(i) St Thomas Gospel v1 to v5  An Introduction

St Thomas Gospel V1 to V5 :In this article we will look at interpretating the saying from the Gospel of St Thomas v1 to v5. This gospel is a collection of sayings and teachings attributed to Jesus Christ. Portions of this document were initially discovered in the late 1800s. Later, a complete version of it was found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. Scholars can date the complete text to approximate 340 AD. Certain fragments of this gospel though have been dated to nearly 200 years earlier than that.

Despite its name, The Gospel of Saint Thomas, controversy exists over who exactly the author of this work may be. Many point to the very first line of the text in which it states that the author is “didymos Judas Thomas.” Didymos is the Greek for Twin. Not only that, but Thomas means twin in Aramaic.

Many believe that the author’s name was actually Judas, whose nickname was twin. The confusion emerges because the Gospel of John refers to a man called Thomas, who is called “didymos Thomas.” But the Bible mentions no Judas whose nickname is the twin.

Whether St. Thomas wrote the gospel or not, the document declares that the Kingdom of God actually exists on the earth. It quotes Jesus as saying that all anyone needs to do is to open their eyes. It also says that a “divine light” exists in each of us. It’s this light that allows us to see the Kingdom in our physical surroundings.

Curiously, views the Creation Story of the Bible from a different perspective than the Bible portrays it. This text says that there were two separate “creations” of mankind. The first was perfect; the second flawed. Jesus, according to the Gospel of Thomas, extols us to return to the first, perfect Kingdom – through opening our eyes – instead of waiting for the “end of times” prophecy to come. A study of this gospel is very worthwhile as it clearly reveals Christ in a very different role to what Orthodox Christianity would have us believe and we will go through giving an interpretation of a selection of the statements in this Gospel that have been attributed to Christ and what the implications of the Gospel of St Thomas might be for us today.

(ii) St Thomas Gospel v1 to v5 Interptreted

 (1)  And he said, “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.”

Whoever finds the interpretations = he who can make the inner realizations of the teachings will not experience death &they will discover that their true nature is spirit which is formless, infinite, has never been born and has never died.

(2)  Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.”

Here we are being encouraged to seek and to keep going until we find our spiritual path and make the realisations in meditation. They may not come immediately but we must persist to reach the realisations that will come through devotion to our meditation.

He will become troubled =  Meditation and self reflection increase our sensitivity. We can become troubled at the state of the world when we realised how lost it is with its religious & political institutions that divide society and are frequently the source of wars.

We are also ‘troubled’ more personally as the process of meditation shows us that we are not the ‘identity’ we thought we were i.e. a physical body with mind and emotions. We begin to see that this is just a vehicle for spirit and yet we have only just started the journey. So we sense we are no longer the body and mind but who are we? We must meditate deeply to find out and when we discover our true identity in relation to God then we ‘rule over the ALL’. This means we see we are the cause of everything and one with God without separation.

(3)  Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.

 Kingdom is inside and outside of us = it is everywhere, God is infinite. Religion seeks him without by building temples, churches etc. If you place Gods kingdom anywhere then you are limiting something infinite. The word of God can never be in a book but must be experienced directly from within.

(3 cont.)When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”

Come to know ourselves = again placing emphasis on going within. An effective tool for this is meditation and allows space from the thoughts that keep us attached to the world. When we do this we see our true relationship to ‘the father’ or to God.

If we do not go within then we are ‘in poverty’. In a worldly sense poverty relates to money so clearly there are more spiritual values been talked about here. By not knowing ourselves we are in poverty, so this again emphasizes SELF REALISATION and not indoctrination by religion. We cannot know ourselves just by taking on religious doctrines.

(4)  Jesus said, “The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same.”

Clearly we have some symbolism going on here.

Small child = someone who has ‘unlearnt’ all the knowledge of their worldly ways and become as innocent as a small child. Meditation allows us space to distance ourselves from the ‘small self’ so we see the vastness of the spiritual regions which can be accessed within.

seven days old = Seven days refers to the mastery of the seven chakras with the awakening of the  kundalini and its flow through from the base to the top of the head.

The light and sound energies which can also be meditated upon also revitalise the seven chakras and they come from a higher source than the (supra physical) kundalini energy.

First will become last = age does not have any relevance in terms of getting to God,  in fact it can be a hindrance as we get more and more caught up in the world. We must therefore enter our meditation with the innocence of a child with no pre conceived ideas.

And they become one and the same = once we complete our spiritual journey we no longer have a sense of individuality, we see that there is only one thing everywhere and that is God, and there is no separation between man and God. We are all therefore the same.

(5)  Jesus said, “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”

This is encouraging us to become focused on the spiritual path and then things which we could not perceive will be revealed to us. Our awareness increases when we become still and meditate and allow the light and sound to take our awareness to finer levels of creation.  Christ says there is nothing that will be hidden from us and the’ kingdom of heaven’ will be revealed to all those that seek it.

It is the antithesis of the church and waiting for Christ to come after death as in all of the above Christ is encouraging us to actively seek within to discover our spirituality.

 

(iii) Links

 Gospel of St Thomas Interpretated

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