정경과 위경의 차이점 - 도마복음을 중심으로(강의, 원문&번역, 해설 등)

Go^Ts^hepel

of

Thomas

Also by Jean-Yves Leloup

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

The Gospel of Philip:

Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Gnosis of Sacred Union

Go^Ts^hepel

of

Thomas

The Gnos tic Wisdom

of Jesus

Translation from the Coptic, introduction,

and commentary by

Jean-Yves Leloup

English translation and notes by

Joseph Rowe

Inner Traditions

Rochester, Vermont

Inner Traditions

One Park Street

Rochester, Vermont 05767

www.InnerTraditions.com

Originally published in French under the title L’Évangile de Thomas by Albin Michel, 22,

rue Huyghens, 75014 Paris

First U.S. edition published in 2005 by Inner Traditions

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any infor-

mation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Gospel of Thomas (Coptic Gospel). English.

The Gospel of Thomas : the gnostic wisdom of Jesus / translation from the Coptic, intro-

duction, and commentary by Jean-Yves Leloup ; English translation and notes by Joseph

Rowe.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ebook ISBN 978-1-59477-639-7

print ISBN 978-1-59477-046-3 (pbk.)

1. Gospel of Thomas (Coptic Gospel)—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Gospel of

Thomas (Coptic Gospel). English. II. Leloup, Jean-Yves. III. Rowe, Joseph, 1942- IV.

Title.

BS2860.T52G6713 2005

229’.8—dc22

2004027022

Printed and bound in the United States at Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text design and layout by Priscilla Baker

This book was typeset in Caslon, with Copperplate used as a display typeface

Contents

Foreword by Jacob Needleman

vi

xii

1

Abbreviations

Introduction

ꢀ

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

7

ꢀ

Commentary

Resources

59

226

227

Bibliography

Foreword

Among all the astonishing documents accidentally—or fatefully—

unearthed in 1945 near the desert village of Nag Hammadi in Upper

Egypt, the Gospel of Thomas has made the greatest impact on our

understanding of Christianity. The first English rendering of this text

was published in 1959 and was greeted with intense interest by scholars

and theologians alike. But the impact of this document was soon felt far

beyond the circles of specialists, almost as though an audible recording of

the voice of Jesus had been discovered. That is to say that even across the

reaches of millennial time and even through the curtain of translation

from languages known to but a few, for many of us the words in this text

have the power to touch an unknown part of ourselves that brings with

it an undeniable recognition of truth and hope. When it was said of

Jesus, by those who were at first bewildered by him, that he spoke “as one

having authority,” what is surely meant is that he and his teaching

authenticated itself by their power to awaken that same hidden, self-

authenticating part of the human heart and mind.

Here we have the key to approaching the fundamental category that

scholars and theologians have applied to this document and those like

it—the technical term gnosticism. It is a word that in fact points to some-

thing of great importance to our understanding of all the spiritual tradi-

tions of the world and, as such, of great importance to our understanding

of human life itself.

When scholars apply the label gnostic to the documents found at Nag

Hammadi, they are generally assigning them to the current of religious

doctrines and practices that flourished in the early centuries of the

Christian era and were condemned as heresy in a movement spearheaded

vi

Foreword

vii

in the second century by the redoubtable bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus. The

eventual result of this condemnation was the widespread suppression of

these heresies and the relentless destruction of their constitutive texts.

Until now, most of what was known of these teachings was based on the

adversarial accounts of them provided in Irenaeus’s vastly influential

work, Against the Heresies. The immense historical significance of the Nag

Hammadi documents consists in the likelihood that they were buried by

members of some of these communities in order to preserve them from

the storm of the ecclesiastical book burning of the time. Thus, nearly two

thousand years after the suppression of these so-called heresies, we now

suddenly have the opportunity to look directly at aspects of their teach-

ings instead of seeing them largely through the eyes of their enemies.

But although the texts themselves can now be directly seen for the

first time in nearly two thousand years, really to see them is a task that

invites us to something much more demanding and joyous than simply

reading them off the pages of ancient scrolls or modern translations and

interpreting them according to familiar habits of intellectual analysis.

It is not for nothing that in this document the very first words of

Jesus, here called by the Aramaic name Yeshua, are these: “Whoever lives

the interpretation of these words will no longer taste death.” Is this merely

a figure of speech? Or do these words speak to some kind of knowledge

and knowing that have an action upon the very flesh and blood of a

human being, an action that is incomparably more penetrating than any-

thing we call “knowledge” or “knowing”—including even our inspired

moments of intellectual insight or passionate realization? Is there some

kind of knowing that can transform our being to the point—dare we

imagine—of bringing forth a life that does not die when the body dies?

Such knowing as this is inseparable from the action of faith—considered

not simply as a set of emotionally charged beliefs, but as a movement

within the human psyche that generates a magnetic current flowing

between our individual human life and the source of human life itself; and

that deposits into our human life the spiritualized matter of what is called

the “new Adam”; and that enables a man or woman actually to answer in

an entirely new way the great cry of St. Paul: “For the good that I would,

that I do not; and that which I hate, that do I,” or, in other words, to

Foreword

viii

answer with the actions of love rather than with brittle promises of future

virtue. Such transformational knowing actually has little or nothing to do

with what we ordinarily call thought. It has to do with energy, the energy

of consciousness. This energy is at the heart of what is signified by the

ancient word gnosis, from which gnosticism is derived.

In applying the term gnosticism to these teachings, scholars and theolo-

gians understandably call our attention to the emphasis that most of the

Nag Hammadi documents place on the role of knowledge in the religious

life—in apparent contrast to the demand for faith that became the cen-

tral tenet of the Church over the centuries, especially in the West. There

are numerous other doctrines that are sometimes identified with gnosti-

cism—such as its apparent metaphysical dualism and condemnation of

the world. But it is the notion of gnosis as transformational knowing that

is of utmost importance and that cries out for deeper inquiry in the world

we now live in, a world—a civilization—which is deeply, perhaps fatally,

afflicted with an ever-widening disconnect between what we know with

the mind and what we know in our heart and in our instincts.

Both in our civilization and in our personal lives, the growth of

knowledge far outstrips the growth of being, endlessly complicating our

existence and taking away from us far more than it gives us. In relation

to the advances and applications of scientific knowledge, we are like chil-

dren restlessly sitting at the controls of a locomotive. Without a corre-

sponding growth of inner, moral power, our intellectual power seems now

to be carrying us toward disaster—in the form of the catastrophic

destruction of the natural world, in the decay of ethical values, in the

secrets of biological life falling under the sway of blind commerce or blind

superstition, and above all, in the impending worldwide nuclear terror.

May we not therefore say, as Plato said 2,500 years ago, that such “knowl-

edge” as we have does not really deserve the label knowledge? Can we lis-

ten to him as he tells us that knowledge without virtue can neither bring

us good nor show us truth? This is to say that such knowing as we have

is not transformational; it does not elevate our level of being and it does

not nourish the development of moral power.

It is only the fully developed human being, which means only the

Foreword

ix

fully developed human mind in which the intuition of objective value is

an essential component, that can see the world as it really is, and that,

through its action upon our instincts and impulses, can lead us toward

the capability to act in the service of the Good.

The present text is offered to us by Jean-Yves Leloup not so much as a

commentary on these words of Jesus, but “as a meditation that arises from

the tilled earth of our silence.” I take this to mean that it is through the

author’s own inner opening toward the Self that his scholarly and theo-

logical skills take their ultimate direction in translating and interpreting

what he rightly calls “this sublime jewel of a gospel.” In other words, there

may be, and I believe there are, two kinds or levels of knowing operating

in this book. On one level, the visible level of words and concepts, there

are the insights and explanations that will help every serious reader think

in a new way about the meaning of the teaching of Jesus, a way that does

not in any way deny the greatness of Christian doctrine that has brought

comfort to countless millions of men and women throughout the ages.

But for Leloup, this kind of knowing about the Christian religion, pre-

cious as it is, is secondary to a deeper kind given through the grace that is

the fruit of the inner work of meditation.

And what words can characterize passage to this deeper level of

knowing? Leloup puts it this way: “There exists a relative consciousness

formed and acquired through readings, encounters, and the thoughts of

others.” And he goes on to say: “But there is also a consciousness that

arises directly from knowledge of ourselves, of the ‘Living One’ within us.

It is toward this consciousness, this gnosis, that Yeshua invites us in the

Gospel of Thomas—not in order to become ‘good Christians,’ but to

become christs—in other words, gnostics, or awakened human beings.”

This deeper knowing may properly be called pure consciousness—or,

perhaps more precisely, the pure energy of consciousness. It is an energy,

no doubt itself existing at many levels, that can be allowed to descend into

the body, heart, and mind and, through its own active force, make of us

the being called anthropos, the awakened, fully human being.

This energy is not what we ordinarily call thought. But it is this energy

that has the power to do what we have wrongly imagined our ordinary

Foreword

x

thought can do: It can direct all our functions, including our mental

thought. This book, therefore—as is true of Jean-Yves Leloup’s presenta-

tions of the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip (which are also

gnostic texts)—is in itself a step toward the work of the mind that des-

perately needs to be rediscovered in our era. The proper work of the mind

is to function at two levels, the level of silence and the level of expression.

And it is expression that is secondary—that is, truth in the form of words

and formulations can come only out of silence, the state of the pure

energy of consciousness anterior to its assumption of forms; words; ideas;

associations; the organization of impressions, images, programs . . .

The mind alone—the mind that is not nourished by the silence of the

fertile void of pure Being—as such is incapable of guiding human life.

The ordinary, isolated intellect, no matter how brilliant or inspired, has

not the energy to command our thoughts, words, impulses, memories and

experiences in a way that conforms to truth and the Good. This, in sum,

is the tragedy of our era, of our knowledge in the modern world. All that

science has brought us—the phenomenal, wondrous discoveries it has

brought us about life, matter and the universe—will eventually bring us

nothing but destruction because we have forgotten that the mind alone

cannot direct itself or the whole of ourselves. It does not have the energy

for this. It is an energy that must come from another, higher level within

the human psyche, a level that is experienced as silence.

Whatever we wish to call it, then—gnosticism, esotericism, mysti-

cism, each in its authentic rather than imitative form—spiritual work has

to do with energy rather than solely with what we call thought. Gnosis

is a force, not just a set of ideas, symbols, or concepts. To the extent that

we render our religious or moral teachings only in words, no matter how

beautiful or systematic, we are bound to become the prey of academicism,

dogmatism, or fanaticism. What our modern world has suffered from

most of all is runaway ideology, the agitated attachment to ideas that

thereby become the playthings of infrahuman energies. This is the great

danger of all ideologies, whether political, religious, or academic.

“Is it possible,” Leloup asks, “to read these logia [these sayings of

Yeshua] in a way that allows them to make their way into the mind and

the heart of our humanity, leading us into a voyage of transformation,

Foreword

xi

toward a full realization of our being?” Within this question lie both the

effort and the reward, the demand and the gift, offered by this and all

truly sacred writings. What would it mean to attend to our inner state of

being even as we try with all our might to grasp the meaning of these say-

ings— alone in our room or in our exchanges with companions and col-

leagues or, for that matter, in our inner confrontations with all the views

that we may have previously taken as the sole truth? What would it bring

to us now to keep a quiet mind alongside the passionate commitment to

independent thought that once brought such hope to our modern world?

“It is my belief,” Leloup concludes, “that it is from this ground [of inner

silence], rather than from mental agitation, that these words [of Yeshua]

can bear their fruit of light.”

JACOB NEEDLEMAN,

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY,

S^ANFRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY,

AND AUTHOR OF LOST CHRISTIANITY AND THE AMERICAN SOUL

Abbreviations

I Cor, II Cor First Corinthians, Second Corinthians

I John First Letter of John

I Peter First Letter of Peter

I Thess, II Thess First Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians

I Tim First Timothy

Col Colossians

Dan Daniel

Deut Deuteronomy

Eccus Ecclesiasticus/Sirach

Eph Ephesians

Ex Exodus

Ezek Ezekiel

Gal Galatians

Gen Genesis

Heb Hebrews

James Epistle of James

Jer Jeremiah

John The Gospel of John

Lev Leviticus

Luke The Gospel of Luke

Mark The Gospel of Mark

Matt The Gospel of Matthew

Num Numbers

Phil Philippians

Prov Proverbs

Rev Revelation

Rom Romans

Zach Zachariah

xii

Introduction

The Discovery

It happened in 1945, in upper Egypt, in the area where Khenoboskion,

the ancient monastic community founded by St. Pachomius, had once

stood. There was nothing unusual about that particular stretch of land,

near the Arab village of Nag Hammadi, and nothing unusual about the

peasant digging there in search of fertilizer. It was by accident that his

blade struck the treasure in the buried jar.

It was a treasure not of gold, but of words, emerging from the shroud

of many centuries, written on parchment that had been slowly decaying

under the sands: a gnostic library hidden in amphoras normally used to

age wine. The library consisted of fifty-three parchments written in

Sahidic Coptic, the last remaining language still close to the extinct

ancient Egyptian pharaonic language. (The word Copt is derived from

the Arabic qibt, which in turn derives from the Greek Aiguptios, Egypt.)

Among these fifty-three manuscripts, in Codex II, there is a gospel,

or “good news,” attributed to Jesus’ disciple Thomas. This gospel contains

no apocalyptic proclamations and no prophecies. Instead, it reveals what

we have always carried within ourselves: an infinite Space, which is the

same within us and without us. All that is needed is to break open the

man-made jar that hides it from us.

This Gospel of Thomas contains no biography of Jesus (Yesu in

Greek and Coptic, Yeshua in Aramaic), nor any account of his miracles.

It is a collection of 114 sayings, called logia in Greek (singular: logion).

These are said to be the naked words attributed to the Master, “the Living

Jesus,” written down by Didymus Judas Thomas, the Twin. Who was the

1

Introduction

2

latter? Was he the “twin” (didymos in Greek, and thomas or te’oma in

Aramaic) of Jesus in some sense of an alter ego or closest disciple? The

sayings themselves do not elaborate on this, for they are anything but

loquacious narratives. Many of them seem as terse and enigmatic as Zen

koans. But if we allow them to penetrate into the ever-grinding cogs of

our ordinary mental apparatus, they will sprout like living seeds and grow

there—given time, they may bring the turning wheels to a full halt and a

silence . . . a transformation of consciousness.

Critical Reaction

This gospel has elicited a wide range of reactions from critics. For some

scholars it represents one of many apocryphal writings, an item of aca-

demic interest in the study of gnostic texts. For others, it is a mere collage

of the words of Jesus derived from the canonical gospels and mixed with

heterodox traditions that claim to originate with Jesus. For still others, it

is the closest document we have to the very source that the canonical

gospels themselves drew upon, a tradition that predates them. In this

view, the Gospel of Thomas is the “protogospel” that we have so long been

seeking, the only one that transmits the authentic words of Jesus.

But whether we like it or not, Yeshua of Nazareth was not a writer. It

is therefore impossible to speak of “the authentic words of Jesus.” Every

saying of his that we possess consists of words that have been heard—

words that bear the imprint of a listener whose listening may be crude or

subtle. The gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, Thomas, and a num-

ber of others represent at least five different ways of listening to the Word.

Each also represents different ways of understanding, interpreting, and

translating cultural and linguistic differences according to the quality of

his own intimacy with the Master, and according to his own levels of evo-

lution, openness, and awareness. None of these ways of listening can pre-

tend to circumscribe the Word. Each has truth, but none contains the

whole truth.

Thomas seems to have a less “Jewish” ear than does Matthew; he is less

interested in stories of miracles than is Mark; and he does not share Luke’s

interest in the annunciation of God’s Mercy, “even to the pagans.” What

Introduction

3

interests Thomas is the transmission of Yeshua’s teaching. Every saying

received from the Master is treated as a seed, with the potential of grow-

ing a new kind of fully conscious human being. In this way, Thomas and

other authors of the lineage of that “infinitely skeptical and infinitely

believing” disciple see Yeshua as a gnostic, like themselves.

Was Yeshua a Gnostic?

When Yeshua asks his disciples “Who am I to you?” only Thomas refuses

to answer: “Master, my mouth could never utter what you are like.” It is a

good answer, recalling Yeshua’s own answer of silence to Pilate’s question

“What is Truth?” Perhaps we, too, would do well to keep silent, instead of

answering “Jesus is this” or “Jesus is that.” This is in harmony with the

practice of gnostics, who are not theologians concerned with finding

names for the unnamable, but rather practitioners of “knowing silence.”

Yeshua “Is What He Is.” No one possesses a total and complete vision

of Him. Yeshua only affirms, with love and power, a pure and simple “I

Am.” And this affirmation awakens a mysterious echo in each of us.

But what is his teaching? It is in relation to this question that the

Gospel of Thomas can be considered a “gnostic” gospel— but only if gno-

sis¹is understood to be nondualistic and is not confused with certain

forms of dualistic or Manichean Gnosticism. Indeed, Yeshua appears in

this gospel as a Being who seeks to awaken us to our own state of con-

sciousness. This is also consonant with a passage in the Gospel of John,

in which he says: “Where I am, I also wish you to be . . . the Spirit given

me by my Father, I also have given to you . . . I am in you, and you are in

me . . .” and so on.

Like the Eastern sages, Yeshua speaks in paradoxical aphorisms that

invite us to become conscious of our uncreated origin, of our boundless

freedom, even in the midst of the most severe contingencies. Thus we

awaken to absolute Reality, right in the heart of the bleakest and most rel-

ative of realities.

1. [The Greek word gnosis is related, through its Indo-European root gnô-, to the English

word knowledge, the French word connaître, the Latin cognoscere, the Sanskrit jñana, and

many others. —Trans.]

Introduction

4

Gnosis is a twofold lucidity regarding the human condition, at once

a unitary witnessing and a dual awareness of both absurdity and grace.

Relative reality shows us that we are dust and return to dust. “All that is

composed, shall be decomposed,” as Yeshua says in the Gospel of Mary

Magdalene. But there is another reality, one that shows: “We are light,

and return to light.” Within us is a sun that never sets, a peace and wake-

fulness toward which our infinite desire yearns unceasingly. Relative real-

ity shows us that we are either male or female; but full reality shows us

that we are both.

Gnostics claim that an integration of our masculine and feminine

polarities is possible, reaching toward a realized human beingness that

does not love from lack, but rather from fullness. Then our love becomes

not merely a thirst, but instead an overflowing fountain.

We must cross unceasingly from limited to unlimited consciousness.

“Be passersby!” the Gospel of Thomas commands. There exists a relative

consciousness formed and acquired through readings, encounters, and the

thoughts of others. But there is also a consciousness that arises directly

from knowledge of ourselves, of the “Living One” within us. It is toward

this consciousness, this gnosis, that Yeshua invites us in the Gospel of

Thomas, not in order to become “good Christians,” but to become

christs—in other words, gnostics, or awakened human beings. Gnosis is

not some state of mental expansion or ego-inflation. On the contrary, it

means putting an end to the ego. It is a transparency with regard to “the

One who Is” in total innocence and simplicity. This is why the qualities

of the gnostic are said to be unconditioned, to resemble those of “an infant

seven days old.”

Is the Yeshua of Thomas different from the Yeshua of the other

gospels? Undoubtedly! But this difference resides not so much in the ulti-

mate nature of the Christ as in the presentation of his teaching. It is a dif-

ference of hearing, rather than of words. Thus it is possible to read this

gospel in a Catholic, Orthodox, or other manner, just as we read Luke,

Mark, Matthew, and John in different ways. There is no need to enter into

a dualistic polemic, setting the Gospel of Thomas against the canonical

gospels, considering it superior to them and the only authentic gospel. To

do so would, after all, be merely to give in to a reaction against the other

Introduction

5

dualistic polemic that has branded the Thomas Gospel as a fabrication of

lies and heresies. (This is not unlike the former neglect of the Gospel of

John, which many exegetes branded as either too Greek or too Gnostic . . .

and today, there are those who say exactly the opposite.)

Might it not be that our task is to read all the gospels together, see-

ing them as different points of view of the Christ, different points of

view that exist both within us and outside of us, in historical and

meta-historical dimensions? Does not the Nag Hammadi discovery, with

this sublime jewel of a gospel, reveal to us new facets of the unchanging

Eternal Jewel? Is it not our task to go beyond both naive enthusiasm and

doctrinaire suspicion to cultivate the ear of the golden mean and to learn

to listen to the Spirit, which speaks to all human beings, beyond all

Churches, religions, and elites?

The Translation

In this translation of this gospel I have used the Coptic text as established

by Yves Haas, as well as the Oxyrhynchus papyri and the Greek retrover-

sion of Rudolf Kasser. I have also made use of the work of Professor

Puech and of Professor Ménard, with whom I worked for some years at

the University of Strasbourg on another great gnostic text, the Gospel of

Truth. I make no claim here of presenting a “definitive” version of the

Gospel of Thomas. This translation is one interpretation among a num-

ber of others, informed by my desire to be faithful to the breath, or spirit,

as well as to the letters, of these words.

Pope Gregory I said that only a prophet could understand the

prophets. And it is said that only a poet can understand a poet. Who,

then, must we be in order to understand Yeshua?

The Commentary

Without underestimating the importance of scholarly expertise, yet

determined to distance ourselves from the quarrels of scholars and eso-

tericists, we must ask the question: Is it possible to truly read the Gospel

of Thomas today? Is it possible to read it as a scripture unencumbered by

Introduction

6

the glosses of textual criticism or of subjective excess, allowing it to speak

for itself and to inspire us? Is it possible to read these logia in a way that

allows them to make their way into the mind and the heart of our human-

ity, leading us into a voyage of transformation, toward a full realization of

our being?

If so, then what I propose is not so much a “commentary” on these

words of Yeshua of Nazareth as it is a meditation that arises from the

tilled earth of our silence. It is my belief that it is from this ground, rather

than from mental agitation, that these words can bear their fruit of light.

H

_{The Text of the}H

Gospel of Thomas

H

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

8

naei ne N.$aje echp` enta.IS et.onx

.jo.ou auw af.sxaisou Nqi.didumos !oudas cwmas

auw peja.f` je peta.xe

E.cermhneia N.neei.$aje f.na.

.ji.+pe an M.p.mou`

1

2

peje.IS <> mNtref.`

.lo Nqi.pet.`.$ine ef.`.$ine $antef.`

.qine auw xotan` ef.$an.qine f.na.

.$tRtR auw ef.$an.`.$tortR f.na.R.

[

] .$phre auw f.na.R.

.Rro ejM.p.thr.f

peje.IS je eu.$a.

3

.jo.os nh.tN Nqi.net.`.swk xht.`.thutN

je eis.xhhte e.t.`.mNtero xN.t.pe eeie

N.xalht` .na.R.$orp` erw.tN Nte.

.t.pe eu.$an.jo.os nh.tN je s.xN.calassa

eeie N.tbt` .na.R.$orp` erw.tN

alla t.mNtero s.M.petN.xoun` auw

s.M.petN.bal` xotan etetN.$an.

.souwn.thutN tote se.na.souw .

.thne auw tetna.eime je N.tw.tN pe

N.$hre M.p.eiwt` et.onx e$wpe de

tetna.souwn.thutN an eeie tetN.

.$oop` xN.ou.mNt.xhke auw N.tw.tN

pe t.mNt.xhke

peje.IS <> f.na.jnau an

4

Nqi.p.rwme N.xLlo xN.nef.xoou e.jne.

.ou.kouei N.$hre.$hm ef.xN.sa$F

N.xoou etbe.p.topos M.p.wnx auw

f.na.wnx je ouN.xax N.$orp` .na.R.xae

auw Nse.$wpe oua ouwt

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

9

These are the words of the Secret.

They were revealed by the Living Yeshua.

Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.

1

2

Yeshua said:

Whoever lives the interpretation of these words

will no longer taste death.

Yeshua said:

Whoever searches

must continue to search

until they find.

When they find,

they will be disturbed;

and being disturbed, they will marvel

and will reign over All.

3

Yeshua said:

If those who guide you say: Look,

the Kingdom is in the sky,

then the birds are closer than you.

If they say: Look,

it is in the sea,

then the fish already know it.

The Kingdom is inside you,

and it is outside you.

When you know yourself, then you will be known,

and you will know that you are the child of the Living Father;

but if you do not know yourself,

you will live in vain

and you will be vanity.

4

Yeshua said:

An aged person will not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old infant

about the Place of Life, and that person will live.

Many of the first will make themselves last, and they will

become One.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

10

5

6

peje.IS souwn.pet.M.p.Mto M.pek.xo ebol`

auw pechp` ero.k` f.na.qwlp` ebol

na.k` mN.laau gar ef.xhp` ef.na.ouwnx

ebol an

au.jnou.f Nqi.nef.`.machths

peja.u na.f` je k.`.ouw$ etrN.R.nhsteue

auw e$ te ce ena.$lhl ena.+.elehmosunh

auw ena.R.parathrei e.ou

N.qi.ouwm` peje.IS je MpR.je.qol auw

petetM.moste M.mo.f` MpR.a.af je

se.qolp` thr.ou ebol M.pe.mto ebol

N.t.pe mN.laau gar ef.xhp` ef.na.ouwnx

ebol an auw mN.laau ef.xoBS eu.

.na.qw oue$N.qolp.f`

7

8

peje.IS <> ou.

.makarios pe p.mouei paei ete

p.rwme .na.ouom.f auw Nte.p.mouei

.$wpe R.rwme auw f.bht` Nqi.p.rwme

paei ete p.mouei .na.ouom.f auw

p.mouei .na.$wpe R.rwme

auw peja.f

je e.p.rwme .tNtwn a.u.ouwxe

R.rm.N.xht` paei Ntax.nouje N.tef.abw

e.calassa af.swk M.mo.s e.xra!

xN.calassa es.mex N.tbt` N.kouei N.

.xra! N.xht.ou af.xe a.u.noq N.tBt e.nanou.f`

Nqi.p.ouwxe R.rm.N.xht` af.nouje

N.N.kouei thr.ou N.tbt` ebol e[p.e]sht`

e.calassa af.swtp` M.p.noq N.

.tBt ywris.xise pete.ouN.maaje M.mo.f

e.swtM maref.`.swtM

9

peje.IS je eis.xhhte`

af.ei ebol Nqi.pet.`.site f.mex.toot.F

af.nouje a.xoeine men .xe ejN.te.xih`

au.ei Nqi.N.xalate au.katf.ou xN.kooue

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

11

5

6

Yeshua said:

Recognize what is in front of you,

and what is hidden from you will be revealed.

There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

His disciples questioned him:

“Should we fast? How should we pray? How should we give

alms? What rules of diet should we follow?”

Yeshua said:

Stop lying.

Do not do that which is against your love.

You are naked before heaven.

What you hide will be revealed,

whatever is veiled will be unveiled.

7

8

Yeshua said:

Fortunate is the lion eaten by a human,

for lion becomes human.

Unfortunate is the human eaten by a lion,

for human becomes lion.

Yeshua said:

A human being is like a good fisherman

who casts his net into the sea.

When he pulls it out, he finds a multitude of little fish.

Among them there is one fine, large fish.

Without hesitation, he keeps it and throws all the small fish

back into the sea.

Those who have ears, let them hear!

9

Yeshua said:

Once a sower went out

and sowed a handful of seeds.

Some fell on the road,

and were eaten by birds.

Some fell among the thorns,

which smothered their growth,

and the worms devoured them.

Some fell among the rocks,

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

12

au.xe ejN.t.ejN.t.petra auw Mpou.je.noune

e.p.esht` e.p.kax auw Mpou.teue.xMS e.xra!

e.t.pe auw xN.kooue au.xe ejN.N.$o te

au.wqt` M.pe.qroq auw a.p.fNt .ouom.ou

auw a.xN.kooue .xe ejN.p.kax et.nanou.f`

auw af.+.karpos e.xra! e.t.pe e.nanou.f` af.

.ei N.se e.sote auw $e.jouwt` e.sote

peje.IS je aei.nouje N.ou.kWXt` ejN.

.p.kosmos auw eis.xhhte +.arex ero.f`

$antef.jero

10

11

peje.IS je teei.pe .na.R.parage

auw tet.N.t.pe M.mo.s .na.R.parage

auw net.moout se.onx an auw net.onx

se.na.mou an N.xoou ne.tetN.ouwm`

M.pet.moout` ne.tetN.eire M.mo.f M.pet.onx

xotan etetN.$an.$wpe xM.p.ouoein

ou pe tetna.a.f xM.voou etetN.

.o N.oua atetN.eire M.p.snau xotan de

etetN.$a.$wpe N.snau` ou pe etetN.na.a.f`

peje.M.machths N.IS je tN.

12

13

.sooun je k.na.bwk` N.toot.N nim` pe

et.na.R.noq e.xra! ejw.n peje.IS na.u

je p.ma NtatetN.ei M.mau etetna.

.bwk` $a.!akwbos p.dikaios paei Nta.

.t.pe mN.p.kax .$wpe etbht.F

peje.IS N.nef.machths je .tNtwn.t` NtetN.

.jo.os na.ei je e.eine N.nim peja.f na.f`

Nqi.simwn.petros je ek.eine N.ou.ag`

gelos N.dikaios peja.f na.f Nqi.mac`

caios je ek.eine N.ou.rwme M.vilosovos

N.rM.N.xht` peja.f na.f Nqi.cwmas

je p.sax xolws ta.tapro .na.$ap.f` an

etra.jo.os je ek.eine N.nim` peje.iHS

je ano.k` pek.`.sax an epei ak.sw ak.+xe

ebol xN.t.phgh et.bRbre taei ano.k`

Ntaei.$it.S auw af.jit.F af.anaywrei

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

13

and could not take root.

Others fell on fertile ground,

and their fruits grew up toward heaven.

They produced sixty and one hundred-twenty units per measure.

10 Yeshua said:

I have sown fire upon the world,

and now I tend it to a blaze.

11 Yeshua said:

This sky will pass away,

and the one above it will also pass away.

The dead have no life,

and the living have no death.

On days when you ate what was dead,

you made it alive.

When you are in the light, what will you do?

When you were One, you created two.

But now that you are two, what will you do?

12 The disciples said to Yeshua:

“We know that you will leave us.

Who will be great among us then?”

Yeshua told them:

When you find yourselves at that point,

go to James¹the Just:

All that concerns heaven and earth is his domain.

13 Yeshua said to his disciples:

What am I like, for you?

To what would you compare me?

Simon Peter said: “You are like a righteous angel.”

Matthew said: “You are like a wise philosopher.”

Thomas said: “Master, my mouth could never utter what you

are like.”

Yeshua told him:

I am no longer your Master, because you have drunk, and

1. This refers to James (i.e., Jacob), the brother of Yeshua.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

14

af.jw na.f N.$omt` N.$aje Ntare.cwmas

de .ei $a.nef.`.$beer` au.jnou.f` je

Nta.IS .jo.os je ou na.k` peja.f` na.u Nqi.

.cwmas je ei.$an.`.jw nh.tN oua xN.N.$aje

Ntaf.jo.ou na.ei tetna.fi.wne Nte tN.nouje

ero.ei auw Nte.ou.kwxt` .ei e bol

xN.N.wne Ns.rwxk` M.mw.tN

14 peje. .IS na.u je etetN.$an.R.nhsteue tetna.

.jpo nh.tN N.nou.nobe auw etetN.$a .

.$lhl` se.na.R.katakrine M.mw.tN auw

etetN.$an.+.elehmosunh etetna.eire

N.ou.kakon N.netM.PNA auw etetN.

.$an.bwk` exoun e.kax .nim auw NtetM.

.moo$e xN.N.ywra eu.$a.R.paradeye M.mw.tN

pet.ou.na.kaa.f xarw.tN .ouom.F

net.$wne N.xht.ou eri.cerapeue M.mo.

.ou pet.na.bwk gar` exoun xN.tetN.tapro

f.na.jwxM.thutN an` alla pet.Nnhu

ebol` xN.tetN.tapro N.to.f pet.na.jaxM.thutN

15 peje.IS je xotan

etetN.$an.nau e.pete.Mpou.jpo.f`

ebol xN.t.sxime .pext.`.thutN ejM.

.petN.xo NtetN.ouw$t na.f` pet.M.

.mau pe petN.eiwt`

16 peje.IS je taya

eu.meeue Nqi.R.rwme je Ntaei.ei e.nouje

N.ou.eirhnh ejM.p.kosmos auw

se.sooun an je Ntaei.ei a.nouje N.xN.

.pwrj` ejN.p.kax ou.kwxt ou.shfe`

ou.polemos ouN.+ou gar .na.$w[pe]

xN.ou.hei ouN.$omt .na.$wpe ejN.

.snau auw snau ejN.$omt` p.eiwt`

ejM.p.$hre auw p.$hre ejM.p.eiwt`

auw` se.na.wxe e.rat.ou eu.o M.monayos

17 peje.IS je +.na.+ nh.tN M.pete.

.Mpe.bal .nau ero.f` auw pete.Mpe.maaje

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

15

become drunken, from the same bubbling source from

which I spring.

Then he took him aside, and said three words to him . . .

When Thomas returned to his companions, they questioned

him: “What did Yeshua tell you?”

Thomas answered: “If I told you even one of the things he said

to me, you would pick up stones and throw them at me.

And fire would come out those stones, and consume you.”

14 Yeshua said to them:

If you fast, you will be at fault.

If you pray, you will be wrong.

If you give to charity, you will corrupt your mind.

When you go into any land and walk through the countryside,

if they welcome you, eat whatever they offer you.

You can heal their sick.

It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you,

it is what comes out of your mouth that defiles you.

15 Yeshua said:

When you see someone who was not born from a womb, then

prostrate yourselves and give worship, for this is your

Father.

16 Yeshua said:

People may think that I have come to bring peace to the world.

They do not know that I have come to sow division upon the

earth: fire, sword, war.

When there are five in a house, three will be against two and

two against three; father against son and son against father.

And they will stand, and they will be alone and simple

[monakhos].

17 Yeshua said:

I will give you that which no eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

16

.sotm.ef` auw pete.Mpe.qij` .qMqwm.F`

auw Mpef.`.ei e.xra! xi.vht`

R.rwme

peje.M.machths N.IS je .jo.

18

.os ero.n je tN.xah es.na.$wpe N.

.a$ N.xe peje.IS <> atetN.qwlp` gar ebol

N.t.aryh jekaas etetna.$ine Nsa.

.caxh je xM.p.ma ete t.aryh M.mau e.

.caxh .na.$wpe M.mau ou.makarios

pet.na.wxe e.rat.F xN.t.aryh auw

f.na.souwn.cxah auw f.na.ji.+pe

an M.mou

peje.IS je ou.makarios

19

pe Ntax.$wpe xa.t.exh empatef.$wpe

etetN.$an.$wpe na.ei M.machths

NtetN.swtM a.na.$aje neei.wne

.na.R.diakonei nh.tN ouN.th.tN

gar` M.mau N.+ou N.$hn xM.para`

disos e.se.kim an N.$wm` M.prw

auw mare.nou.qwbe .xe ebol pet.`

.na.souwn.ou f.na.ji.+pe an` M.mou

peje.M.machths N.IS je .jo.os

ero.n je t.mNtero.n.M.phue es.

