ON LOVE; PART CDLIII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(82) Jesus says: “The person who is near me is near the fire. And the person who is far from me is far from the kingdom.”
(83) Jesus says: “The images are visible to humanity, but the light within them is hidden in the image. {} The light of the Father will reveal itself, but his image is hidden by his light.”
(84) Jesus says: “When you see your likeness you are full of joy. But when you see your likenesses that came into existence before you – they neither die nor become manifest – how much will you bear?”
(85) Jesus says: “Adam came from a great power and a great wealth. But he did not become worthy of you. For if he had been worthy, (then) [he would] not [have tasted] death.”
(86) Jesus says: “[Foxes have] their holes and birds have their nest. But the son of man has no place to lay his head down (and) to rest.”
(87) Jesus says: “Wretched is the body that depends on a body. And wretched is the soul that depends on these two.”
(88) Jesus says: “The messengers and the prophets are coming to you, and they will give you what belongs to you. And you, in turn, give to them what you have in your hands (and) say to yourselves: ‘When will they come (and) take what belongs to them?’”
As we began this essay we looked to update our thoughts on the new Quote of the Day, the Mantram of Unification, as in the last essay we tied our comments to yesterdays post where we showed our displeasure with the lack of vision of those who comment online against the Great Invocation from a perspective that we see as the expression of fundamentalist Christian thought and a sense from the writers’ perspective that it matters not what the Master Truly says, it only matters what their doctrine says. These may seem harsh words and perhaps they are but they are offered constructively as we emphasize the reality of the Master’s message against a backdrop of separatism, prejudice and fear.
Recognizing that some who read this blog may not re-read the ofttimes repeated Quote of the Day, we decided to put our new comment here in the body of today’s essay so that our words will be read; we will move them back to their right place in the next post. Our thoughts on this mantram are:
Today we repeat the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day and we should note the very Christian ideals that are embraced by these words; not the doctrinal Christian ideals but rather the ideals annunciated in the words of the Master and of His apostles. This idea of ONENESS IS a component part of the Love that the Master teaches as He tells us that we should Love ALL and this ideal is repeated by His apostles who clarify it and expand upon it in their pronouncement that we should NOT show respect to persons that we should not prefer one above another, and this of course includes groups of persons who may differ from us in color, in nationality, in religion….in any way. We are told this by the apostles who tells us that God DOES NOT show such favor to individuals nor to groups as we read that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) which IS here offered in the context that ALL are treated equally. There are several instances of this saying interweaved with the idea that we should Love our brother, our neighbor and one another as these ideas are framed and, with this stated concept of this respect, we should be able to glimpse what we have been preaching here in this blog and which is the Truer nature of this Love. We should understand that in our zeal to be among His disciples that we must pay keen attention to the totality of the Master’s words which tell us that we should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and it is in this reality that we should understand this idea of respect, that if this is the Way of God that it should be the way of man as well. And, if this were not clear enough, the straightforward words of the Apostle James helps us saying “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).
This IS the greater Truth of this Mantram of Unification; that we understand the reality of our ONENESS, our essential Unity, that we Love as the Master teaches, that we allow the Inner man, the Soul, to be the controlling force in our lives; that we come to see the Truth, that we break down the walls of illusion and glamour and eliminate ALL things that separate us from the Truth and from each other. And that we Love and encourage that Universal Love which is our essential destiny by our own example and in ALL that we say and do.
As we continue with our rather obscure eighty second saying, we should again note the ideas that we presented in the last essay regarding translation, both here in Thomas where the word rendered as fire IS NOT the same Coptic word used elsewhere as fire and IS NOT itself used elsewhere, and in the synoptic gospels where the idea of the Master’s baptizing with the Holy Ghost, and with fire can as easily be rendered as with the Holy Ghost, even fire. We should remember here as well that the Truth of John’s baptism IS NOT the ritual, the dunking in or pouring on of water, but it is rather in the immersion of the person into the Way of salvation, that Repentant change that brings one’s focus to the things of God. These Jews in that day were a religious people who followed the doctrine of the day and who see in the words of the Baptist the better way. Here, in their coming to John, they exhibit their readiness to Truly follow the Way of the Lord over the ways of the doctrine that he spoke against; Matthew tells us this of the coming of the Baptist:
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:1-12).
Now we DO NOT KNOW much about John the Baptist but we do KNOW these things and that he is the forerunner of the Master’s message as he tells us himself saying “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23). The Baptist’s overriding message may well be that saying that is repeated later by the Master; that men should “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and it is in the True understanding of Repentance that we can understand as well the True meaning of this baptism. And this IS our point, that this baptism is a marker for a significant change in the person baptized, it is not merely the symbol nor the act, baptism IS that immersion into the new Life and the new Way and as a symbol of this change, this immersion, the Baptist uses the medium of water; it is likely that many who experienced this rite in that day walked away as a Truly changed man. In this day 2000 years ago, man was superstitious and perhaps there is an added meaning for this ritual to be found in this sense of superstition but this should not detract from the idea that the intent IS immersion and change as we have point out in the story of the pickle in In the Words of Jesus parts 53, 209, 415 and 727.
