THIS PAGE IS HAS A TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS INCLUDED

GNOSTIC TEACHINGS

In December 1945 an Arab peasant made an astonishing archeological discovery in Upper Egypt. Rumors obscured the circumstances of this find--perhaps because the discovery was accidental, and its sale on the black market illegal. For years even the identity of the discoverer remained unknown. One rumor held that he was a blood avenger; another, that he had made the find near the town of Naj 'Hammádì at the Jabal al-Tárif, a mountain honeycombed with more than 150 caves. Originally natural, some of these caves were cut and painted and used as grave sites as early as the sixth dynasty, some 4,300 years ago.

Thirty years later the discoverer himself, Muhammad 'Alí al-Sammán; told what happened. Shortly before he and his brothers avenged their father's murder in a blood feud, they had saddled their camels and gone out to the Jabal to dig for sabakh, a soft soil they used to fertilize their crops. Digging around a massive boulder, they hit a red earthenware jar, almost a meter high. Muhammad 'Alí hesitated to break the jar, considering that a jinn, or spirit, might live inside. But realizing that it might also contain gold, he raised his mattock, smashed the jar, and discovered inside thirteen papyrus books, bound in leather. Returning to his home in al-Qasr, Muhammad 'All dumped the books and loose papyrus leaves on the straw piled on the ground next to the oven. Muhammad's mother, 'Umm-Ahmad, admits that she burned much of the papyrus in the oven along with the straw she used to kindle the fire.

A few weeks later, as Muhammad 'Alí tells it, he and his brothers avenged their father's death by murdering Ahmed Isma'il. Their mother had warned her sons to keep their mattocks sharp: when they learned that their father's enemy was nearby, the brothers seized the opportunity, "hacked off his limbs . . . ripped out his heart, and devoured it among them, as the ultimate act of blood revenge."

Fearing that the police investigating the murder would search his house and discover the books, Muhammad 'Alí asked the priest, al-Qummus Basiliyus Abd al-Masih, to keep one or more for him. During the time that Muhammad 'Alí and his brothers were being interrogated for murder, Raghib, a local history teacher, had seen one of the books, and suspected that it had value. Having received one from al-Qummus Basiliyus, Raghib sent it to a friend in Cairo to find out its worth.

Sold on the black market through antiquities dealers in Cairo, the manuscripts soon attracted the attention of officials of the Egyptian government. Through circumstances of high drama, as we shall see, they bought one and confiscated ten and a half of the thirteen leather-bound books, called codices, and deposited them in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. But a large part of the thirteenth codex, containing five extraordinary texts, was smuggled out of Egypt and offered for sale in America. Word of this codex soon reached Professor Gilles Quispel, distinguished historian of religion at Utrecht, in the Netherlands. Excited by the discovery, Quispel urged the Jung Foundation in Zurich to buy the codex. But discovering, when he succeeded, that some pages were missing, he flew to Egypt in the spring of 1955 to try to find them in the Coptic Museum. Arriving in Cairo, he went at once to the Coptic Museum, borrowed photographs of some of the texts, and hurried back to his hotel to decipher them. Tracing out the first line, Quispel was startled, then incredulous, to read: "These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin, Judas Thomas, wrote down." Quispel knew that his colleague H.C. Puech, using notes from another French scholar, Jean Doresse, had identified the opening lines with fragments of a Greek Gospel of Thomas discovered in the 1890's. But the discovery of the whole text raised new questions: Did Jesus have a twin brother, as this text implies? Could the text be an authentic record of Jesus' sayings? According to its title, it contained the Gospel According to Thomas; yet, unlike the gospels of the New Testament, this text identified itself as a secret gospel. Quispel also discovered that it contained many sayings known from the New Testament; but these sayings, placed in unfamiliar contexts, suggested other dimensions of meaning. Other passages, Quispel found, differed entirely from any known Christian tradition: the "living Jesus," for example, speaks in sayings as cryptic and compelling as Zen koans:

Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

What Quispel held in his hand, the Gospel of Thomas, was only one of the fifty-two texts discovered at Nag Hammadi (the usual English transliteration of the town's name). Bound into the same volume with it is the Gospel of Philip, which attributes to Jesus acts and sayings quite different from those in the New Testament:

. . . the companion of the [Savior is] Mary Magdalene. [But Christ loved] her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]. The rest of [the disciples were offended] . . . They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you as (I love) her?"

Other sayings in this collection criticize common Christian beliefs, such as the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection, as naïve misunderstandings. Bound together with these gospels is the Apocryphon (literally, "secret book") of John, which opens with an offer to reveal "the mysteries [and the] things hidden in silence" which Jesus taught to his disciple John.

Muhammad 'Alí later admitted that some of the texts were lost--burned up or thrown away. But what remains is astonishing: some fifty-two texts from the early centuries of the Christian era--including a collection of early Christian gospels, previously unknown. Besides the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, the find included the Gospel of Truth and the Gospel to the Egyptians, which identifies itself as "the [sacred book] of the Great Invisible [Spirit]." Another group of texts consists of writings attributed to Jesus' followers, such as the Secret Book of James, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Letter of Peter to Philip, and the Apocalypse of Peter.

