Meaning
The kingdom of the heavens is rare, and rare or 'few' are those who enter as well: as few as mustard grains are used as seeds. The all-important Action in this metamorphosis shows what must be undertaken: the earth must be worked upon, that is the quintessential action. If done so, that same earth - and not the grain of mustard! - will put forth, outward, a great branch.
And that branch, or earth, as they both are masculine, will offer Protection from the proverbial birds of the heaven
#GospelOfThomas #Summary 0-20
Logion 1 invites the reader to interpret these words; it is evident that they can't be taken at face value and it is likely that there are hidden meanings in them, precisely as logion 0 suggests.
Logion 2 reveals a moment of revelation that follows one of finding, and also demonstrates the metamorphosis model that I have discovered in Thomas.
Logion 3 points us to the inside: that is where the kingdom is, and she is "of your eye", a matter of perception.
(1/15)
She is not in the singular heaven that represents religion, nor in the Sea that represents all other schools of thought.
Logion 4 symbolically relates to the start of duality: at a very young age, hence why the old man delays not in stopping the baby from growing up - theoretically speaking, of course.
Logion 5 tells us how the Ego dominates our "outward presence", and that there is someone else hiding behind him - and that is the father, as we will learn.
(2/15)
Logion 6 starts a long series of disciple bashing as it is their role to act as sock puppets for Judaism, demonstrating their gullibility, lack of thinking, complete inaction, and utter incapability of even hearing what IS says to them - and Thomas combines this logion with pointing to the previous one: you can bend the knee to religion and perform lies and so what you hate there, but eventually you are like everyone else; dominated by your Ego who has pushed the living father back in
(3/15)
Logion 7 is a test to see whether the reader is prepared to shift boundaries, and to play with the words in front of him: read nouns in stead of verbs and vice versa, and make sense of the text without thinking that there are typos. Logion 7 is useless as all of it depends on what the lion represents, but it does teach us that what we eat becomes part of us - and that is the essential message.
Logion 8 then wraps up this exciting first chapter, and presents the great illusion:
(4/15)
there is no Great Good fish, nothing that is on the outside can give us answers. Do note very carefully that said fish is "fallen to", discovered - not found. And then the wise fisherman removes all the little fish from the net filled with little fish, and discovers what really is: the net naturally turns up empty.
When unwilling to accept that then perhaps you're just a fisherman, not wise yet; keep this in the back of your head while you continue your fishing elsewhere.
(5/15)
Logion 9, like a good teacher, then instructs us how we can truly discover: by "coming forth", creating like Amun, and observing where it is that our ideas catch on: and while the fish turned out to be no longer good, the earth now has that label. Find fertile ground for your ideas that come from deep within, like semen does, where the kingdom resides.
Logion 10 displays the first barrier that we run into, namely the World, that dollhouse-like Decoration,
(6/15)
that pleasant image of the real world that we satisfy and busy ourselves with. It is false, wrong, and must not merely burn but be set ablaze: obliterated entirely.
Logion 11 again rejects religion, as it renounces the singular heaven: it will lead astray. North importantly it tells us that we created the two ourselves, the Ego and Self, while we were one - and that one will return it to be the living father, whose "children" we indeed are as logion 3 disclosed.
(7/15)
We are the Ego and Self, created by ourselves, and as such we are children of the living father who is our original You, Us, Me
Logion 12 once again rejects Judaism and discipleship and points to Jacob the Righteous, son of Isaac and Rebecca - the treacherous poster child of the Tanakh.
Logion 13 shows how enlightenment works: there will be no words for anything, and it will make your "comrades" jealous - yet it all is driven by the fiercely boiling Fountain, a fiery source.
(8/15)
Logion 14 again rejects Judaism, again via its mindless obedience to senseless habits, yet also tells us to continue consuming even now we know that what we eat becomes part of us (7) and that we have eaten what was dead (6) - and that sickness is the result of it all, which we must Heal. And most importantly we can safely consume anything because it is not the input that matters, but the output: it is our decisions and actions that make us who we are.