.tNtwn e.nim peja.f na.u je es.tNtwn

a.u.bLbile N.$Ltam soBK para.N.qroq

thr.ou xotan de es.$a .

20

.xe ejM.p.kax et.ou.R.xwb ero.f $af.

.teuo ebol N.nou.noq N.tar Nf.$wpe

N.skeph N.xalate N.t.pe

peje.marixam N.IS je e.nek.machths

.eine N.nim` peja.f` je eu.eine

21

N.xN.$hre.$hm` eu.[q]elit` a.u.sw$e e.tw.

.ou an te xotan eu.$a.ei Nqi.N.joeis

N.t.sw$e se.na.jo.os je .ke.tN.sw$e

ebol na.n N.to.ou se.kak a.xhu M.pou.Mto

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

17

no hand has touched,

and no human heart has conceived.

18 The disciples asked Yeshua:

“Tell us, what will be our end?”

Yeshua answered:

What do you know of the beginning,

so that you now seek the end?

Where the beginning is, the end will also be.

Blessed are those who abide in the beginning,

for they will know the end and will not taste death.

19 Yeshua said:

Blessed is the one who Is before existing.

If you become my disciples and listen to my words,

these stones will serve you.

In Paradise there are five trees

that do not change from summer to winter.

Their leaves do not fall.

Whoever knows them will not taste death.

20 The disciples asked Yeshua:

“Tell us, what is the Kingdom of Heaven like?”

He answered them:

It is like a grain of mustard,

the tiniest of all seeds.

When it falls upon well-plowed ground,

it becomes a great tree,

where birds of heaven will come to rest.

21 Mary asked Yeshua:

“What are your disciples like?”

He answered:

They are like little children

who have gone into a field that does not belong to them.

When the owners return and say:

“Give us back our field!”

they will remove their clothes, see themselves naked before the

owners, and leave the field to them.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

18

ebol etrou.kaa.s ebol na.u Nse.+.tou.

.sw$e na.u dia.touto +.jw M.mo.s je ef.`

.$a.eime Nqi.p.jes.xN.hei je f.nhu Nqi.

.p.ref.jioue f.na.roeis empatef.`.ei Nf.tM.

.kaa.f` e.$ojt` exoun e.pef.hei Nte.tef.`

.mNtero etref.fi N.nef.`.skeuos N.tw.tN

de .roeis xa.t.exh M.p.kosmos .mour` M.

.mw.tN ejN.netN.+pe xN.nou.noq N.dunamis

$ina je ne.n.lhsths .xe e.xih e.ei

$arw.tN epei te.yreia etetN.qw$t`

ebol xht.S se.na.xe ero.s maref.$wpe

xN.tetN.mhte Nqi.ou.rwme N.episthmwn

Ntare.p.karpos .pwx af.ei xN.nou.

.qeph e.pef.asx xN.tef.qij af.xas.f pete.ouN.maaje

M.mo.f` e.swtM maref.swtM

22 a.IS .nau a.xN.kouei eu.ji.erwte peja.f N.

.nef.machths je neei.kouei et.ji.erwte

eu.tNtwn a.net.bhk` exoun a.t.mNtero

peja.u na.f` je eeie n.o N.kouei tN.

.na.bwk` exoun e.t.mNtero peje.iHS na.u

je xotan etetN.$a.R.p.snau oua auw

etetN.$a.R.p.sa.n.xoun N.ce M.p.sa.n.bol

auw p.sa.n.bol N.ce M.p.sa.n.xoun auw p.sa. .

.t.pe N.ce M.p.sa.m.p.itN auw $ina etetna.eire

M.vo`out` mN.t.sxime M.pi.oua

ouwt` jekaas ne.voout` .R.xoout` Nte.

.t.sxime .R.sxime xotan etetN.$a.eire

N.xN.bal e.p.ma N.ou.bal` auw ou.qij`

e.p.ma N.nou.qij` auw ou.erhte e.p.ma

N.ou.erhte ou.xikwn` e.p.ma N.ou.xikw

tote tetna.bwk` exoun [e.t.mNtero]

23 peje.IS je +.na.se[t]p.thne oua ebol

xN.$o auw snau ebol xN.tba auw

se.na.wxe e.rat.ou eu.o oua ouwt`

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

19

This is why I say:

If the master of the house knows that a thief is coming,

he will be vigilant and not allow the thief to break into the

house of his kingdom,

or carry off his goods.

Thus you should be vigilant toward the world.

Strengthen yourselves with great energy

or the robbers will find a way to get to you.

The profit that you are counting on will be found by them.

May there be a wise person among you . . .

When the crop is ripe, he comes immediately

and harvests it with his sickle.

Those who have ears, let them hear!

22 Yeshua saw some infants being nursed at the breast.

He said to his disciples:

These nursing infants are like those who enter the Kingdom.

The disciples asked him:

“Then shall we become as infants to enter into the Kingdom?”

Yeshua answered them:

When you make the two into One,

when you make the inner like the outer

and the high like the low;

when you make male and female into a single One,

so that the male is not male and the female is not female;

when you have eyes in your eyes,

a hand in your hand,

a foot in your foot,

and an icon in your icon,²

then you will enter into the Kingdom.

23 Yeshua said:

I will choose one of you from a thousand

and two of you from ten thousand,

and they will stand as one, alone and simple [monakhos].

2. [The author uses the word icon, whereas other translations use image. This does not

refer to a physical icon, but rather suggests the deeper meaning of image, as evoked by the

original Greek/Coptic term ikon. —Trans.]

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

20

24 peje.nef.machths je ma.tsebo.n` e.p.topos

et.k.M.mau epei tanagkh ero.n te

etrN.$ine Nsw.f` peja.f` na.u je pet.euN.maaje

M.mo.f maref.`.swtM ouN.ouoein`

.$oop` M.voun N.nou.rM.ouoein

auw f.R.ouoein e.p.kosmos thr.f` ef.tM.

.R.ouoein` ou.kake pe

25 peje.IS je .mere.

.pek.son N.ce N.tek.`.2uyh eri.threi M.mo.f

N.ce N.t.elou M.pek.`.bal`

26 peje.IS je p.jh

et.xM.p.bal M.pek.`.son k.nau ero.f` p.soei

de et.xM.pek.bal` k.nau an ero.f` xotan

ek.$an.nouje M.p.soei ebol xM.pek.`

.bal` tote k.na.nau ebol e.nouje M.p.jh

ebol xM.p.bal M.pek.son

27 etetM.R.nhsteue e.p.kosmos tetna.xe an` e.t.mNtero

etetN.tM.eire M.p.sambaton N.sab`baton

Ntetna.nau an e.p.eiwt`

28 peje.IS je aei.wxe e.rat.` xN.t.mhte M.p.kosmos

auw aei.ouwnx ebol na.u xN.sar3

aei.xe ero.ou thr.ou eu.taxe Mpi.xe e.laau

N.xht.ou ef.obe auw a.ta.2uyh .+.tkas

ejN.N.$hre N.R.rwme je xN.bLleeue

ne xM.pou.xht` auw se.nau ebol an

je Ntau.ei e.p.kosmos eu.$oueit` eu.

.$ine on etrou.ei ebol xM.p.kosmos

eu.$oueit` plhn tenou se.toxe xotan

eu.$an.nex.pou.hrp` tote se.na.R.metanoei

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

21

24 His disciples asked:

“Teach us about the place where you dwell,

for we must seek it.”

He told them:

Those who have ears, let them hear!

There is light within people of light,

and they shine it upon the whole world.

If they do not shine it,

what darkness!

25 Yeshua said:

Love your brother and sister as your soul;

protect them as you do the pupil of your eye.

26 Yeshua said:

You see the sliver in your brother’s eye,

but you do not see the log in your own eye.

When you remove the log from your eye,

then you will see clearly enough to remove the sliver from your

brother’s eye.

27 Yeshua said:

If you do not fast from the world,

you will not find the Kingdom.

If you do not celebrate the Sabbath as a Sabbath,

you will not know the Father.

28 Yeshua said:

I stood in the midst of the world

and revealed myself to them in the flesh.

I found them all intoxicated.

Not one of them was thirsty

and my soul grieved for the children of humanity,

for they are blind in their hearts.

They do not see.

They came naked into the world,

and naked they will leave it.

At this time, they are intoxicated.

When they have vomited their wine,

they will return to themselves.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

22

peje.IS <> e$je Nta.t.sar3`

29

.$wpe etbe.PNA ou.$phre te e$je.PNA

de etbe.p.swma ou.$phre

N.$phre pe alla ano.k` +.R.$phre

M.paei je pw[s] a.[teei.]noq M.mNt.rM.mao

as.ouwx xN.teei.mNt.xhke

peje.IS je p.ma euN.$omt N.noute M.mau xN.noute

ne p.ma euN.snau h oua ano.k`

+.$oop` nmma.f`

30

31

32

33

peje.IS <> mN.provhths

.$hp` xM.pef.+mema.re.soein .R.cerapeue

N.net.`.sooun M.mo.f`

peje.IS je ou.polis eu.kwt M.mo.s xijN.ou.toou

ef.jose es.tajrhu mN.qom Ns.xe

oude s.na$.xwp` an

peje.IS <> pet.`.k.na.

.swtM ero.f xM.pek.`.maaje xM.p.ke.maaje

.ta$e.oei$` M.mo.f xijN.netN.jenepwr`

ma.re.laau` gar .jere.xhBS Nf.`

.kaa.f` xa.maaje oude maf.kaa.f` xM.ma

ef.xhp` alla e.$aref.kaa.f` xijN.t.luynia

jekaas ouon .nim` et.bhk` exoun

auw et.Nnhu ebol eu.na.nau a.pef.ouoein

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

23

29 Yeshua said:

If flesh came into being because of spirit,

it is a wonder.

But if spirit came into being because of flesh,

it is a wonder of wonders.

Yet the greatest of wonders is this:

How is it that this Being, which Is,

inhabits this nothingness?

30 Yeshua said:

Where there are three gods,

they are gods.

Where there are two or one,

I am with them.

31 Yeshua said:

No one is a prophet in his own village.

No one is a physician in his own home.

32 Yeshua said:

A strong city built upon a high mountain

cannot be destroyed,

cannot be hidden.

33 Yeshua said:

What you hear with your ears,

tell it to other ears

and proclaim it from the rooftops.

No one lights a lamp

so that it will be put under a basket

or hidden somewhere.

Rather, one puts it upon a stand

so that all who enter and leave

may see the light.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

24

34 peje.IS je ou.bLle ef.$an.`.swk`

xht.f` N.nou.bLle $au.xe M.pe.snau`

e.p.esht` e.u.xieit`

35 peje.IS <> mN.qom`

Nte.oua .bwk` exoun e.p.hei M.p.jwwre

Nf.jit.f` N.jnax eimhti Nf.mour

N.nef.qij` tote f.na.pwwne ebol

M.pef.hei

36 peje.IS <> mN.fi.roou$ ji .

.xtooue $a.rouxe auw jin.xi.rouxe

$a.xtooue je ou pe et.na.taa.f xiwt.`

.thutN

37 peje.nef.machths je a$ N.

.xoou ek.na.ouwnx ebol na.n auw a$

N.xoou ena.nau ero.k` peje.IS je xotan

etetN.$a.kek.thutN e.xhu MpetN.$ipe

auw NtetN.fi N.netN.$thn

NtetN.kaa.u xa.p.esht` N.netN.ouerhte

N.ce N.ni.kouei N.$hre.$hm` NtetN.jopjP`

M.mo.ou tot[e tetna.na]u

e.p.$hre M.pet.onx auw tetna.R.

.xote an

38 peje.IS je xax N.sop` atetN.

.R.epicumei e.swtM a.neei.$aje naei`

e+.jw M.mo.ou nh.tN auw mN.th.tN.

.ke.oua e.sotm.ou N.toot.F ouN.xN.xoou

.na.$wpe NtetN.$ine Nsw.ei tetna.xe

an` ero.ei`

39 peje.IS je M.varisaios

mN.N.grammateus au.ji N.$a$t`

N.t.gnwsis au.xop.ou oute Mpou.bwk`

exoun auw net.ouw$ e.bwk` exoun

Mpou.kaa.u N.tw.tN de .$wpe M.vronimos

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

25

34 Yeshua said:

When a blind person leads another blind person,

they both fall into a pit.

35 Yeshua said:

One cannot capture the house of the strong

except by tying their hands.

Then everything can be overturned.

36 Yeshua said:

Do not worry from morning to evening,

or from evening to morning,

about having clothes to wear.

37 His disciples asked:

“When will be the day that you appear to us?”

“When will be the day of our vision?”

Yeshua replied:

On the day when you are naked

as newborn infants

who trample their clothing,

then you will see the Son of the Living One

and you will have no more fear.

38 Yeshua said:

Often you have wanted to hear

the words I speak to you now.

No one else can say them to you,

and the days will come

when you seek me

and do not find me.

39 Yeshua said:

The Pharisees and the scribes

have received the keys of knowledge

and hidden them.

They did not go within,

and those who wanted to go there

were prevented by them.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

26

N.ce N.n.xof` auw N.akeraios N.ce N.N.

.qrompe

40 peje.IS <> ou.be.n.eloole au.

.toq.s M.p.sa.n.bol M.p.eiwt` auw es.tajrhu

an se.na.pork.S xa.tes.noune Ns.

.tako

41 peje.IS je pet.euN.ta.f` xN.tef.`

.qij se.na.+ na.f` auw pete.mN.ta.f p.ke.

.$hm et.ouN.ta.f` se.na.fit.F N.toot.f`

42 peje.IS je .$wpe etetN.R.parage

43 peja.u na.f` Nqi.nef.`.machths je N.ta.k`

nim` ek.jw N.na! na.n` xN.ne+.jw M.

.mo.ou nh.tN NtetN.eime an je ano.k`

nim alla N.tw.tN atetN.$wpe N.ce N.

.ni.!oudaios je se.me M.p.$hn se.moste

M.pef.karpos auw se.me M.p.karpos

se.moste M.p.$hn

44 peje.IS je peta.je.

.oua a.p.eiwt` se.na.kw ebol na.f` auw

peta.je.oua e.p.$hre se.na.kw ebol

na.f` peta.je.oua de a.p.PNA et.ouaab

se.na.kw an ebol na.f` oute xM.p.kax

oute xN.t.pe

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

27

As for you, be as alert as the serpent

and as simple as the dove.

40 Yeshua said:

A grapevine planted away from the Father

has no vitality.

It will be torn up by its roots

and will perish.

41 Yeshua said:

Whoever has something in hand

will be given more.

Whoever has nothing,

even the little they have

will be taken away.

42 Yeshua said:

Be passersby.

43 The disciples asked him:

“Who are you to say these things to us?”

Yeshua replied:

Do you not know me from what I say to you?

Or have you become like those Judeans:

If they love the tree,

they despise the fruit.

If they love the fruit,

they despise the tree.

44 Yeshua said:

Whoever blasphemes against the Father

will be forgiven,

and whoever blasphemes against the Son

will be forgiven.

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

will not be forgiven,

either on earth or in heaven.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

28

45 peje.IS <> mau.jele.eloole

ebol xN.$onte oute mau.kwtf.`

.kNte ebol xN.sR.qamoul` mau.+.karpos

[gar ou.aga]cos R.rwme $af.eine N.

.ou.agacon ebol x[M.]pef.exo ou.ka[kos]

R.rwme $af.eine N.xN.ponhron ebol

xM.pef.exo ecoou et.xN.pef.xht` auw

Nf.jw N.xN.ponhron ebol gar xM.

.vouo M.vht` $af.`.eine ebol N.xN.ponhron

46 peje.IS je jin.`.adam $a.!wxa nhs

p.baptisths xN.N.jpo N.N.xiome

mN.pet.jose a.!wxannhs p.baptisths

$ina je n.ouwqp` Nqi.nef.bal

aei.jo.os de je pet.na.$wpe xN.thutN

ef.o N.kouei f.na.souwn.t.mNtero

auw f.na.jise a.!wxannhs

47 peje.IS je mN.qom Nte.ou.rwme .telo a.xto

snau Nf.jwlk` M.pite .sNte auw mN.

.qom` Nte.ou.xmXAL .$M$e.joeis .snau

h f.na.R.tima M.p.oua` auw p.ke.oua f.na.

.R.xubrize M.mo.f`ma.re.rwme .se.Rp.as

auw N.t.eunou Nf.`.epicumei a.sw hrp`

B.brre auw mau.nouj.`.hrp` B.bRre e.askos

N.as jekaas Nnou.pwx auw mau.

.nej.`.hrp` N.as e.askos B.bRre $ina je

ne.f.teka.f` mau.jLq.toeis N.as a.$th

N.$aei epei oun.ou.pwx .na.$wpe

48 peje.IS je er$a.snau .R.eirhnh mN.

.nou.erhu xM.pei.hei ouwt` se.na.jo.os

M.p.tau je .pwwne ebol auw f.na.pwwne

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

29

45 Yeshua said:

Grapes are not picked from thornbushes

nor figs from thistles,

for they do not give fruit.

The good offer goodness

from the secret of their heart.

The perverse offer perversity

from the secret of their heart.

That which is expressed

is what overflows from the heart.

46 Yeshua said:

From Adam to John the Baptist,

no one born of woman

is higher than John the Baptist.

Thus his eyes will not be destroyed.

But I have said:

Whoever among you becomes small

will know the Kingdom, and be higher than John.

47 Yeshua said:

A man cannot ride two horses

nor bend two bows.

A servant cannot serve two masters,

for he will honor one and disdain the other.

No one drinks an old wine

and then desires a new one.

New wine is not put into old wineskins,

for they will crack.

Old wine is not put into new skins,

for it will spoil.

A patch of old cloth is not sewn

onto a new garment,

for it will tear.

48 Yeshua said:

If two make peace with each other

in a single house,

then they can say to the mountain: “Move!”

And it will move.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

30

49

50

peje.IS je xen.makarios ne n.

.monayos auw et.sotp` je tetna.

.xe a.t.mNtero je N.tw.tN xN.ebol

N.xht.S palin etetna.bwk` e.mau

peje.IS je eu.$an.jo.os nh.tN je NtatetN.$wpe

ebol twn .jo.os na.u

je Ntan.ei ebol xM.p.ouoein p.ma

enta.p.ouoein .$wpe M.mau ebol

xi.toot.f` ouaat.f` af.w[xe e.rat.F]

[a]uw af.ouw[nx] [eb]ol [x]N.tou.xikwn eu.

.$a.jo.os nh.tN je N.tw.tN pe .jo.os

je ano.n nef.$hre auw ano.n N.swtp`

M.p.eiwt` et.onx eu.$an.jne.thutN

je ou pe p.maein M.petN.eiwt` et.xN.

.thutN .jo.os ero.ou je ou.kim pe mN.

.ou.anapausis

51

52

peja.u na.f Nqi.nef.machths

je a$ N.xoou e.t.anapausis N.

.net.moout` .na.$wpe auw a$ N.xoou

e.p.kosmos B.bRre .nhu peja.f na.u je

th etetN.qw$t` ebol xht.S as.ei alla

N.tw.tN tetN.sooun an M.mo.s

peja.u

na.f Nqi.nef.machths je jout.afte

M.provhths au.$aje xM.p.israhl`

auw au.$aje thr.ou xra! N.xht.k` pe`

ja.f na.u je atetN.kw M.pet.onx M.pe

ebol auw atetN.$aje xa.net.

.moout`

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

31

49 Yeshua said:

Blessed are you, the whole ones and the chosen ones.

You will find the Kingdom,

for you came from there,

and you will return.

50 Yeshua said:

If they ask you from where you come,

say:

We were born of the Light,

there where Light is born of Light.

It holds true

and is revealed within their image.

If they ask you who you are,

say:

We are its children,

the beloved of the Father, the Living One.

If they ask you what is the sign of the Father in you,

say:

It is movement and it is repose.

51 His disciples said to him:

“When will the dead be at rest?”

“When will the new world come?”

He answered them:

What you are waiting for has already come,

but you do not see it.

52 His disciples said to him:

“Twenty-four prophets have spoken in Israel,

and they all spoke of you.”

He said to them:

You have disregarded the Living One

who is in your presence,

and you have spoken of the dead.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

32

peja.u na.f Nqi.nef.machths

je p.sBbe .R.wvelei h M.mo.n peja.f`

na.u je nef.R.wvelei ne.pou.eiwt` .na.

.jpo.ou ebol xN.tou.maau eu.sBbhu

alla p.sBbe M.me xM.PNA af.qN.xhu

thr.f`

53

peje.IS je xN.makarios ne n.xhke

je tw.tN te t.mNtero.n.M.phue`

54

55

peje.IS je peta.meste.pef.`.eiwt`

an` mN.tef.maau f.na$.R.machths an

na.ei` auw Nf.meste.nef.`.snhu` mN.

.nef.swne Nf.fei M.pef.s7os N.ta.xe

f.na.$wpe an ef.o N.a3ios na.ei

peje.IS

56

57

je petax.souwn.p.kosmos af.`

.xe e.u.ptwma auw pentax.xe e.a.ptwma

p.kosmos .Mp$a M.mo.f an

peje.IS je t.mNtero M.p.eiwt` es.tNtw

a.u.rwme euN.ta.f M.mau N.nou.qroq

[e.nanou.]f` a.pef.jaje .ei N.t.ou$h`

af.site N.ou.zizani[on ej]N.pe.qro[q e]t.nanou.f`

Mpe.p.rwme .koo.u e.xwle

M.p.zizanion peja.f na.u je mhpws

NtetN.bwk` je ena.xwle M.p.zizanio

NtetN.xwle M.p.souo nMma.f` xM.voou

gar M.p.wXS N.zizanion .na.ouwnx

ebol` se.xol.ou Nse.rokx.ou

peje.IS je ou.makarios pe p.rwme Ntax.xise

af.xe a.p.wnx

58

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

33

53 His disciples asked him:

“Is circumcision useful or not?”

He replied:

If it were useful, fathers would engender sons born circumcised

from their mothers.

Rather, it is the circumcision in spirit that is truly useful.

54 Blessed are you, the poor,

for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

55 Yeshua said:

Whoever cannot free themselves from their father and their

mother

cannot become my disciple.

Whoever cannot free themselves from their brother and sister

and does not bear their cross as I do

is not worthy of me.

56 Yeshua said:

Whoever knows the world

discovers a corpse.

And whoever discovers a corpse

cannot be contained by the world.

57 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father is like the man

who had some good seed.

His enemy came at night and sowed weeds

among the good seed.

The man would not allow them to pull up the weeds,

saying, “I fear you might pull up the wheat as well.”

Indeed, at harvesttime, the weeds will be conspicuous.

They will be pulled up and burned.

58 Yeshua said:

Blessed are those who have undergone ordeals.

They have entered into life.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

34

59 peje.IS je qw$t` Nsa.pet.onx

xws etetN.onx xina je netM.mou

auw NtetN.$ine e.nau ero.f auw tetna$.

.qM. qom an

60 e.nau a.u.samareiths ef.fi N.

.nou.xieib` ef.bhk` exoun e.+oudaia peja.f`

N.nef.`.machths je ph M.p.kwte

M.pe.xieib` peja.u na.f <> jekaas ef.na.

.moout.f` Nf.ouom.f` peja.f na.u <> xws ef.onx

f.na.ouom.f` an alla ef.$a.moout.f`

Nf.$wpe N.ou.ptwma peja.u

je N.ke.smot` f.na$.a.s an peja.f na.u

je N.tw.tN xwt.`.thutN .$ine Nsa.ou.

.topos nh.tN exoun e.u.anapausis

jekaas NnetN.$wpe M.ptwma Nse.

.ouwm.`.thutN

61 peje.IS <> ouN.snau .na.Mton`

M.mau xi.ou.qloq p.oua .na.mou p.oua

.na.wnx peje.salwmh <> Nta.k` nim`

p.rwme xws ebol xN.oua ak.telo ejM.

.pa.qloq auw ak.`.ouwm ebol xN.ta.

.trapeza peje.IS na.s je ano.k` pe

pet.$oop` ebol xM.pet.`.$h$ au.+

na.ei ebol xN.na.pa.eiwt` ano.k` tek.`

machths etbe.paei +.jw M.mo.s je

xotan ef.$a.$wpe ef.$hf` f.na.moux

ouoein xotan de ef.$an.$wpe ef.

.ph$ f.na.moux N.kake

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

35

59 Yeshua said:

Look to the Living One

while you are alive.

If you wait until you are dead,

you will search in vain for the vision.

60 They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb,

entering into Judea.

He said to his disciples:

What will the man do with the lamb?

They answered:

“He will kill it and eat it.”

He told them:

As long as it is alive, he will not eat it,

but only if he kills it and it becomes a cadaver.

They said: “He cannot do otherwise.”

He told them:

Seek a place in Repose.

Do not become cadavers,

lest you be eaten.

61 Yeshua said:

Two will lie on a single bed.

One will die, the other will live.

Salome asked him:

“Who are you, Sir?

Where do you come from, you who

lie on my bed and eat at my table?”

Yeshua replied:

I come from the One who is Openness.

What comes from my Father has been given to me.

Salome answered:

“I am your disciple.”

Yeshua told her:

That is why I say that when disciples are open,

they are filled with light.

When they are divided,

they are filled with darkness.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

36

62 peje.IS je ei.

.jw N.na.musthrion N.n[et.Mp$a N.]

[.na.m]usthrion pe[t]e.tek.`.ounam .na.a.f

mNtre.tek.xbour` .eime je es.r.ou

peje.IS je neuN.ou.rwme M.plousios euN.ta.f M.

.mau N.xax N.yrhma peja.f je +.na.R.yrw N.

.na.yrhma jekaas e.ei.na.jo Nta.wsx

Nta.twqe Nta.moux N.na.exwr N.kar`pos

$ina je n.i.R.qrwx L.laau naei ne

63

nef.meeue ero.ou xM.pef.xht` auw xN.

.t.ou$h et.M.mau af.mou pet.euM.maje

M.mo.f` maref.`.swtM

64

peje.IS je ou.rwme

neuN.ta.f.xN.$Mmo auw Ntaref.sobte

M.p.dipnon af.joou M.pef.xmXAL $ina

ef.na.twxm N.N.$Mmoei af.bwk` M.

.p.$orp` peja.f na.f` je pa.joeis .twxM

M.mo.k` peja.f je ouN.ta.ei.xN.xomt`

a.xen.emporos se.Nnhu $aro.ei e.rouxe

+.na.bwk` Nta.ouex.saxne na.u +.R.paraitei

M.p.dipnon af.bwk` $a.ke.oua peja.f

na.f` je a.pa.joeis .twxM M.mo.k`

peja.f na.f je aei.toou ou.hei auw se.

.R.aitei M.mo.ei N.ou.xhmera +.na.sRfe a

af.ei $a.ke.oua peja.f na.f` je pa.joeis

.twxM M.mo.k` peja.f na.f je pa.$bhr

.na.R.$eleet auw ano.k` et.na.R.dipnon

+.na$.i an +.R.paraitei M.p.dipnon` af.`

.bwk` $a.ke.oua peja.f na.f je pa.joeis

.twxm M.mo.k` peja.f na.f` je aei.toou N.

.ou.kwmh e.ei.bhk` a.ji N.$wm +.na$.i

an +.R.paraitei af.ei Nqi.p.xmXAL af.jo.

.os a.pef.joeis je nentak.`.taxm.ou a.

.p.dipnon au.paraitei peje.p.joeis M.

.pef.xmXAL je .bwk` e.p.sa.n.bol a.n.xiooue

net.k.na.xe ero.ou .eni.ou jekaas

eu.na.R.dipnei N.ref.toou mN.n.e$o[te eu.na.bwk]

an` exoun` e.n.topos M.pa.!wt`

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

37

62 Yeshua said:

I reveal my mysteries

to those who become worthy.

Do not let your left hand know

what your right hand is doing.

63 Yeshua said:

There was once a rich man with a great amount of money

who said: “I will use my money for sowing,

reaping, planting, and filling my silos with grain

so that I will never lack for anything.”

Such was the thought of his heart.

Yet that night, he died.

Those who have ears,

Let them hear!

64 Yeshua said:

There was a man who invited some visitors. After preparing

the meal, he sent his servant

to summon the guests.

The servant went to the first one and said “My master invites

you.”

The man answered: “I have business with some merchants who

are arriving this evening. Please excuse me from the dinner.”

The servant went to the next one and said “My master invites

you.”

This man answered: “I have just bought a house and need one

day more, so I cannot come.”

The servant went to another guest and said “My master invites

you.”

The man answered: “My friend is getting married and I must

prepare the food. Excuse me.”

The servant returned to his master and said:

“Those you have invited to dinner cannot come.”

His master replied:

“Then go out on the roads and invite whoever you find

to dine with me.

Buyers and merchants will not enter my Father’s dwelling.”

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

38

65 peja.f je ou.rwme N.yrh[sto]s neuN.[.ta.f]

N.ou.ma N.eloole af.taa.f N.[x]N.ouoeie

$ina eu.na.R.xwb` ero.f` Nf.ji [M.]pef.kar`pos

N.toot.ou af.joou M.pef.xmXAL jekaas

e.n.ouoeie .na.+ na.f` M.p.karpos M.

.p.ma N.eloole au.emaxte M.pef.xMXAL

au.xioue ero.f` ne.ke.kouei pe Nse.moout.f`

a.p.xmXAL .bwk` af.jo.os e.pef.joeis

peje.pef.joeis je me$ak` Mpef.`.souwn.ou

af.joou N.ke.xmXAL a.n.ouoeie .xioue

e.p.ke.oua tote a.p.joeis .joou M.

.pef.$hre peja.f` je me$ak` se.na.$ipe

xht.f` M.pa.$hre a.n.`.ouoeie et.M.mau epei

se.sooun je N.to.f pe pe.klhronomos

M.p.ma N.eloole au.qop.f` au.moout.f`

pet.euM.maaje M.mo.f` maref.`.swtM

66 peje.IS je ma.tsebo.ei e.p.wne paei Ntau.

.sto.f` ebol` Nqi.net.`.kwt` N.to.f pe p.wwne

N.kwx

67 peje.IS je pet.sooun M.p.thr.f

ef.R.qrwx ouaa.f .R.qrwx M.p.ma thr.f`

68 peje.IS je N.tw.tN xM.makarios xota

eu.$an.meste.thutN Nse.R.diwke M.

.mw.tN auw se.na.xe an e.topos xM.p.ma

entau.diwke M.mw.tN xra! N.xht.f`

69 peje.IS <> xM.makarios ne naei Ntau.diwke

M.mo.ou xra! xM.pou.xht` net.M.mau`

nentax.souwn.p.eiwt` xN.ou.me xM.

.makarios net.xkaeit` $ina eu.na.

.tsio N.cxh M.pet.ouw$

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

39

65 Yeshua said:

A good man had a vineyard,

which he gave to tenants to work

and harvest the fruit for him.

He sent his servant to collect the fruit of the vine.

But the tenants seized the servant

and beat him nearly to death.

The servant reported this to his master, who thought:

“Perhaps they didn’t recognize him.”

And he sent another servant, who was also beaten.

Then the master sent his own son,

thinking: “Perhaps they will treat him with respect.”

When the tenants realized that he was the inheritor of the

vineyard,

they seized him and killed him.

Those who have ears,

Let them hear!

66 Yeshua said:

Show me the stone rejected by the builders.

That is the cornerstone.

67 Yeshua said:

Those who know the All

yet do not know themselves

are deprived of everything.

68 Yeshua said:

Blessed are you when they hate you

and persecute you.

There is a place where you are not persecuted

that they will never find.

69 Yeshua said:

Blessed are those

who have been persecuted in their hearts,

for they have known the Father in Truth.

Blessed are those who are hungry,

for they will be fulfilled.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

40

70 peje.IS <> xotan

etetN.$a.jpe.ph xN.thutN pa!

et.euN.th.tN.F f.na.touje.thutN e$wpe

mN.th.tN.ph xN[.thut]N paei ete

mN.th.tN.F xN.thne f[.na.m]out.`.thne

71 peje.IS je +.na.$or[$R M.peei.h]ei

auw mN.laau .na$.kot.f [an N.ke.sop]

72 [peje.ou.rwme na.f`] je .jo.os N.na.snhu

$ina eu.n[a.p]w$e N.N.xnaau M.pa.eiwt`

nMma.ei peja.f na.f` je w p.rwme nim

pe Ntax.a.at` N.ref.pw$e af.kot.F a.`

.nef.machths peja.f na.u je mh e.ei.

.$oop` N.ref.`.pw$e

73 peje.IS je p.wxs

men .na$w.f` N.ergaths de sobk` .sopS

de M.p.joeis $ina ef.na.nej.`.ergaths

ebol` e.p.wXS

74 peja.f je p.joeis ouN.

.xax M.p.kwte N.t.jwte mN.laau de xN.

.t.$wne`

75 peje.IS <> oun.xax .axerat.ou

xirM.p.ro alla M.monayos net.na.bwk`

exoun e.p.ma N.$eleet`

76 peje.IS je

t.mNtero M.p.eiwt` es.tNtwn a.u.rwme

N.e$wwt` euN.ta.f` M.mau N.ou.vortion

e.af.xe a.u.margariths p.e$wt`

et.M.mau ou.sabe pe af.+.pe.vortion

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

41

70 Yeshua said:

When you bring forth that within you,

then that will save you.

If you do not,

then that will kill you.

71 Yeshua said:

I will overturn this house

and none will be able to rebuild it.

72 A man said to him:

“Speak to my brothers,

that they may share with me

my father’s property.”

Yeshua answered him:

Who made me into a divider?

Turning to his disciples,

he said:

Who am I, to divide?

73 Yeshua said:

The harvest is abundant

but the workers are few.

Pray the Master to send

more workers to the harvest.

74 The Master said:

There are many who stand round the well,

but no one to go down into it.

75 Yeshua said:

Many are standing by the door,

but only those who are alone and simple [monakhos]

can enter the bridal chamber.

76 The Kingdom of the Father

is like the merchant

who had a load of goods to sell.

Then he saw a pearl.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

42

ebol af.toou na.f` M.pi.margariths

ouwt` N.tw.tN xwt.`.thutN .$ine

Nsa.pef.exo e.maf.wjN ef.mhn` ebol

p.ma e.ma.re.jooles .txno exoun` e.mau

e.ouwm` oude ma.ref.fNt .tako

77 peje.IS je ano.k pe p.ouoein paei et.xijw.ou

thr.ou ano.k` pe p.thr.f` Nta.

.p.thr.f` .ei ebol N.xht.` auw Nta.p.thr.f`

.pwx $aro.ei .pwx N.nou.$e ano.k`

+.M.mau .fi M.p.wne e.xra! auw tetna.

