Gospel of Thomas

Quotes

(31) Yeshua said, A prophet is not accepted in the hometown. A doctor does not heal those who know the doctor. (32) Yeshua said, A city built upon a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden.

(33) Yeshua said, What you will hear in your ear in the other ear proclaim from your rooftops. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor in a hidden place. You put it on a stand so that all who come and go will see its light.

(45) Yeshua said, Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles. They yield no fruit. A good person brings forth good from the storehouse. A bad person brings forth evil things from the corrupt storehouse in the heart and says evil things. From the abundance of the heart such a person brings forth evil.

(70) Yeshua said, If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you have nothing within you, what you do not have within you will kill you.

(71) Yeshua said, I shall destroy this house and no one will be able to rebuild it.

(72) Someone said to him, Tell my brothers to divide my father’s possessions with me. He said to the person, Mister, who made me a divider? He turned to his students and said to them, I am not a divider, am I?

Notes

Metalogos

From metalogos: first footnote on "Thomas":

Thomas (Prolog/13/Colophon): Aramaic Mw)t (taom) = Greek ΔΙΔΥΜΟΣ (duplicate, twin)

the Apostle Didymos Judas Thomas, author of this text (Jn 11:16/20:24-29/21:2)

‘Judas’ Hebrew hdwhy (yehúda): ‘praised’ = Arabic ‘hammad’ as in ‘Nag Hammadi’ (village of-praise) and ‘Mohammed’ (great-praise)

the Ishmaelite prophet: Gen 16-17/21:1-21/25:12-18, Zech 9:6-7

Hermeneutics of Vision

From essay on Gospel of Thomas and the Hermeneutics of Vision:

Link: http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gth_hermen.htm

To better understand this history, one must place apocalyptic ("revelatory") experience in its human context. Western humanity has repeatedly told a story of an experienced intimate relationship that constitutes supreme communion with Divinity. Whatever it "be", it is a reality deeply entwined in the history of religions. The words religion and experience have, of course, been disconnected by the thrust of rational theology endured by our age. But in primordial origin and in ongoing life, religion is intrinsically experiential. And visionary experience was alive in the matrix of Jewish apocalyptics that gave rise to early Christianity.

The Circle of the Way

The Cirlce of the Way: the Gospel of Thomas as a Zen/Buddhist text

Link: http://www.crosscurrents.org/arnoldwinter2002.htm

Nothing mediates the self for the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas. Everything we seek is already in our presence, and not outside our self. What is most remarkable in these sayings is the repeated insistence that everything is already open to you. You need but knock and enter. . . The emphasis of this Jesus is upon a pervasive opacity that prevents us from seeing anything that really matters. Ignorance is the blocking agent. . . (Bloom, 112, 115)

This perspective sounds more Buddhist than Christian.

Parallels Between the Gospels of John, Matthew, and Thomas

Link: http://users.misericordia.edu/davies/thomas/johnthom.htm

GJn 21

1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way.

2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

5 Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No."

6 He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish.

7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea.

8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.

10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught."

11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Gospel of Matthew: 13

47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind;

48 when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. }}

Gospel of Thomas 8:

The human one is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish.

Here we have a parallel between John, Thomas and (M) Matthean special material. The origin of the saying is a common lore about fishing on which each evangelist adds his own theological twist. In John, the "fishing" is futile without Jesus and leads to the recognition of Jesus. In Thomas, a fisherman is a seeker for the "large fish." Jesus is not mentioned, except for the fact that this is a saying of Jesus who thus becomes an instructor. Matthew uses the same lore, but introduces the notion of the kingdom of heaven. The fisherman is the Son of Man who will separate good from bad fish. John uses the image of fishermen to construct the resurrection appearance. If we assume the composition of GMt in Antioch and the origin of Matthew special material from the same city, we can conclude that the origin of the lore was from areas around the Sea of Galilee.

Gospel of Thomas 29:

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

Gospel of John:

3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

6:63 It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

1:16 And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.

Thomas and John use many dualistic expressions like, wealth-poverty, spirit-body, light-darkness, truth-lie, but while Thomas sees every person as a compound between positive and negative essences, John has a tendency to move away from this Thomasine anthropological dualism towards a cosmological dualism. Johannine Jesus (Lo,goj) is the single positive principle in the whole world (ko,smoj). The believers in John (those who abide in Jesus) do not posses 'great wealth' in the 'poverty' of this world, flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit. Jesus is the only one who possesses the 'fullness.' On the other hand, in Thomas every person possesses 'wealth in this poverty.' For that reason, I believe that John is farther on the trajectory towards Gnosticism than the Gospel of Thomas. The dating of the GTh between the gathering of Q collection in the 50s AD and the composition of the GJn in the 90s AD seems well grounded. (24)