(9/15)
Logion 15 discloses where our father is: it is someone not of flesh and blood, someone we have never met before, and it is a persona rather than a person. "Bend self on your face" points to logion 6 again where both words appear for the first time, and we must bend our Ego, flex him, if we want to contact the father.
Logion 16 again plays the number game: we are the children of the father, and we are two. Include the father and that makes three, and we will have to battle ourselves
(10/15)
by opposing those two, the Ego and Self, to that same us where the father has a presence. And we will need fire, to be fierce, and we will need a sword, that divides - and it will be War.
Logion 17 warns or promises us that it will be revolutionary, revelation, what we will get: and indeed, the deeply psychological insights and messages of Thomas were two millennia ahead of its time.
Logion 18 again rebukes the disciples, and tells us where the solution to our problem lies:
(11/15)
far back in our lives, at the Beginning - the moment we came into this world.
Logion 19 points to that other beginning, the native Coptic word instead of the Greek loanword of logion 18 - and this points to logion 4, and the fact that we weren't ceased from growing up. If you stood firmly in the Beginning you saw the end come by but did not partake in it, and you were Fortunate. You became before the end came by, and the end is where we identifiy, split, separate into duality:
(12/15)
that is the end of You and the beginning of the two, Ego and Self, slaveowner and slave.
And again Thomas ridicules Judaism by labelling their divided dream, their Para'dissos, as barren: dead trees is all that is in there, and they divide - and the number five points to logion 16.
Logion 20 then finally continues to show what to do, and links back to 9 via the word 'good': the fertile soil that our seed feel on must be worked, so that it will produce a great "branch"
(13/15)
that will become a Protection for us, from those religious birds of the singular heaven
Thomas is extremely coherent if one reads him with an open and empty mind: he is not about Jesus, now about the NT, not about Christianity: he precedes all that. Thomas is Tao, Zen, Buddhist, spiritual, psychological, and all about the inside, the inside, the inside.
Thomas ridicules the disciples for a good reason, because none of us needs a master -
(14/15)
and IS lashes out at Thomas in logion 13 when he calls him master / writer: we all write our own script, we are slaves to no one
We must be fearless, shameless, lawless - our own master and nobody else's
(15/15)
#GospelOfThomas #Commentary #Academic #Summary #Non-duality #Buddhism #Christianity #Chrestianity #Salvation #Mystery #Ego #Self #Jung #Tao #Zen #NagHammadi #Coptic #Egypt #Wisdom #Philology #Psychology #Translation #Interpretation
Thomas logion 21
ⲙⲁⲣ.ⲓ.ϩⲁⲙ said to IS: your Disciples resemble who? he said:
they resemble some young children that are visiting a field which theirs not is.
Whenever if they should come, the slaveowners of the field, they will say it: dismiss your field to us;
themselves they make naked of their presence outward to cause them to dismiss her to them and they give their field to them.
(The parable follows next)
Therefore I say it: - Prologue
if he should understand, the slaveowner in house; - Subject
he is coming, the man who steals, - Starting state
he will be awake prior to he comes and not permit him - Action
to excavate inward to his house of his reign-of king, - Transition state
that he carries his House-gear. - Outcome
(The logion continues after this)
Meaning
The Commentary spends pages 201 through 222 on this logion, and I can only fail to be concise here.
We, in our new role of Seeker, are the man who steals - and we must tread lightly in order to not awake the slaveowner, the Ego. We must take away his house gear that he uses to decorate our house with - and whenever we fail, when the Fruit splits, we must cover it up again
And while our Need forces us to look outside, we mustn't - or we will attract attention from those around us
Thomas logion 22
IS beheld some little persons that take milk; he said to his Disciples:
these little persons who take milk, they are comparable to they who are going inward to the reign of king; they said to him: well then, we been made little persons, we will go inward to the reign of king.