.xe ero.ei M.mau

78 peje.IS je etbe.ou

atetN.ei ebol e.t.sw$e e.nau e.u.ka$

ef.kim [ebol] xitM.p.thu auw e.nau

e.u.r[wme eu]N.$thn eu.qhn xiw.wb

[N.ce N.netN.]Rrwou mN.netM.megistanos

naei e.n[e.$th]n e[t.]

.qhn xiw.ou auw se.[na]$.Ssoun.

.t.me an

79 peje.ou.sxim[e] na.f xM.

.p.mh$e je neeiat[.S N.]cxh

Ntax.fi xaro.k auw N.kibe entax.

.sanou$.k peja.f na[.s] je

neeiat.ou N.nentax.swtM a.`

.p.logos M.p.eiwt au.arex ero.f

xN.ou.me ouN.xN.xoou gar .na.$wpe

NtetN.jo.os je neeiat.S N.ch taei

ete Mps.w auw N.kibe naei e.mpou.

.+.erwte

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

43

The merchant was wise

and sold his goods to buy the pearl.

You too should pursue

that treasure which is everlasting,

there where moths never go

nor worms devour.

77 Yeshua said:

I am the Light

that shines on everyone.

I am the All.

The All came forth from me

and the All came into me.

Split the wood, and I am there.

Turn over the stone,

and there you will find me.

78 Yeshua said:

Why do you roam the countryside?

To see some reeds shaken by the wind?

To see people like your kings and courtiers

in elegant clothes?

They wear fine clothes,

but they cannot know the truth.

79 A woman in the crowd said to him:

“Blessed are the womb that bore you

and the breasts that nursed you!”

He answered:

Blessed are those who listen

to the Word of the Father

and truly follow it,

for the day will come

when you will say:

Blessed are the womb that has never borne

and the breasts that have never nursed.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

44

80 peje.IS je pentax.souwn.

.p.kosmos af.xe e.p.swma pentax.xe

de e.p.swma p.kosmos .Mp$a M.mo.f`

an`

81 peje.IS je pentax.R.rM.mao

maref.R.rro auw pet.euN.ta.f` N.ou.dunamis

maref.arna

82 peje.IS je pet.xhn

ero.ei ef.xhn e.t.sate auw pet.ouhu`

M.mo.ei f.ouhu N.t.mNtero

83 peje.IS je n.xikwn se.ouonx ebol M.p.rwme

auw p.ouoein et.N.xht.ou f.xhp`

xN.cikwn M.p.ouoein M.p.eiwt` f.na.

.qwlp` ebol auw tef.xikwn .xhp`

ebol xitN.pef.`.ouoein

84 peje.IS <> N.xoou

etetN.nau e.petN.eine $aretN.

.ra$e xotan de etetN.$an.nau`

a.netN.xikwn` Ntax.$wpe xi.tetn.exh

oute mau.mou oute mau.ouwnx

ebol tetna.fi xa.ouhr`

85 peje.IS je

Nta.adam .$wpe ebol xN.nou.noq

N.dunamis mN.ou.noq M.mNt.rM.mao

auw Mpef.$wpe e[f.Mp]$a M.mw.

.tN ne.u.a3ios gar pe [nef.na.ji.+pe]

an M.p.mou

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

45

80 Yeshua said:

Whoever knows the world

discovers the body.

But the world is unworthy

of whoever discovers the body.

81 Yeshua said:

Whoever has become rich,

may he become king;

Whoever has power,

may he renounce it.

82 Yeshua said:

Whoever is near to me

is near to the fire.

Whoever is far from me

is far from the Kingdom.

83 Yeshua said:

When images become visible to people,

the light that is in them is hidden.

In the icon of the light of the Father

it will be manifest

and the icon veiled by the light.

84 Yeshua said:

When you see

your true likeness,

you rejoice.

But when you see your icons,

those that were before you existed,

and that never die and never manifest,

what grandeur!

85 Yeshua said:

Adam was produced by a great power

and a great wealth,

yet he was not worthy of you.

If he had been worthy,

he would not have known death.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

46

86 peje.IS j[e N.ba$or

ou][N.ta.]u.n[ou.bhb] auw N.xalate ouN.ta.u

M.mau M.[po]u.max p.$hre de M.p.rwme

mN.ta.f` n.[nou]ma e.rike N.tef.`.ape Nf.`

.Mton` M[mo].f`

87 peja.f Nqi.IS je ou.talaipwron`

p[e] p.swma et.a$e N.ou.swma`

auw ou.t[a]laipwros te t.`.2uyh et.a$e

N.naei M.p.snau

88 peje.IS je N.aggelos

.nhu $arw.tN mN.N.provhths auw se.

.na.+ nh.tN N.net.euN.th.tN.se auw`

N.tw.tN xwt.`.thutN net.Ntot.`.thne

.taa.u na.u NtetN.jo.os nh.tN je a$ N.

.xoou pet.ou.Nnhu Nse.ji.pete.pw.ou

89 peje.IS je etbe.ou tetN.eiwe M.p.sa.n.

.bol` M.p.pothrion tetN.R.noei an je

pentax.tamio M.p.sa.n.xoun N.to.f on

pentaf.tamio M.p.sa.n.bol`

90 peje.iHS je .amheitN $aro.ei` je ou.yrhstos

pe pa.naxb` auw ta.mNt.joeis ou.rM.

.ra$ te auw tetna.xe a.u.anaupasis nh.TN

91 peja.u na.f` je .jo.os ero.n je

Ntk.nim` $ina ena.R.pisteue ero.k`

peja.f na.u je tetN.R.piraze M.p.xo N.t.pe

mN.p.kax auw pet.N.petN.Mto ebol`

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

47

86 Yeshua said:

Foxes have their holes

and birds have their nests.

The Son of Man has no place

to lay his head and rest.

87 Yeshua said:

Wretched is the body

that depends on another body.

Wretched is the soul

that depends on both.

88 Yeshua said:

Angels and prophets

will come to you

and give you what is yours.

And you, too, should give what you have

and ask yourselves:

When will the time come

for them to take what is theirs?

89 Yeshua said:

Why do you wash the outside of the cup?

Do you not understand

that the one who made the outside

also made the inside?

90 Yeshua said:

Come to me;

my yoke is good,

my command is gentle,

and you will find repose within you.

91 They said to him:

“Tell us who you are

so that we may believe in you.”

He answered them:

You search the face

of heaven and earth,

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

48

MpetN.souwn.f` auw peei.kairos

tetN.sooun an N.R.piraze M.mo.f`

peje.IS je

92

93

.$ine auw tetna.qine alla

net.atetN.jnou.ei ero.ou N.ni.xoou e.Mpi.

.jo.ou nh.tN M.voou et.M.mau tenou

e.xna.! e.jo.ou auw tetN.$ine an` Nsw.ou

MpR.+.pet.ouaab N.n.ouxoor` jekas

nou.noj.ou e.t.kopria MpR.nouje n.M.

.margarith[s N.]n.e$au $ina je nou.a.af`

[-].l[---]

[peje.]IS <> pet.$ine f.na.qine

94

95

[auw pet.taxm` e.]xoun se.na.ouwn na.f`

[peje.IS je] e$wpe ouN.th.tN.xomt`

MpR.+ e.t.mhse alla + [Mmof M.]pe[te]tna.jit.ou

an N.toot.f`

[peje.]IS je t.mNtero

96

97

M.p.eiwt` es.tNtw[n e.u.]sxime

as.ji N.ou.kouei N.saeir [as.xo]p.f` xN.

.ou.$wte as.a.af N.xN.no[q N]n.oeik`

pet.euM.maaje M.mo.f ma[ref.]swtM`

peje.IS je t.mNtero M.p.e[iwt` es.]tN twn

a.u.sxime es.fi xa.ou.qL[meei] ef.`

.mex N.noeit` es.moo$e x[i.ou.]xih`

es.ouhou a.p.maaje M.p.qLm[eei] .ouwqp`

a.p.noeit` .$ouo Nsw.[s xi.]te.xih

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

49

but you do not recognize

the one who is in your presence

and you do not know how to experience

the present moment.

92 Yeshua said:

Seek and you shall find.

Yet those things

you asked me about before

and which I did not tell you

I am willing to reveal now,

but you no longer ask.

93 Do not give sacred things to dogs,

for they may treat them as dung.

Do not throw pearls to swine,

for they may treat them as rubbish.

94 Yeshua said:

Whoever seeks will find;

whoever knocks from inside, it will open to them.

95 Yeshua said:

If you have money,

do not lend it with interest,

but give it to the one

who will never pay you back.

96 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the dough in which a woman

has hidden some yeast.

It becomes transformed into good bread.

Those who have ears,

let them hear!

97 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the woman who carried a jar of flour.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

50

ne.s.sooun an pe ne.Mpes.eime

e.xise Ntares.pwx exoun e.pes.hei

as.ka.p.qLmeei a.p.esht` as.xe ero.f ef.` .$oueit`

98 peje.IS <> t.mNtero M.p.eiwt`

es.tNtwn e.u.rwme ef.ouw$ e.mout.

.ou.rwme M.megistanos af.$wlm` N.

.t.shfe xM.pef.hei af.jot.S N.t.jo jekaas

ef.na.eime je tef.qij` .na.twk`

exoun tote af.xwtB M.p.megistanos

99 peje.M.machths na.f je nek.`.snhu

mN.tek.maau se.axerat.ou xi.p.sa.n.

.bol peja.f na.u je net.N.neei.ma

e+re M.p.ouw$ M.pa.eiwt` naei ne

na.snhu mN.ta.maau N.to.ou pe et.na.

.bwk` exoun e.t.mNtero M.pa.eiwt`

100 au.tsebe.IS a.u.noub auw peja.u na.f`

je net.hp` a.kaisar` se.$ite M.mo.n N.

.N.$wm` peja.f na.u je .+.na.kaisar`

N.kaisar .+.na.p.noute M.p.noute

auw pete.pw.ei pe ma.tNna.ei.f

101 peta.meste.pef.e[iwt` a]n mN.tef.`

.maau N.ta.xe f.na$.R.m[achth]s [na.]ei a

auw peta.mRre.pe[f.eiwt` an mN.t]ef.`

.maau N.ta.xe f.na$.R.m[achths na.]

.ei an ta.maau gar Nta[s.jpe.pa.swma]

[eb]ol [ta.maau] de M.me as.+ na.ei .p.wnx

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

51

After she walked a long way,

the handle of the jar broke

and the flour began to spill behind her along the road.

Heedless, she noticed nothing.

When she arrived, she set down the jar

and found it empty.

98 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the man who wanted to kill

a man of power.

First, he unsheathed his sword at home

and thrust it into the wall to test his strength.

Then he was able to kill the man of power.

99 His disciples said to him:

“Your brothers and your mother are waiting outside.”

He replied:

Those who do my Father’s will

are my brothers and my mother.

It is they who will enter the Kingdom of God.

100 They showed Yeshua a gold coin

and said to him:

“Caesar’s agents demand that we pay taxes.”

He answered them:

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,

give to God what is God’s,

and give to me what is mine.

101 Yeshua said:

Whoever does not hate their father and mother

as I do

cannot become my disciple.

And whoever does not love their father and mother

as I do

cannot become my disciple.

For my mother made me to die,

but my true mother gave me Life.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

52

102 peje.IS [je o]uoei na.u M.varisaios je

eu.ein[e N.n]ou.ouxor ef.Nkotk` xijN.p.ouonef`

N.[xen].exoou je oute f.ouwm an

oute f.[kw a]n N.n.exoou e.ouwm

103 peje.IS je

ou.m[aka]rios pe p.rwme paei et.soou

je x[N.a$] M.meros e.n.lhsths .nhu exou

$ina [ef.n]a.twoun` Nf.swoux N.tef.`

.mNt[ero] auw Nf.mour M.mo.f` ejN.tef.`

.+pe [xa].t.exh em`patou.ei exoun

104 peja.u N[.iS] je .amou NtN.$lhl` M.poou

auw NtN.R.nhsteue peje.IS je ou gar

pe p.nobe Ntaei.a.af` h Ntau.jro ero.ei

xN.ou alla xotan er$an.p.numvios .ei

ebol xM.p.numvwn tote marou.nh`

steue auw marou.$lhl`

105 peje.IS je

pet.na.souwn.p.eiwt` mN.t.maau se.na.moute

ero.f` je p.$hre M.pornh

106 peje.IS je

xotan etetN.$a.R.p.snau oua tetna.$wpe

N.$hre M.p.rwme auw etetN.$an.

.jo.os je p.toou .pwwne ebol` f.na.

.pwwne

107 peje.IS je t.mNtero es.tNtw

e.u.rwme N.$ws euN.ta.f` M.mau N.$e N.

.esoou a.oua N.xht.ou .swrm` e.p.noq pe

af.kw M.pste.2it af.$ine Nsa.pi.oua

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

53

102 Yeshua said:

Wretched are the Pharisees.

They are like the dog

lying in the cow’s manger.

He cannot eat,

and will not let the cows eat.

103 Yeshua said:

Blessed are they who know

at what time of night the thieves will come.

They will be awake,

gathering their strength

and strapping on their belts

before the thieves arrive.

104 They said to him:

“Come, let us pray and fast today.”

Yeshua answered:

What wrong have I done?

How have I been defeated?

When the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber,

that will be the time to fast and pray.

105 Yeshua said:

He who knows his father and his mother,

will they call him the son of a whore?

106 Yeshua said:

When you make the two into One,

you will be a Son of Man.

And when you say:

Mountain, move!

It will move.

107 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom is like the shepherd

with a hundred sheep.

One of them disappeared—

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

54

$antef.xe ero.f` Ntaref.xise peja.f`

M.p.esoou je +.ouo$.k` para.pste.2it`

108 peje.IS je peta.sw ebol xN.ta.tapro

f.na.$wpe N.ta.xe ano.k xw. +.na.$wpe

e.nto.f pe auw nechp` .na.ouwnx ero.f`

109 peje.IS je t.mNtero es.tNtwn e.u.rwme

euN.ta.f [M]mau xN.tef.`.sw $e N.nou.

.exo ef.x[hp` ef.]o N.at.sooun` ero.f auw

M[mNNsa.t]ref.mou af.kaa.f M.pef.`

[.$hre ne.p]$hre .sooun an` af.fi.`

.t.sw$e et.M.mau af.taa.[s ebol auw

pen]tax.toou.s af.ei ef.skaei a[f.xe] a.p.exo af.

.aryei N.+.xomt` e.t.mhse N[.net].F.ouo$.ou

110 peje.IS je pentax.qine [M.]p.kosmos

Nf.R.rM.mao maref.arna M.p.kosmos

111 peje.IS je M.phue .na.qwl` auw p.kax

M.petN.Mto ebol` auw pet.onx ebol xN.

.pet.onx f.na.nau an e.mou ouy.xoti e.IS

.jw M.mo.s je peta.xe ero.f` ouaa.f p.kosmos

.Mp$a M.mo.f` an

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

55

it was the most beautiful.

The shepherd left the other ninety-nine sheep

and looked only for that one

until he found it.

After his great effort he said to the lamb:

I love you more than the other ninety-nine.

108 Yeshua said:

Whoever drinks from my mouth

will become like me,

and I will become them,

and what was hidden from them will be revealed.

109 Yeshua said:

The Kingdom is like the man

who had a hidden treasure in his field.

He did not know it was there.

When he died, he left the field to his son,

who knew nothing and sold the field.

The buyer came to plow the field

and found the treasure while working.

He began to lend money with interest

to all who wanted it.

110 Yeshua said:

Whoever has found the world

and become wealthy,

may they renounce the world.

111 Yeshua said:

The heavens and the earth will roll up before you.

The living who come from the Living

will know neither fear nor death,

for it is said:

Whoever has self-knowledge,

the world cannot contain them.

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

56

112 peje.IS je ouoei

N.t.sar3` taei et.o$e N.t.2uyh ouoei

N.t.2uyh taei et.o$e N.t.sar3

113 peja.u

na.f Nqi.nef.machths je t.mNtero

es.Nnhu N.a$ N.xoou es.Nnhu an xN.ou.

.qw$t` ebol` eu.na.jo.os an je eis.xhhte

M.pi.sa h eis.xhhte th alla t.mNtero

M.p.eiwt` es.por$` ebol xijM.p.kax auw

R.rwme .nau an ero.s

114 peje.simwn.petros

na.u je mare.marixam .ei ebol N.xht.N

je N.sxiome .Mp$a an` M.p.wnx peje.IS

je eis.xhhte ano.k` +.na.swk` M.mo.s

jekaas e.ei.na.a.s N.xoout` $ina s.na.$wpe

xw.ws N.ou.PNA ef.onx ef.eine M.

.mw.tN N.xoout` je sxime .nim` es.na.a.s

N.xoout` s.na.bwk` exoun e.t.mNtero.

.n.M.phue

The Text of the Gospel of Thomas

57

112 Yeshua said:

Wretched is the flesh

that depends on the soul;

wretched is the soul

that depends on the flesh.

113 The disciples asked him:

“When will the Kingdom come?”

Yeshua answered:

It will not come by watching for it.

No one will be saying, Look, here it is!

or, Look, there it is!

The Kingdom of the Father

is spread out over the whole earth,

and people do not see it.

114 Simon Peter said to him:

Mary should leave us,

for women are not worthy of the Life.

Yeshua answered:

This is how I will guide her

so that she becomes Man.

She, too, will become a living breath like you Men.

Any woman who makes herself a Man

will enter into the Kingdom of God.

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H

^CommentaryH

H

Commentary

60

Prologue

These are the words of the Secret.

They were revealed by the Living Yeshua.

Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(CF. JER 36:1, 37:4; BARUCH I; I COR 24:44; REV 4:9, 10:6.)

Some would translate “apocryphal words” in the literal sense of the Greek

word apokruphos, which simply means “hidden.” But this prologue implies

much more that: Yeshua has come to reveal to us the Words of the Secret,

of the Human and of the Divine: God in Human and Human in God . . .

the secret of Being and of Love. In the Gospel of Matthew he invites us

to “pray to the Father who is there, in secret,” and not to be rigid in our

justice, like the Pharisees and hypocrites. The God of Love who dwells in

the depths of human beingness is a secret, and it is from these hidden

depths that we can act, think, and speak in true freedom.

Yeshua, the Living, the Awakened One, reveals through his words,

his life, and his acts the secret that all human beings can realize and man-

ifest. He fully incarnates life and love, which is why he is given the name

the Living One, the revealer of that which we can attain if we allow our-

selves to be and live in the Presence of God.

Didymus Judas Thomas, the “twin” (didymos, in Greek), is Jesus’ inti-

mate friend who has compiled these words. They were written down by

Thomas, which could mean the apostle himself during the time of Yeshua

or perhaps another author who represented the lineage of Thomas.

(According to later tradition, Thomas died in Madras, India, and his

tomb is still venerated there today.) But what is important for us is to read

these scriptures so as to come closer to the Word: to hear the voice and

the secret of the Living One within us.

Commentary

61

Logion 1

Yeshua said:

Whoever lives the interpretation of these words

will no longer taste death.

(CF. JOHN 5:24, 8:51–52; MATT 13:10–15.)

Hermeneutics, or the art of interpretation, implies something more than

exegesis, which often limits itself to reconstructing the context of a scrip-

ture in order to explain its structure and meaning—and forgets to look for

deeper Meaning. It is like measuring the structure and thickness of the

shell and forgetting to taste the almond inside it.

Hermeneutists¹are thirsty for Meaning and are not as interested in

the color and form of the water jug as they are in drinking at the Source

that is accessible through the words. To be a hermeneutist in this sense

means to live the interpretation of the logia of Yeshua. It means to

become One—if only for a moment—with that Meaning. This moment

of unity awakens in us the Presence of the Uncreated and the taste of

something beyond that which is composite and is therefore subject to

decomposition—in other words, the taste of something beyond death.

There are different ways of interpreting a piece of music. Players

sometimes do a disservice to the composer through their lack of inspira-

tion or by using a badly tuned instrument, for instance. But the highest

priority in the hermeneutical art is an awareness of the spirit in which we

are interpreting the word in question. Is this spirit in harmony, in reso-

nance, with the Life that breathes in the text that we are trying to trans-

late? Of course, we must also have a good instrument, knowledge, and a

cultivated intelligence and feeling so as to perceive all the harmonics of

this subtle text.

The greatest musicians are those who—after long practice—are able

to forget that they are interpreting. They become One with the inspiration

1. [Here, as in the prologue, the author uses the French word herméneute in a special sense.

Because the English equivalent, hermeneutist, is so laden with academic connotations, I

have avoided it in the gospel itself and chosen the phrase “lives the interpretation” instead

of the more literal “becomes a hermeneutist.” —Trans.]

Commentary

62

that moved the composer, and the music is played through them as

through an instrument.

Yeshua has become the interpreter who lives the meaning of Love

and Life through deeds as well as words. His exegesis was written not only

through his teaching, but also with his flesh, his blood, his laughter, and

his tears. Those who had eyes to see saw in him the Living One.

Commentary

63

Logion 2

Yeshua said:

Whoever searches

must continue to search

until they find.

When they find,

they will be disturbed;

and being disturbed, they will marvel

and will reign over All.

(CF. MATT 7:7–8; LUKE 11:9–10.)

This logion describes the major stages in gnosis, which constitute a true

initiatory process.

The first stage is the quest; the second is the discovery; the third is

the shock and disturbance of this discovery; the fourth is wonder and

amazement; and the fifth is the presence and reign over All.

The last of these stages is spoken of in the Oxyrhynchus²manuscript

(654, no. 1), where this reign over the All is further described as the great

Repose. This is also echoed in the Gospel of Philip and in Clement of

Alexandria (Stromata, Book II).

Some further elaboration on each of these stages may be useful.

1. Seeking

The seeker must always be on the quest. The truth is hidden so as to be

found. As the prophet said, it is a “hidden God” who invites us to partic-

ipate in this great game of the quest.

An old rabbi explained it to his grandson in this way: “When you play

hide-and-seek with your friend, imagine his disappointment and pain if

he hides and you simply stop looking for him.”

When we stop looking for the hidden God, we resign from the divine

game. Yet this game, this quest, is what gives our life meaning.

2. [The manuscript found in 1898 at Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, contains fragments of the

Gospel of Thomas in the original Greek, predating the Coptic version. Many scholars

now believe that the original Thomas Gospel, from which this Greek copy was made, pre-

dates the earliest canonical gospels. —Trans.]

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Is not the whole history of Israel that of a game of hide-and-seek

between a people and their God?

Thus the first stage on the path of initiation consists of rediscovering

the thirst and taste for the game, the quest. It consists of becoming a

seeker and remaining a seeker even after we have found, so as to experi-

ence the new and endless depths in what we have discovered.

2. Finding

In a sense, to seek is already to find. Otherwise, how could we ever have

the idea to search, how could we be propelled by this desire, unless it were

for something that we somehow already know? Surely we have all had

moments in our lives that testify to this, moments of discovering the light

(if only from a distant star) that had always been there, in the darkest of

nights.

“You would not seek me if you had not already found me.” Thus the

essential movement of the quest is a greater opening to what is already

here. But we do not know it enough: “In your very center, there is someone

you do not recognize,” said John the Baptist to his disciples. In our very core

there is a Presence that needs to be recognized and affirmed. Seeking/find-

ing means being more and more open to the gift that has always been ours.

3. Being Troubled and Upset

The recognition of Being troubles us and upsets us, for awakening to this

dimension forces us to question our ordinary, so-called normal view of the

world.

When quantum physics showed that an object could be both wave

and particle, both present and absent, many of the best minds were greatly

troubled, for ordinary logic could not deal with this phenomenon.

The experience of Being is a radical questioning of our view of real-

ity, a view conditioned by the conceptual means with which we think we

understand reality.This discovery that our habitual ways of conceiving the

world are no more than that—habits—cannot occur without trouble and

upset. The more we accept this trouble as a necessary stage in the evolu-

tion of our consciousness, however, the more we are led, little by little,

toward wonder and marveling.

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4. Marveling

In the fourth century C.E., Gregory of Nyssa said: “Concepts create idols

of God of whom only wonder can tell us anything.”

The Greek philosophical tradition also saw wonder and astonishment

as the beginning of wisdom. In our own time, Einstein remarked that

only idiots are incapable of wonder—and we might define idiots as those

who forsake their quest, thinking that they know.

The more we discover, the more we marvel and wonder. But these two

are not some kind of romantic imagination or fantasy. For Einstein, won-

der lay in the fact that at certain moments the world becomes intelligible,

that there is a possibility of resonance between our intelligence and the

Cosmos, as if they were both animated by the same consciousness. Only

after experiencing this wonder can we enter into the mystery of that

which reigns over All.

5. Reigning over All

At this stage we perceive ourselves no longer as separate from the world,

but instead as a space where it is possible for the Universe to become con-

scious of itself. I am One with that which reigns over All. The same

Spirit, the same Breath, the same Energy that moves mountains and stars,

moves me. The Psalmist speaks of “Mountains leaping like rams, and hills

like lambs,” an image that would make a modern geologist feel at home.

The life that surges in the veins of a child is akin to the sap that makes

trees grow.

Here, I see myself only as a particular expression among others of the

same All that is One. Here, in the living interconnectedness of all things,

I know the immensity of Repose.

6. In Repose

The meaning of the Sabbath is extremely important to Jews. After the

time of work, of doing, of possessing, we must take the time to sit before

God, to simply be.

The theme of repose is just as important to gnostics. At last, thinking

and feeling are united in this consciousness that animates all things, and

we can find true repose. What previously appeared as contradictory or in

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opposition now appears complementary, for a passage beyond duality has

opened up. In the myriad reflections scattered upon all the ponds of the

world, we discover a single moon.

This living nonduality is the peace and repose that is endlessly sought

during all stages of the initiatory path. But the spiritual path requires us

to live the quest fully and not harbor fear or aversion toward trouble and

upset, so that we find our home in this wonder and repose.

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Logion 3

Yeshua said:

If those who guide you say: Look,

the Kingdom is in the sky,

then the birds are closer than you.

If they say: Look,

it is in the sea,

then the fish already know it.

The Kingdom is inside you,

and it is outside you.

When you know yourself, then you will be known,

and you will know that you are the child of the Living Father;

but if you do not know yourself,

you will live in vain

and you will be vanity.

(CF. MATT 24:26–27; MARK 13:5–7; LUKE 17:21; DEUT 30:11–14;

ROM 10:6–8.)

Before attempting to define the meaning of the Kingdom, it is better to

ask the question “What is it that rules me? Is it my past, my unconscious,

my environment, or perhaps some idea or passion?”

The Kingdom is the reign of Spirit in us, permeating all our faculties.

It is no longer just ego that rules us, with its memories, fears, and

desires—it is the beginning of the reign of the Living One within us.

This logion tells us that the Kingdom is the presence of the Spirit of

God within us. It is not to be sought exclusively in the outer, and it is not

to be sought exclusively in the inner. It invites us to move out of the dual-

ism that forms the climate of our ordinary consciousness.

This climate is one of oppositions, antagonisms, and exclusions. For

example, we know the harm that is created by phrases such as “no salva-

tion outside the Church.” When the term church is understood in merely

an institutional sense, then there are those inside it, and those outside it—

which means that most of humanity is excluded from salvation.

Augustine, however, sensed the obstruction of such dualistic language

when he said: “There are many people who claim to be inside the Church,

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but they are really outside it, for they do not practice the love and the life

of Christ; and there are many who are apparently outside the Church, but

who are really inside it, for they do practice the love and life of Christ.”

Also, every outside is an inside from another point of view.

Everything outside us is inside a vaster space of “us.” A house is inside a

city, which itself is inside a country, and so forth. Thus every interior is

shaped by an outside reality, including our breathing, our thoughts

(shaped by the words and thoughts of others), and our most intimate

desires (a human being is the desire of the desire of the other).

We begin to see the wisdom of the nondualist language in the Gospel

of Thomas. If it had simply said, “The Kingdom is within you,” it would

give one-sided privilege to inner experiences and meditations. This would

encourage us to flee the world, to disregard what is going on around us.

Happiness would be only spiritual and we would be separate from our

carnal half. The world, others, and matter itself would be reduced to

temptations and threats prowling around our inner being.

If the gospel had said, “The Kingdom is outside you,” then we would

be encouraged to transform the world and convert others at all costs, and

it would be selfishness to sit in silence and listen to the song of the Living

One in our heart.

This gospel is a cure for our schizophrenia of outside vs. inside, for it

tells us that the Kingdom includes both. There is no opposition, because

outer and inner realities come together in the Kingdom. This can trans-

form our way of seeing things. Henceforth, we may see both outer and

inner aspects of everything that we meet. First, we respect the outer skin,

the form, the details of our surroundings, for the Presence of Being is

there too. We no longer close our eyes to “mere appearances”; but we also

do not allow ourselves to become stuck in them. We endeavor to sense the

inner dimensions of all that exists, the inner depths of the invisible within

the visible, the meaningful silence within the words we hear, the intangi-

ble in everything we touch.This attitude cultivates a special kind of wake-

fulness in everyday life. “Our asceticism is our surrender, our miracle is

our daily bread,” say the gnostics.

When we listen to great music and a certain quality of silence settles

in us, then silence and sound are not opposed or contradictory. On the

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contrary, they rejoice in a wedding with each other. This is a glimpse of

the Kingdom, of total Presence.

To touch someone with love, with inward attention, is something that

is sensuous and yet open to the presence of an invisible dimension. As

Augustine said, “The carnal person is carnal even in spiritual things; and

the spiritual person is spiritual even in carnal things.” To love others as

ourselves and as if they were within us, yet without reducing another to

ourselves—these are the conditions of true relationship.

Love is respect for otherness and for identity: for unity and for dif-

ference. If only otherness and external objects were real, then no com-

munion would be possible. We would be marooned in separation and in

ultimate incommunicability. And if the only reality were that of identity-

sameness, then no relationship would be possible, only a kind of fusion-

mixture. Difference, otherness, is the very space that makes relationship

possible. If I were not other than you, how could I ever love you, and go

beyond myself in this love?

So we see that to work for the coming of the Kingdom implies a

twofold movement: toward the inwardness of all things, spiritualizing

matter; and toward the outwardness of things, manifesting the Spirit,

incarnating it fully within the space, time, society, and situations that are

ours. The Kingdom is not above us, not below us, not to the right or to

the left, not inside or outside . . . It is at once height and depth, width

and thickness, inside and outside. It is the totality of what is and what

we are.

Gnostics are whole human beings who do not exclude any part of

themselves. True self-knowledge cannot be limited to knowledge of the

soul, nor to knowledge of the “little me,” the one wrapped up in a bag of

skin. Self-knowledge is consciousness of all the dimensions of our being.

In this consciousness, as the second part of this logion tells us, we dis-

cover that we are also known. In our most intimate core, in the very

movement of integration of all that we are, we discover the Other who is

our ground. Again, we discover the metaphysical outer in the ultimate

depths of the inner.

Thus, to know ourselves is to discover that we are known. It is to dis-

cover that in every act of true knowledge there is participation by an

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Intelligence that communicates through us and that offers us participa-

tion in its Light.

To love is to discover that we are loved. In every act of love there is a

participation in a Love that is given to us and which offers us participa-

tion in its Life. This is what the apostle John means when he says,

“Whoever loves, dwells in God, and God dwells in them, for God is

Love.”To be able to truly love—even a dog or a flower—is always a grace.

Hell is the absence of love, the loss of the power to love.

To know ourselves, to know that we are known, is also to discover

ourselves reborn, each of us child of the Living One, flame of the Fire,

child of the Wind. Not to know ourselves is to fall short of ourselves,

to live in vain, to arise and disappear like fog from breath on a glass, to

be vanity.

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Logion 4

Yeshua said:

An aged person will not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old infant

about the Place of Life, and that person will live.

Many of the first will make themselves last, and they will

become One.

(CF. MATT 19:30, 20:16; MARK 10:31; LUKE 13:30; JOHN

17:20–23.)

We are very old beings. Scientists say that we are billions of years old on

a cellular level, and the old parts of our brain remember the beginnings of

humankind. Here the Gospel of Thomas reminds those who are old that

they must ask the child, for true knowledge consists not in accumulating

more information, but in a new and fresh way of looking—an innocence

of the heart.

The child is close to the Place of Life, not yet confined by duality, not

yet separate from its mother and from the world. Thus one may fruitfully

inquire of the child as to the beginning.

Those who are aged sense that their end will be like their beginning.

What was our face before we were born? This is the same question as

“What will be our face after death?” The infant still retains something of

its face of eternity, of the serene Source. It is not yet fully one sex or the

other, recalling the myth of the primordial androgyne. We begin to sense,

then, that the seven-day-old infant symbolizes the initiate, the one who

has received the seven gifts of Spirit and who has realized in itself the

union of opposites: the beginning and the end. Seven days also symbolizes

the time allowed for the return to the unconditioned state. This is why the

eighth day is chosen for the circumcision ceremony, when a male child

acquires his first sign of membership in a sex, a religion, and a society.

But no matter what our age is, no matter how heavy the weight of

memories, this gospel invites us to remember the Divine Child within us,

our unconditioned core. By letting this Child live, we see the world

through the fresh and joyous eyes of the Source.

Many of the first will make themselves last . . .

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This line is akin to the teaching of Lao-tzu, who advocated the art of

being “useless” (i.e., not used). Masters of this art have no pretense of know-

ing anything; they simply look, content to be the calm witness of what is.

True gnosis consists largely of a vast removal, ridding ourselves of encum-

brances. We get rid of vain words and concepts so that the mind becomes

like a clear mirror, like the look of a child, like the forgotten lake lost in

the wilderness, where no one swims, its water reflecting the moon impec-

cably, without a ripple.

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Logion 5

Yeshua said:

Recognize what is in front of you,

and what is hidden from you will be revealed.

There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

(CF. MATT 4:22, 10:26; LUKE 8:17, 12:2.)

Speaking for the canonical tradition of Matthew (Mattias), Clement of

Alexandria said: “Admire the things that are in front of you!” (Stromata,

Book II, IX:45)

Gnosis is not a system, not another ideology through which we are to

interpret and understand the world. On the contrary, it means opening

our eyes to what we are already looking at, right in front of us, not search-

ing somewhere else. Heaven, the Kingdom, God are there where I am. As

Meister Eckhart said, “The eye with which I see God is the eye with

which God sees me: one eye, one vision, one knowledge, one love.”Things

are not hidden in themselves; they are open—the veils hiding them are in

the habits of our own vision, so crude, so overloaded with memories and

assumptions about reality, distorting what is before us.

We know the story of Paul, of the day when the scales fell from his

eyes and he saw the living Christ in the very people he had been perse-

cuting. And on Mount Thabor, as the Byzantine tradition teaches, it was

not Christ who was transformed, but rather the eyes of the disciples, who

were finally able to see him truly.

Gnosis is a long-term work of recognition, of purity of attention so as

really to see what is in front of us. The consequence of this attention is

that we become what we see and what we love. This is why it is impor-

tant to look deeply in order to perceive what is truest in all beings: seeing

the face within, deeper than the surface grins and frowns. “Mankind is a

free mirror,” according to the patristic tradition. If we look at chaos, we

will reflect chaos. If we look at light, we will reflect light.