John tells us then of the Way of the Master, that He will not bother with the idea of this symbol of immersion in water but He will immerse a man directly into the Holy Ghost which IS in itself an obscure idea but one which we can discern in the Light of day as we see this today. In our own view of the Holy Ghost, the Third Aspect of the Trinity that IS God and that IS man, we see the activity of God in one’s Life, his expression of Love and Truth, his expression of divinity by degree. And here then is the Baptists message, that the Master will come and immerse men in His word and that in His word IS found that activity of the man who seeks and who strives for the Kingdom and the Truth of God. As regards the actual ritual of baptism we read that Jesus DID NOT perform any of these which is seemingly contrary to the words of the Baptist and, in the obscurity of language, we read this from the Apostle John: “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee” (John 4:1-3). We should see here two things, first that the wording of the apostle IS “Jesus made and baptized” which when compared to the parenthetical exclusion of the idea of baptism does leave the reality of that “Jesus made“. Now this may seem to be that we are just playing with words and in a way we are doing so but our attempt is to show that the reality of the sayings reveals that the Master DID NOT partake of this ritual of baptism; not with water nor with fire, but that at the same time He did make of men disciples and if this is through the agency of His disciples then, so be it. We should remember that for ALL that were not privileged to be with the Master in that day, that it IS through the agency of His apostles that we have come to KNOW Him and His Truth.
Here then we have the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit and in John the Baptist’s words this can be seen as either akin to fire or the Holy Ghost is used in conjunction with fire to immerse men, to baptize them, into the Ways of God. If we can take the Holy Spirit then as being akin to fire, we will find an easier resolution to this saying from Thomas Gospel although if we see this as in conjunction the same idea can be seen albeit a bit more muddy. We read in Thomas that “The person who is near me is near the fire. And the person who is far from me is far from the kingdom” and, as we discussed, this idea of near is rendered in the Interlinear as close and that this IS the only use of this Coptic word in the Gospel of Thomas. Again, we are not fluent in Coptic but at the same time we do KNOW that the ideas encapsulated in the English word close are much more dynamic that what we find in the world near; close can be used to define relationships between people where the word near will not work as such and we see this difference as inherent in our understanding of the Master’s words here. To be near Him can reflect merely proximity while being close to Him can be seen with the spiritual intent that we should expect in sayings from the Master. To be close to the Kingdom IS NOT a matter of physical distance but it IS a psychological one if we can use that term here; one IS close to the Kingdom if he is keeping His word and striving but he IS not any nearer, and this especially when we understand the Truth of the Kingdom, that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
So then to understand this as close offers us the reality that this is not physical and understanding the idea of fire as the Holy Spirit offers us some resolution to the obscurity of the idea presented. Here then we can see that to be close to the Master is to be close to the Holy Spirit, the expression by the man in the world as the activity of the Christ Within. Then, if we see far as the reality of not being close in this same idea of psychological relationship, we can see one’s distance from the Kingdom which, although it IS within, is afar off because one IS NOT keeping His word. We can see no other way that this saying can make any real sense. If then our relationship with the Master IS close, with our striving to keep His word as the defining idea of this closeness, then we are close as well to expressing this in Life which we can interpret as the showing forth of the activity of the God and the Christ Within which, in our view, IS the Holy Spirit and can be see as fire based on the ideas above. Conversely if we ARE NOT close to Him as we define this here as striving to keep His word, then we ARE NOT close to the Kingdom of God….we are far from it.
Our next saying from Thomas’ Gospel, the eighty third, is another that is not found in the accepted gospels and is rather obscure on the surface in the way that it is worded above. The meaning of this saying glares through the ambiguous language of this rendition by Patterson and Robinson and sets forth a dynamic Truth regarding the Life of the Soul in this world. However here again we find a saying for which one’s understanding can depend upon the translation that one may read and we here list our normal variants:
- Jesus said: “The images are revealed to man, and the light which is in them is hidden in the image of the light of the Father. He will reveal himself, and his image is hidden by his light” (Blatz).
- Jesus said, “Images are visible to human beings. And the light within these (images) is hidden by the image of the father’s light; it will be disclosed. And his image is hidden by his light” (Layton).
- Jesus says: “Images are visible to man, but the light which is in them is hidden. In the image of the light of the Father, it <this light> will be revealed, and his image will be veiled by his light” (Doresse).
- Jesus said, “The images are manifest to man, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the Father. He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light” (Lambdin)
- Jesus says: “The images are visible to humanity, but the light within them is hidden in the image. {} The light of the Father will reveal itself, but his image is hidden by his light” (Patterson and Robinson).