IHS said to them: Whenever if you should make be the two one, and if you should make the inside part in the manner of the outside part, and the outside part in the manner of the inside part,
(CONTINUED)
and the part of the heaven in the manner of the part of the ground;
So-that you will make be the male with the woman to that one single, in order that will not the male make be male and the woman make be woman, Whenever if you should make be some eyes to the place of an eye, and a hand to the place of their hands, and feet to the place of feet, an Image to the place of an Image;
Then you will go inward to the reign-of king.
Thomas logion 23
IS said: I will choose you, one from thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand to their foot in case they been made one single.
The most difficult logion for me, that doesn't fit with the role of IS: he does nothing in the entire text, nor should he - nor can he.
Yet I can't make anything else from it, regardless of how I fill the lacuna in ⲥⲉ[ⲧ]ⲡ, the nominal form of 'choose' that apparently goes with ⲧⲏⲛⲉ
Meaning
In my view it is impossible that IS does any choosing for any of us: we all have to make up our own minds ourselves.
Highly likely this is a pun on the Tanakh given the similarities with the 4 exact numbers occurring in Deuteronomy 32:30, and it expresses the scarcity of those "chosen" by IS, as well as affirming that they have to become Single-ones (make the two one).
Does the 1/1,000 point to the father, and 2/10,000 to the children? Likely, but how?
It doesn't make sense to me
Thomas logion 24
His Disciples said: show us the Place which you therein; Since the Necessity to us is to cause us seek after him.
He said to them: he whom there are ears within him, let! him hear:
there is light existing within the inside of a man of light and he makes be light all the World;
in case he does not make be light, a darkness is.
Greek loanwords are always capitalised as they convey a higher metaphysical meaning (cf. Koepke)
Meaning
The Disciples crave to know how to get at where they deem IS to be, and IS responds:
We create our World, it is nothing but an Image inside our head, and as such we can make anything out of it that we want.
Do you think that the whole World is doomed, damned, destined for death? Et voilà, that self-fulfilling prophecy will come true, of course.
Do you think that it is a pretty place where people prance about in pleasantries? Likewise, your will is your command
Only you shape your World
Thomas logion 25
IS said: love your(SG) brother in the manner of your Soul, make be Guard him in the manner of the pupil of your eye.
The whole question here centers around: who is your brother? And why does Thomas use the singular You here? And why the Soul, and pupil of eye?
I'm being ironic, of course: the shortest Thomasine sayings sometimes are harder than the longer ones
Meaning
A short logion full of Greek loanwords; the Soul is Life Essence in the general sense, and most precious and essential to life. The pupil of the eye is hard to relate to the Tanakh (and any other sources) and it is likely that the emphasis on the pupil puts the focus on its mirror-like aspect; it discloses information about this alleged "brother": it is (an image of) ourself.
Then who is this brother? Is it the father, the Ego, or even a third?
The next logion answers that
Thomas logion 26
IS said: the speck which in the eye of your(SG) brother you(SG) behold him; the beam However which in your(SG) eye you behold not him.
Whenever if you(SG) should cast the beam from your(SG) eye Then you(SG) will behold outward to cast the speck from the eye of your(SG) brother.
Apologies for the 'your(SG)', but English unfortunately is a rather poor language.
Do note the complete absence of auxiliary verbs here, such as e.g. "is"
Meaning
Thomas tells us of something about ourselves; the way we process what we see, think, feel.
All you do in life is to get impressions, and you pass a verdict, and then highly likely you spot a mote or two somewhere, in or at someone. Yet the very beam is the lens through which you perceive and judge the real world out there.
Your brother's mote only exists in your perception of the way you see him; it doesn't really exist - hence why there is no verb saying that the mote is in his eye
And when you become aware of the fact that all your judging is based solely on your perception, you should come to evaluate that perception, and discard it because it is only based on your World.
And when you understand that, you will realise that there is no mote in your brother's eye at all: that which you "see" there are only things that conflict with your World
Neither of which exist
Thomas logion 27
In case you don't make be Fast to the World you will not fall to the reign of king;
in case you don't make be the Sabbath Father's-day you will not behold the father.