Consider this logion from the Gospel of Philip, also found at Nag

Hammadi, which develops this theme further:

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It is impossible for anyone to see the everlasting reality and not

become like it.

The Truth is not realized like truth in the world:

Those who see the sun do not become the sun;

those who see the sky, the earth, or anything that exists, do not

become what they see.

But when you see something in this other space,

you become it.

If you know the Breath, you are the Breath.

If you know the Christ, you become the Christ.

If you see the Father, you are the Father.³

3. [See Jean-Yves Leloup, The Gospel of Philip (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2004). Cf.

also the famous Sanskrit proverb, from the Advaita tradition, Tat tvam asi, “Thou art

That.” —Trans.]

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Logion 6

His disciples questioned him:

“Should we fast? How should we pray? How should we give

alms? What rules of diet should we follow?”

Yeshua said:

Stop lying.

Do not do that which is against your love.

You are naked before heaven.

What you hide will be revealed,

whatever is veiled will be unveiled.

(CF. MATT 6:2,7,16; LUKE 6:31; ROM 7:15; II COR 5:10; EPH 4:25;

COL 3:9; JAMES 3:14; GAL 4:10.)

These questions of the disciples concern the three classic obligations of

religious asceticism: praying, fasting, and almsgiving. Any earnest seeker

might have asked such a question regarding this subject: “What must I

do?” Yeshua seems to be saying that this is not the right question. Before

doing this or that, we must be. What is important is not so much what we

do as the spirit in which we do it: the quality and sincerity of our being.

This is a warning against our tendency to assume that we are justified by

our works and practices.

There exists a form of “spiritual materialism,” denounced by sages

from all traditions. The ego is an extremely clever monkey indeed—it can

make use of fasting, prayer, and alms in such a way as to feed and inflate

itself and to confirm itself in its vanity.

This is what is meant by the usage of the term Pharisee in the Gospel

of Thomas, as well as in the canonical gospels. It is the desire to appear

righteous in the eyes of others while something is rotten inside. In the

canonical gospels, Yeshua seems even more severely against this pseudo-

spirituality: “You clean the outside of the cup, but inside it is full of rap-

ine and slander” (Matt 23:25).

But in the Gospel according to Thomas, Yeshua contents himself

with exhorting his disciples to stop lying: Stop telling your old stories,

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stop your role-playing of pure, saintly, holy ones. Be who you are, stop the

pretense, and stop feeding the separation between Being and appearance.

Do not do that which is against your love.

In other words, do not do unto others what you would not have them do

unto you. This sums up the Law and the prophets.

You are naked before heaven.

We cannot lie to ourselves eternally. Sooner or later the day will come

when what we are is revealed. All our secret agendas are exposed in the

light of day—a blessed day! In the crucifying clarity that exposes our nul-

lity, essential Being may finally manifest. The ego has dropped its spiri-

tual disguises. The Self, naked at last, is revealed.

Meanwhile, this logion reminds us that our acts have value only

through the love and quality of Presence that informs them. Anything

that we do without love is time lost. Everything we do with love is

Eternity rediscovered. As the apostle says elsewhere, “All will disappear . . .

only Love will never pass.”

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Logion 7

Yeshua said:

Fortunate is the lion eaten by a human,

for lion becomes human.

Unfortunate is the human eaten by a lion,

for human becomes lion.

(CF. EX 22:30 ; I PETER 5:8; REV 4:7.)

Some would interpret this lion, which a human may eat but which must

not eat a human, as a symbol of the libido, the life force within us.

“Eating” the libido means taming and mastering it so that it becomes

humanized and ultimately transformed into a force of love. On the other

hand, when we are “eaten”—that is, manipulated—by it, we are condi-

tioned by this libido and become its slave.

In gnostic thought, the lion is more the ego or mental activity that

stalks us, devouring our attention and our true identity, which is the Self.

Fortunate is the “little me” integrated into the Self, for it has found

its true place. Unfortunate is the person so devoured by ego (that “bundle

of memories,” as Krishnamurti called it) that he forgets the Self. Then

human becomes lion (egocentric): the ego-persona co-opts and devours

everything in sight.

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Logion 8

Yeshua said:

A human being is like a good fisherman

who casts his net into the sea.

When he pulls it out, he finds a multitude of little fish.

Among them there is one fine, large fish.

Without hesitation, he keeps it and throws all the small fish

back into the sea.

Those who have ears, let them hear!

(CF. MATT 4:9, 5:13, 8:32, 11:15, 13:9, 13:45–50; LUKE 4:9, 5:10;

JOHN 25:8; ROM 3:28.)

Our intellect is more or less a finely woven net with which we “capture”

myriad things. The small fish symbolize the specialized knowledge of the

arts and sciences. The big fish is the knowledge of Being.

Sooner or later on the gnostic path, a moment comes when we must

throw back all the small fish. We must let go of all that vast array of infor-

mation, for though it is not bad in itself, it often distracts us and, in any

case, can teach us nothing about what is essential. What good is it to

know the natures of all the universes if we do not know ourselves and if

we do not know That through which all is known?

To keep the big fish is to deepen our self-knowledge, our knowl-

edge of Being. It is to maintain the Presence of the One in the midst

of multiplicity.

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Logion 9

Yeshua said:

Once a sower went out

and sowed a handful of seeds.

Some fell on the road,

and were eaten by birds.

Some fell among the thorns,

which smothered their growth,

and the worms devoured them.

Some fell among the rocks,

and could not take root.

Others fell on fertile ground,

and their fruits grew up toward heaven.

They produced sixty and one hundred-twenty units per measure.

(CF. GEN 26; EX 9:8; DEUT 28:39; MATT 13:3–9; MARK 4:3–9;

LUKE 8:58; ACTS 12:23.)

This logion recalls the importance of the ground that receives the seed.

The growth of the divine seed, which has been planted in each of us,

depends on how we receive it. The word is different according to the ear

that hears it. The divine seed—in other words, the creative code—is the

same for all. Variation in the fruits is dependent upon the type of ground

in which the seed grows.

The road symbolizes the typical, ordinary way of mankind, with all its

distractions. When the creative seed is received by a dispersed, distracted

consciousness, it cannot grow and thrive. It cannot sink its roots deeply

into our depths. This is how the gospel becomes reduced to a topic of

salon conversation or a consumer product or a form of entertainment: It

becomes like a handful of seed thrown to the birds.

When the seed falls among the thorns, it is received by the one-

sidedly analytical, critical consciousness so characteristic of many con-

temporary minds, which chokes and smothers the spontaneity of life.

Here, too, the creative code cannot express and incarnate itself.

The self-knowledge of which the Gospel of Thomas speaks is not

some form of introspection, some endless process of self-analysis that

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finally renders us sterile and inhibited. It is a state of nonjudgmental

attention, without a “why?” as Meister Eckhart said.

The worm that lives in the thorns and devours whatever manages to

grow there is our narcissism. A consciousness that is constantly turning

around its own reflected image blocks the essential movement of the

Logos in its unfolding.

Rocks, where the seed cannot take root, often symbolize hardness of

heart in the Bible. The closed heart, or “heart of stone,” is impervious to

the creative code. We often become hard-hearted out of fear. The body

itself becomes more rigid, adopting an attitude of defense. Over time this

produces a strange kind of armoring in the muscles. But we should never

confuse such hardness with strength. Outer hardness, like the shell of a

shrimp, hides an inner weakness or softness. Those who have inner

strength—people of “backbone”—have no need to present a hard facade

to the world. On the contrary, they have the confidence to show them-

selves as vulnerable and sensitive. They welcome the creative code with-

out fear, thus providing good soil for the seed.

Good soil must also be worked and plowed, which amounts to work

on our own heart. This theme recurs in the Gospel of Thomas. Whether

this work on ourselves happens through ascetic practices or through the

hardships of life, it makes the heart less hard, less egocentric, and less dis-

tracted. It is a long labor involving clearing away the rocks and thorns.

The heart then becomes open to the essential and capable of hearing and

contemplating the Word of God and the creative code that circulates in

our veins. It is then that the fruit of Awakening begins to appear.

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Logion 10

Yeshua said:

I have sown fire upon the world,

and now I tend it to a blaze.

(CF. LUKE 12:49.)

On the day of Pentecost the Spirit descended upon the disciples like

flames. They caught fire and were illuminated by its Presence. Like the

burning bush, they burned without being consumed. These flames sym-

bolize the conscious love taught and revealed by Yeshua Christ. This

union of intellect and heart renders us both loving and luminous.This fire

is in us, smoldering beneath the ashes of our mediocrity, a hidden glow

that awaits the Ruah,⁴the divine Breath, to burst into flame.

In the Gospel of Luke, Yeshua expresses his impatience to see the fire

lit. But in the Gospel of Thomas it would seem that he is preserving the

fire, tending it. It is as if he must tend it, like a spirited and unruly horse

that must be controlled, so that it does not get out of hand.

It is true that the whole of the Good News can be summed up in a

phrase such as this one, from Augustine: “Love. And do as you wish.” Yet

this can be dangerous when heard by a mind that has not been purified,

for such a mind would use it for all sorts of self-indulgence. The fire of

love and freedom sown by the Christ can be a dangerous fire.

We human beings have this boundless freedom: that no one and no

law can prevent us from loving. This is a truth that is perhaps best con-

tained and preserved and allowed to take root deeply in ourselves. Then

we can let it live and act— first of all, in all our cells, then in our acts.

Then the fire can spread from us to those around us, until that ultimate

day when the world will become like the burning bush, saturated with

Presence.

4. Ruah (pronounced RUE-akh) is Hebrew for “spirit” or “breath.”

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Logion 11

Yeshua said:

This sky will pass away,

and the one above it will also pass away.

The dead have no life,

and the living have no death.

On days when you ate what was dead,

you made it alive.

When you are in the light, what will you do?

When you were One, you created two.

But now that you are two, what will you do?

(CF. MATT 5:18, 19:16, 24:25; LUKE 3:10, 16:17, 16:21–33; MARK

13:31; JOHN 2:17; I COR 7:31; GEN 2:14–17.)

Everything passes. All the material and celestial worlds must pass. All

that is composed shall be decomposed, everything that has a beginning

must have an end. With this implacable reminder of impermanence,

Yeshua invites us to look for what does not pass, what is truly alive and

cannot die: the Uncreated. It is not composed and cannot be decomposed.

Yet one of the tasks of the gnostic is to consume what is mortal in order

to make it truly alive, to assimilate what has no life in itself—our body,

the world, matter—so that it may become the very place where Being

manifests.

There is a proverb that states: “All is pure to the pure one.” And as

H.-Ch. Puech points out,⁵some gnostic traditions work to free the sparks

of light contained in matter—for example, in food. Yet light absorbs dark-

ness and life must also integrate death.

The All reunited in light—what is there to “do” except, much as we

take the lamp from where it has been hidden under the basket and place

it on its stand, allow it to shine?

The second part of the logion reminds us that we have come from

Unity and it is we who have brought about duality. This duality is not

wrong it itself. It is a step in our process of individuation—we cannot

5. Puech, Le Manichéisme (Paris: Édition du Musée Guimet, 1949), 191–92.

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remain in the undifferentiated unity of an infant and its mother. The pas-

sage through duality, or separation, is one of the necessary stages of

growth and maturity. But having become two, we must seek to rediscover

the One. The Unity we discover will no longer be that of undifferentiated

fusion, but rather of Union, of integration. Then our existential being will

become transparent to essential Being.

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Logion 12

The disciples said to Yeshua:

“We know that you will leave us.

Who will be great among us then?”

Yeshua told them:

When you find yourselves at that point,

go to James the Just:

All that concerns heaven and earth is his domain.

(CF. MATT 18:1; MARK 9:34; LUKE 9:46; JOHN 1:3; ACTS 1:11;

I COR 8:6; HEB 2:10.)

The high standing of Yeshua’s brother, James, among the earliest

Christians is well known. It even seems that the role the Matthew tra-

dition accords to Peter originally belonged to James. In any case, it is

clear that the Thomas tradition designates James as Yeshua’s public

representative.

In Jewish circles there had been a long debate as to whom the world

was created for: the Torah, Moses, Abraham, or the Messiah.⁶In the

Babylonian Talmud, the world was considered as being made for Moses

and Aaron together. It is possible that James might have been considered

as having the same relation to Yeshua as Aaron did to Moses-Joshua

(Epiphanius, Panarion 29:3–4).⁷

All that concerns heaven and earth is his domain.

This may be read in an ironic sense: “If you are unable to follow the inner

Master, and still need an external Master, a leader, then go to James. He

will take care of all that. Building a church or a structured community is

his domain.”

6. Cf. G. L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, vol. 5, reprint edition (Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1998), 67.

7. [This thesis is further strengthened by the fact that the name Yehoshua, the Hebrew

original of the gentile rendering Jesus, is also the origin of the variant Gentile transliter-

ation Joshua. Also, Yehoshua was often shortened, particularly by Aramaic-speaking Jews,

to Yeshua. —Trans.]

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Logion 13

Yeshua said to his disciples:

What am I like, for you?

To what would you compare me?

Simon Peter said: “You are like a righteous angel.”

Matthew said: “You are like a wise philosopher.”

Thomas said: “Master, my mouth could never utter what you are

like.”

Yeshua told him:

I am no longer your Master, because you have drunk, and become

drunken, from the same bubbling source from which I spring.

Then he took him aside, and said three words to him . . .

When Thomas returned to his companions, they questioned

him: “What did Yeshua tell you?”

Thomas answered: “If I told you even one of the things he said

to me, you would pick up stones and throw them at me. And

fire would come out those stones, and consume you.”

(CF. MATT 3:12, 16:13–20; MARK 8:27–30; LUKE 3:17, 9:18–21;

JOHN 8:58, 10:6; LEV 9:24; NUM 16:35; JUDGES 9:15.)

“For you, who am I?” This question is also asked in the synoptic gospels.

Here, it is not the Messiah that Peter sees in Yeshua, but instead an angel,

a “divine messenger.” Thus we perceive Yeshua according to our level of

consciousness. For some, he is Elijah; for others, a wise philosopher (and

in those days this meant someone who lived and incarnated the word, not

merely one who spoke it, like a messenger or prophet). Centuries later the

Koran would call Yeshua “the seal of sainthood.”

But it is Thomas who seems closest to the mystery of his Being.

Through self-knowledge he has plumbed the depths of homo absconditus in

the image of Deus absconditus. He has experienced and recognized the Inef-

fable, the Unknowable in himself, and thus can recognize it in the Other.

Thomas said: “Master, my mouth could never utter what you

are like.”

Here, Thomas exemplifies what is known as the apophatic tradition,

which refuses to name or qualify God. As Thomas Aquinas said: “Of

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86

God, one can only say what he is not, not what he is.”Thus the traditional

use of negative terms for him: the Infinite, the Uncreated, the Unnamable,

the Ineffable, and so forth.

I am no longer your Master, because you have drunk, and become

drunken, from the same bubbling source from which I spring.

In this reply, Yeshua recognizes Thomas as one who has experienced their

common origin, the Father. Later, he tells Mary Magdalene: “My Father

is your Father.” Henceforth, Thomas may be considered the brother, or

twin, of Yeshua.

Then Yeshua takes him aside and tells him “three words.” We could

speculate endlessly about what they were. Perhaps it was a revelation of the

Trinity, one that does not break the Unity but is rather the Revelation of an

inner fecundity. (Surely the meaning of God as Trinity does not refer to a

“sublime bachelor,” as Chateaubriand put it.) God is One and Three as

Lover, Beloved, and Love. God is relation. According to the Naasenes,

these three explosive words were Kaulakau, Saulasau, and Zesar.⁸In the

Pistis Sophia, Yeshua cries three words, the same word repeated three

times—IAW (in Greek, ꢀꢁꢂ), pronounced “yah-HOO-wah”: I, or iota,be-

cause everything comes from him; alpha, because everything must return to

him; and omega, because the consummation of all consummations is in him.

But what we overlook in these speculations is that the roots of the

spoken word are in sound, in a particular vibration. When initiates speak

to each other, there is a triple vibration: from the vital center in the loins,

to the heart center, to the noetic or intellectual center in the head. It is

only in this communion that the initiates can verify that their “resonance”

is perfect at all these levels of their being.

However this may be, Thomas speaks here of the special intimacy

that he shares with Yeshua. The other disciples might throw stones out of

jealousy—thus the fire of love can degenerate into the fire of jealousy.

Then, instead of warming and illuminating, it burns and destroys.

8. [The Naasenes were a gnostic sect described in Hippolytus’s Refutation of Heresies v.8.4.

These words would appear to be a kind of Hebrew wordplay. Another speculation is that

the three words were those God spoke to Moses in Ex 3:14: Ehye Asher Ehye, I am what

I am. —Trans.]

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Logion 14

Yeshua said to them:

If you fast, you will be at fault.

If you pray, you will be wrong.

If you give to charity, you will corrupt your mind.

When you go into any land and walk through the countryside,

if they welcome you, eat whatever they offer you.

You can heal their sick.

It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you,

it is what comes out of your mouth that defiles you.

(CF. MATT 6:2,7,16,17 AND 10:11–14; MARK 7:15; LUKE 10:8–11;

JOHN 3:18; ACTS 9:13; COL 10:27.)

The Gospel of Thomas is addressed to people who are aware of certain

religious practices but are in danger of complacency with regard to them,

thinking that merely observing the practice is enough.

If we feel righteous when we fast, it will inflate our ego instead of

freeing us. The true fast comes spontaneously, when we are absorbed in

the presence of God. Then we forget about eating. This was Yeshua’s state

when the disciples found that he had not eaten and were surprised. He

told them: “I have something to eat, a food that you do not know . . . My

food is doing the will of my Father . . . Do not work for perishable food,

but for the food of eternal life.” (Cf. John 4:32.)

If you feel righteous when you give to charity, you do harm to your

mind. You are giving to gain approval or to create a clear conscience. But

we must go further than this, so that you do “not let your left hand know

what your right hand is doing.”

If your brother is hungry and you have some food, what is more nat-

ural than sharing it? This is not “giving to charity”; it is rediscovering the

spontaneity of love.

The same applies to prayer. “As long as you pray while seeing yourself

as praying, you are not truly praying,” said Jean Cassien. Prayer must also

become more and more spontaneous—a simple movement of the heart,

so that it becomes like the perfume of the rose or the song of a bird.

Yeshua is warning us against practices that are good in themselves,

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but that can become a hook for “phariseeism,” or spiritual narcissism.

We must allow the Presence of the Spirit to make us more and more

simple, more and more spontaneous. A religion that produces complex

people who feel guilty and make others feel guilty is at great risk of

being a false religion. It no longer “re-links” (the original meaning of

re-ligio) us with the vitality of the Living One; it instead separates us

from it.

This logion encourages us in this attitude of simplicity: When we

are offered hospitality, we must eat what is before us. It is not what

goes into our mouth that defiles us, but what comes out of it. In gen-

eral, Yeshua emphasizes that what make us impure, what defile us, are

our acts that defile others, such as useless remarks and hasty judg-

ments. It is calumny and blame that corrupts our hearts and minds and

makes our breath nauseating. What good is it to fast, give alms, and

pray, if the heart is not fully engaged in these acts, if the mind harbors

hate or bitterness?

You can heal their sick.

This is an equally important line of the logion. The Greek word therapein

refers to more than simply healing the body. The therapists of whom

Philo of Alexandria writes were indeed far more than healers—they were

also initiators. Thus we might read this as: “You can heal those who are

sick or suffering and you can also initiate them into the meaning of life

and suffering.”

Sickness itself may be only a symptom of a deeper malaise, a forget-

fulness of Being. The role of the therapist, then, is to give those who suf-

fer the opportunity to regain their health in the sense of physical, psychic,

and spiritual wholeness.

The Gospel of Thomas reminds us that every human being has the

power to heal. There is a therapist within each of us. It is the Living One

who wants life in abundance for us in all the dimensions of our being. It

is attitude that is important, and an openness that allows Life to act in

and through us.

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Logion 15

Yeshua said:

When you see someone who was not born from a womb, then

prostrate yourselves and give worship, for this is your

Father.

(CF. MATT 11:11; MARK 3:11; LUKE 7:28; JOHN 3:9; I COR 14:25;

C^OL3:4; II THESS 1:10.)

This logion invites us to discover the Unborn within us: that which was

not born of woman, flesh, reason, or emotion. It directs our attention to

our true origin, unborn and uncreated. There is our true Father. When we

discover it, we can only prostrate ourselves and worship it, for we are

before the divine abyss of uncreated Being and Love.

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90

Logion 16

Yeshua said:

People may think that I have come to bring peace to the world.

They do not know that I have come to sow division upon the

earth: fire, sword, war.

When there are five in a house, three will be against two and

two against three; father against son and son against father.

And they will stand, and they will be alone and simple

[monakhos].

(CF. MATT 10:34–36; LUKE 12:49, 12:51–53.)

The Peace that Christ offers us is neither euphoria nor some kind of tran-

quilizer. It is the essential Peace of Being, which does not depend upon

favorable outer circumstances. In order to discover this Peace, which

nothing and no one can take from us, it is necessary to be willing to

undergo the fire, the sword, and war—in other words, to experience the

purification, the discrimination, and the polemics (polemos is “war” in

Greek) that can shake us out of our false sense of security.

One day Cardinal Newman began to puzzle over a biblical passage

that speaks of God testing souls as silver is tested when it is melted in the

furnace. He visited a silver forge and asked the artisan how he knew when

the silver was free of impurities. The smith replied: “I know the silver is

ready when I can see the features of my face reflected in it.”

When we are undergoing such a trial by fire, it may help to remem-

ber this metaphor of the Father leaning over us, to see whether his fea-

tures are reflected . . . as the Son. (Cf. page 132, footnote 19.)

The blade or sword represents discrimination, as indicated in the let-

ters of Paul. The sword enables us to cut through what is ensnaring and

alienating us. This cannot help but cause some kind of conflict (polemos)

and may sometimes lead to confrontation with family members in order

for each of us to attain autonomy. Just as the umbilical cord is cut, so we

must sometimes cut into the flesh of our most legitimate attachments so

as to truly become who we are. When Yeshua says that he comes to bring

us fire, sword, and conflict, he is also offering us the tools of our own lib-

eration. He is teaching us how to break free of the false identifications or

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91

self-images to which we are so attached, but that prevent us from attain-

ing our naked reality, free of illusions.

Whoever has been through liberating trials is able to stand, alone and

simplified—here, we have used two words for one word that is difficult to

translate: monakhos, which is often poorly translated as “monk.” Monakhos

does not necessarily imply celibacy; it refers to those who move toward

the One (monos), toward the integration of all their aspects—body, soul,

and spirit—so as to become “monogenetic,” like the Son, one entire river

flowing toward the Father. (Cf. the Logos pros ton Theon in the prologue

of the Gospel of John.)

This unification happens through solitude and simplification of our

life. In the gnostic way, we find ourselves alone, not through any lack of

love or friendship, but because the mountain heights are not where the

crowds like to roam. At a certain depth of truth, we come face-to-face

with ourselves and with God. This solitude is not a separation from oth-

ers. On the contrary, it allows a deeper meeting with others, meeting

them in their own essential solitude.

Gnostics are not fond of crowds. The gregarious, extroverted life is

not for them. But it is not pride that compels them to avoid the

masses—it is a refusal of superficiality. It is also well known that the

deepest and most intimate meetings are those between people who truly

live in solitude.

Enduring solitude also leads us to a state beyond ego, for in solitude

there can be no dependence on the reflection of the other, the opinion of

the other, to confirm us in our existence (and it matters little whether this

confirmation is pleasant or unpleasant). This is why so many people fear

solitude.

But being alone is not enough. We are also called to be simple. It is

significant that etymologically this word means “without wrinkles, folds,

or convolutions”—in other words, without turning back upon ourselves.

The whole work of fire and sword is to unwrinkle us, right down to our

most secret folds, so as to rediscover our original simplicity or true iden-

tity. This is the pure silver, the pure “I am” freed of the dross of illusory

fantasies. It is the “nobleman,” the “son of God” of which Meister Eckhart

speaks.

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Logion 17

Yeshua said:

I will give you that which no eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no hand has touched,

and no human heart has conceived.

(CF. MATT 4:9; LUKE 1:77; JOHN 7:39; ACTS 7:23; I COR 2:9;

ISAIAH 64:3; JER 3:16.)

What Yeshua offers here is not something that can be thought, felt, seen,

or imagined. Thus he affirms the transcendence of uncreated Being. To

say “I know God” can be only presumption and falsehood. While making

himself known, God still remains unknowable.

Here, the Gospel of Thomas shows itself as the source of traditions

such as Hesychism, which simultaneously affirm the inaccessible charac-

ter of God and the reality of participation in his Being. From this,

Gregory Palamas, the fourteenth-century Greek Orthodox saint, made

the distinction between energy and essence. We can never experience the

core of the sun, yet we can warm ourselves in its rays. This is also the par-

adox of union with the divine: It is neither fusion nor separation.

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Logion 18

The disciples asked Yeshua:

“Tell us, what will be our end?”

Yeshua answered:

What do you know of the beginning,

so that you now seek the end?

Where the beginning is, the end will also be.

Blessed are those who abide in the beginning,

for they will know the end and will not taste death.

(CF. MATT 24:3–6; JOHN 20:15; I PETER 4:17.)

Some questions are vain. Why seek to know where we are going and what

will become of us when we don’t know where we really come from? What

we are today is the result of what we have been yesterday; what we will be

tomorrow will be the consequence of what we are today.

Questions about origins and endings bring us right back to the pres-

ent, for it is in this “today,” this here and now, that we can reach the begin-

ning and the end.

Heraclitus emphasized that in the circle, beginning and end meet.

Every point of the circle could be considered a beginning or an end. Every

present moment, in its greatest depths, reveals the alpha and the omega.

Instead of asking questions about the end, we would do better to attend

to the ever-present Source, where all life, thought, movement, and being

are born.

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Logion 19

Yeshua said:

Blessed is the one who Is before existing.

If you become my disciples and listen to my words,

these stones will serve you.

In Paradise there are five trees

that do not change from summer to winter.

Their leaves do not fall.

Whoever knows them will not taste death.

(CF. JOHN 5:24, 8:58; MATT 3:9; MARK 1:13; LUKE 3:8; JAMES

1:11; I PETER 24; REV 2:7; ISAIAH 40:7; ZACH 14:8.)

How can we be before existing? Yet even the etymology of the word exist

shows that existence is secondary to essence, that it ex-presses and mani-

fests it. We can also relate this logion to the famous statement of Yeshua

for which it is said he was crucified: “Before Abraham was, I Am.” This

means that before entering into the space-time continuum, which

includes the historical Abraham, before any existence, I Am. And this

evokes the Divine Name, the Uncreated.

Meister Eckhart paraphrases this word of Yeshua: “Before I was born,

I Am, for all eternity.” Blessed are those who, while still in space-time,

become conscious of their Being in eternity, for they are in this world but

not of it, and even stones will serve them.

When you are in harmony with the uncreated principle of all that is,

then indeed all things seem to “serve” you. There is a real support from all

elements of nature. This is the gnostic view of Paradise.

Kafka said: “Paradise is still here, it is we who were thrown out of it.”

In order to rediscover it, we must know the “five trees that do not change

from summer to winter.”

According to the Gospel of Philip, these five trees are the five sacra-

ments. Jean Doresse, after citing a Manichean psaltery, mentions the trea-

tise by Chavannes Pelliot on Chinese Manicheism, with a long passage

devoted to the planting of five precious trees by the Messenger of Light.

These are: the Tree of Thought, the Tree of Feeling, the Tree of

Reflection, the Tree of Intellect, and the Tree of Reasoning. Still others

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may see in them a symbol of the five spiritual senses as developed by

Origen and the patristic tradition.

But most important is that we have ears to hear the song of silence

within sound and eyes to see the invisible through the visible. This is the

sense of Paradise. Some believe that the gnostics had a practice known as

“application of the five senses,” an exercise that methodically focuses the

sensory organs on an object, which ultimately leads us to a “sensation of

the Divine.” This is the prelude to the greater apocalypse (apokalupsis

means unveiling) or revelation of Being in the human microcosm.

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Logion 20

The disciples asked Yeshua:

“Tell us, what is the Kingdom of Heaven like?”

He answered them:

It is like a grain of mustard,

the tiniest of all seeds.

When it falls upon well-plowed ground,

it becomes a great tree,

where birds of heaven will come to rest.

(CF. MATT 13:31–32; MARK 4:30–32; LUKE 13:18–19.)

The smallest of seeds can engender the greatest of trees. One human may

awaken, and a new humanity can be born.

This is a principle of all beginnings, and of human beginnings in par-

ticular. Something that is unnoticed, infinitesimal in size, contains the

coded information for growth. The oak is contained within the acorn.

But as this gospel has already pointed out, the ground must be favor-

able and the soil well plowed. Otherwise, the seed of divine life (sperma

theou) planted in each of us will not be able to grow and make us into a

great tree that can shelter the birds of heaven.

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Logion 21

Mary asked Yeshua:

“What are your disciples like?”

He answered:

They are like little children

who have gone into a field that does not belong to them.

When the owners return and say:

“Give us back our field!”

they will remove their clothes, see themselves naked before the

owners, and leave the field to them.

This is why I say:

If the master of the house knows that a thief is coming,

he will be vigilant and not allow the thief to break into the

house of his kingdom

or carry off his goods.

Thus you should be vigilant toward the world.

Strengthen yourselves with great energy

or the thieves will find a way to get to you.

The profit that you are counting on will be found by them.

May there be a wise person among you . . .

When the crop is ripe, he comes immediately

and harvests it with his sickle.

Those who have ears, let them hear!

(CF. MATT 11:16; LUKE 7:32; II COR 5:3.)

Here, Mary Magdalene plays the role of the initiate who asks Yeshua

about the stage of development of his disciples. What he confides to her

applies not to his closest disciples, but rather to people who follow him

from a certain distance. “They are like little children,” Yeshua answers.

They are not yet “clothed” in the garments of the Christ.Their nudity here

is not just innocence; it is also a lack of manifestation of pneuma, Spirit.

Yeshua reaffirms the importance of vigilance. Not only spiritual mas-

ters may come into possession of the field of gnosis. It may also be taken

over by robbers and invaders: hasty judgments, cravings, twisted

thoughts. These are the diseases of the mind that can block or destroy

true knowledge.

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98

Through vigilance and attention, these children can mature and

become wise. It is then that they will harvest the promised fruit. They will

no longer be naked strangers in the field of knowledge. They will be mas-

ters along with the Master, sons and daughters along with the Son.

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99

Logion 22

Yeshua saw some infants being nursed at the breast.

He said to his disciples:

These nursing infants are like those who enter the Kingdom.

The disciples asked him:

“Then shall we become as infants to enter into the Kingdom?”

Yeshua answered them:

When you make the two into One,

when you make the inner like the outer

and the high like the low;

when you make male and female into a single One,

so that the male is not male and the female is not female;

when you have eyes in your eyes,

a hand in your hand,

a foot in your foot,

and an icon in your icon,

then you will enter into the Kingdom.

(CF. MATT 18:1–3; MARK 9:36; LUKE 9:47–48; JOHN 17:11; ROM

12:4–5; I COR 12:24; GAL 3:28; EPH 2:14–18; EX 21:24; LEV

24:20.)

Here, too, Yeshua speaks of those of the Kingdom as children who receive

milk directly from the breast of their mother, but this time they are inno-

cents in a state of total receptivity, near to that which is considered to be

the very source of their life. Later, the Gospel of John speaks of the Breast

of the Father on which Yeshua’s head rests, and John himself much later

rests his head on Yeshua’s breast.⁹

In any case, all these images symbolize the attitude of repose and

receptivity that is necessary for the contemplative life. The disciples con-

clude that to become like an infant is sufficient in order to enter into the

Kingdom. But Yeshua reminds them that the infant is also a symbol of

9. [Cf. the author’s related observation in his commentary on the Gospel of Philip:

“Whereas Yeshua has often been depicted with a young man resting his head on his breast

(and such images have not been without effect on the behavior of the clergy), it is practi-

cally unimaginable to paint him in a pose of intimacy with a woman.” Jean-Yves Leloup,

The Gospel of Philip (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2004). —Trans.]

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100

nonduality, and that it is delusive to attempt literally to be like a child,

harboring childish behavior or attitudes in ourselves. Rather, we should

work to integrate all the dimensions of our being: high, low, masculine,

feminine, and so forth.

This is not a mere truism, but an injunction to work on ourselves.The

high must be in touch with the low. Many people have their heads in the

clouds, but their dreams are often in conflict with their physical drives.

The high and the low may even become totally separated. The work of

the gnostic is the integration of heaven and earth, the nonopposition of

flesh and spirit. This also includes the integration of masculine and fem-

inine, of anima and animus. We must realize the marriage of man and

woman within ourselves—otherwise we will always be searching outside

to cure the lack we feel inside.This prevents us from discovering ourselves

as realized beings, whole and undivided.

The theme of the androgyne recurs often in gnostic literature. It sym-

bolizes this integration of masculine and feminine polarities: rigor and ten-

derness, intellect and feeling, strength and gentleness. Yet this is not some

wholeness that is closed upon itself. On the contrary, it empowers us to

realize our capacity for loving others from wholeness instead of from lack.

Then our loves are not merely thirsts—they are also overflowing fountains.

It was Paul who said: “In Christ there is neither male nor female.”

Indeed, there are only individuals. Their relations are determined by ani-

mal attraction not between male and female, but between man and

woman, recalling the image of the yin-yang circle, which draws the whole

universe into the rhythm of its wedding.

In this rediscovered unity all things appear as transfigured:

You will have eyes in your eyes, for they will see at last.

You will have a hand in your hand, for now you truly will be able to give

and receive.

You will have a foot in your foot, for now your feet will know the way.

All is renewed in the image and likeness of God—indeed, you will

become God’s icon.

Simon the New Theologian, a great Byzantine mystic, said after hav-

ing communed with the Mysteries (his way of referring to the Eucharist):

“Henceforth, I am his foot, his hand, his eyesight. I am his image and his

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101

presence . . .” Thus he felt himself permeated by what the Orthodox

Fathers called “divine philanthropy.” No longer able to accept passively

the suffering of even a single being, he prayed for the whole world and

cared for both the young woman in misery and her fatherless child.

There are numerous parallels to this logion in apocryphal New

Testament literature: Agraphon 71, for example.¹⁰Asked by someone

when the Kingdom would come, the Lord himself replies “When the two

become One, the outside like the inside, and the male with the female,

neither male nor female. Now, the two are One when each speaks the

truth mutually and when, without any hypocrisy, there are two bodies and

one unique soul.”

