luke and Matthew each handle this idea differently; in Matthew we have a general instruction as a part of the Sermon on the Mount where it IS mixed in with other ideas as this follows His words on fasting and precedes His words on the Light of the body. In Luke this saying is tied to the Master’s words on “take no thought” which precedes them and the idea that one should ever be ready which follows; Luke also adds a caveat which is that one “Sell that ye have, and give alms” as this is the greater understanding that he himself gives to the idea of “take no thought“. Some of the available commentary on this saying from Thomas includes:
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “This saying is a revised version of the parable of the pearl in Matthew 13:45-48. Since in Matthew the parable is preceded by the parable of the hidden treasure, Thomas adds a statement about treasure, derived from Matthew 6:20 (Luke 12:33). Matthew mentions moth and brosis, which means ‘rust’; Thomas takes brosis very literally to mean ‘eating,’ and therefore adds a word about worms. The treasure is the inner man; what worms eat is the body.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 177).
- R. McL. Wilson writes: “The situation, however, is not quite so simple [as Grant and Freedman suggest], since the words are not an exact parallel to Matthew vi. 19 f., but, as Cerfaux pointed out, introduce an element derived from John (vi. 27), while the ‘worm’ seems to come from Mark (ix. 48). Doresse suggests that we may have the beginnings of a synthesis already in Luke (xii. 33 f.). The most obvious explanation here is free quotation by an author familiar with all four Gospels, but as already noted this does not seem to account for the phenomena presented by the gospel as a whole. It may be that we must reckon with the possibility that the several sayings are of diverse origin: some perhaps from genuine early tradition, others based on our Gospels directly, others again the result of free quotation and harmonization, and still others merely tendentious inventions. It is, however, interesting to note that Jeremias brings Matthew vi. 19 ff. and Luke xii. 33 f. into his discussion of these two parables. For Gnostic use of the concept we need only recall the famous ‘Hymn of the Pearl’ in the Acts of Thomas.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 92-93).
- J. D. Crossan writes: “Luke 12:33 and Gos. Thom. 76b. Both Luke and Thomas are totally positive and lack Matthew’s antithetical parallelism. . . I prefer to consider Luke as the Q version, a tradition reflected more brokenly by Thomas.” (In Fragments, p. 130).
- Funk and Hoover write: “This parable appears also in Matt 13:45-46, where it takes the form: ‘Heaven’s imperial rule is like some trader looking for beautiful pearls. When that merchant finds one priceless pearl, he sells everything he owns and buys it.’ Thomas has edited the parable slightly to accommodate his disapproval of mercantilism. So the merchant sells the merchandise and buys the one pearl he has found. The small differences in the two versions do not affect the basic point: God’s imperial rule is worth a priceless pearl, which one will do well to acquire no matter what the cost. The Fellows thought that Jesus probably told a parable of this type.” (The Five Gospels, p. 515).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “This verse [3] contains an interpretation of the parable in vv. 1-2. It is similar to Matt. 6.19f./Luke 12.33 (=Q) and calls on the reader to preserve the inner treasure which in the context of the Gospel of Thomas can mean only the self (= Jesus as light; cf. 50.1). In this Gnostic interpretation I presuppose that v. 3 is dependent on the Synoptic parallels mentioned (for ‘treasure’ cf. further Matt. 13.44).” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 628).
- Ron Cameron writes: “This imperative [seek the treasure] is virtually identical with that which prefaces the application of the Ear of Grain (ApJas 12.27-28). However, whereas the similarities of language and style in the secondary frames which conclude each parable in the Apocryphon of James suggests that those frames have been composed by the same circle, one which is closely related to the final stages of editing the entire text, the application in GThom 76.2 constitutes a traditional piece of aphoristic wisdom, ‘appended interpretatively’ [Crossan] to The Pearl, that has no vestige of a distinctive language or style attributable to the author of this gospel. Instead, the aphorism about the treasure which Thomas has preserved as the application (76.2) of The Pearl (76.1) is a version of an independent unit of tradition. A similar thematic – but not formal – juxtaposition is attested in the Gospel of Matthew, whose author seems to have assembled The Treasure (13:44//GThom 109) and The Pearl (13:45-46) from two separate sources. Although that arrangement may be attributed to the editorial activity of Matthew himself, the secondary collocation of ‘pearl’ and ‘treasure’ in GThom 76 betrays no earmarks of the author’s own redaction. Since this marks the only instance in the Gospel of Thomas in which such a saying is used to interpret the parable, the addition of this application is to be regarded as the product not of the author himself but of an earlier stage of the tradition.” (“Parable and Interpretation in the Gospel of Thomas,” Forum 2.2 [1986]).
Here again we do not have commentary that offers insight into the intention of the words but rather comments that are concerned about the nature of the writing; who, when and what was this copied from. These seem to miss our view that ALL these gospels may have been written independently and each reflects those things of importance in the eye of the writer according to his own recollection and each frames his words in his own peculiar style. For us the IS the greater reality as even the accepted gospels have much that is different in words, in context and in presentation. We are uncertain of Mr. Ludemann’s reference and in his brief comment he does offer a sense of meaning although he relates this to Gnosticism while we see the same import in this from Thomas as we do in the ideas from the synoptic gospels. We should note as well that what Funk and Hoover sees as that Thomas has edited the parable slightly to accommodate his disapproval of mercantilism; here we see as the same basic idea as offered by Matthew’s version save in Thomas’ unique style. The message IS clear in this parable and that is that when one has found the Kingdom, he Will give up ALL else to have it; the pearl is what the Kingdom of Heaven IS like. Here, Matthew makes this a bit clearer on the front end by telling us that this IS “a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls“; and in this we can more easily see that he has found THE pearl and KNOWS that this IS ALL he needs and he gives up ALL to possess it. Thomas makes this man a more general trader but calls him a prudent man who does the same thing; he finds THE pearl and KNOWS that this IS ALL he needs and he gives up ALL to possess it. How the Master actually tells this parable and how it is remembered by the apostles is not KNOWN and CAN NOT be; any thoughts then on the origins of these words and which is right or more right are moot. And, we should see that it DOES NOT matter as here in these words we have the same meaning; it is only the approach that is different.
The same IS true in the next part of this saying where we can easily see the difference in approach by Luke and Matthew but at the same time we can see that the reality of the saying IS the same, it is about the Truth of the focus of the man in the world….that it is upon the world or upon the things of God. Matthew offers the choice of to do this or do than while Luke and Thomas only offer the benefit of doing what is right, keeping ones focus upon the things of God. And, while Thomas skips the most profound line that tells us clearly that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also“, perhaps we can understand that he may see this already stated in the Master’s other words, his more direct words: “You too look for his treasure“. Here we should note the word his as it is used here where we can either see that this IS in reference to God directly or that it is indirect and refers to the pearl which is the Kingdom and therefore His treasure nonetheless. Here Thomas ties these sayings together in his own way as he tells us that these are the words of the Master and the intent DOES NOT disagree with the different versions of both Luke and Matthew; Thomas view can actually help one to better understand the Master’s words and the Truth of His intent.
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!
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