Not wordplay by Thomas, but letter play: the text says
ⲉⲓⲣⲉ ⲙ̅ ⲡ ⲥⲁⲙⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ ⲛ̅ ⲥⲁⲃ`ⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ
Do note the ⲁⲃ`ⲃⲁ: Abba, father. Noticeably different from the first word in letter and apostrophe, and this even gets copied by the Greek:
Meaning
Yet another joke, Thomas simultaneously puts down Judaism (bis) and promotes his own material, that of needing to see the father. In an effort to express to abstain from the World he uses the verb Fast, and Thomas suggests that using Judaic customs "in a good way" apparently is allowed - and likewise, the sabbath can stay but only when completely turned around, changed into father's day
And once again, Thomas makes perfect sense - if you leave the text alone and just read what it says
And let it be noted that this trick cannot be pulled in any other language; this logion, like logion 7, demonstrates that #Coptic Thomas is the original language, and that it is impossible that any other language lies beneath it
It is already evident that the Greek fragments from #Oxyrhynchus are very inaccurate copies, but this pertains to the #provenance of all of the so-called gospel of Thomas - and that is Coptic, and #Egypt
Thomas logion 28
IS said: I stood to my feet in the middle of the World and I revealed outward to them in Flesh.
I fell to them all being drunk; I did not fall to anyone in them who was thirsting, and my Soul gave pain upon the children of the humans; blind persons they are in their heart/mind, and they see not:
they have come to the World they empty, they seek also to cause them come forth in the World they empty.
Anyway now they are being drunk;
(CONTINUED)
Whenever if they should cast off their wine Then they will make be Conceive afterwards.
Meaning
Some logia cover dozens of pages, and so does this one.
The Greek moves 'in flesh' from the 'them' to IS; emptiness is what causes them to create the World, in which they 'come forth' empty, so that it also remains empty itself; the drunkenness and the wine are something to be remembered for the so very intricate logion 47
Thomas logion 29
IS said if the Flesh has come to be because of Spirit, a wonder is (the flesh);
if Spirit However because of the Body, a wonder of wonder is (the body);
Rather, myself, I make be wonder this one: How did this great reign of rich man dwell in this reign of poor?
In Coptic Flesh is feminine, Spirit and Body masculine - and English is a poor language hence the addition in parentheses
This logion is misunderstood by all
Meaning
Flesh or Body: Thomas rejects the entire notion of this "either-or equation": ⲉϣϫⲉ, '(as) if (it were)' introduces both "competitive phrases", and it typically appears at the start of a contrafactual conditional clause
#Reincarnation is #procrastination, is the concise message: if #Body/ #Flesh / #Soul are separate then how can one survive without the other, and even be required to "beget" the other upon rebirth?
The follies of a fable: a complete waste of our riches
Thomas logion 30
IS said: the place there are three gods, therein some gods are;
the place there are two Or one; myself, I, am existing with him.
The Greek:
[Say]s [IS wh]ere ever might-be [t]hr[ee they-are] gods and [wh]er[e] o[ne] is single [I-s]ay I am with hi[m] raise-[u]p the stone and-there you-will-[f]ind me split the wood and-I there I-am
The Greek has part of logion 77 added with the order of nouns inversed
Where there are three (or more) gods, there is but a mere deity, something or someone that is revered, bowed, submitted to. Only where there are two or one is there talk of gods, real gods, because you and I are exactly that: when we are One again, the father, then IS will still be (with) us
"I and the father are one"
The only gods worthwhile are the father, IS, and yourself.
Logion 100 will debase God to Caesar, a mere deity to be pleased - an obligation, a chore
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Thomas logion 31
IS said there is no Prophet receiving in his village, not usually physician makes be Heal them who know him.
Meaning
Similar to the prophet "not receiving / being received" in his (own) village the physician will meet resistance, obstruction, just because of the environment he is doing it in: a familiar one, or rather, an environment that is familiar with him instead of vice versa.