Similarly, the Naasenes said that “above, there is neither male nor

female, but a new creature, a new human androgyne.”¹¹

Let us conclude by quoting from the Acts of Thomas,¹²in which the

intense human yearning of the gnostic quest is evoked:

“May all my hours become like one single hour. May I be allowed to

leave this life all the sooner to contemplate the Living One, who gives Life

to those who believe in him, in that place where there is neither night nor

day, light nor darkness, good nor evil, rich nor poor, male nor female, lib-

erty nor captivity. What was inner, I shall make outer and what was outer,

inner, so that all his abundance is realized in me. I have ceased to look

behind me, and have gone forward, into the things that are forward . . .”

10. In A. Resch, Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen.

11. Cf. Hippolytus, Elenchos V, 7, 13–15.

12. [Verses 129–45. The Acts of Thomas are dated much later than the Gospel of

Thomas and are considered to be from a different source. —Trans.]

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Logion 23

Yeshua said:

I will choose one of you from a thousand

and two of you from ten thousand,

and they will stand as one, alone and simple [monakhos].

(CF. MATT 22:14; JOHN 6:70, 13–18.)

This logion is attributed by Iraneus and Ephiphanius to the Basilidean

gnostic sect. These two present it as an example of the “elitism” to which,

they claim, gnosticism leads. By the same logic we might say that the

words “Many are called, but few are chosen” (from Matthew) could be

censured as an example of the doctrine of predestination of souls.

Another reply might be that we are all chosen, for we are all created—

that is, “called” into existence.

It is our own response to the creative Intelligence that elects us. One

in a thousand respond and two in ten thousand make themselves capax

Dei, a pure capacity of God, which is one of the names given to the Virgin

Mary in Catholic tradition.

These few who do not resist grace are members of one unique

response, that of the Son. They arise simplified and without convolutions,

“turned toward the Father,” as in the beginning—evoking that beginning

spoken of in the prologue to the Gospel of John.

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Logion 24

His disciples asked:

“Teach us about the place where you dwell,

for we must seek it.”

He told them:

Those who have ears, let them hear!

There is light within people of light,

and they shine it upon the whole world.

If they do not shine it,

what darkness!

(CF. MATT 6:22–23; LUKE 11:1, 33–36; JOHN 1:9, 7:34–36, 12, 36,

38.)

In the Gospel of John, the theme of light is especially important. “The

Word is the Light which shines upon all people who come into this

world.” This means all people, not just Christians or gnostics. Yeshua

declares himself as the Light incarnate: “I am the Light of the world.

Whoever follows me walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

This theme of the “man of light” is present in all the great traditions.

It has been studied with the greatest profundity in our time by Henry

Corbin.¹³

The “place” where Yeshua dwells, and where all those who walk in his

footsteps dwell, is the light. Light fills space and is invisible in itself, yet

allows all things to be seen. To be in the light is to be no longer hypno-

tized by the objects it reveals, but instead to see them through the infinite

space that contains them.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Yeshua says: “The eye is the lamp of the

body—if the eye is simple, the whole body is luminous, but if the eye is

bad¹⁴[presents an unclear image], the whole body is darkness.” The nec-

essary condition for perceiving the light is therefore purity, or simplicity

of regard.

13. Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala,

1978).

14. [“if the eye is bad” = if the eye presents an unclear or distorted image. —Trans.]

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What else could be meant by a luminous regard, if not that which

awakens in each of us, piercing through our shadows, the light that we

bear within us? Fortunate are those who have encountered such a regard!

Not only does it show them that they are dust and will return to dust, but

it also shows them that they are Light and will return to Light.

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Logion 25

Yeshua said:

Love your brother and sister as your soul;

protect them as you do the pupils of your eyes.

(CF. LEV 19:18; DEUT 32:10; PROV 7:2; MATT 5:43–44,19:19,

22:39; MARK 12:31–33; JOHN 2:10, 3:10, 4:21; ROM 13:9; GAL

5:14; JAMES 2:8, 3:10, 4:21.)

The first Letter of John is a good example of the link between the themes

of light and of love: “Whoever pretends to be in the light, yet hates their

neighbor, is still in darkness. Whoever loves their neighbor dwells in the

light, and they are not fallen. But whoever hates their neighbor is in dark-

ness. They walk in darkness, and they know not where they go, for the

darkness has blinded their eyes.”

Thus love and light, gnosis and agape, cannot be separated. Hatred

makes us blind and unhappy. “Whoever does not love, dwells in death,”

as John says elsewhere. They dwell already in hell, closed upon them-

selves, with no desire for the desire of Other.This is a spiritual autism that

is surely even more painful than psychological autism. For those who love,

everything exists more vividly; the Other is seen in the light, and thus our

fellow human beings can be revealed as precious, like the pupil of our own

eye, a mirror that allows us to see and know ourselves.

Yet it is also true that we cannot reach the ultimate depth of the

“pupil” of our being except through the gift of ourselves. This openness is

like a black hole into which our harmony with the Light is immersed and

reborn.

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Logion 26

Yeshua said:

You see the sliver in your brother’s eye,

but you do not see the log in your own eye.

When you remove the log from your eye,

then you will see clearly enough to remove the sliver from your

brother’s eye.

(CF. MATT 7:3–5; LUKE 6:41–42.)

In this logion Yeshua once more manifests his therapeutic dimension. He

unmasks the mechanisms of projection and transference.

What we criticize most harshly in others is often a projection of

something that we dislike in ourselves but are afraid to admit. The faults

we find most intolerable in others are our own faults.

Listening to certain conversations, we may learn more about those

who are speaking than about the person of whom they are speaking. For

example, we hear someone say “She is intelligent,” but what is really being

said is: “She thinks as I do.” We might hear the converse as well: Someone

is “stupid” because “he does not think as I do.”

To judge others is to judge ourselves. The sliver we see in the other’s

eye is but our own repressed log. If we simply pay attention to the spon-

taneous judgments that are constantly arising in us, we can learn much

about ourselves and our own unconscious. When more light comes to

shine in this unconsciousness, we can see others more clearly. We see that

what they need is not so much to be judged as to be loved. And this

unconditional love may even spark their own transformation toward

the light.

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Logion 27

Yeshua said:

If you do not fast from the world,

you will not find the Kingdom.

If you do not celebrate the Sabbath as a Sabbath,

you will not know the Father.

(CF. MATT 5:8–20, 6:33, 18:3; LUKE 12:31, 13:5, 18:17; JOHN 3:5,

6:46, 14:9.)

To be in the world but not of it: This is a strongly recurrent theme in the

gospels.

To fast from the world is to manifest our freedom in relation to it. We

must leave the city in order to see its real skyline. A time of retreat is neces-

sary for a truly human life. This is the deep meaning of shabbat, a word

which literally means “a stopping.” (When contemporary Israelis needed a

word for a labor strike, they coined the word chevita, a derivative of shabbat.)

The importance of Shabbat to the Jewish people is well known. Each

week, individuals stop doing and thereby wrest away the world and

human life from the iron, mechanical grip of production. People take the

time to be, to sit before God.

This is also a day when humans are equal. They drop their social and

professional roles and are simply human beings. Their universal family, all

members of which are descendants from God, allows them also to dis-

cover this same movement as a kinship with all creatures.

To bring Shabbat into our life is to introduce a time of stopping and

of returning—even in the midst of our agitated state—to our essential

being. It means taking the time to ask the great questions, such as “What

is the real motive of my action? Who is it who thinks? Who am I?”

The Shabbat is also a moment of halting our churning mental appara-

tus, when time is suspended . . . Then it is possible for a flame to burn from

the heart of humanity, an echo of the pure and simple I AM.

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Logion 28

Yeshua said:

I stood in the midst of the world

and revealed myself to them in the flesh.

I found them all intoxicated.

Not one of them was thirsty

and my soul grieved for the children of humanity,

for they are blind in their hearts.

They do not see.

They came naked into the world,

and naked they will leave it.

At this time, they are intoxicated.

When they have vomited their wine,

they will return to themselves.

(CF. MATT 11:17; LUKE 7:32; JOHN 4:13–15, 6:35; I TIM 3:66;

I THESS 5:7; II COR 6:1; GAL 2:2; PHIL 2:16.)

The theme of the “intoxicated” man in gnostic literature is opposed to

that of the “man of light,” set here as the opposite of “divine drunken-

ness,” for it is a condition in which mind and heart are blurred, dense, and

intoxicated by the world of appearances.

The aim here is to break free of an intoxication that produces self-

satisfaction and dullness and perpetuates thought processes that are

mostly obstinate and obscure. This requires that we let go of our “given

truths,” all those useless concepts that diminish the Real. Only then can

we discover the truth of I AM, the luminous, ungraspable Presence of the

One who Is—or, as the Areopagite school would say, the infinitely more

than Being.

We came naked into the world and naked we will leave it. It is impor-

tant to remember this—not to be overwhelmed by it, but to refer to it to

maintain a minimum of lucidity. It is not we who gave ourselves Being—

by ourselves we are but “pure nullity.” The lucidity that comes from fac-

ing this hard truth will help us to vomit up our wine, to escape the illusion

and inflation of ego. Then we can rediscover our true nature with a new

mind and a new heart.

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109

The Gospel of Truth (22:13–19) adds: “Whoever has gnosis knows

from where they come, and to where they are going. They know this as

those who, having been intoxicated, then become sober and return to

themselves, regaining what is proper to them.”

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Logion 29

Yeshua said:

If flesh came into being because of spirit,

it is a wonder.

But if spirit came into being because of flesh,

it is a wonder of wonders.

Yet the greatest of wonders is this:

How is it that this Being, which Is,

inhabits this nothingness?

(CF. MATT 21:42; MARK 12:11; JOHN 1:14; I TIM 3:16; ROM 8:13;

I COL 5:3.)

The world seems divided by two major views about mind and matter: the

spiritualist view and the materialist view.

For spiritualists, matter is a devolved, frozen form of spirit. Spirit is

the fundamental reality vibrating at different frequencies, one of the slow-

est of which produces the phenomenon of matter.

For materialists, on the contrary, spirit and mind are merely products

of the increasing complexity of matter. Only chance and necessity rule the

behavior of our synapses and the dance of particles that compose us.

There are two opposite ways of framing the question: “How does

matter arise from spirit?” and “How does spirit arise from matter?” In

either case, it is a wonder of wonders! Each of these approaches has its

own reason, its own logic. But logic and reason are insufficient, for—as

this logion tells us—the real marvel is that there is something instead of

nothing!

Yeshua does not ask why, for that would be to descend to the level of

explanation. He simply notes, wonders, and admires, drawing us into a

nondualistic vision in which matter and spirit are not opposed but

embraced together. Might it be that matter and spirit are empty words,

mere mental concepts? In the moment of sheer wonder, perhaps are we

closer to a single Reality whose subtle and gross polarities are revealed as

complementary?

The really interesting question is: “How is it that this Being, which

Is, inhabits this nothingness?” Some have paraphrased this as “How can

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111

this wealth inhabit this poverty?” Within us we contain both the uncre-

ated and the created, the divine and the human. Where does one begin

and the other end?

The question is not “Why?” but “How?” How can we live so that they

are One, as in “I and the Father are One”? How can we realize this union

of God and human, as manifested in Yeshua the Christ, with neither sep-

aration nor confusion? How can we live fully the consequences of the

theanthropic wedding of created and uncreated?

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112

Logion 30

Yeshua said:

Where there are three gods,

they are gods.

Where there are two or one,

I am with them.

(CF. MATT 18:20; JOHN 5:7–8, 10:34.)

The Gospel of Matthew attributes words to Yeshua that recall this logion:

“Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them.”

Where love is present, God is present. Where two or three hold together

in the One, which is their source, the Mystery of the total interconnect-

edness of all things reveals itself to them.¹⁵The Pantokrator, that which

holds all things together, is present.

The Egyptian hermit monks had a different way of understanding

this teaching. For them, the “two or three” means the body, the soul (or

heart), and the spirit. When these three levels of our being, each with its

own mode of consciousness, are all present together in unity, then the

Christ is truly present.

This is in fact one of the leitmotifs of the Hesychast system of prayer.

Through deep breathing and invocation of the Name, the different com-

ponents of human beingness are brought together so that the light of

Spirit can descend into us and transform our being.

15. Cf. the nonlocal connectedness of the universe as described by quantum physics.

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Logion 31

Yeshua said:

No one is a prophet in his own village.

No one is a physician in his own home.

(CF. MATT 13:57; MARK 6:4; LUKE 4:23–24; JOHN 4:44.)

Why are prophets so rarely accepted in their own country? Undoubtedly

because people think they know the prophet. The sound of their voice is

already labeled and judged before they speak. It is more effective if they

come from elsewhere so that their novelty makes people pay serious

attention to what they are saying.

Perhaps this is for the best, after all. It can also help the prophet and

the healer to remember that the grace that passes through their voice or

their hands comes not from them or from their lineage or from their

entourage, but from God. And God can use the jawbone of an ass to

prophesy and a lump of clay to heal.

This attitude of humility and love is characteristic of the true gnos-

tic. As the Mandukya Upanishad says, “After realization of nonduality,

live in this world as if you were an ordinary being”; to which Shankara

adds: “ . . . to the point that others do not even suspect who you are and

what you have become.”

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Logion 32

Yeshua said:

A strong city built upon a high mountain

cannot be destroyed,

cannot be hidden.

(CF. ISAIAH 2:2; MATT 5:14, 7:24–25; REV 14:8, 21:10; LUKE

6:47–49.)

We know the parable of the house built on sand that crumbles and the

house built on rock that weathers the storm. Foundations are important.

We must ask ourselves whether they are deeply rooted enough, and in

what kind of ground.

We must know that the basis of our life is solid. It is like a strong city

that symbolizes the efforts of organizing and harmonizing our different

modes of being. It is a city that is built upon a high mountain, which

imparts not only strength and solidity, but also a visibility that makes it a

beacon across the plains.

Those who found their life in love of God have nothing to fear. Their

house is built upon the very source of the life force. Nothing can destroy

it, nothing can overwhelm it. “Light shines in darkness, and the darkness

cannot reach it” (John 1:5).

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Logion 33

Yeshua said:

What you hear with your ears,

tell it to other ears

and proclaim it from the rooftops.

No one lights a lamp

so that it will be put under a basket

or hidden somewhere.

Rather, one puts it upon a stand

so that all who enter and leave

may see the light.

(CF. MATT 5:15, 10:23–27; LUKE 8:16, 11:33, 12:3; JOHN 10:9.)

You cannot steal the perfume from the rose. The rose is not grudging of

those who breathe its fragrance. The mission of light is to shine, but the

concern of the gnostic is not so much the desire to shine as it is the desire

to be light.

In order to transmit the word, we must first embody it. The sun does

not proselytize; it offers its light freely. Nor are fully human beings pros-

elytes. They simply transmit what they have truly received. They give of

themselves—not because they are virtuous, but because it is their nature

to do so. “He loves not as I love, but as the emerald is green, for he is ‘I

love.’”

The temptation is to hide this lamp under a basket. The ordinary

mind wants to reduce this radiance to something that can be understood

within its own limits. But this light cannot remain hidden indefinitely.

Even the body yearns to become a transparent beacon of light. And

according to the tradition of St. Seraphim of Sarov and other human

beings transfigured by this love, it can, so that outside is like inside and

all is light.

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Logion 34

Yeshua said:

When a blind person leads another blind person,

they both fall into a pit.

(CF. MATT 15:14; LUKE 6:39; JOHN 9:39–41.)

We cannot guide someone unless we truly see. If we have not awakened,

then we will share only our sleep with another, and we will both fall into

a pit together.

As John the Baptist said, “One can give only what one has received.”

Nothing more, nothing less.

Do not let yourself be guided by those who do not have the experi-

ence of which they speak. Intuitively, we know to beware of those who

eagerly offer “good advice.” As the Indian sage Nisargadatta said, “Those

who know what is good for others are dangerous people.”

You can bear witness to your faith, but never graft it on another.

When this is seen as the luminous truth it is, it becomes an awakening

force in itself. All that you can say is: “That which is alive in me is also

alive in you.”

The true master is not someone who speaks eloquently of the Light,

but rather one who helps us to see it with our own eyes. As an old proverb

says, “Give a man a fish, and he will not hunger for a day. Teach him how

to fish, and he will never hunger again.”

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Logion 35

Yeshua said:

One cannot capture the house of the strong

except by tying their hands.

Then everything can be overturned.

(CF. MATT 12:29; MARK 3:27; LUKE 11:21–22.)

The Gospel of Thomas teaches that true strength resides in those who

have become who they are. The strongest are those who have found their

place in which they fulfill God’s design for them. For gnostics, weakness

always means not knowing who we are, ignorance of our essential being.

The true strength of human beings lies in their union with God, who is

both their citadel and their liberator, the source of their only real security

and freedom. Nothing can conquer them in their depths. But they can be

prevented from expressing and giving themselves. The hands of love can

be tied and everything overthrown.

The mission of love is to give. If this is prevented, its force can wane.

Yet there is no standing still on this path—whoever does not continue to

advance, retreats. The fire of love grows only hotter when confronted with

obstacles. The only other choice it has is to die down and become ashes.

So the hands of love can be tied, but the radiance of its heart can

never be extinguished. Those who have their hands cut off still transmit

directly from the heart. Other hands will be raised to accomplish their

work.

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Logion 36

Yeshua said:

Do not worry from morning to evening,

or from evening to morning,

about having clothes to wear.

(CF. MATT 6:25–33; LUKE 12:22–31; EX 27:21; LEV 24:3; NUM

9:21.)

This is a major recurrent theme in the gospels: Stop worrying! Stop wor-

rying about food, about clothes, and about “what we will say when they

take us before the judges.” First seek the Kingdom, the Reign of Spirit

within you. Only then will come true clarity, with all things given and

resolved beyond belief.

Generally, worry and care are based on fear. They are signs of a lack

of inner peace and confidence. Being anxiously concerned, even about

noble causes, is also a symptom of pride. We take ourselves too seriously;

we believe we can ultimately control what will happen to us. But the truth

is that only the One is acting: “In Him we have our Life, our Movement,

and our Being.”

It is interesting to recall an anecdote from Pope John XXIII concern-

ing an evening when he was deeply distressed about the state of the

Church for a number of good reasons. Christ appeared to him and said:

“John, is it you or I who directs this Church? Is it you or I who pilots this

boat? . . . Then simply do your best and stop worrying.”

Letting go of worry does not mean becoming indifferent or irrespon-

sible. We continue to do the best we possibly can—but now we know that

the fruit of our actions does not depend on us. As the Bhagavad Gita says:

“You have a right to act, but no right to the results of your action.”

Ignatius of Loyola put it this way: “In all things, perform your act as

if everything depends on it alone; and in all things, act as if the outcome

of everything you do depends on God alone.”

To relinquish worry is also to live in the Present. “Do not worry from

morning to evening, or from evening to morning.” In Matthew 6:34,

Yeshua says: “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” And

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119

from Luke 6:27: “Who among you can add one cubit to his span of life

by being anxious?”

Love naturally lives in the Present. Those who think “I will love,”

mean that they do not love.

Living in the Present, moment after moment, unveils the secret of the

Presence. This demands a great power of attention and a high quality of

soul, but it is the greatest source of happiness. Our energy ceases to be

dispersed to yesterday and tomorrow. We begin to live intensely with

“what is in front of [us]” (logion 5). We are then no longer separate from

the spontaneity of Life, which passes through one form to another, from

one set of clothes to another, without losing our identity.

Not worrying about our clothes thus also means not worrying about

what form life will take for us. Our asceticism consists in being faithful

and true in the present moment.

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Logion 37

His disciples asked:

“When will be the day that you appear to us?”

“When will be the day of our vision?”

Yeshua replied:

On the day when you are naked

as newborn infants

who trample their clothing,

then you will see the Son of the Living One

and you will have no more fear.

(CF. GEN 2:25, 3:7; MATT 14:26–27, 16:16, 18:3; MARK 6:10–15,

6:48–50; JOHN 3:3, 6:14–22; HEB 4:13; I JOHN 3:2.)

Here, clothes symbolize all the suppositions and impositions with which

we have veiled our essential being. They represent all our identifications

with roles and situations, all the ideas that make us forget our nakedness.

This gospel invites us to be naked, to be nothing, to be empty as a

newborn child without clothes, without prejudices, so as to rediscover that

innocence which allows us to see the Living One. When we cease to proj-

ect the past and the future onto the present, how can we still be afraid?

Another connotation of nakedness is preparation for the Sacred

Embrace. Being naked requires an act of faith in the Love that awaits us.

Thus the Priscillians removed all their garments when they prayed.¹⁶

In the Acts of Thomas, humanity is symbolized by a young wife who

says: “Henceforth I shall no more veil myself, for the mirror of shame has

been removed from me . . . No more shall I feel ashamed and frightened.”

And what is this mirror of shame if not the unnatural stare of the voyeur?

In the Liber Graduum (col. 341:1)¹⁷Adam and Eve appear without

shame as naked as babies at the breast. This is seen as an invitation to

become naked and innocent again.

16. [For more on the Sacred Embrace, see Leloup, The Gospel of Philip (Rochester, Vt.:

Inner Traditions, 2004). The Priscillians, or Priscillans, were a fourth-century gnostic

Christian group in Spain and southern Gaul. —Trans.]

17. [The Liber Graduum (Book of Steps) is a fourth-century Syrian Christian text. —

Trans.]

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121

But in some forms of gnosticism, nakedness goes still further to sig-

nify a dis-identification with the physical body. To be naked is to

remember that our essence is uncreated and that all pathological attach-

ment to existence in space-time is a form of idolatry. “I will cast off this

earthly body! I will discard the Cosmos and the appearance of the five

stars: I will destroy the trap laid in me by the Archons, and I will shine

resplendent in remembrance of the Paraclete! . . . You have cast down

the clothes of infirmity; you have trampled down cruel and deceitful

pride . . . I have overthrown the vanity of this fleshly dress” (from the

Manichean Psalms).

One of the most beautiful echoes of logion 37 is this poem¹⁸by the

contemporary author Jacques Lacarrière, from his Surat of Emptiness:

Unlearning. Deconditioning your birth.

Forgetting your name. Going naked.

Sloughing away your last remains. Disrobing your memory.

Melting down your masks.

Ripping up your duties. Dismantling your certainties.

Disconnecting your doubts. Losing control of your being.

Unbaptizing your springs. Unmapping your roads.

Shearing your desires. Gutting your passions.

Desacralizing the prophets. Discrediting the future.

Overturning the past. Discouraging Time.

Unknotting unreason. Deflowering delirium.

Defrocking the sacred. Sobering up from vertigo.

Defacing Narcissus. Delivering Gilead.

Deposing Moloch. Dethroning Leviathan.

Demystifying blood. Dissecting the monkey.

Disinheriting the ancestor.

18. [Translated here from Jacques Lacarrière, Sourates (Paris: Albin Michel, 1997). —

Trans.]

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Unburdening your soul. Unfailing your failures.

Disenchanting your despair. Unchaining your hope.

Delivering your madness. Defusing your fears.

Disencumbering your heart. Disappointing your Death.

Debasing your basis. Shredding your acquisitions.

Unlearn. Become naked.

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Logion 38

Yeshua said:

Often you have wanted to hear

the words I speak to you now.

No one else can say them to you,

and the days will come

when you seek me

and do not find me.

(CF. MATT 9:15, 13:17, 23:29; MARK 2:20; LUKE 5:35, 10:24; JOHN

7:33–34, 8:21, 13:33, 16:16.)

The beginning of this logion is echoed in the Acts of John. At the

moment of the crucifixion, the Savior appears to John in a vision on the

Mount of Olives, telling him that he will reveal the cross of light: “ . . .

John, it is needful that one should hear these things from me, for I have

need of one that will hear.”

According to the Manichean Psalms, the Savior transmitted this

logion so that the eleven disciples would recognize later that it was the

Christ who was calling them. Mary Magdalene would also evoke these

words from Yeshua: “Remember what I revealed of myself to you on the

Mount of Olives: I have something to say, and no one to say it to.”

The logion continues, with Yeshua speaking of the day when they will

seek but not find him. But why seek the Christ, the Living One, among

the dead? The right moment is now. Every day is the day of salvation and

every instant the time of Encounter. Tomorrow will be too late. Never put

off love and joy until tomorrow. The Kingdom is here and now. Where

but in the Present will you search for the Living One?

As Angelus Silesius said, “What does it matter that Christ was born

long ago in Bethlehem, if he is not born today in me?” And what does it

matter that Christ is coming tomorrow, if my heart is not open to receive

him today?

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Logion 39

Yeshua said:

The Pharisees and the scribes

have received the keys of knowledge

and hidden them.

They did not go within,

and those who wanted to go there

were prevented by them.

As for you, be as alert as the serpent

and as simple as the dove.

(CF. MATT 10:16, 23:13; LUKE 11:52.)

Although Yeshua appears in all the gospels as the very incarnation of gen-

tleness and compassion when faced with those who are suffering, he man-

ifests thunderous severity before those who pretend to guide and teach

others yet do not practice what they preach. Though it now goes by other

names, the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees is still very much with

us today. These are people who are supposed to have received the keys.

They have learned the letters and the words of the holy books and have

heard the good news of the love of God in which all are invited to par-

ticipate. Why do they betray it?

Let us turn to Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, to the chapter

on the Grand Inquisitor, in order to shed some light on this. Is it not the

Grand Inquisitor who rules the minds of such hypocrites? And does he

not also exist in each of us? This is how he speaks to Christ: “You have

revealed too great a freedom for men. It makes them unhappy, for they do

not know what to do with it. But we have instructed them in what is right

and what is wrong. We have told them what to do . . . They may be less

free, but they are happier.”

In the Grand Inquisitor we recognize the voice of all authoritarian

systems that want to produce human happiness but without human

participation in freedom. Thus the scribes and Pharisees have been given

the keys of knowledge, but they do not want to use them to open the door

for all. Instead, they seek to hoard the treasure of the Word for them-

selves—or, even worse, they seek to reduce the holy scriptures to a gross

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and vulgar level of interpretation. These people are very far indeed from

“living the meaning” of the Word. At best, they offer the letter of it,

devoid of the Spirit that brings it to life.

As early as Origen we find a complaint about priests who no longer

transmit the spiritual meaning of the scriptures, who fail in their herme-

neutical mission: “They distribute them like nuts to children, but without

opening the hard shells, so that the children break their teeth. They never

taste the almond, the core of the message.”

Today, we have lost touch with the meaning of initiation, or rite of

passage. The true hermeneutic art is one of offering a “passage” from one

level of consciousness to another, so as to have access to the Spirit of the

Word.

The early founders of Orthodox Christianity distinguished three

general levels of scriptural interpretation:

1. The physical level, related to history

2. The psychic level, related to ethics

3. The spiritual level, related to ontology

Initiation means a passage through all these levels without denying or

neglecting any part of the process. For example, we can read the Song of

Songs as a tale of erotic romance between a shepherd and shepherdess, or

as a symbolic story of the love between God and Israel or between Christ

and the Church. Still another interpretation is that of St. Gregory of

Nyssa and St. John of the Cross: It tells of the love affair between God

and the soul, of the mystical union of the created and the uncreated.

This example illustrates a hermeneutic approach that respects all lev-

els of meaning of scripture. Unfortunately, it is seldom practiced today,

just as it was apparently seldom practiced in the time of Yeshua of

Nazareth. By then the Torah had become a restrictive and guilt-producing

body of rules and laws, instead of a law of freedom that could save human

beings from what was most harmful and destructive in themselves and in

the world.

Yeshua also reproached the scribes and Pharisees for turning the

Word to their service instead of serving it. Indeed, it is possible to use

scripture to gain personal power and dominate others—surely one of the

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126

most dangerous and perverted of powers. While pretending to speak in

the name of God, offenders work on the minds of their recruits with

manipulation disguised as guidance. This power has nothing to do with

the true power of the Word, which is that of ever-greater love and service.

The knowledge communicated by sacred texts is one of attention and

simplicity, as indicated by the following words of this logion: “[B]e as alert

as the serpent and as simple as the dove.” A gnostic is not a person with

any special knowledge, but rather a simple human being with a clear and

open heart and no self-concern or self-importance, someone who is atten-

tive to what is in front of him or her. The gnosis taught by Yeshua is one

that develops a meditative attitude toward what is, an attitude that is non-

dualist, nonrationalizing, and free of projection and judgment. Gnosis is

simply seeing things as they are.

There is a remarkable beauty in Yeshua’s image of serpent and dove.

The serpent crawls upon the earth while the dove flies in the sky. Thus we

are told to ground ourselves on earth without losing touch with our thrust

upward into the skies. To hold both these animal qualities is to realize the

union of opposites, of earth and heaven.

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127

Logion 40

Yeshua said:

A grapevine planted away from the Father

has no vitality.

It will be torn up by its roots

and will perish.

(CF. PROV 12:3–12, 15:6; ISAIAH 5:1–6; JER 2:21, 17:5; EZEK

19:10–14; DAN 4:14; MATT 3:10, 7:19, 15:31, 21:29; MARK

11:13–14; LUKE 13:6–9; JOHN 15:1,2,5,6; COL 2:7.)

This logion reminds us of the importance of roots and being grounded.

To be grounded in the Father means to be rooted in the true origin of all

existence. To be planted away from the Father results in being cut off

from the Source. Even the purest water will soon stagnate when cut off

from its source. It suffers the same fate as the branch, spoken of in the

Gospel of John, that is cut from the vine.

The parable of the vine and its branches also offers a strong image of

the unity that results when a community of faith is brought together. The

real nature of this unity lies inside, like the sap that runs through the vine

and branches. This unity can never occur from the outside when, like dif-

ferent branches, different religious traditions meet. Grafting the branches

together would either damage them or link them in such an artificial way

that their separateness would be even more apparent. But perhaps these

different branches will be able to discover unity in their inner nature, in

the silence of their common sap, which ultimately comes from the larger

trunk that they had not seen before.

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128

Logion 41

Yeshua said:

Whoever has something in hand

will be given more.

Whoever has nothing,

even the little they have

will be taken away.

(CF. MATT 13:12, 25:29; MARK 4:25; LUKE 8:18, 19:26.)

The content of this logion is familiar from the canonical gospels, follow-

ing the parable of the talents. At first glance, this conclusion may seem

outrageously unjust. Those who have are to be given more while those

who have not are to lose even what they have.

But this must be seen as an expression of the urgency of the demand,

in all the gospels, that we bring our gifts to fruition, that we not neglect

or waste them. It is based on the fundamental law that the more we give,

the more we receive.

Thus the meaning of having “something in hand” has nothing to do

with material wealth, but instead concerns the capacity to give of our-

selves. It also means having love and self-knowledge, or gnosis. Without

this gnosis, any possibility of understanding the world will be denied to

us. Without this love, life loses its savor and its interest. Nothing aston-

ishes us or reveals anything to us any longer. What we thought we knew,

the power and possessions we thought we had, sooner or later turn to

ashes. If we cannot give love, even the little we have will be taken from us.

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129

Logion 42

Yeshua said:

Be passersby.

(CF. JOHN 13:1; I COR 4–11, 7:31; HEB 11:9, 29:37.)

Christian tradition gives great significance to the theme of Passover, or

Easter. The Hebrew word pesakh means “passage.” The deeper meaning is

that we are all temporary passengers and pilgrims here. The earth is a

bridge and we do not build a house on a bridge. We must pass on. Time

passes; everything, it seems, passes. What is it that does not pass?

It is a sign of psychic health to see ourselves as passersby, for we are

in closer touch with reality. Just to know that our pain will pass makes it

more bearable. And to know that our dearest pleasures will also pass gives

us freedom from them, so we are not so sad when they are gone.

There is a story of a king who dreamed one night that he possessed a

very special ring. Whenever he was unhappy and looked at the ring, a

great calm and equanimity filled him. When he found himself agitated

with enthusiasm and excitement, he looked at the ring and a great calm

came to him so that he became peaceful in his fervor. When he woke up

the next morning, he described the ring in detail to his ministers and

commanded them to search the kingdom for such a ring or for someone

who could make one.

After long searching, the ministers finally found such a ring on the

finger of an old woman. There was nothing extraordinary about this

woman, except perhaps for her serenity. She readily agreed to give her ring

to the king, and it began to work as soon as he put it on his finger. In a few

days he was cured of his manic-depressive tendencies, and his slavery to his

changing moods came to an end. Beyond the extremes of laughter and

tears, he discovered the great depth and beauty of a genuine smile.

One day he looked closely at the inner surface of the ring and noticed

for the first time that there were tiny letters inscribed there. They read:

“This, too, will pass.”

Whether we find ourselves on a hospital bed or in the midst of the

greatest experience of happiness, remembering this truth will serve us

well.

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130

The cause of suffering is our resistance to impermanence, the ever-

changing flow of all things in life. Let pass what must pass. Dwell on that

which is always alive.

To be a passerby is also to be moving toward the other shore, from the

shadows to the light, from this world to the Father, as Yeshua taught—to

move from what is always passing to what does not pass, to awaken to the

life beyond birth and death, resurrected upon the other shore of ourselves.

People said of St. Bernard that he had a very alert look, the appearance of

someone who is constantly traveling, as if always on a pilgrimage to

Jerusalem. Passersby see all things for the first and last time. They never

look back and they savor each instant as the very place of passage of the

Eternal Now.

The image of the bridge comes from an echo of this logion inscribed

in Arabic letters upon the gateway of the ancient city of Fateh-pur-Sikri,

now in the southern part of Delhi, built by the Moghul emperor Akbar.

It says:

The prophet Isa [Jesus], peace be unto him, said this:

The world is a bridge.

Pass over it,

but do not make your home there.

These words are also attributed to Yeshua by a number of Muslim

authors, notably Al-Ghazali (1059–1111).

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131

Logion 43

The disciples asked him:

“Who are you to say these things to us?”

Yeshua replied:

Do you not know me from what I say to you?

Or have you become like those Judeans:

If they love the tree,

they despise the fruit.

If they love the fruit,

they despise the tree.

(CF. MATT 11:2; JOHN 8:25, 14:8; LUKE 6:43–44.)

In the Gospel of John, the Pharisees ask Yeshua who he is, and he replies

that his words have always said who he is.

Actually, Yeshua’s teaching is not really that far from that of the

Pharisees. The crucial difference is that they do not practice what they

teach whereas he is what he teaches. He is transparent, for there is no

dualism between words and action.

To listen, to hear, to meditate upon his words, is the way of access to

the mystery of his Being. The creative meaning in his speech and the cre-

ative meaning that informs his acts are One.

The end of this logion reminds us that the fruit and the tree are also

one and that apples do not grow on olive trees. Yeshua’s words are the fruit

of the Torah, the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. He is the ripe

fruit of the tree of Israel. But the Jewish Pharisees despise the fruit and

the Gentile (or, later, Christian) Pharisees despise the tree.

The day when Judaism and Christianity are no longer at odds will be

the day when the tree is proud of its fruit and the fruit embraces the tree

with a love reaching down into the roots. In this clear light of Paradise the

two are revealed to be One, and people will know the meaning of the Tree

of Life.

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132

Logion 44

Yeshua said:

Whoever blasphemes against the Father

will be forgiven,

and whoever blasphemes against the Son

will be forgiven.

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

will not be forgiven,

either on earth or in heaven.

