I wanted to introduce the Gospel According to Thomas to those who have not yet read about it. It is worth the reading and understanding. I will offer a few of its 114 sayings that deal with the need to understand self first so the rest of the world can be put in proper perpective. The quote below in its entirety can be found here.
The Gospel According to Thomas is an ancient document containing 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. A nearly completely preserved papyrus manuscript written in Coptic was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt in December 1945. It was found in an earthenware jar by a farmer with over fifty other documents, together known as the Nag Hammadi library.
The work is composed of 114 sayings. Almost half of these sayings are equal or resemble those found in the canonical Gospels, while most of the other sayings were not known until its discovery.
The entire text of the Gospel According to Thomas can be found here. It is good reading, about half of these sayings are equal or resemble those found in the canonical Gospels, while most of the other sayings were not known until its discovery.
3 Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the (Father’s) kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.”
18 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us, how will our end come?”
Jesus said, “Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.”
22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom.”
They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].”
24 His disciples said, “Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it.”
He said to them, “Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.”
42 Jesus said, “Be passersby.”
49 Jesus said, “Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again.”
50 Jesus said,
“If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’
If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’
If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.'”
51 His disciples said to him, “When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?”
He said to them, “What you are looking forward to has come, but you don’t know it.”
66 Jesus said, “Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.”
67 Jesus said, “Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking.”
77 Jesus said, “I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
83 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.”
110 Jesus said, “Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world.”
111 Jesus said, “The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death.”
Does not Jesus say, “Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy”?
I like the sayings above because they remind me of the knowledge gathered from near death experiences. One enters the light and becomes the light. We are all One. Children of the Creator of Light, whose is the Light. Our task is to know who we are, to understand we are the children of the Light.
© 2010, Lekatt. All rights reserved.