Performing before friends always has a different outcome than doing so before e.g. enemies - yet the essence is that whoever is supposed to be meant with prophet or physician, he is going to perform before "a crowd" that is familiar with him - and it is likely that he is also familiar with "said crowd".
The whole point is that customs and habits shape oneself just as easily they do their environment, and vice versa
So if you want to change, be fully aware of the environment that you do that in
Thomas logion 32
IS said: a City, in case she built from upon a mountain, in case he exalted, in case she made strong;
there is not strength of her fall Nor will she be able to hide
Do note the feminine and masculine: the mountain is exalted, the city made strong.
Observe also that the (lack of) strength lies on the outside, with others, and the (not) being (able to be) hidden is a property of the city itself
Is Thomas talking of an acropolis here?A citadel, high on a mountain, a treasure indeed: this is not just a city, this is Your City, your Treasury. And if one takes a picture of that which this logion portrays, we can envision a person, ourselves, standing upright; at the very top there resides the strongest stronghold that we have, and it has-been-made-strong ever since we started breathing: our mind. It is from within this citadel that "we" view our World
The mountain: logion 32, 48 and 106
Thomas logion 33
IS said he who you(SG) will hear him in your(SG) ear, in the other ear proclaim him from upon your(PL*) roofs;
not usually anyone Indeed ignite lamp and he place him at ear Nor not usually he place him in hiding place;
Rather "habitually" he place him from upon the Lampstand in order that everyone who is going inward and who is coming forth will behold his light.
Do note the address of a plural 'your' while talking to a singular 'you'
Meaning
Thomas evidently addresses two singular you's here who live under the same roof(s), and it is a call to share information between those you's.
ⲙⲁⲁϫⲉ means ear and the canonicals come up with the Latin loanword modius or the Greek 'vessel', σκεῦος - they fail to understand the joke here.
A light is not meant for your ear, but for your eye - if, and only if, you are "going inward" (logion 14, 22, etc) as well as "coming forth" (logion 9)
Over and over again Thomas addresses #duality
Thomas logion 34
IS said: if a blind person should go before a blind person, habitually they fall both together downward to a pit.
Meaning
The meaning is rather self-evident, which is rare in Thomas - yet it is an isolated statement that appears in a very brief logion, and in order to widen the meaning, context has to be sought in the rest of the text.
The only way to provide such is to link it via the main verb, 'go-before', ⲥⲱⲕ (ϩⲏⲧ⸗):
it occurs only here and in logion 3, where it is used to describe those who go before us, and who will point to heaven or Sea and allege that it is there that the(ir) kingdom is - while Thomas explicitly states that it is inside us, and a matter of perception, namely "of our eye"
Thomas is equating those people to blind persons. The other word to go on is 'blind' which occurs in logion 28 in its 'blind persons' there, referring to the children of the humans in general
Thomas logion 35
IS said there is not strength of one to go inward to the house of the strong and take him by forearm, Unless he binds his hands: Then he will turn outward his house.
A most sensible logion: if you want to take a strong man by the arm, that is much easier to do when his hands are tied
'Forearm': ϫⲛⲁϩ - https://coptic-dictionary.org/entry.cgi?tla=C7271
The word also means 'force, strength, violence'
#GospelOfThomas #Commentary #Academic #Christianity #Quelle #Origins
Meaning
The strong man is the Ego: bind his (spiritual) hands and you will be able to "upset" his house, and the Outcome of that will be to take him by the forearm: helping him.
The metamorphosis is beautiful: move in, bind hands, move out, take by forearm - and the model drives translation and interpretation yet does so in a scientific way, and it orders and structures it according to fixed rules
For comparison with the canonicals, in English, Greek as well as Coptic:
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Thomas logion 36
IS said there is not to carry concern starting from morning toward evening and starting from on evening toward morning: who is who will clothe him on
you.