(CF. MATT 6:10, 12:31–32; MARK 3:28–29; LUKE 12:10.)

We may be blocked from the insight that would enable us to see through

the variety and multiplicity of creation toward the One who is its Source.

This is a denial that does not recognize the Father. Or we might be

blocked in our heart center, so that we are unable to see the beauty of

human beingness or to feel awe at the divine compassion that can mani-

fest in a human being. This is a denial that does not recognize the Son.

But to be cut off from the Spirit, the very Breath that is the source of our

life, is far more serious. It is a denial of our most intimate being.

This logion recalls the vision of God as Unity-in-Trinity. The Father

symbolizes Transcendence, the Other, the Beyond. The Son¹⁹symbolizes

Immanence, the Presence of Being that urges all things toward their des-

tiny. The Holy Spirit is the link between Transcendence and Immanence.

In societies in which the free flow of Spirit is lacking, we often find

people trapped in religions of one-sided transcendence, with God

remaining outside and inaccessible. As the poet Jacques Prévert ironically

wrote, the blasphemy becomes “Our Father who art in heaven, please stay

right there where you are.”

But the lack of Spirit can also lead to one-sided devotion to the Son,

which is just as problematic. Here, humanity becomes its own god. This

19. [Here, the author uses the masculine term Son to refer to an Immanence that is tra-

ditionally considered the feminine aspect of God. There is no contradiction because (as is

pointed out in other passages) the Christ is just as much feminine as masculine. “Son” is

not meant here as it is in literalist Christian doctrine. —Trans.]

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133

can lead to a humanism that lacks any opening to the transcendent

dimension.

The Holy Spirit keeps us in touch with both the Transcendence

beyond all experience and the Immanence within all experience. To blas-

pheme against the Spirit is to deny any possibility of a link between these

two, to deny the Unity of Father and Son.

But why should this blasphemy against the Spirit be beyond all par-

don? The Founders of the early Church put it this way: “God can do all

things except one: force a human being to love Him.” Hence, even God

cannot overcome the obstinacy of those who destroy their most intimate

links with their own Being, continually burning their only bridge to the

other shore.

To refuse the Holy Spirit is to refuse all possibility of communion

between the human and the divine. It is to refuse the grace forever offered

by this communion and to imprison ourselves in the illusion of a separate

self. If hell exists, it is only because God is Love and human beings are

free. This freedom includes the power to say no to Love. Love cannot

force open the door and still be Love.

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134

Logion 45

Yeshua said:

Grapes are not picked from thornbushes,

nor figs from thistles,

for they do not give fruit.

The good offer goodness

from the secret of their heart.

The perverse offer perversity

from the secret of their heart.

That which is expressed

is what overflows from the heart.

(CF. MATT 7:16–18, 12:33–35; LUKE 6:43–45; GAL 5:19–23.)

“By their fruits shall you know them.” This is the discrimination that

Christ teaches throughout the gospels.

In his Epistle to the Galatians Paul expounds at length on the theme

of this logion by contrasting the fruits of the Spirit with the fruits of the

flesh. Here, flesh must be understood as world is understood in the Gospel

of John—a restricted way of life in which humanity recognizes no need

beyond its natural needs, no Law but its own laws, and refuses the notion

of grace. In contrast to this, Paul goes so far as to say, “If the Holy Spirit

leads you, then you are not under the law.”

We are all too familiar with the fruits of this “flesh,” this impover-

ished way of being: soulless sex, self-indulgence, materialism, idolatry,

debauchery, power-seeking, pollution, discord, disputation, jealousy,

hatred, violence, war . . . But the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace,

equanimity, kindness, confidence, service to others, and self-mastery.

How can any law be above such fruits as these?

Thus the fruit reveals the nature of the tree, and the actions and

words of individuals reveal the secret of their heart, the nature of the spirit

that is inhabiting it.

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135

Logion 46

Yeshua said:

From Adam to John the Baptist,

no one born of woman

is higher than John the Baptist.

Thus his eyes will not be destroyed.

But I have said:

Whoever among you becomes small

will know the Kingdom, and be higher than John.

(CF. MATT 11:11, 13:11; LUKE 7:28, 10:11; ROM 5:14.)

John the Baptist plays an important role in the Tradition. He is the arche-

type of the Precursor, the Friend of the Bridegroom. In Christian tradi-

tion he is the preparer of the way, called the “Roadbuilder for the coming

of the Christ . . . lowering the high places, straightening the sharp turns,

filling in the depressions, preparing a straight road for the Lord.” On

another level, the work of this archetype is to make us more balanced and

peaceful individuals. John embodies and symbolizes the skillful work of

asceticism, which can shrink our pride and straighten the tortuous and

twisted places in our heart. It is a work that can liberate us from our

depressive or despairing tendencies, helping us to rediscover our true

nature, which allows grace to incarnate and radiate in us.

This Precursor archetype may show different faces to different peo-

ple. Some may be led to an encounter with the uncreated Light, or the

Christ, through the study of philosophy or science. For others, it might be

art, poetry, sacred scripture, or falling in love. We have all experienced

such presages of awakening. But we cannot remain in them indefinitely.

When the gospels speak of those who wonder if John the Baptist might

be the Christ himself, it is analogous to wondering whether some form of

art, science, psychotherapy, or relationship might be our highest truth, our

salvation . . . and it is the same mistake. Even if we arrive at the summit

of the mountain, the sky is still far above us, for it is of another nature. At

the summit of our experience, knowledge, or achievement, we are still far

below with respect to this other nature, this Unknown—for it is con-

sciousness of another order altogether, that of the Uncreated.

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136

The smallest in the Kingdom is greater than John. And yet “his eyes

will not be destroyed.” This means that his vision is true as far as it goes,

and should be followed. But it does not reach all the way into this new

dimension. John the Baptist said as much himself: “He must increase, and

I must decrease.”

Once this new consciousness of Being is awakened in us, the Self must

be allowed to increase and the ego must be allowed to diminish. According

to Jung, this is the fundamental law of the process of individuation.

This is what Paul means by leaving more and more room for Christ

within us, so that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

But this is accomplished through a day-to-day process whereby we con-

tinue to allow a little more light and peace to enter our lives.

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137

Logion 47

Yeshua said:

A man cannot ride two horses

nor bend two bows.

A servant cannot serve two masters,

for he will honor one and disdain the other.

No one drinks an old wine

and then desires a new one.

New wine is not put into old wineskins,

for they will crack.

Old wine is not put into new skins,

for it will spoil.

A patch of old cloth is not sewn

onto a new garment,

for it will tear.

(CF. MATT 6:24, 9:17; MARK 2:21; LUKE 5:36–38, 16:13.)

The usual interpretation of this logion is simply that we cannot serve two

masters: We must choose one or the other.

In the canonical gospels, this is further specified as a choice between

God and money. This has been interpreted to mean that if you love

money, you hate God; and if you love God, you must hate money. This

interpretation has created enormous problems and has led to untold suf-

fering. It encloses human beings in a dualistic attitude that is virtually

guaranteed to lead to a “return of the repressed.” Jean Cassien tells the

story of a monk who gave up his considerable wealth in order to love

God. Later, he became obsessively attached to a rubber eraser, so much so

that he would never allow anyone else to touch it. As St. John of the Cross

noted, it makes no difference whether a bird is tied with a chain or a

thread—in either case, it cannot fly.

What is the way out of this either/or dualism?

What Yeshua seems to be saying here is that indeed, we cannot live

in this kind of duality because we cannot love and hate at the same time.

Loving God and hating anything are incompatible. What is needed is to

put things in their proper places and order, to “render therefore unto

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138

Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which

would be God’s.”

But Caesar, too, has his ultimate source in God, as does money, a tool

of communication and exchange that can be used for good or for evil. The

important thing is not to worship money in any way, not to be dominated

by it. This need not be a problem for those whose worship is only for

God.

Thus we cannot live by setting one against the other and forcing our-

selves to choose. It is an unbearable dualism and sooner or later will have

serious consequences, which are well known in psychopathology. We must

accept both, for we cannot love and loathe with one heart. We must learn

to recognize the One through the duality, our only Master who can show

us our way through the vast diversity and multiplicity of phenomena.

The logion goes on to say that we cannot drink both old and new

wine together. They will spoil each other. Old wines and new wines each

have their virtues—and we should neither oppose them nor mix them.

Tradition and innovation both have their good points. One must not

be reduced to the other, for that only creates confusion.The gospels advise

us to respect one principle without omitting a different principle. Two

flowers of very different ages and colors can be placed harmoniously in

the same vase without one eclipsing the other.

Indeed, new wine must not be put into old skins. (Experienced wine

growers know that new wine will still undergo some fermentation, which

can crack old barrels.) Some would go so far as to say that the new wine

of the Spirit cannot remain in the old barrels of institutionalized religion.

It will crack them, just as the wine of the Good News cracked the reli-

gious traditions of its day.

There is much truth to this. Surely we can find forms that are better

adapted to the inspiration manifesting today without seeking at all costs

to make it fit into old traditions. Our attempts have sometimes led to

dreadful mixtures, but the truth is that both old and new have their own

beauty and internal consistency. Again, difficulties can be avoided by not

setting old and new against each other or blending them heedlessly.

Drinkers of the old wine can respect new inspiration without fear of the

strangeness of its words. And drinkers of the new wine can respect

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139

ancient tradition for the quality of inspiration that it has maintained

through its authentic rites and practices.

This metaphor holds just as true in the realm of inner experience.

When we are filled with the radically new wine of the consciousness of

the Uncreated, with its infinite freedom, we should not attempt to make

it fit into the categories of ordinary thought and logic. Yet this does not

require any loss of respect for the value of thought and logic in their own

domain.

The new-wine parable also applies to contemporary science. For

example, quantum physics cannot be made to fit into the categories of

Newtonian physics because its probabilistic logic is so different that it

marks a discontinuity. But discontinuity does not necessitate opposition

in either scientific discovery or levels of consciousness.

The Gospel of Thomas also implies that the wise know how to use

both the old and the new. They are able to respect tradition without

allowing it to block the radical newness of Spirit. Whatever wineskins

may be used, it is important that the wine be of good quality and poured

into the appropriate form so that nothing is spoiled and it retains its

power to induce “sober drunkenness.”

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140

Logion 48

Yeshua said:

If two make peace with each other

in a single house,

then they can say to the mountain: “Move!”

And it will move.

(CF. MATT 2:25, 17:20, 18:19–20, 21:21; MARK 3:25, 11:22–23;

LUKE 17:6; I COR 13:2.)

The power of peace is in Unity.

How could anyone thwart a human being who is in peace and in

at-one-ment?

How could anyone thwart two or three who are in such complete

accord?

Mountains—difficulties—recede. It is as if this atonement had

support from Nature itself, from the One that is manifest in this

accord.

Before we try to bring peace to others, we must begin at home and

make peace with the various parts of ourselves—with our instinct, emo-

tion, intellect, and so forth. As long as there is any division in ourselves,

are not the obstacles we encounter a kind of expression of our own inner

chaos?

St. Seraphim of Sarov said, “Find peace within you and a multitude

will be saved alongside you.” A peaceful, happy human being is a source

of peace and happiness for humanity. How much more so with two or

three together!

Clement of Alexandria interpreted moving mountains as a leveling of

inequalities between human beings, so that true meeting is possible (cf.

Stromates, II:11, et al.). From inner peace arises a manifestation of unity

between beings, whereas the fear and envy of social divisions creates

mountains between them.

In the canonical gospels it is faith that moves mountains. Yet what is

faith if not the unity of mind and heart? When the “two” of intellect and

emotion are united in one house, mountains can indeed be moved.

Faith is always associated with a movement of the thinking mind

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141

toward truth in an act of confidence. Faith is the total commitment of our

being toward what has been recognized as true and righteous. This inti-

mate and unqualified commitment has tremendous power as well as great

lucidity. It is beyond reason, but not against it. In this clear and vivid

force, what seem like mountains are revealed to be molehills.

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142

Logion 49

Yeshua said:

Blessed are you, the whole ones and the chosen ones.

You will find the Kingdom,

for you came from there,

and you will return.

(CF. JOHN 8:42, 16:27–28.)

Blessed and fortunate are the monakhos—we have translated this word as

“simple” or “whole,” rather than as “monks” or “those in solitude.”

Solitude is only the condition of this process of unification of all our

being so that we become truly undivided and monos, the image of the

One. The monakhos are simultaneously “separate from all” and “one with

all,” as Evagrius Ponticus said. It is the solitude that opens into the heart

of the world, that intercedes for the salvation of all beings. The mon-

akhos seek and find the One who reigns in all and everything: the Root

and the End.

To be chosen over and over again is to be open to this great wave of

Life that is vibrating through us, from head to toe, from birth to death. It

is to be One with Alpha and Omega.

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143

Logion 50

Yeshua said:

If they ask you from where you come,

say:

We were born of the Light,

there where Light is born of Light.

It holds true

and is revealed within their image.

If they ask you who you are,

say:

We are its children,

the beloved of the Father, the Living One.

If they ask you what is the sign of the Father in you,

say:

It is movement and it is repose.

(CF. MATT 21:3; LUKE 1:7, 16:8, 17:10; JOHN 3:8, 8:14, 12:36;

EPH 5:8; I THESS 5:5; ROM 9:26.)

In a famous conversation²⁰with the philosopher Motovilov, who came to

visit him in his hermitage, St. Seraphim said that gnosis is an experience

of light. But his discourse was not about the nature of light; it was about

participation in its uncreated radiance.

For St. Gregory Palamas and the monks of Mount Athos, the very

goal of Christian life is the experience of the uncreated Light. They relate

it to the stories of the burning bush, Mount Tabor, and the day of

Resurrection. “It holds true,” the logion tells us, like the inner meaning of

Easter morning. This recalls a passage from the Chandogya Upanishad

(III, 13, 7): “The light which shines from beyond the sky, beyond the

highest of the highest worlds, beyond everything that is, is in truth the

same light that shines inside human beingness.”

The ancient triple question “Where do I come from? Where am I

going? Who am I?” finds an unequivocal response in this logion. You

20. [An account of the full conversation and related information can be found at

www.orthodoxinfo.com. —Trans.]

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144

come from the Light, you are going toward the Light, you are the Light.

This is the reality of the Living Son in us, who abides in the very heart of

changing appearances.

The sign of our link with this luminous Reality is “movement and . . .

repose.” This is a union of opposites, the resolution of the seeming con-

tradiction between action and contemplation: calmness within action and

vitality within repose.

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145

Logion 51

His disciples said to him:

“When will the dead be at rest?”

“When will the new world come?”

He answered them:

What you are waiting for has already come,

but you do not see it.

(CF. NUM 11:10; MATT 24:42; LUKE 17:20–21; JOHN 5:25; ACTS

14:13; ROM 8:19.)

We hear an echo of this logion in the Treatise on the Resurrection,

another gnostic scripture found at Nag Hammadi: “Flee all divisions and

all bonds, and you are already in the Resurrection . . . Why do you not

consider yourself as resurrected now?”

What we have been waiting for, the peace and fullness we yearn for,

is already here. It is not something that will come someday, someplace; it

is always here and now.

In the Gospel of John, Yeshua reminds his disciples that whoever

believes in eternal life does not relegate it to the future tense. Eternal life

is in the very heart of this life. It is the uncreated dimension of our pres-

ent life, which cannot die. To look for it elsewhere is to depart from it.

The Gospel of Philip says: “Those who say that the Lord died and

then was resurrected are wrong; for he was first resurrected and then

died.” Yeshua had awakened to the Eternal Life within him. For us today,

to be resurrected is to abide consciously in this dimension of boundless

depth and love that neither death nor life can take away from us.

It is the end of all expectation—not in the sense of indifference or

hopelessness, but in the direct knowledge that everything is infinitely

given to us in every instant.

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146

Logion 52

His disciples said to him:

“Twenty-four prophets have spoken in Israel,

and they all spoke of you.”

He said to them:

You have disregarded the Living One

who is in your presence,

and you have spoken of the dead.

(CF. NUM 3:12; DEUT 18:15; MATT 8:22; MARK 12:27; LUKE 1:70;

JOHN 1:45, 8:53; ACTS 4:4; ROM 16:25.)

The fourth book of Esdras (14:44) says that the twenty-four books are

considered the only ones of the ninety-four that are accessible to all and

can be read in synagogues. The other seventy books are reserved for the

sages. Revelation 4:4 speaks of twenty-four elders. We might be tempted

to consider the possibility of a mythic transposition of the twenty-four

divine zodiacal archetypes of Babylon, which ruled the cycles of the years.

In any case, in the Gospel of Thomas (and in quite different kinds of

gnostic texts as well, such as the Pistis Sophia), neither prophets nor

archons retain their usual primacy. What Yeshua has come to reveal is a

dimension within us that is beyond time, beyond the twenty-four hours,

beyond the recorded words of the twenty-four prophets of the past—a

dimension that we are all too inclined to overlook. We ignore the Living

One and persist in harboring trust in that which by its very nature is per-

ishable and corruptible.

Another meaning of this logion is suggested by words from John

5:39: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have

eternal life; yet it is they that bear witness to me.” The “me” that is spo-

ken of here is not the existential me of the historical person known as

Jesus of Nazareth. It is the essential I of Logos, the Creative Intelligence

that holds together all things and that can be witnessed just as much in

the book of nature as in the books of scripture. The intent of sacred scrip-

ture is not to distract and burden our minds with all sorts of debates and

interpretations, but rather to help us open to the One who is alive in us

here and now.

Commentary

147

There is a point beyond which referral to the authority of sacred tra-

dition, of others’ words, becomes merely a way of avoiding direct experi-

ence ourselves. My friend’s insight cannot help me if I do not open my

own eyes. The words of the greatest prophets and seers are useful only if

they help us to learn to see. If we repeat their words without living them,

the words die. As it says in II Corinthians, “[T]he letter kills, but the

Spirit gives life.”

Commentary

148

Logion 53

His disciples asked him:

“Is circumcision useful or not?”

He replied:

If it were useful, fathers would engender sons born circumcised

from their mothers.

Rather, it is the circumcision in spirit that is truly useful.

(CF. JOHN 4:24; ROM 2:25–29; I COR 7:19; GAL 5:6; COL 2:11.)

For pious Jews, circumcision was the inscription in living flesh of man’s

covenant with God. It symbolized the truth that everything that lives and

gives life belongs to God. But what good is such an outer sign of alliance

without the participation of the heart? It can become degraded into a

mere badge of belonging to an ethnic group and thereby no longer a sign

of belonging to the One God.

The spiritual circumcision of which Yeshua speaks is related not to

the foreskin, but to the ego. It is this ego, with its old skin of concepts and

habits, that is to be circumcised. The Sacred Embrace with the Living

One will then become deep and uncontaminated. This purity of heart and

spirit in the ego’s silence is the true circumcision, the true sign of covenant

and Union. It is not merely a return to what is “natural,” but a return to

our true nature as well.

The fourteenth-century Indian poet Kabir, born in a Muslim milieu,

echoes this logion when he remonstrates those who observe merely the

outer form of the law:

So sure of your righteousness, you practice circumcision;

But I do not agree with you, my brothers!

If God wanted me circumcised,

Could he not do it himself?

Commentary

149

Logion 54

Blessed are you, the poor,

for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

(CF. MATT 5:3; LUKE 6:20; JOHN 2:5.)

We find this same saying in Matthew and in Luke.

It would seem that for Yeshua of Nazareth, poverty is the necessary

condition in order for the Spirit of God to reign in us and in order for

heaven to have a place on earth. To have the mind-set of the rich is to

believe that we deserve the best and that it can be bought, but this com-

pletely misses the Essential. True happiness and true love can never be

bought. In contrast to this, to be poor in spirit is to know that we deserve

nothing and that everything we receive is a gift. The slightest smile that

cheers, the least sunbeam that shines is received with gratitude, as a flash of

the Kingdom.

Meister Eckhart often commented on poverty, pointing out that this

beatitude renders us pure, empty, and capable of receiving God. A human

being who is totally poor, totally empty, cannot but be fulfilled. In one of

his sermons he says: “When God finds you ready and empty, he must act

and fill you to overflowing with himself, just as sunlight must flood and

fill the clear, pure air. He cannot fail to do this when he finds you so

empty and bare.” In another sermon he says, “The poor one perceives

nothing, knows nothing, has nothing.” Of course, this does not refer to

some unconscious or unfeeling state, but rather to one in which we are

totally free of our knowledge, possessions, and desires.

This detachment or freedom from the objects of creation allows us

both to experience divine love and to discover our uncreated essence.

Poverty-stricken in willfulness, in knowing, and in possessing, I hold to

the Root and know myself as “cause of myself according to my eternal

being and not according to what I become, which is temporal. This is why

I was never born and, in accord with my unborn nature, can never die.”²¹

21. Quotes from Meister Eckhart, respectively, from the Sermons: Et cum factus esset Jesus

and Beati pauperes spiritu.

Commentary

150

Logion 55

Yeshua said:

Whoever cannot free themselves from their father and their

mother

cannot become my disciple.

Whoever cannot free themselves from their brother and sister

and does not bear their cross as I do

is not worthy of me.

(CF. MATT 10:37–38; LUKE 14:26–27; MARK 8:34–35.)

Yeshua’s invitation is one of freedom with respect to our father and

mother and their desires, thoughts, and social conditioning. It also means

being free from our brothers and sisters, our peers, and all the related

judgments and customs of the surrounding society. This is obviously no

small matter, yet it is the only way we can become who we truly are. Just

as physical autonomy cannot begin without cutting the umbilical cord,

psychic and even spiritual autonomy cannot begin without a kind of cut.

We must acknowledge what has nourished us. Yet we must go further

and “bear our cross”—that is, accept and face ourselves in our full dimen-

sions, the horizontal and the vertical, “[t]hat you may have the power to

comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height, and

depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge,” as

Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians.

Some of the early patristic writings also speak of the cross as the

“great book of the art of love,” the open book of a realized human being

who loves without boundaries, with “a love stronger than death.” This

open book of Love and Freedom transforms all events of everyday life.

Everything is fuel for its fire, which transforms even rubbish and filth into

living light.

The first step on this road is freedom with respect to our family, peers,

and society.

Commentary

151

Logion 56

Yeshua said:

Whoever knows the world

discovers a corpse.

And whoever discovers a corpse

cannot be contained by the world.

(CF. JOHN 1:10, 3:1; HEB 11:38.)

What is an inanimate body—a body without anima, or soul—if not a

corpse? When the informing principle withdraws from a body, it no

longer lives as a whole and quickly decomposes.

To seek to know a body, a system, or a world without contact with the

soul that informs it and gives it its unity and wholeness is, sooner or later,

to find ourselves with a corpse. It is to discover the nonexistence of the

world in and of itself. As the prologue to the Gospel of John says, with-

out the Logos, the Creative Intelligence, nihil, nothing.

Meister Eckhart was condemned for saying openly what the gospels

say implicitly: “All creatures are pure nothingness; I am not saying that

they are minuscule, for that would make them something: They are pure

nothingness.” This may seem radical, but it is actually another way of

expressing the completely Orthodox doctrine that no relative existence is

real in itself; it has reality only through its participation in Absolute

Being.

In short: No soul, no body—or rather, a body without a soul is only a

decomposing corpse.

This is not a melancholy teaching. When we recognize our nothing-

ness we thereby discover the Source of who we really are. Consciously dis-

solved in it, we can say: “No other being but Him” or “I am That” or, with

Yeshua the Christ, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Time and space cannot

contain who we really are. Only I AM can contain it.

Commentary

152

Logion 57

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father is like the man

who had some good seed.

His enemy came at night and sowed weeds

among the good seed.

The man would not allow them to pull up the weeds,

saying, “I fear you might pull up the wheat as well.”

Indeed, at harvesttime, the weeds will be conspicuous.

They will be pulled up and burned.

(CF. MATT 13:24–43.)

The very attempt to deal with evil typically stirs up strife in us and among

us. What Yeshua teaches here is a nondualistic attitude with regard to evil.

Do not try to exterminate it, because you may harm the good seed at the

same time. Who can judge? Often good and evil are thoroughly intermixed.

It is not good for any of us to be aggressive and violent—yet we must

avoid aggression toward these attributes in ourselves, for that can vitiate

our own energy. The power they contain can indeed be used to attack

someone, yet it can also help someone to carry a burden. That powerful

energy can be used either to attack someone or to help someone carry a

burden.

It is not good for any of us to be hypocritical—yet we must not crip-

ple our intelligence and subtlety of mind in an effort to attack our own

hypocrisy, for such finesse can be used to deceive someone, but it can also

be used to enlighten.

We must accept this primordial ambiguity in ourselves. What matters

is our heartfelt attitude. This will determine which of our acts are encour-

aged to grow and mature: those of the good seed or those of the bad. The

most important thing is to shower everything, good and bad, with intel-

ligence and kindness. All that is problematic can then be dealt with eas-

ily at harvesttime, or maturity. Our frowns and sneers will then melt away

in the beauty of our countenance.

Commentary

153

Logion 58

Yeshua said:

Blessed are those who have undergone ordeals.

They have entered into life.

(CF. PSALMS 33:19; JAMES 1:12; I PETER 3:14.)

Popular wisdom agrees that people who have never suffered are lacking in

maturity; there is a dimension of life that “they wouldn’t understand.” For

those who are committed to the path of self-knowledge, trials and diffi-

culties are teachings. Suffering is accepted, but with neither resignation

nor complicity. In this way, ordeals can serve as aids to enlightenment and

gnosis. Absurdity, pain, illness, solitude, death—sooner or later we will

meet them all. Yet it is possible to completely accept and transcend them.

Life is to be sought and discovered in every circumstance. Our suffering

can be authentically shared and understood only by those who have also

passed through the experience of suffering. Without this shared experi-

ence, their reassurances are hollow and it is better that they remain silent

when faced with someone in agony. If we really want to offer someone

who is suffering a transfusion of peace and serenity, the best we can do is

to be in touch with that in ourselves which is already beyond death.

Commentary

154

Logion 59

Yeshua said:

Look to the Living One

while you are alive.

If you wait until you are dead,

you will search for the vision in vain.

(CF. JOHN 6:50, 8:21, 12:21, 16:16.)

Dostoyevsky said, “Love life more than the meaning of life!” Only

through intense, unconditional love of life will its meaning be revealed.

We must take full advantage of this space-time in which we find our-

selves. Relative and unsatisfying though it is, it is still our only chance to

experience the Living One. We must not wait for death to show us how

we have been ignoring and missing life. We are born to die, but more

important, we are born to live. This clearly demands courage—yet what

greater encouragement is there to live fully than knowing the Living One?

Commentary

155

Logion 60

They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb,

entering into Judea.

He said to his disciples:

What will the man do with the lamb?

They answered:

“He will kill it and eat it.”

He told them:

As long as it is alive, he will not eat it,

but only if he kills it and it becomes a cadaver.

They said: “He cannot do otherwise.”

He told them:

Seek a place in Repose.

Do not become cadavers,

lest you be eaten.

(CF. REV 5:6; HEB 12:2.)

The lamb symbolizes innocence, vulnerability, the gift of ourselves, and

the power of love. How can we protect the life of this lamb and keep from

killing it in ourselves? The cadaver of the lamb is the hardened heart, the

stagnant persona that lacks innocent repose, purity of heart, and the

invincible force of humility.

To avoid becoming a cadaver to be eaten means to keep ourselves free

and open to the Essential, rather than caught up in the rewards of doing

and possessing. It means protecting our freedom to be.

The lamb here is the Passover lamb, the lamb who is the passerby . . .

living our migratory being to its fullest.

Commentary

156

Logion 61

Yeshua said:

Two will lie on a single bed.

One will die, the other will live.

Salome asked him:

“Who are you, Sir?

Where do you come from, you who

lie on my bed and eat at my table?”

Yeshua replied:

I come from the One who is Openness.

What comes from my Father has been given to me.

Salome answered:

“I am your disciple.”

Yeshua told her:

That is why I say that when disciples are open,

they are filled with light.

When they are divided,

they are filled with darkness.

(CF. MATT 24:40–41; LUKE 17:34.)

As long as there are two in bed, the two have not become One. If this per-

sists over time, one of them will begin to dominate the other. “One will

die, the other will live.” It is a dualism that implies a relationship based on

power of one sort or another, both in and out of bed. Two who are One

in bed recognize the Presence of Being that is the source of each of them,

in all their otherness.

Salome is the intimate friend of Yeshua and the initiate also spoken

of in the Pistis Sophia. During a time when Yeshua lies on her bed and

eats at her table, she asks him who he is, where he comes from, and what

is the origin of his communion.

He answers:

I come from the One who is Openness.

Rilke once said that Openness is the least blasphemous name for God. It

is the name that is the least defining and qualifying. Openness is the infi-

Commentary

157

nite Space within the very heart of space, containing all and contained by

nothing.

The whole process of human transformation is one of opening on all

levels: the physical (release of stress), the psychic (unraveling the knots of

memory), and the spiritual (allowing love, light, and forgiveness to live

and radiate in us). The goal of this transformation is to dwell in

Openness, where the body is open to the energies of the cosmos, the heart

is open to a deep compassion, and the mind is as clear as a mirror, serenely

reflecting the multitude of appearances.

A totally open human being is not formless, but is instead capable of

allowing the One to manifest. The Unity of all things then becomes man-

ifest in and through that human form. As long as there is any fear, con-

striction, closure, division of the heart, or dualism, the light cannot enter.

We can close the shutters on all the windows of the house, which is so

much the worse for the air inside, yet the sun goes on shining.

Salome answered:

“I am your disciple.”

She has made herself the abode of Openness, a house that welcomes the

breeze, a body that has become transparent, like a crystal flooded with

light.

Commentary

158

Logion 62

Yeshua said:

I reveal my mysteries

to those who become worthy.

Do not let your left hand know

what your right hand is doing.

(CF. MATT 6:3–4, 13:10-11; MARK 4:10–12; LUKE 8:9–10.)

God gives to each according to his or her capacity to receive. The process

of opening to higher consciousness really means becoming more and

more capax Dei, capable of God, receptive to the clear light—in other

words, worthy of the mysteries.

Thus the left hand must not know what the right hand is doing. It

must not harbor memories or attachments to the fruits of this divine

Action. Only in this way can it remain open and able to feel, in its naked

palm, the freshness of the present moment.

Commentary

159

Logion 63

Yeshua said:

There was once a rich man with a great amount of money

who said: “I will use my money for sowing,

reaping, planting, and filling my silos with grain

so that I will never lack for anything.”

Such was the thought of his heart.

Yet that night, he died.

Those who have ears,

Let them hear!

(CF. LUKE 12:16–21; JOHN 4:12; I COR 14:25.)

Seeking security, accumulating and holding on to wealth, whether in

material form or in the form of power and achievement—none of this

ever gives us true security. It can all disappear in an instant. Imper-

manence and death have dominion over the best-laid plans.

Our deepest longing is infinite, and only the Infinite can satisfy it.

Finite substitutes, even when we are successful in attaining them, only

intensify our pain of lack. The deeper lesson of this logion is that we

must fully accept this deficit, this longing, this void in ourselves. What is

more, we must keep it open, like a great window through which the

unknown can enter and penetrate the very heart of our darkness.

Those who live with this window wide open can no longer be robbed

by death, for they have already given everything.

Commentary

160

Logion 64

Yeshua said:

There was a man who invited some visitors. After preparing

the meal, he sent his servant

to summon the guests.

The servant went to the first one and said “My master invites

you.”

The man answered: “I have business with some merchants who

are arriving this evening. Please excuse me from the dinner.”

The servant went to the next one and said “My master invites

you.”

The man answered: “I have just bought a house and need one

day more, so I cannot come.”

The servant went to another guest and said “My master invites

you.”

The man answered: “My friend is getting married and I must

prepare the food. Excuse me.”

The servant returned to his master and said:

“Those you have invited to dinner cannot come.”

His master replied:

“Then go out on the roads and invite whoever you find

to dine with me.

Buyers and merchants will not enter my Father’s dwelling.”

(CF. MATT 22:1–10; LUKE 14:15–24; MARK 11:15–17; JOHN 2:14.)

As with all scriptural writings, this parable can be read on at least two lev-

els: a literal/factual level and a psychic or “psychological” level.²²On the

literal level it is simply a story of invited guests who were all unable to

come to dinner because of seemingly valid reasons. The disappointed host

then generously opens his doors to feed anyone who happens to be pass-

ing by.

But on a deeper level, it is the story of lack of interest and lack of love

22. [Throughout his writings, the author uses the word psychic in its original sense, refer-

ring to the psyche, or soul. Not to be confused with pneuma, or spirit, it is the intermedi-

ary realm between physical and spiritual reality and includes everything that we now call

psychology. —Trans.]

Commentary

161

in response to a supremely important invitation. The ingenious human

mind always finds the best excuses to justify not answering the inner call.

Invited to our own wedding, the union of the created and the Uncreated

in us, we find that we have more important things to do. We are so busy,

so preoccupied with our tasks. Who will deliver us from this cold war that

we have declared upon ourselves?

In order to rediscover the authentic Self, the busy doer-ego must halt.

It must take a vacation in the original sense of the word: “create vacancy.”

The first step is to rediscover our desire for the Essential. What do

we truly want most? What do we want our life to be about? This ques-

tioning can begin to re-set our priorities.

Then, with maturity, we simply stop fabricating excuses and justifica-

tions. We become responsible for our acts—able to respond to both our

refusals and our enthusiasms. And we no longer give in to the temptation

to blame others—spouses, friends, enemies—for our lack of desire and

availability.

Beyond these levels of interpretation, a more metaphysical reading is

possible. These buyers and merchants who cannot enter into the house of

the Father are the hyperactive, acquisitive mind. As with love and happi-

ness, truth and freedom can never be bought—nor can they be possessed.

Truth and freedom are from a higher order of reality than possession can

comprehend.

Meister Eckhart pointed out that this “merchant” mentality even

leads people to try to bargain with God. To them, God is like a divine

milk cow who will take care of their needs and desires.

God (symbolized as the Father in the language of this logion) cannot

be approached in this way. He is free, the very essence of gratuity. He

resists any attempt at possession or attainment on our part and is immune

to our manipulations. Yet he gives himself totally to those whose minds

are unassuming, accessible, uncalculating, and neither grasping nor

expecting. Those who are not seeking peace and fulfillment (symbolized

by the passersby on the road) will receive it in abundance and enter into

the abode of the Father. Variously translated as “dwelling,” “house,” or

“abode,” this is a term also used in the Gospel of John. It is the place of

the Source of Life.

Commentary

162

This logion reminds us again that those who are empty, open, with-

out preoccupation, and attentive to the Presence are in touch with earth

and with heaven. They abide in the origin of both, and the Father mani-

fests through them as through the Son.

Commentary

163

Logion 65

Yeshua said:

A good man had a vineyard,

which he gave to tenants to work

and harvest the fruit for him.

He sent his servant to collect the fruit of the vine.

The tenants seized the servant

and beat him nearly to death.

The servant reported this to his master, who thought:

“Perhaps they didn’t recognize him.”