- 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” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said-JS75 this: “the-images, they-are-revealed forth to-the-man, and the-light which-is-in-them, he-is-hidden in-the-image of -the-light of -the-father; > he-will-be-revealed forth, and his-image hidden away by-his-\-light” (Interlinear Version).
Can we see the dilemma here, that there are several ways to look at this saying based in how it is constructed and at how it is punctuated. Regarding punctuation we should note here what we read recently in a commentary by R. McL. Wilson who says, speaking of the translation of the seventy eighth saying, that: a written ancient document in which, as was usual in ancient manuscripts, there were no marks of punctuation. Here then we must choose what we want a saying to say as is likely done by these translators and in this we will concentrate our own efforts on the Interlinear as from our perspective this IS the most literal. There are many comments on this saying which include:
- Marvin Meyer quotes Philo of Alexandria in Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis 1.31-32 commenting on Genesis 2:7 as follows: “‘And God formed humankind by taking clay from the earth, and he breathed into the face the breath of life, and humankind became a living soul.’ There are two kinds of human beings: One is heavenly, the other earthly. Now the heavenly is made in the image of God and is completely free of corruptible and earthly substance; but the earthly was constructed from matter scattered about, which he (that is, Moses) calls clay. Therefore he says that the heavenly human was not molded but was stamped in the image of God, while the earthly human is a molded thing, but not an offspring, of the Artisan. One must deduce that the human being from the earth is mind admitting but not yet penetrated by the body.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 100).
- Marvin Meyer writes: “Elsewhere, in his tractate On the Creation of the World 134, Philo describes the heavenly human, created in God’s image, as ‘an idea or kind or seal, an object of thought, incorporeal, neither male nor female, incorruptible by nature.’ In the gnostic Secret Book of John II 15,2-5 the demiurge Yaldabaoth may even distinguish between the image and the likeness when he says to his authorities, ‘Come, let us create a human being in the image of God and in our likeness, so that the image of the human being may become a light for us.’ In general, compare also 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:4-6; 1 Timothy 6:14-16.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 100).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “The ‘image of the Father’s light’ is presumably Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 4.4; Colossians 1.15), who cannot be adequately perceived by those are are still in mortal body. When mortality is at last sloughed off, he will be fully manifest (cf. Colossians 3.4; 1 John 3.2).” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, pp. 144-145).
- Stevan Davies writes: “I read for saying 83 not ‘he will be manifest…’ but ‘It [the light of the Father] will be manifest….’ That the Father Himself becomes manifest while His image does not is, I think, an absurdity in the context of Thomas.” (http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/jblprot.htm).
- Funk and Hoover write: “This saying makes use of the language of the Platonic schools, which were active at the time the Christian movement began. According to Plato, God or the Demiurge brought the world into being, but crafted it according to an eternal archetype or ‘image’ (sometimes called a ‘form’). The sensory world was contrasted in Platonism with the world of ‘images’ or ‘forms,’ which were eternal and fixed. Platonism influenced Philo, a Jewish philosopher of considerable stature liviing in Alexandria, Egypt, at the time of Jesus. A little later, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, another Egyptian Christian philosopher-theologian, began to integrate Platonism and Christian thought. This saying in Thomas thus reflects early Christian attempts to formulate its theology in Greek philosophical terms, something entirely alien to Jesus, but quite common in many parts of Christendom.” (The Five Gospels, p. 518).
- Stephen Patterson writes: “Thom. 83 probably also has to do with instruction on what to look for when one encounters God in the beatific vision. It deals with the theme of ‘light,’ or the experience of luminosity that is often associated with visionary experience. In distinction from the light that is hidden within the human likeness, God’s light is overwhelming.” (The Fifth Gospel, p. 64).
There is a simplicity here that is missed by these comments and especially by those who choose to relate these words by Thomas to Philo or Plato or to an effort to combine the Christian thought with the philosophies of the day. While Mr. Patterson’s view is real, the idea of vision is superfluous and we should note here that the Patterson and Robinson version is from this same man and this version does come closest to our own ideas. At the same time this is also the same Patterson who worked on the translation that is called Patterson and Meyer and which has a markedly different interpretation. Can we try to see this saying as telling us that ‘the image (the body) is revealed to men (all men) and the Light which is in them (the God and the Christ Within) is hidden from this view as it is obscured in the spiritual Light which IS God. This Light will however be revealed by the man who does as the Master admonishes him, the man who can “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16) which shining forth IS the expression of the disciple, the man of God, and, it is in this revelation of Light that the former nature, the previous image, is then obscured’. This same is expanded upon for us by the Apostle Paul who tells us:
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
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.
Today we repeat the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day.
This is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.
Mantram of Unification
The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.
The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love. Spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.
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/