The Greek copy contains a whole lot of extras, https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:7456399$1i
The composite verb ϯ (ϩⲓ-), 'clothe', has a peculiarity, as literally the sentence reads as follows:
ⲟⲩ ⲡⲉ ⲉⲧ ⲛⲁ ⲧⲁⲁ ϥ ϩⲓⲱⲧ` ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̅ , 'who? is/he that will give him on you'
Meaning
The Ego is the tailor of your Stage Costumes, your garments, that you swap a dozen times a day; your I-dentities that are neither yours nor his - yet those are what you should be concerned about, not where they come from, how they were made; all that is irrelevant.
Remember logion 14: it is not what goes into your mouth "that defiles you", it is what comes out.
You can't refuse the "gifts" of the Ego, but you can influence the way you unpack them, and what to do with the content
Thomas logion 37
His Disciples said: what? day will you reveal outward to us and what? day will behold you.
IS said: Whenever if you should make you naked of your shame and you carry your garments and you place them at the bottom of your feet in the manner of those little young children and you tread them:
Then you will behold the child of he who is living and you will make be fear not
Not 'without shame': no, you must strip yourself of your shame
Meaning
This harkens back at the previous logion: take off your Stage Costumes, and trample them in the dirt.
#Shame is our leverage against ourself, it makes us corruptible, susceptible to extortion: we will do almost anything to prevent ourselves from feeling shame - even shameful things we will agree to do, as long as it keeps shame at bay.
It drills down deep to our feelings of inadequacy, inaptitude, our fear of lacking: our fear of being incomplete, and being exposed as such
Thomas logion 38
IS said: many occasions did you make be Desire to hear these words, these ones that I say to you; and you have not another one to hear them from the hand of him.
There are some days that will come to be and you seek after me: you will fall not to me.
Desire: ἐπιθυμέω, 'to set one's heart upon a thing, lust after, long for, covet, desire' - Thomas describes the desperate disciples' behaviour very well
Meaning
A dialogue of some kind now evolves where the disciples get 3 logia of real Thomasine advice, followed up by one summary.
They then will respond, and IS will respond back in his usual way - and it will be his final goodbye to them, and it will be most vile - yet to the point
I will summarise logion 21-43 after that in order not to break this very important piece and structure
Thomas logion 39
IS said: the Pharisees with the Scribes, they took the keys of the Knowledge, they hid them; Nor did they go inward and they who desire to go inward they did not permit them.
Yourselves However come to be Prudent ones in the manner of the serpents and Pure ones in the manner of the doves.
Do note that the Pharisees nor the Scribes play any religious role although they do form "a management layer" that blocks access to Knowledge (#Gnosis)
Meaning
ⲃⲱⲕ` ⲉϩⲟⲩⲛ, go inward, again is pivotal: 9 times the infinitive occurs in Thomas, 4 times the Stative is used.
Inward to oneself, of course, in search for answers.
ⲁⲕⲉⲣⲁⲓⲟⲥ is better translated unmixed, unharmed, intact. ⲫⲣⲟⲛⲓⲙⲟⲥ is better translated with in one's right mind, sensible - but as long as I can't crack this logion I can't go beyond a mundane translation
Yet the answer lies in #Egypt, like most of Thomas, as for instance logion 23 (solved very recently, not even in here)
Thomas logion 40
IS said a vine of grape she was planted within the part of outside of the father and not made strong; she will be plucked out at her root and destroyed.
Blatantly obvious, what is outside the father has no future; it is weak.
ⲡⲱⲣⲕ occurs uniquely here, 'pluck out, root out', and Westendorf 151, Vicychl 163 and Cherix 38a have the additional meaning of 'divide, separate'
Meaning
Following up on the keys of Knowledge, this also refers to Judaism: it exists outside the father, and will be uprooted - which evidently is a familiair theme in the Tanakh, identical to the grapevine.
Apparently, only fertile soil (logion 9) establishes firm ground, and the Rock there leads to identical results as what is described here
The previous logion pointed out the WHAT is wrong with Judaism, this points out the WHY - and the next one will indeed discuss the HOW
Martijn Linssen