And he sent another servant, who was also beaten.

Then the master sent his own son,

thinking: “Perhaps they will treat him with respect.”

When the tenants realized that he was the inheritor of the

vineyard,

they seized him and killed him.

Those who have ears,

Let them hear!

(CF. MATT 21:33–41; MARK 12:1–9; LUKE 20:9–16; ISAIAH 5:1–2.)

The standard interpretation of this well-known parable is that God has

planted his “vine” in this world in the form of his servants, the sages and

prophets, but people refuse to respect them or listen to their message.

But in addition to his servants, he sends his son, a holy one who

incarnates the Presence, Image, and Likeness of the Father in the heart of

this space-time. The drama of the killing of the son is the killing of the

Christ in ourselves. It is the same madness, the same murder: stifling the

likeness of God, or Love, in ourselves and preventing the vine of the

Living One from offering its fruit.

Commentary

164

Logion 66

Yeshua said:

Show me the stone rejected by the builders.

That is the cornerstone.

(CF. MATT 21:42-43; MARK 12:10–11; LUKE 20:17–18.)

Can a society be built without Love or, in another term, without God?

Can it hold together without this cornerstone?

Such a society holds together through common interests but collapses

through special interests.

Love has been excluded from our theories of economics, as well as

from our educational curricula. Sometimes people even exclude it from

their lives. We can exist without love, without God. But what is such an

existence worth?

In our own life we must look deeply enough to examine honestly what

we have habitually rejected from the edifice of our personality. Might it be

a certain desire, a certain longing, or even an experience of hell?

The rejected cornerstone can be hidden in the most surprising places.

Sometimes our wholeness wells up from the very heart of what we have

repressed.

Commentary

165

Logion 67

Yeshua said:

Those who know the All

yet do not know themselves

are deprived of everything.

(CF. MATT 16:26; MARK 8:36; LUKE 9:25.)

What good is it to own the entire universe and lose our own soul?

What is the value of the greatest knowledge if it knows not the

agency of knowing? Vast knowledge without inner transformation is an

illusion. It is mere show.

Job himself exclaimed to God: “I knew you only by hearsay. Now I

know you in my flesh; my eyes have seen you!” To move from hearsay to

realization is to pass from words and beliefs to wholeness in action, to

make the outer and the inner as one.

This self-knowledge, so fundamental to the Gospel of Thomas, has

nothing to do with self-analysis or narcissistic introspection. It is a

process of keenly observing our reactions and emotions without judging

or explaining them. In this attentive regard, neutral and compassionate,

we discover what is and who we are.

Commentary

166

Logion 68

Yeshua said:

Blessed are you when they hate you

and persecute you.

There is a place where you are not persecuted

that they will never find.

(CF. MATT 5:11; LUKE 6:22; JOHN 13:33.)

In every human being there is a place that hatred and persecution can

never reach: the Self, the uncreated Being beyond the identification of “I”

as suffering victim. This is the space of inalienable freedom that empow-

ers us to say, with Christ, “My life cannot be taken, for I have already

given it”—or the famous words: “Forgive them, for they know not what

they do.”

Blame and persecution may even be considered beatitudes, inasmuch

as they awaken in us an authentic Love for our enemies, putting us in

touch with that freedom which no circumstance can ever affect.

This is the place of Repose, the abode of God.

Commentary

167

Logion 69

Yeshua said:

Blessed are those

who have been persecuted in their hearts,

for they have known the Father in Truth.

Blessed are those who are hungry,

for they will be fulfilled.

(CF. MATT 5:6; LUKE 6:22; JOHN 4:23–24, 10:15, 14:7.)

Those who have experienced a persecution so cruel that it breaks the

heart know that loving our enemies is neither simple nor natural. It

belongs to a higher order of nature. Those who have truly known the

transcendent Source know that only It can engender such an attitude.

Blessed also are those who are not satisfied with themselves. They are

hungry because they refuse to live superficially and they make use of dif-

ficulties to go deeper. They will receive a food worthy of their hunger and

drink from a spring worthy of their thirst.

Commentary

168

Logion 70

Yeshua said:

When you bring forth that within you,

then that will save you.

If you do not,

then that will kill you.

(CF. MATT 13:12; MARK 4:25; LUKE 8:18, 19:26.)

In the canonical gospels, after the parable of the talents, it is written: “To

him who has, more will be given; to him who has not, even what he has

will be taken away.” (Cf. the commentary on logion 41, page 128.)

In this logion, Love or Being is the mysterious that, the thing that can

save us or kill us, according to whether we bring it forth or neglect it.

Without it, all is desolation.

Another reading interprets that as gnosis—without it, the universe

remains radically alien and incomprehensible.

It is true that things seem to be given in unreasonable abundance to

those who live in love and gnosis, for they are able to marvel at the vast

richness in the tiniest manifestation of being. To those who lack love and

self-knowledge, however, life sooner or later becomes stale and depleted.

Even what they have will be taken away.

Commentary

169

Logion 71

Yeshua said:

I will overturn this house

and none will be able to rebuild it.

(CF. MATT 26:61, 27:40; MARK 14:58; JOHN 2:19; ACTS 6:14;

JOB 12:14.)

What is the house, or edifice, that is to be overturned?

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” is attributed

to Yeshua in the Gospel of John. Some would be tempted to mix this pas-

sage with this logion and interpret the “house” as referring to his body and

its overturning as symbolizing the Resurrection’s power over form and

matter. But the “house” in this logion actually refers to the psychic and

mental constructions whose vanity the Christ reveals.

All that is constructed will be deconstructed. Once we have experi-

enced this truth directly, we no longer worry about what part of us will

remain or not remain after death.

All the constructions of our minds, our concepts and our dreams, are

bound to be overturned. What always abides is this Awakening, this pure

I Am, which nothing can deconstruct because it was never constructed.

Commentary

170

Logion 72

A man said to him:

“Speak to my brothers,

that they may share with me

my father’s property.”

Yeshua answered him:

Who made me into a divider?

Turning to his disciples,

he said:

Who am I, to divide?

(CF. GEN 19:9; EX 2:14; MATT 12:25–26; LUKE 2:49, 10:23,

12:13–15.)

This man would like to reduce Yeshua to his own level of dualistic con-

sciousness and induce him to take sides. But Yeshua is consistent with his

teaching about the trap of judgment and he refuses to become an arbiter

in this family dispute.

This radical nonjudgmental quality is one of his most striking char-

acteristics and often angers and perplexes those who follow him. He dines

with Nicodemus, the Pharisee, and visits with Matthew, the tax collector.

His followers include both virgins and prostitutes.

It is the essence of individuals that always seems to interest Yeshua,

not the labels and reputations that others give them. Where others see a

whore, he sees a woman who is a human being. Refusing to take one side

against the other, his engagement is of another order entirely, one that is

beyond duality. “When you make the two into One” (see logion 22), then

what belongs to you belongs to the All and to the Other. Here, the notion

of “private property” becomes privation of the Other.

In this logion a divider means one who breaks wholeness into a mul-

tiplicity of fragments and factions. There is a radically different meaning

of division: “a multiplication, where each receives his or her due.” There is

a different meaning of sharing that renders unto each his or her due. It is

symbolized in the story of the multiplication of loaves, an abundance that

engenders unity among people.

Commentary

171

Yeshua has come into the world not to take sides in its conflicts, but

to expose the nature of conflict so that in facing their differences, people

may begin to respect Otherness and to discover the good of complement

and communion.

Commentary

172

Logion 73

Yeshua said:

The harvest is abundant

but the workers are few.

Pray the Master to send

more workers to the harvest.

(CF. MATT 9:37–38; LUKE 10:2.)

Harvest is the time of ripening, when the wheat yields its grain and the

vine its grapes. To assist the harvest in a spiritual sense is to work to help

the divine seed, already planted in everyone, to have a good chance to

grow, ripen, and bear its fruit of light.

The field to be cultivated is immense. All human beings bear within

them a grain of mustard whose calling is to become a great tree, a spark

that longs to be fanned into a blazing fire. What is lacking is workers,

men and women who are able to cultivate this field of consciousness so

that the fruit of Awakening can come to harvest.

To pray the Master to send more workers to the harvest is to ask God

for holy ones who remind people what is really happening in their field of

consciousness, what is sprouting and growing in the depths.

It is also to ask the Master for the strength and insight to be a worker

in our own field, so that the embryo of the divine in us can develop

toward the day when we emerge from the womb of space-time and

awaken to the Light of the Uncreated.

Commentary

173

Logion 74

The Master said:

There are many who stand round the well,

but no one to go down into it.

Origen quotes this saying of Yeshua in his Contra Celse (VIII, 15–16).

Indeed, many people hang about, staring into the well, speaking of its

springs, imagining how its waters taste. But words do nothing for their

thirst!

There are very few who are prepared to descend or to dig. Yet, as

Meister Eckhart often reminds us, “the Spring is always there.” In order

to drink from it, we must forget all our talk about it from the time when

we were bystanders and be prepared to descend into the depths of our

earth and clear away the excess dirt so that it can gush forth and fill the

well.

We descend each day and dig according to the measure of our thirst,

drinking from our own well, refreshing our face with its waters.

Commentary

174

Logion 75

Yeshua said:

Many are standing by the door,

but only those who are alone and simple [monakhos]

can enter the bridal chamber.

(CF. MATT 9:15, 12:46–47; MARK 2:19; LUKE 5:34; JOHN 3:29,

18:16.)

Just as in the previous logion, there are many bystanders who speak,

preach, and dream of love. But few of them really go through the door

and begin to love truly and completely.

It is those who are alone and simple who enter the bridal chamber,

because the unity they have realized and the solitude they have embraced

have made them capable of meeting the Other as Other, without circum-

scribing them by their own lacks and desires. Only they truly know the

meaning of the wedding.

Communion among two or more of such monakhoi is like the flow of

water through a network of underground channels connecting each

spring intimately with the others while the brims of the individual wells

remain distant from one another. Thus the wells are united in their

depths and in their fullness. This is a symbol of Union without separa-

tion or confusion.

This logion also suggests that among those who stand before the door

to the Kingdom, the few who go through are those who have experienced

their solitude fully so that they manifest simplicity, transparence, and the

peace of essential Being. Only they will know the bridal chamber of the

wedding of Created and Uncreated, of God and Human, the Union with-

out separation or confusion.

Commentary

175

Logion 76

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the merchant

who had a load of goods to sell.

Then he saw a pearl.

The merchant was wise

and sold his goods to buy the pearl.

You too should pursue

that treasure which is everlasting,

there where moths never go

nor worms devour.

(CF. MATT 13:45–46; LUKE 12:33–34; MARK 9:48; JOHN 6:27;

ACTS 12:23.)

In many gnostic texts (see the Gospel of Philip), the pearl is used as a sym-

bol of the Self or uncreated Being. This may derive from Iranian gnostic

teachings, for the Persian word gowhar means both “precious stone” and

“quintessence.”

One of the pearl’s characteristics is that it is filled with light but also

reflects it. In the beginning, in Paradise, a human being was a pearl, filled

with light inside and outside. Thus the pearl also signifies the state of

grace to which we can return through love and gnosis. Even legends of

the miracles of the saints attest to the transformation of bodily matter

into a pearl.

To rediscover our own pearl, we must know how to let go of all that

is superficial and nonessential. Again, it is a question of abandoning our

calculating, bargaining tendencies, for the tiny and insignificant thing

that we have been ignoring may turn out to be the real treasure.

Where our treasure is placed, there is our heart placed. If it is in the

realm of the perishable, the worm and the moth will find it. If it is in the

uncreated Essence, it will remain as it is.

Here is a possible extension of this parable, illustrating the wisdom of

the merchant’s choice:

As a merchant was sailing home, a violent storm arose and sank the

ship. Those aboard escaped with their lives, but all their merchandise was

Commentary

176

destroyed. Yet the wise merchant still had his precious pearl, which was

hanging on its necklace beneath his shirt.

When your pearl, the treasure of the Self, is kept safely in the locket

of your heart, what can you lose, even in the ultimate shipwreck?

Commentary

177

Logion 77

Yeshua said:

I am the Light

that shines on everyone.

I am the All.

The All came forth from me

and the All came into me.

Split the wood, and I am there.

Turn over the stone,

and there you will find me.

(CF. JOHN 3:31, 8:12; EPH 4:6; II THESS 2:4; ISAIAH 55:11;

ROM 11:36; I COR 8:6.)

When Yeshua says “I am the All,” he refers to the fact that he manifests

in himself the integration of all polarities and opposites. He incarnates

the union of the human and the divine, the finite and the infinite, time

and eternity.

We might say that the Christ takes on all human faces, none of which

is alien to him. He has manifested the face of human transfiguration and

that of human disfiguration. He has been the sage who speaks from the

mountaintop, the slave, and the sheep being led to slaughter. He shows

the face of the most dazzling light and the face of the deepest darkness,

the face of suffering and the face of beatitude. He has passed through all

states of human beingness, including death.

Thus when he says “I am the All,” he does not mean some outer (and

rather vague) totality, but rather the power of integration of all polarities

contained in humanity and in the cosmos, or pleroma (a Greek word,

sometimes translated as “fullness” and often used by gnostics, as well as by

Paul and John in the canonical gospels). Nothing is to be excluded, but

everything is to be transfigured, integrated—even the absurd, evil, and

death. This is shown in the story of the Christ.

In psychological terms we may say that the Christ is alive in us when

we are totally ourselves, excluding nothing of what we are. It is when we

are no longer fragmented, no longer made up of more or less well-chosen

parts sewn imperfectly together.

Commentary

178

The moments of direct experience of Being are moments of totality

when we are free of the fragmentary aspect of time.This is the eternal Now.

There are two very different ways of reading the last lines of this logion.

A moralistic interpretation might be summed up thus: “Split the wood and

lift heavy stones, but know that I am beside you in this work.”This was the

interpretation of the famous German biblical scholar Joachim Jeremias (Les

Paroles inconnues de Jésus [Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1970], 105):

For a disciple of Jesus, work is not a danger, a burden, nor a hardship,

but the very presence of the Lord! “You will find me when you break up

stones, and I am there while you split the wood.” In Matthew 18:20

Jesus promises to come to those who pray in his name; here, he prom-

ises to come to those who do hard work in his name.

In contrast to this, a metaphysical interpretation of the logion is that

all things participate in the very essence of Being, according to their mode

and degree. We could say of the creative Intelligence: It flowers as a tree

in springtime, it is heavy as a stone, it sings as a bird, and it becomes con-

scious of itself as a human being. The Christ, or theanthropos,²³here

remembers and evokes the different stages of existence of the Cosmos. It

is in this sense that he can say, “I am the All.”This cosmic Presence of the

logos, or the “All in All,” as Paul would say, has too often been ignored in

Western Christianity for fear of pantheism.

This interpretation of the logion certainly implies no worshipping of

stone or wood, but it does recognize the immanence of the Living One in

everything that exists. As St. Francis said, “Brother Sun, sister Moon . . .”

23. [The Greek theos + anthropos means the union of the human and divine within us and

is seen here and in logion 81 as a higher stage of evolution. In logion 81, it is analogous

to the butterfly that is transformed from a caterpillar. —Trans.]

Commentary

179

Logion 78

Yeshua said:

Why do you roam the countryside?

To see some reeds shaken by the wind?

To see people like your kings and courtiers

in elegant clothes?

They wear fine clothes,

but they cannot know the truth.

(CF. ISAIAH 24:21; MATT 11:7–8, 20:25; LUKE 24–25; JOHN 8:32;

ACTS 12:21; REV 6:15.)

The first question in this logion is “Why do you roam the countryside?”

The Kingdom is not to be found in any place.

Second in the logion is the assertion that we may be deceived by the

dazzling appearance of those who wear fine clothes. We should seek

beings who are naked, not those dressed in impressive personas. Yeshua is

the naked man, the one who is not playing some role. But even so, our

tendency is to make him into a great personality, an idol.

The truth—aletheia in Greek, meaning “non-forgetting”—is a

process of unveiling. It requires us to put aside our illusions, our dress-up

games with the Self. If we are naked in the presence of Love, how can we

fear the cold?

Commentary

180

Logion 79

A woman in the crowd said to him:

“Blessed are the womb that bore you

and the breasts that nursed you!”

He answered:

Blessed are those who listen

to the Word of the Father

and truly follow it,

for the day will come

when you will say:

Blessed are the womb that has never borne

and the breasts that have never nursed.

(CF. LUKE 11:27–38, 21:23–29; MATT 24:19; MARK 13:17.)

There is kinship of the blood, but there is also kinship of the spirit. To be

of Yeshua’s family is to hear and live the Word. It brings news of the ever-

present Source, which can transform us into its likeness, our true nature.

The end of this logion recalls the relative nature of reproduction.

What good is it to perpetuate biological existence in space-time if we

have lost touch with the meaning of it all? “Birth is a fatal disease,” as the

saying goes. The lesson of this dark humor is echoed in a passage quoted

by H.-Ch. Puech, from the Nag Hammadi scripture known as the

Dialogue of the Savior: “Whoever is born of the truth does not die.

Whoever is born of woman, can only die.”

Again, the teaching is that physical birth and reproduction are inad-

equate. As John 3:5 says, we must also be “born of the Spirit.”

Commentary

181

Logion 80

Yeshua said:

Whoever knows the world

discovers the body.

But the world is unworthy

of whoever discovers the body.

To observe and truly know the world is to discover endlessly an animated,

living body whose parts are profoundly interconnected.

Discovering the great cosmic body brings us nearer to our own soul,

that which animates, informs, and gives life to the body. The gnostic

teaching is that we must marry the soul of the world. As Nietzsche said,

“It is in true love that the soul embraces the world.”

The body is beautiful as the world, the flesh of God, is beautiful. But

only love can free us from the trap of it. The world is just a sacrament—

a sacrament of a Presence that is real but cannot be grasped.

We can touch the earth as we touch the body—as if it were a fragile

skin, an envelope for the Breath and the Abyss.

Commentary

182

Logion 81

Yeshua said:

Whoever has become rich,

may he become king;

Whoever has power,

may he renounce it.

(CF. I COR 4:8; I TIM 3–5.)

Yeshua comes not to abolish, but to fulfill!

The butterfly’s purpose is to complete or fulfill the caterpillar’s des-

tiny. Likewise, the stage of theanthropos (see footnote 23, page 178) is a

fulfillment of ordinary human beingness—after we have first become

fully and simply human. We cannot renounce something that we do not

truly possess. Before surrendering our ego, we must have an ego to sur-

render!

This is one of the dangers encountered by those who commit them-

selves to a spiritual path. They may imagine they are transcending the

ordinary, human stage of existence, whereas they have yet to live it fully.

In this logion, Yeshua advises us to fully realize our worldly poten-

tial—symbolized by becoming wealthy and powerful—so as to truly see

the vanity of this achievement, for if we hold back, we will harbor the bit-

ter illusion of having missed something. The butterfly does not come into

being by crushing the caterpillar; instead the latter must be allowed to

grow in order to reach the threshold of mutation, of Passage into another

form—the butterfly.

Jung defines the process of individuation thus: First, we realize the

“self” as a social being; then we see its relative and illusory nature and

begin to make space for the Self. Our previous values of attainment and

success give way to Being and Transcendence. The balloon must be blown

up to its fullest before it can be ready—at the slightest jolt—to pop and

reveal its true nature, which is pure Space.

Commentary

183

Logion 82

Yeshua said:

Whoever is near to me

is near to the fire.

Whoever is far from me

is far from the Kingdom.

(CF. MATT 3:11; MARK 9:48–49, 12:34; LUKE 12:49.)

J. E. Ménard considered this logion to be one of the best examples of evi-

dence that the Gospel of Thomas represents a tradition that is both inde-

pendent of the canonical texts of the New Testament and parallel to

them. We find it quoted in early Christian writings, such as Origen’s

Homily on Jeremiah (20:3) and the Commentary on the Psalms, by Didymus

of Alexandria (88:8). Jeremias also notes that this logion is mentioned by

Ephrem and by Ignatius.

Thus the early Christians saw the fire in the Christ as a return of the

fire of the burning bush. To approach the Christ is to approach the fire

and to hear the same voice of the unnamable: I AM.

If that fire burns us, it is because we have not yet become fire our-

selves. The only cure for “that affliction called Jesus” (as Muslim mysti-

cism has expressed it) is to become the Christ—in other words, to make

room for the Christ to manifest inside us, to allow our dry, dead wood to

catch fire, burst into flames, and shine like the light of the Pentecost.

Commentary

184

Logion 83

Yeshua said:

When images become visible to people,

the light that is in them is hidden.

In the icon of the light of the Father

it will be manifest

and the icon veiled by the light.

(CF. COL 1:15–17.)

The vast multiplicity of images hides the Light. Sometimes, like polished

stones, physical objects reflect a dazzling light. This distracts and captures

our vision.

But the Son is the Icon that manifests the true Light, rather than hid-

ing that light in reflections. It is like a spiritual diamond in which the

light of the Father can shine fully. “The Son is the visible aspect of the

invisible Father,” as Ireneus said. When the Presence is realized in human

embodiment, it is the Icon of the Father.

The Letter to the Colossians is even more explicit: “He is the image

of the invisible God, first-born of all creatures, for it is in him that all

things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible . . . He is

before all things, and all things subsist in him.”

This is an Icon that, rather than hiding the light as ordinary images

do, is itself hidden by the light, which envelops it totally. The revelation

of the Christ, far from putting an end to the Mystery, only deepens it.

Commentary

185

Logion 84

Yeshua said:

When you see

your true likeness,

you rejoice.

But when you see your icons,

those that were before you existed,

that never die and never manifest,

what grandeur!

(CF. LUKE 13:28; I COR 13:12; II COR 3:18.)

Gnosis has nothing to do with external imitation or with a desire to

resemble someone—least of all the Christ. The imitation of Christ can

result only in mimicry or caricature. The Christ is not an external person,

a model to be imitated, but instead an inner source that is to be allowed

to flow and is to be followed.

There is a patristic tradition that says that on the Day of Judgment

we will be asked not whether we were like St. Francis or like Jesus Christ,

but whether we were ourselves.

Each of us must become who we are. In the terms of this logion, this

means to realize the icon that the hand of the Father (pneuma, Spirit) has

drawn and implanted in us as the Son (our true identity).

To discover our essential icon is to discover who we are before we

were born. This is the Image of God, which is never born and never dies.

Its discovery is cause for rejoicing and grandeur beyond words, for it is the

direct discovery of the Uncreated in the heart of the creature.

Commentary

186

Logion 85

Yeshua said:

Adam was produced by a great power

and a great wealth,

yet he was not worthy of you.

If he had been worthy,

he would not have known death.

(CF. ROM 5:12–17.)

In Jewish apocalyptic writing and in Syrian theological writings there are

a number of stories about Adam that are related to this logion. There is

also an Armenian legend holding that Eve saw Adam after his death,

resplendent in his luminous body, which was like the bodies they both

had in Paradise. An analogous vision is found in the Jewish apocryphal

text Vita Adae et Evae. According to a number of rabbinical sources,

Adam, the First Man, partook of the glory of God before his fall (cf.

Genesis Rabba XI:2). Adam was even said to have been the light of the

world, a being whose heel outshone the sun (cf. Philo, De Opificio Mundi,

etc.)

Adam was a man of light until he tasted the fruit of the Tree of

Knowledge of Good and Evil, the tree of dualistic and subjective knowl-

edge (“What makes me happy I call good, what makes me unhappy I call

evil”). It could also be described as the tree of egocentric knowledge. To

eat of its mortal fruit is to elevate the small self, the ego, to the status of

critic and judge of what is good and bad.

Gnosis is the surrender of this form of egocentric, “mortal” knowl-

edge to the theocentric, or nondual, knowledge of the Tree of Life. As St.

John of the Cross said, “May I know all things from God, not from

myself; for I can know only an effect from its cause, never a cause from its

effect.”Then the critical or judging aspect, with its memories, desires, and

fears, ceases to reside in our personality. Only God, the divine Self, can

accomplish this. It is then that we cease to eat the mortal fruit and take

nourishment instead from the Living One in all things.

Commentary

187

Logion 86

Yeshua said:

Foxes have their holes

and birds have their nests.

The Son of Man has no place

to lay his head and rest.

(CF. MATT 8:20, 11:28; LUKE 9:58; I KINGS 19:20.)

In the canonical gospels, this saying is prefaced by a disciple’s declaration,

“Master, I will follow you wherever you go,” which gives Yeshua the

opportunity to remind him that whoever takes this path will have no

abode in this world of time.

Our “animal” aspect has a legitimate need for a home, territory, or

nest. How could that be wrong? But the divine dimension of our being

cannot find its repose in these things. Thus the Son of Man has no place

to lay his head and rest. We can go further and say that he has not even

the slightest notion of a place to lay his head, for his abode is in

Openness. His home is the open sea, not in waters where anchors can be

cast.

“If you want to know God, then it is not sufficient to become like the

Son; you must become the Son himself,” said Meister Eckhart. This

means abandoning all anchors in order to find our repose in that Open-

ness which John called the “bosom of the Father.”

In the Gospel of Truth, it is the head of the Father that is the poetic

metaphor for the repose of gnostics: “They have his head, which for them

is repose.” How could we find meaning in such a thing as the head of

God? Perhaps we can by imagining ourselves as a bird floating in the

infinity of Space, both soaring and at rest, hearing only the song of the

wind in our wings, leaving behind no trace.

Commentary

188

Logion 87

Yeshua said:

Wretched is the body

that depends on another body.

Wretched is the soul

that depends on both.

As long as we have not consummated the wedding of Unity in ourselves,

we still dwell in the cycles ruled by dependence and attachment. This is

dualistic sexual desire: One body needs another body in order to experi-

ence wholeness.

A child born of such a relation of mutual dependency has no choice but

to enter into the cycle of alienation and gratification.Thus the same pattern

of lack and craving is transmitted through generation after generation.

It is rare that parents desire a child truly for itself. From birth on, the

child becomes subtly “responsible” for its parents’ love and will be induced

to feel guilty if it does not participate in the maintenance of their state of

dependency.

Wretched, then, is the soul that depends on both; yet blessed indeed

is the soul that is reborn from a love that is free and unconditional!

Commentary

189

Logion 88

Yeshua said:

Angels and prophets

will come to you

and give you what is yours.

And you, too, should give what you have

and ask yourselves:

When will the time come

for them to take what is theirs?

(CF. MATT 10:8, 16:27; MARK 8:38; LUKE 9:26; REV 22:6.)

Each of us has an “angel”—a higher level of awakened consciousness that

is far wiser than our ordinary consciousness. To pay attention to the voice

of our angel or the voice of the prophets is to gradually expand and

deepen our way of seeing so that we share more and more of the angel’s

vision. It is also to discover our true capacity for radiance.

In order not to lose the light given us (see the commentary on logion

33, page 115), it must be shared. The same is true of love. We must give

it in order to keep it—yet we must not fall prey to the illusion that we are

giving a “thing.”

Gnosis, like faith, is transmitted not like information nor like a

microbe. It is witnessed. When we witness it, the fire that already smol-

ders within us can burst into flame.

Commentary

190

Logion 89

Yeshua said:

Why do you wash the outside of the cup?

Do you not understand

that the one who made the outside

also made the inside?

(CF. MATT 7:14, 23:215–26; LUKE 2:49, 11:39–40.)

This is yet another way in which Yeshua invites us to realize the nondu-

ality of Being and appearance, inner and outer. To abandon duplicity and

hypocrisy is to rediscover transparency.

It is also to discover that the same One is both inside and outside.

The space inside the cup is the same space that contains the Universe.

One moment of true silence, and we are in the heart of that Silence from

which all creative words arise.

Commentary

191

Logion 90

Yeshua said:

Come to me;

my yoke is good,

my command is gentle,

and you will find repose within you.

(CF. MATT 11:28–30; ECCUS 51:23–26.)

Ancient writings have spoken of the “yoke of Wisdom.” What is a yoke if

not a uniting? When two horses are yoked, their powers and their move-

ments are harmonized, and the carriage goes forward as if pulled by one.

On a deeper level, the yoke of wisdom makes “the two into One.” It

may rightly be called a yoga, for the etymology²⁴of yoke and yoga is the

same: to unite, to bring together what was separate or divided—body,

heart, and mind.

Yeshua tells us that his yoke is good and its authority is gentle, a

metaphor also seen in the Old Testament book Ecclesiasticus (Sirach). In

51:23–26 it is Wisdom who speaks: “Come close to me, you who are

ignorant, and enter my school. Why do you claim to be in lack and why

do you endure such thirst? I have opened my mouth to speak; pay for it

without money and place your neck under the yoke so your soul can

receive instruction. It is very near, within your reach.”

The Gospel of Matthew adds: “Take my yoke, and learn of me that I

am gentle and humble of heart, for you will find repose.”

The Christ does not offer knowledge that works miracles, unveils the

mysteries, or heals the sick, but instead offers gentleness and humility.

This is the path of peace and Repose. We would look in vain to find a

modern university curriculum that values gentleness and humility. Our

education is based rather on competition, dominance, and power.

Nevertheless, we can verify in our own life experience that the doors of

true self-knowledge remain locked to those keys. It is to the dual keys of

gentleness and humility that they open. To carry out a task with gentle-

ness is to act more deeply in communion with the depths of what Is. To

24. [The common ancestor of the words yoke (joug in French) and yoga (Sanskrit) is the

Indo-European root yeug-, “to unite.” —Trans.]

Commentary

192

walk lightly upon the earth is to realize how sacred the earth truly is.

Humility, like humus, is close to the earth. Sooner or later it becomes

a source of fertility and growth. It allows others to be and it accepts its

own limits as well as its grandeur. It is the open allowing of the Kingdom

in oneself and in others.

Commentary

193

Logion 91

They said to him:

“Tell us who you are

so that we may believe in you.”

He answered them:

You search the face

of heaven and earth,

but you do not recognize

the one who is in your presence

and you do not know how to experience

the present moment.

(CF. MATT 16:2; LUKE 12:54–56; MARK 8:11; JOHN 6:30, 7:3–5,

7:27–28, 14:8–9.)

We are always asking for signs and omens so that we may believe. It is as

if we want to be compelled from outside ourselves. But Yeshua offers no

proofs, omens, or explanations. He is what he Is. All who question must

encounter him in the present if they want to see.

He reminds us once again that what we are looking for is already here

and now. Here and now are the place and time to recognize, to experi-

ence, to taste the vastness of the present moment in all its dimensions of

time, of space, and of beyond space-time.

The gnostic is the child of the Now.

Commentary

194

Logion 92

Yeshua said:

Seek and you shall find.

Yet those things

you asked me about before

and which I did not tell you

I am willing to reveal now,

but you no longer ask.

(CF. MATT 17:7–8; LUKE 11:9–10; JOHN 12:23, 13:7, 16:4.)

From instant to instant we must be ready and open to discover what is

being shown to us. This will stabilize in us the right quality of attention

and availability.

Seeking and finding become one movement. The Grail may appear at

the very moment we stop searching for it. The answer is given to us at the

very moment when we let go of the question.

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195

Logion 93

Do not give sacred things to dogs,

for they may treat them as dung.

Do not throw pearls to swine,

for they may treat them as rubbish.

(CF. MATT 7:6; LUKE 14:35.)

The poet Paul Éluard said, “I see the world as I am.” Likewise, we listen

to the words of sacred writings at our own level. We transform them

according to our degree of understanding, rather than letting ourselves be

transformed by them and thereby participating in the Christ intelligence.

In a famous story by Flaubert, two characters named Bouvard and

Pécuchet are so obsessed with the practicalities of working their farm

that they decide not to waste time looking at the sky because it is not

edible. If you “throw pearls to swine,” indifferent to the beauty of their

light, the creatures will look only for what is edible in them. Likewise,

there exists a way of reading scripture so that it is reduced to an object

for dissection and analysis, which is downright piglike. If we experience

no desire to resonate with the radiance of a text, we cannot hope to find

its deeper meaning.

“Holy things are for holy ones,” says the liturgy of St. John

Chrysostom. We cannot enter into the depths of the sacred without a

transformation of consciousness, a “tuning” of what is most sacred within

us to what is most sacred without.

Some eyes transform everything they see into depravity. The eyes of

the saints never see others as diabolical because they no longer harbor the

diabolical²⁵within themselves. Where some see only evil, the saints see

only God.

25. From diabolos, originally from the Greek diaballein, “to hurl division,” “to slander,” “to

divide.”

Commentary

196

Logion 94

Yeshua said:

Whoever seeks will find;

whoever knocks from inside, it will open to them.

(CF. MATT 7:8; LUKE 11:10.)

“Ask and you shall receive,” the canonical gospels say. But for what should

we ask? Do we really know what is good for us, much less what is good

for others?

As logion 14 suggests, we truly do not know how to pray. Better to

allow the Spirit to pray in us, and say, with the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy

Kingdom come, thy will be done . . .” Otherwise, we risk either praying

for some event that does not transpire or praying for an event that does

transpire but which is not the best thing for us.

As the famous proverb goes: “More tears are shed over answered

prayers than unanswered prayers.” What is good in the short run may

reveal itself as very bad in the long run—and vice versa. It may be best to

keep silent yet remain alive to the thirst and longing in one’s heart.

According to the Gospel of Luke, there is only one prayer that can

never go unanswered. “If you who are corrupt are able to give good things

to your children, how much more will your Father give of the Holy Spirit

to those who ask?”

“Knock and it shall be opened,” say the canonical gospels. But it is

well to remember that the door does not always open in the way we

expect. It is like the story of a man who knocked on a door, then pounded

it and pushed it and kicked it, all to no avail. Finally, when he sank down

exhausted, the door opened . . . but inward, in the opposite way.

Commentary

197

Logion 95

Yeshua said:

If you have money,

do not lend it with interest,

but give it to the one

who will never pay you back.

(CF. EX 22:24; DEUT 23:20; MATT 5:42; LUKE 6:30.)

There is a certain altruism that is a sign of real transformation of the

heart.

To love is to expect nothing in return. We give much as the rose offers

its fragrance, with no thought of repayment. To love, to give, or to loan in

such a disinterested way (not to be confused with indifference) is

undoubtedly the purest witnessing of the Good News.

What we have received freely, we give freely!

As this sense of freedom penetrates deeply into our existence, we

experience a certain lightness that will lead us sooner or later to this

insight: “All is absurd” is transformed into “All is grace.”

Commentary

198

Logion 96

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the dough in which a woman

has hidden some yeast.

It becomes transformed into good bread.

Those who have ears,

let them hear!

(CF. MATT 13:33; LUKE 13:20–21; I COR 5:6; GAL 5:9.)

This parable occurs also in Luke, where it is specified that the woman

uses “three measures” of flour to make the dough.

What is this yeast that leavens the dough of humanity in its threefold

nature of body, soul, and spirit? Some say love, others say gnosis. But how

can they be separated? The light of love expands the body, heart, soul, and

mind, opening us to knowledge of the spirit. It strengthens us so that we

stand upright, as on an Easter morning.

The creative Intelligence, that tiny seed of infinity, is at work within

us. It is that which urges and leads us on, from the state of flour or shape-

less dough to that of a good, well-baked bread.

But the dough also needs time to rise and must be kneaded by the

woman—Sophia, or Wisdom—before it will be ready to be transformed

by the divine Fire.

This is the fulfillment of the mission of the seed of light within us.

Commentary

199

Logion 97

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the woman who carried a jar of flour.

After she walked a long way,

the handle of the jar broke

and the flour began to spill behind her along the road.

Heedless, she noticed nothing.

When she arrived, she set down the jar

and found it empty.

(CF. PROV 7:19; MATT 26:7; II COR 4:7; ROM 9:22.)

The closest parallel to this logion is found in the Gospel of Truth:

Those whom he has anointed

are gnostics,

for they are like full vessels,

which it is normally the custom to seal.

But when the oil of one type is poured,

the vessel is emptied, and the cause of its defect

is the place where its oil flows out.

But in the flawless vase,

no seal is broken, and nothing is emptied.

We are like the woman with the jar containing flour, the purpose of

which is to be transformed into good bread. But the road of Trans-

figuration is long. Handles can break; our connection with the Word can

be lost; flour can leak away. The longer we are oblivious to the loss, the

worse it is. We lose touch with the creative Intelligence and its teachings

go in one ear and out the other.

When we arrive, we discover—not without shock and bitterness—

that we have been wasting our time, wasting our life. But it is too late:

The jar is empty.

In this logion, Yeshua warns us against heedlessness. Such lack of

attention and care recalls the story of the wise and foolish virgins in

Matthew 25, where the lesson is also about vigilance.

Commentary

200

The Valentinian gnostics taught that there is a danger that Sophia

(Wisdom) will stray and become lost in the “forgetfulness of Being”—

unconsciousness. Gnosis is not some kind of acquired knowledge; it is a

more and more vivid consciousness of every step of the way: mind and

body attentive to the nearness of Being.

Commentary

201

Logion 98

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom of the Father

is like the man who wanted to kill

a man of power.

First, he unsheathed his sword at home

and thrust it into the wall to test his strength.

Then he was able to kill the man of power.

(CF. I ROM 18:11; MATT 26:51; LUKE 14:28–32; EPH 2:14; EZEK

12:1–2.)

The man of power (or the one who claims to have power) is our own ego,

with all its illusion, pretense, and puffed-up self-image. It can be killed

only by first attacking the wall of division that separates us from God and

from each other. Piercing a hole in the wall, we can begin to open up a

passage to the other side.

When this passage is examined, we can see that the man of power can

be killed because all his power—indeed his very identity—resides in

opposition. The ego is an immense tautness, a defense mechanism. When

it takes over as “the man of power,” it opposes the flow of life that carries

and guides us.

A purely moral reading of this logion is also possible: In contrast to

the heedless woman who lets all her flour leak out of the jar, we have here

a symbol of vigilance (as in logia 21, 76, and 103) that prevents evil from

having its way.

We must have a firm hand and a steadfast mind in order to deal with

the morbid impulses that exist within us. The “enemy of Life” is a real

force inside ourselves that we must learn to unmask.

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202

Logion 99

His disciples said to him:

“Your brothers and your mother are waiting outside.”

He replied:

Those who do my Father’s will

are my brothers and my mother.

It is they who will enter the Kingdom of God.

(CF. MATT 12:46–50; MARK 3:31–35; LUKE 8:19–21; JOHN 15:6.)

Once more Yeshua places kinship and family ties in a spiritual perspec-

tive. The bonds of blood are not enough. They have nothing to do with

the Kingdom, where a higher value is placed on a common intelligence of

the heart, an orientation to the unique priority of the Essential.

It is in a shared recognition of this value that we become brothers and

sisters in true spiritual kinship. The Father is a symbol of the transcen-

dent root of all true fellowship. If we kill the Father, we also kill spiritual

kinship.

Moses understood that the true unity of a people derives from their

relationship to the Transcendent. When this is reduced to mere social

order or State, then the door opens to all the varieties of conformity and

totalitarianism, which are caricatures of authentic unity and harmony

among individuals. Mere social unity can create perhaps allies, but not

brothers and sisters.

Commentary

203

Logion 100

They showed Yeshua a gold coin

and said to him:

“Caesar’s agents demand that we pay taxes.”

He answered them:

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,

give to God what is God’s,

and give to me what is mine.

(CF. MATT 22:17–21; MARK 12:14–17; LUKE 20:22–25; JOHN

17:10.)

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”—this must be done first. We must

establish an appropriate relationship with others and with the social order.

“[G]ive to God what is God’s”—all praise and adoration are for God

alone, the Source and Goal of all things. This is also an act of insight:

Seeing through effects, we recognize their Cause, even though it remains

unnamable and unknown.

To render unto Yeshua what is his is to discover him as a bridge

between humanity and divinity, between Caesar and God. To do this is to

become as he is. As he says in the Pistis Sophia: “Every human being is

I, and I am every human being.”

In some gnostic texts we encounter the theme of the Savior who must

be saved. According to this theme, Yeshua the Christ can be totally free

only when all his sparks of divinity, now dispersed in matter, are reunited.

This spark of Spirit in us, which is his, must be awakened in order to re-

ascend to the Father.

Commentary

204

Logion 101

Yeshua said:

Whoever does not hate their father and mother

as I do,

cannot become my disciple.

And whoever does not love their father and mother

as I do,

cannot become my disciple.

For my mother made me to die,

but my true mother gave me Life.

(CF. MATT 10:37, 19:29; MARK 10:29; LUKE 14:26, 18:29; GEN

3:20; JOHN 10:28.)

The emphasis here is on loving—and refusing to love—as Yeshua does.

We love our mother and father for what they are, but we do not love their

tendencies to perpetuate a web of neurotic codependency. Such a rela-

tionship makes us oblivious to our second birth and to the true mother

who engendered us not to die, but to know true life.

In Hebrew the word ruah, translated as “spirit” or “breath,” is femi-

nine. In the context of a patriarchal society, Yeshua dared to offer privi-

leged revelations to women (to Mary Magdalene and to the Samaritan

woman, for example), and his gnostic successors emphasized the feminine

gender of ruah in an effort to restore the rightful place of the feminine

and maternal aspect of Divinity.

Of course, God, the Uncreated beyond all images, is neither masculine

nor feminine. But it is important to have a balance in the symbols we use

in trying to speak of the Unnamable. This is why Sophia, who is Wisdom

and also the Divine Mother, has such an important place in gnostic texts.

In the Acts of Thomas (27, 50), the name Mother is used to invoke the

Spirit. In Manichean writings she is often called Mother of Life, and in

the Gospel of Philip it is said that Adam received the Breath from his

mother.

In the Armenian tradition of Adam and Eve, the Messiah is the Son

of the ruah, the Holy Spirit. There is also a parallel in the fragments that

remain of the Gospel of the Hebrews, where the Holy Spirit speaks of

Commentary

205

Yeshua as her firstborn son at his baptism and Yeshua speaks of her as his

mother when being transported to Tabor. The Master also advises his dis-

ciples to be children of the Holy Spirit, like himself (see the Apocryphon

of James, 6, 19, 20). Again, in the Gospel of Philip, the Holy Spirit seems

to be the celestial companion of the Father.²⁶

Surely our goal in all this must not be to crystallize or manipulate

these symbols, but to comprehend their deeper meanings. It is obvious

that Being includes as many “feminine” qualities as “masculine.” Does not

the Hebrew Bible include God the compassionate Mother as well as

God the harshly judging Father?

Discipline and forbearance, truth and kindness, are among the meta-

physical aspects of the celestial Father and Mother. The Son is the Image

and Likeness of both, incarnating the two in One.

26. [For these two references to Philip, see logion 80 and logion 17, respectively, in

Leloup, The Gospel of Philip (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2004). —Trans.]

Commentary

206

Logion 102

Yeshua said:

Wretched are the Pharisees.

They are like the dog

lying in the cow’s manger.

He cannot eat,

and will not let the cows eat.

(CF. PROV 14:4; ISAIAH 56:10; MATT 23:13–27; LUKE 2:7.)

The Pharisee in this logion is an unfortunate man. He thinks he has

knowledge, yet he does not even know himself. His teachings can amount

only to a distraction from the essential, usurping the very place of the

Living One in the minds of his listeners.

He has no idea that he prevents others from knowing themselves, for

he does not commune with the Living One. His readiness to shower his

listeners with precepts, rules, and advice that he does not practice himself

is an obstacle to their living fully.

Wretched is he who speaks of joy and love through lips of bitterness

and teeth of censure.

Commentary

207

Logion 103

Yeshua said:

Blessed are they who know

at what time of night the thieves will come.

They will be awake,

gathering their strength

and strapping on their belts,

before the thieves arrive.

(CF. MATT 24:36, 43–44; LUKE 11:8, 21–22; I PETER 1–13.)

To stay awake is to be centered, to gather strength and not waste it. This

is a condition for maintaining calm and confidence during times of trial,

when the thieves, the enemies of Life, come to rob our energies.

We may also know the time of the thieves’ arrival. Once more, this

refers to self-knowledge: knowing our own tendencies toward weakness

or depression without judging ourselves. It is a calm knowledge of our

darkest doubts and desires.

Commentary

208

Logion 104

They said to him:

“Come, let us pray and fast today.”

Yeshua answered:

What wrong have I done?

How have I been defeated?

When the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber,

that will be the time to fast and pray.

(CF. MATT 9:14–15; MARK 2:18–20; LUKE 5:33–35; JOHN 3:39,

8:34; ROM 12:21.)

When you are with others, do you think longingly of them? No, for you

are with them.

When God is truly present, there is no need to pray or fast. His

Presence fills everything. The bridal chamber is permeated with that

fragrance.

Yet it happens that the Bridegroom leaves the chamber. In other

words, we leave the state of Union between created and Uncreated. Then

is the time for praying and fasting, so that we may return.

Rabbinical tradition speaks of the “exile of the Shekhina.” To return

is to end our own exile of her, to find repose in her high, holy chamber.

Commentary

209

Logion 105

Yeshua said:

He who knows his father and his mother,

will they call him the son of a whore?

(CF. JOHN 8:18–19, 41–44.)

Ménard translates this logion as “Whoever knows his father and mother

will be called the son of a whore.” He interpreted “knowing one’s father

and mother” as a symbol of bondage to the flesh and prostitution to

matter.

But of what father and mother does this logion really speak? Is it not

the divine Father and Mother spoken of earlier?

Furthermore, there is a real possibility that this logion contains a

copyist’s error: The Coptic p’sère m’porné (son of whore) is very close to

p’sère m’prôme (son of man). Indeed, the latter term occurs in the very next

logion. According to Rudolf Kasser, this is deliberate, serving as a link

between the two logia. If this is true, then the meaning is clear: A gnos-

tic who knows his divine Father and Mother will be called a Son of Man.

Commentary

210

Logion 106

Yeshua said:

When you make the two into One,

you will be a Son of Man.

And when you say:

Mountain, move!

It will move.

(CF. MATT 17:20; LUKE 17:6; MARK 11:22–23.)

As in logion 22 and elsewhere, the teaching here is about the Union of

all dualities: matter and spirit, male and female, created and uncreated,

and so forth. In realizing this Union in ourselves, we become a Son of

Man. Again, this symbolic term has nothing to do with a masculine bias

of any kind, but rather with becoming fully and divinely human.

When faith, peace, and unity reign, all laws are transcended. Even

mountains cooperate and obstacles recede before the passage of the

Living One.

In the Libri Graduum (col 737:24), discussing Jeremiah 31:17, it is

said that we each must become a living Son of Man, reborn in Christ, liv-

ing as Adam lived before his fall into dualism.

The Libri Graduum says, “Pray that they all become Sons of Man,”

through the integration and realization of all their potential.

Commentary

211

Logion 107

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom is like the shepherd

with a hundred sheep.

One of them disappeared—

it was the most beautiful.

The shepherd left the other ninety-nine sheep

and looked only for that one

until he found it.

After his great effort he said to the lamb:

I love you more than the other ninety-nine.

(CF. MATT 18:12–13; LUKE 15:4–8.)

There are a number of possible interpretations of this famous parable of

the lost sheep. Let us begin with that of Valentinus, who is often called a

gnostic but who would be better described as influenced by gnostics. It is

important to bear in mind the distinction between gnosis and gnosticism,

sometimes written as Gnosticism. The latter is limited to certain histori-

cal phenomena that were influential around the time of early Christianity

and are often associated with it. The former is an attitude of the heart and

mind oriented toward the apprehension of Divine Presence, regardless of

what era or culture it manifests in or what religious language it uses.

For Valentinus, Yeshua is the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine

sheep that have not strayed and rejoices in finding the one who has.

Valentinus gave great significance to the numbers ninety-nine and one,

for in those days there was a method of counting up to ninety-nine with

the left hand and moving to the right hand for one hundred. Thus, the

strayed sheep represents completion and the One. It is the most beautiful

sheep because it transcends multiplicity and opens the shift to a higher

state of consciousness.

This same interpretation is found in the Gospel of Truth: “It is he,

the shepherd, who has left the ninety-nine lambs who did not stray. He

went to search for the one who strayed, and rejoiced when he found it, for

ninety-nine is a number counted on the left hand. But when he found the

One, the total number shifted to the right hand.”

Commentary

212

A different interpretation has taken its inspiration from the canoni-

cal gospels. It emphasizes the infinite mercy of God, which desires for all

to be saved and for all to attain to the fullness of Truth. There is more

rejoicing, then, for one sinner who repents than for the ninety-nine right-

eous who have no need to repent.

The Gospel of Luke follows the story of the lost sheep with the para-

ble of the lost piece of silver and that of the prodigal son. All these

demonstrate the depth of God’s caring and compassion.

A more psychological interpretation is also possible. The sheep strays

from the others as an act of liberation and maturity. We must leave the

“herd” in order to find our true self. Then we can return to the flock, but

with a heart that is free and cleansed by the love and compassion of the

shepherd. Henceforth, rather than submitting to the shepherd’s presence,

we enjoy it in mutual affection.

Finally, a more metaphysical reading reminds us that when we stray,

we lose awareness of the One, the Self, and of our highest potential. We

lose our center, which alone can bring about a harmony of our different

levels of being, our multiplicity, as represented by the other sheep. This

strayed lamb is not unlike a goat that catalyzes the unity of the flock and

also serves as a symbol of our senses, thoughts, and emotions, which are

always ready to explore but also go astray. This is why it is so important

for this particular goatlike sheep to find its center, for then the other

aspects will come to order around it. As Heidegger might say, the

Shepherd of Being will rejoice.

Commentary

213

Logion 108

Yeshua said:

Whoever drinks from my mouth

will become like me

and I will become them

and what was hidden from them will be revealed.

(CF. MATT 26:48; MARK 14:44; JOHN 6:53, 7:37.)

There is a passage from John that expresses the same truth as this logion,

though in a very different tone: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of

man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves.”

Our goal is not just to follow the Christ, but to allow ourselves to be

filled with his substance, in-formed by his Word, and to become him.

We must trace back John’s words to the very Breath of the mouth of

Christ. Jewish tradition says that Moses died from a kiss of God. The

butterfly flew into the burning bush and became fire.

In logion 82 (page 183), Yeshua speaks of the same fire. When we

allow ourselves to be consumed by it, what remains of us? Him!

Commentary

214

Logion 109

Yeshua said:

The Kingdom is like the man

who had a hidden treasure in his field.

He did not know it was there.

When he died, he left the field to his son,

who knew nothing and sold the field.

The buyer came to plow the field

and found the treasure while working.

He began to lend money at interest

to all who wanted it.

(CF. MATT 13:44; LUKE 14:18.)

According to some interpretations, the owner is a Jew, the son a

Christian, and the buyer a gnostic. The treasure is the spiritual one hid-

den in every human being (cf. Clement of Alexandria, III 36:2). The

Naasenes considered the treasure to be the Kingdom of Heaven, which

resides in the gnostic.The mention of “interest” might be a symbol for the

multiplication of spiritual riches when they are shared (cf. Hippolytus,

Elenchos V, and the Gospel of Philip, logion 22).

In a more general sense, this parable illustrates that most people have

no inkling of the treasure that is hidden within them. “The Self, which is

embedded in the heart of every creature, is smaller than the infinitely

small and more luminous than the infinitely great,” according to the

Katha Upanishad. We overlook the Presence of this treasure. Even those

who claim to be disciples of the Christ are ignorant of their heritage. The

one who discovers it is the passerby, the stranger who patiently works

his field.

Commentary

215

Logion 110

Yeshua said:

Whoever has found the world

and become wealthy,

may they renounce the world.

(CF. MATT 16:24.)

As in logion 81 (page 182), Yeshua reminds us that we cannot renounce

something unless we possess it. It is too easy to renounce what we lack.

This does not mean that we literally have to experience having great

wealth or power in order to see the impermanence and vanity of these,

which cannot buy what we most deeply long for. We must not forget, how-

ever, that overcoming ego-centered consciousness is an achievement of our

humanity, not some kind of amputation or castration of our desire-driven

destiny. The Transpersonal is an immersion of the whole human being in

the divine dimension. It is not a regression to some pre-personal state of

union with Nature. The impersonal beauty of a mountain or a jewel is not

the same as the transpersonal beauty of a man or woman suffused by grace.

There is a story of a gnostic who lived in austere simplicity in spite of

his family wealth and connections and diplomas. One day a visitor asked

him:

“When did you decide to renounce riches and the world and why did

you do it?”

“I never renounced the world,” the gnostic replied. “I have never

relinquished anything; it is the world that has renounced me. It is riches

that have abandoned me—no doubt because I no longer needed them.”

In his Ascent to Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross also shows that

it is not we who renounce the world but actually the world that renounces

us. That which had the power to thrill us suddenly leaves us indifferent.

Encounters and entertainments that used to fascinate us we now find bor-

ing. The same may apply to certain religious practices—they may have

consoled us at one time, but now they leave us cold. This has nothing to

do with apathy; it is the vital sign of our entry into a more profound con-

templation, subtler than the outer senses and often less “worldly.” This is

the meaning of the embrace of nakedness, as in logion 37, page 120.

Commentary

216

Logion 111

Yeshua said:

The heavens and the earth will roll up before you.

The living who come from the Living

will know neither fear nor death,

for it is said:

Whoever has self-knowledge,

the world cannot contain them.

(CF. ISAIAH 34:4; MATT 24:34; MARK 13:31; LUKE 21:33; JOHN

8:51; HEB 1:12; REV 6:14.)

For some commentators, logion 111 should be the last. It speaks of the

end of the world (apocalypse and parousia), and of that self-knowledge

that enables us to remain serene before whatever is to happen. In this con-

text it is useful to consider the deeper meanings of these three Greek

words: apokalupsis, parousia, and gnosis.

Apokalupsis literally means “unveiling.” (“Revelation” is the exact

equivalent, based on Latin.) The day of the Apocalypse is the day of

Unveiling of what Is. In this sense we all have our times of apocalypse,

which may be pleasurable or painful. The term is not reserved for the

end of the world as is normally imagined. But it is the end of a world—

that of the representations and constructions of our mind. We see

things no longer as we think and imagine them to be, but as they are.

Our little world that we have created begins to crumble and we enter

into the real one. A proverb says: “Those who are asleep live separately

in their own worlds. Those who are awake live together in the same

world.”

The day of the Apocalypse is also the day when the reality of God

is revealed to us. The First Letter of John says: “Then we will be like

him, for we will see him as he is.” Is it a joyful day, or a terrible one? We

will see Love and we will also see how little we have loved. We will see

that we are living beings who come from the Living One and see also

how little we have rejoiced in this. We will see that we are light born of

the Light and we will see how much time we have wasted playing with

shadows.

Commentary

217

The day of the Apocalypse is also the day of Parousia. The Greek

word parousia means “presence.” Neither of these terms is reserved to refer

to some future return of Christ—that is, the Second Coming at the end

of time. We can already experience moments of parousia when the

Presence makes itself totally felt in us. “It fills all; it is not I who live, but

Christ in me,” as Paul said.

A holy being is someone filled with the Spirit, completely inhabited

by the Presence of Love. Such a being is already the incarnation of the

end of the world and the end of humanity—that is to say, the goal and

final cause, the Plenitude and Presence that are always calling us.

Gnosis is the recognition of the Self. It alone makes possible the real-

ization of the Apocalypse and Parousia in the true sense of these words.

Self-knowledge is indeed a process of apokalupsis, of progressive unveil-

ing, one mask dropping after another, from apocalypse to apocalypse.

This is how we discover ourselves as we truly are.

In this nakedness the Presence, or Parousia of Being, can become

manifest. When our cup is emptied of all its stagnant contents, there is

room for new wine.

Apokalupsis, parousia, gnosis: This threefold path of individual trans-

formation is also the foundation of the transformation of the world. Can

the manifestation of the Kingdom, the transformation of all humanity, be

furthered in any way? The only realistic response is this: We can hope to

transform the world only if we transform ourselves. There is only one

place where our action can be truly effective, and that is in ourselves. This

recalls the story of the man to whom God appeared in a dream, asking

him to save the world, and he promised the Lord that he would. When

he woke up, he resolved to get to work immediately. But being a practical

man, he began to reflect, asking himself some pragmatic questions:

“Where should I start? Clearly, it must be in my own country. But where

in my own country can I most effectively begin? Surely in my hometown,

which I know so well. But what part of town should I begin working in?

Obviously, in my own home. But who in my family can I most effectively

begin to save? Myself.”

The relationship among apokalupsis, parousia, and gnosis can serve to

clarify this passage from the First Letter of John (3:2–3): “Beloved, now are

Commentary

218

we children of God [gnosis] and it is not yet made manifest what we shall

be. We know that if he shall be manifested [parousia-apokalupsis], we

shall be like him [gnosis, parousia]; for we shall see him even as he is

[apokalupsis]. And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth

himself, even as he is pure [gnosis].²⁷

27. [The Greek terms inserted by the author are only to illustrate the deeper meaning of

this passage from the New Testament. They do not refer to the original Greek words of

the passage, which are different. —Trans.]

Commentary

219

Logion 112

Yeshua said:

Wretched is the flesh

that depends on the soul;

wretched is the soul

that depends on the flesh.

Yeshua is not saying that the flesh is bad and the soul is good, and still

less is he saying that the body is real and the soul is some kind of illusion.

Again, he refuses to enter into the dualism of matter vs. spirit. What he

laments in this logion is dependence: the failure of respect and autonomy

in the relation between soul and body. Dependence in this sense is a form

of confusion that prevents each aspect from functioning on its own level

in a natural manner appropriate to its own wholeness. The pleasures of

the flesh are not the same as those of the soul; each should have its proper

place and order of experience.

Another interpretation of this logion sees Yeshua reminding us that

we become wretched when we are reduced to the “psychosomatic” level of

existence. Only the presence of pneuma (breath, spirit) can make us free

in all our dimensions of being. Psyche (soul) and soma (body) are neces-

sary, but are not sufficient. In the presence of pneuma, we no longer con-

fuse the two, nor do we oppose them.

Commentary

220

Logion 113

The disciples asked him:

“When will the Kingdom come?”

Yeshua answered:

It will not come by watching for it.

No one will be saying, Look, here it is!

or, Look, there it is!

The Kingdom of the Father

is spread out over the whole earth,

and people do not see it.

(CF. LUKE 17:20–21; MATT 24:3; I COR 2:9; HEB 11:1.)

Rather than asking questions about where God is, it would be better to

ask: “Where is God not?” Everything is a manifestation of his Presence;

all that exists participates in his Existence.

We might object, “But is God also present in evil, in suffering, and in

the massacre of innocents?” It is said that as a child was being led to the

ovens in the Dachau concentration camp, a man shouted out with all the

rage and indignation of a broken heart: “But where is God now?” His

friend, a fellow prisoner, raised a finger and pointed directly to the child.

“God is there.” Indeed, God is there—innocent, persecuted, led to the

ovens, crucified by the monstrosity of human ignorance.

Yeshua’s teaching is always reminding us that God is everywhere, in

everything that is. It is in suffering as well as in beauty. It blossoms in the

redness of a poppy and it is crushed in the child run over by a truck. Who

dares to see this fully?

Whether a Presence that radiates or a Presence that is being crucified,

it is everywhere and fills everything. This is why Yeshua says, in Matthew

25:40, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me.” It is a

matter not of searching here or there for some special manifestation, but

of opening our eyes to what is already before us, here and now (see logion

5, page 73) and caring for all that is.

Yet one place where God is prevented from manifesting is in the heart

that is closed to love, the heart that refuses forgiveness and revels in bit-

terness. Hell is truly the incapacity to love.

Commentary

221

Another place from which God is banished is the intellect that

closes itself off from the light of its source, the mind that no longer

seeks true understanding and indulges in a doubt that is only a defense

of its ignorance.

The Tradition tells us that Christ descended into the hell realms,

those dark states of consciousness whose denizens have extinguished all

desire to love and all desire to understand. There he encountered the

inevitable: suffering, absurdity, treachery, death. He encountered the

Beast of human folly and did not flinch. Even in these hells he looked at

those whom he encountered with the same regard of love and compassion

with which he looked upon his friends, upon Thomas, John, and his

beloved Miriam, upon Zacchaeus, the adulterous woman, and the rabble

of the sick and wretched who so often pulled at his coat. He had seen to

the bottom of the worst hells of the human soul and never ceased to love.

And if any of those denizens glimpsed, even for an instant, the infinite

compassion of that regard, how could they not have the capacity to leave

even the worst of hells and live anew?

Commentary

222

Logion 114

Simon Peter said to him:

Mary should leave us,

for women are not worthy of the Life.

Yeshua answered:

This is how I will guide her

so that she becomes Man.

She, too, will become a living breath like you Men.

Any woman who makes herself a Man

will enter into the Kingdom of God.

(CF. MATT 19:12.)

It is instructive to contrast this logion with the following long passage

from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.²⁸In that gospel we again find Peter

the representative of a repressive, patriarchal attitude toward women. We

also find there the theme of the “perfected” Human Being, but in a dif-

ferent expression: as those who have integrated the masculine and femi-

nine in themselves, whatever their biological sex happens to be.

After saying this, the Blessed One

greeted them all, saying:

“Peace be with you—may my Peace

arise and be fulfilled within you!

Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you

by saying:

‘Here it is!’ or

‘There it is!’

For it is within you

that the Son of Man dwells.

Go to him,

for those who seek him, find him.

Walk forth,

and announce the gospel of the Kingdom.

Impose no law

other than that which I have witnessed.

Do not add more laws to those given in the Torah,

lest you become bound by them.”

28. Quoted from Leloup, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions,

2002).

Commentary

223

Having said all this, he departed.

The disciples were in sorrow,

shedding many tears, and saying:

“How are we to go among the unbelievers

and announce the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man?

They did not spare his life,

so why should they spare ours?”

Then Mary arose,

embraced them all, and began to speak to her brothers:

“Do not remain in sorrow and doubt,

for his Grace will guide you and comfort you.

Instead, let us praise his greatness,

for he has prepared us for this.

He is calling upon us to become fully human [Anthropos].”

Thus Mary turned their hearts toward the Good,

and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher’s words.

Peter said to Mary:

“Sister, we know that the Teacher loved you

differently from other women.

Tell us whatever you remember

of any words he told you

which we have not yet heard.”

Mary said to them:

“I will now speak to you

of that which has not been given to you to hear.”

Mary goes on to describe how Christ appeared to her in a vision, telling

her, “You are blessed, for the sight of me does not disturb you”; and, “There

where is the noûs, lies the treasure.” Then the Savior instructs her in the art

of visionary gnosis, which is neither sensory perception nor perception of the

psyche or intellect, but rather a state of opening that mystics call the noûs,

or the fine point where the highest region of the soul merges with spirit.

In this Openness that reaches to the depths of being, the uncreated

in humanity is One with the uncreated in God (see Meister Eckhart).

Mary finishes her long: “Henceforth I travel toward Repose, where

time rests in the Eternity of Time; I go now into Silence.”

Having said all this, Mary became silent,

for it was in silence that the Teacher spoke to her.

Commentary

224

Then Andrew began to speak, and said to his brothers:

“Tell me, what do you think of these things she has been telling

us?

As for me, I do not believe

that the Teacher would speak like this.

These ideas are too different from those we have known.”

And Peter added:

“How is it possible that the Teacher talked

in this manner with a woman

about secrets of which we ourselves are ignorant?

Must we change our customs,

and listen to this woman?

Did he really choose her, and prefer her to us?”

Then Mary wept

and answered him:

“My brother Peter, what can you be thinking?

Do you believe that this is just my own imagination,

that I invented this vision?

Or do you believe that I would lie about our Teacher?”

At this, Levi spoke up:

“Peter, you have always been hot-tempered,

and now we see you repudiating a woman

just as our adversaries do.

Yet if the Teacher held her worthy,

who are you to reject her?

Surely the Teacher knew her very well,

for he loved her more than us.

Therefore let us atone,

and become fully human [Anthropos]

so that the Teacher can take root in us.

Let us grow as he demanded of us,

and walk forth to spread the gospel

without trying to lay down any rules and laws

other than those he witnessed.”

Thus both these gospels show evidence of Peter’s difficulty in

acknowledging the rightful place of woman—which is not unrelated to

the more general difficulty of acknowledging the rightful place of gnosis.

Levi invites the disciples to take the path of the Anthropos, or fully

realized human being (not andros, meaning “male”). No matter what their

Commentary

225

gender happens to be, if they let themselves be guided and inspired by the

Breath of the Living One, it will lead them to a fullness and an integra-

tion of masculine and feminine.

This approach may also help us to understand a difficult passage in

Matthew 19:11–12: “Not all will understand this language, but only those

for whom it is given: There are eunuchs who are born thus from their

mother’s womb; there are eunuchs who have been made thus by the

actions of men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves thus for

the Kingdom of Heaven.” Gnostic tradition, dismissing the literalistic

notion that communion with the creative Intelligence would ever require

castration of its creatures, interprets the word eunuch as a gloss. Yeshua

would actually have used androgyne. The redactors of Matthew, however,

may have judged that the latter word (like many words, for that matter!)

could easily give rise to misunderstanding: People might interpret it as an

advocacy of sexual androgyny, thus giving rise to a confused fascination

with people who manifest a curious mixture of male and female.

But the word androgyne was meant by gnostics in the spiritual sense of

the integration of our masculine and feminine polarities so as to know the

Totality of who we are. As was said in the commentary on logion 22 (page

99), this opens the door to a higher love that derives from fullness rather

than lack so that we are able at last to love others “as Christ loved us.”

But as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary often repeat:

“Those who have ears, let them hear!” In order to be able to hear, though,

we must engage with the teaching of the first logion of the Gospel of

Thomas and ask ourselves if we are truly living the interpretation of these

words in our body, heart, and mind. Only then can the creative words of

the Living Yeshua give rise to the new Anthropos in us, in the image and

likeness of the Eternal Son.

If, however, the words of this logion²⁷fail to offer us ever-deeper

insight or to make us more loving and alive, then let us forget them and

be inspired by the Spirit to find other words of joy and strength.

27. [A number of scholars now consider logion 114 to be an inauthentic, later addition.

There are two arguments: First is its quasi-misogynist style of language, which is not

characteristic of Yeshua’s discourse in the rest of this gospel (nor with his discourse in the

Gospel of Mary, as the author demonstrates); and second is its anticlimactic placement,

tacked on, as it were, right after the sublime logion 113, which would seem an appropri-

ate ending for the gospel. —Trans.]

Resources

www.gospelthomas.com

Peter Kirby’s site offers an excellent online display of the Coptic-English

interlinear text of Thomas, as well as the Oxyrhynchus Greek fragments and

useful notes and links.

www.gospels.net/thomas

The original Greek of the Oxyrhynchus fragments can be downloaded here,

along with an interlinear literal translation.

www.geocities.com/Athens/9068

Michael W. Grondin’s “Codex II Student Resource Center” has valuable

material on the Gospel of Thomas, Codex II, and Coptic resources.

http://home.epix.net/~miser17/Thomas.html

Stevan Davies’s “Gospel of Thomas Homepage” has many valuable resources

and links.

www.earlychristianwritings.com

www.gospels.net

These are two useful sites where canonical and gnostic scriptures can be con-

sulted together.

226

Bibliography

Alter, Robert. The World of Biblical Literature. New York: Basic Books, 1992.

Barnstone, Willis. The Other Bible. New York: Harper, 1984.

Barnstone, Willis, and Marvin Meyer. The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical

Wisdom from the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Boston: Shambhala, 2003.

Campbell, Joseph. Occidental Mythology. New York: Penguin, 1991.

Corbin, Henry. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala,

1978.

———. The Voyage and the Messenger. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic, 1998.

Davies, Stevan, and Andrew Harvey. The Gospel of Thomas. Boston: Shambhala,

2004.

Eckhart, Meister. Selected Writings. London: Penguin, 1994.

———. Sermons and Treatises. New York: Lilian Barber Press, 1987.

Funk, et al. The Jesus Seminar:The Five Gospels. Sonoma, Calif.: Polebridge, 1993.

John of the Cross. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross. Washington, D.C.:

ICS Publications, 1991.

Josephus (Flavius Josephus). Complete Works. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel

Publishing, 1981.

Jung, C. G., and Robert A. Segal. The Gnostic Jung. London: Routledge, 1992.

Kasser, Rudolf. L’Évangile selon Thomas: Rétroversion et théologie. Switzerland:

Neuchâtel, 1961.

Koester, Helmut. The Other Gospels: Non-Canonical Gospel Texts. Cambridge:

Lutterworth, 2001.

Layton, Bentley. The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations.

Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1995.

Leloup, Jean-Yves. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Rochester, Vt.: Inner

Traditions, 2002.

227

Bibliography

228

———. The Gospel of Philip. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2004.

Mack, Burton. Who Wrote the New Testament? New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Meyer, Marvin. The Unknown Sayings of Jesus. San Francisco:

HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.

Meyer, Marvin, and Harold Bloom. The Gospel of Thomas. New York: Harper,

1992.

Mitchell, Stephen. The Gospel According to Jesus. San Francisco: Harper Perennial,

1993.

Needleman, Jacob. Lost Christianity. New York: Jeremy Tarcher, 2003.

Neusner, Jacob. Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress

Press, 1984.

Pagels, Elaine. Beyond Belief. New York: Vintage, 2004.

———. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Vintage, 1989.

Patterson, Meyer, et al. The Q-Thomas Reader. Sonoma, Calif.: Polebridge, 1990.

Patterson, Stephen. The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus. Sonoma, Calif.: Polebridge,

1993.

Philo of Alexandria. The Works of Philo, Complete and Unabridged. Mahwah, N.J.:

Paulist Press, 1993.

Quispel, Giles. Jewish and Gnostic Man. Putnam, Conn.: Spring Publications,

1986.

Riley, Gregory J. Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy.

Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1995.

Robinson, James. The Nag Hammadi Library, rev. ed. New York: Harper, 1990.

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