What Muhammad 'Alí discovered at Nag Hammadi, it soon became clear, were Coptic translations, made about 1,500 years ago, of still more ancient manuscripts. The originals themselves had been written in Greek, the language of the New Testament: as Doresse, Puech, and Quispel had recognized, part of one of them had been discovered by archeologists about fifty years earlier, when they found a few fragments of the original Greek version of the Gospel of Thomas.

About the dating of the manuscripts themselves there is little debate. Examination of the datable papyrus used to thicken the leather bindings, and of the Coptic script, place them c. A.D. 350-400. But scholars sharply disagree about the dating of the original texts. Some of them can hardly be later than c. A.D. 120-150, since Irenaeus, the orthodox Bishop of Lyons, writing C. 180, declares that heretics "boast that they possess more gospels than there really are,'' and complains that in his time such writings already have won wide circulation--from Gaul through Rome, Greece, and Asia Minor.

Quispel and his collaborators, who first published the Gospel of Thomas, suggested the date of c. A.D. 140 for the original. Some reasoned that since these gospels were heretical, they must have been written later than the gospels of the New Testament, which are dated c. 60-l l0. But recently Professor Helmut Koester of Harvard University has suggested that the collection of sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, although compiled c. 140, may include some traditions even older than the gospels of the New Testament, "possibly as early as the second half of the first century" (50-100)--as early as, or earlier, than Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.

Scholars investigating the Nag Hammadi find discovered that some of the texts tell the origin of the human race in terms very different from the usual reading of Genesis: the Testimony of Truth, for example, tells the story of the Garden of Eden from the viewpoint of the serpent! Here the serpent, long known to appear in Gnostic literature as the principle of divine wisdom, convinces Adam and Eve to partake of knowledge while "the Lord" threatens them with death, trying jealously to prevent them from attaining knowledge, and expelling them from Paradise when they achieve it. Another text, mysteriously entitled The Thunder, Perfect Mind, offers an extraordinary poem spoken in the voice of a feminine divine power:


For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin....
I am the barren one, and many are her sons....
I am the silence that is incomprehensible....
I am the utterance of my name.
These diverse texts range, then, from secret gospels, poems, and quasi-philosophic descriptions of the origin of the universe, to myths, magic, and instructions for mystical practice.

Why were these texts buried-and why have they remained virtually unknown for nearly 2,000 years? Their suppression as banned documents, and their burial on the cliff at Nag Hammadi, it turns out, were both part of a struggle critical for the formation of early Christianity. The Nag Hammadi texts, and others like them, which circulated at the beginning of the Christian era, were denounced as heresy by orthodox Christians in the middle of the second century. We have long known that many early followers of Christ were condemned by other Christians as heretics, but nearly all we knew about them came from what their opponents wrote attacking them. Bishop Irenaeus, who supervised the church in Lyons, c. 180, wrote five volumes, entitled The Destruction and Overthrow of Falsely So-called Knowledge, which begin with his promise to set forth the views of those who are now teaching heresy . . . to show how absurd and inconsistent with the truth are their statements . . . I do this so that . . . you may urge all those with whom you are connected to avoid such an abyss of madness and of blasphemy against Christ.

He denounces as especially "full of blasphemy" a famous gospel called the Gospel of Truth. Is Irenaeus referring to the same Gospel of Truth discovered at Nag Hammadi' Quispel and his collaborators, who first published the Gospel of Truth, argued that he is; one of their critics maintains that the opening line (which begins "The gospel of truth") is not a title. But Irenaeus does use the same source as at least one of the texts discovered at Nag Hammadi--the Apocryphon (Secret Book) of John--as ammunition for his own attack on such "heresy." Fifty years later Hippolytus, a teacher in Rome, wrote another massive Refutation of All Heresies to "expose and refute the wicked blasphemy of the heretics."

This campaign against heresy involved an involuntary admission of its persuasive power; yet the bishops prevailed. By the time of the Emperor Constantine's conversion, when Christianity became an officially approved religion in the fourth century, Christian bishops, previously victimized by the police, now commanded them. Possession of books denounced as heretical was made a criminal offense. Copies of such books were burned and destroyed. But in Upper Egypt, someone; possibly a monk from a nearby monastery of St. Pachomius, took the banned books and hid them from destruction--in the jar where they remained buried for almost 1,600 years.

But those who wrote and circulated these texts did not regard themselves as "heretics. Most of the writings use Christian terminology, unmistakable related to a Jewish heritage. Many claim to offer traditions about Jesus that are secret, hidden from "the many" who constitute what, in the second century, came to be called the "catholic church." These Christians are now called gnostics, from the Greek word gnosis, usually translated as "knowledge." For as those who claim to know nothing about ultimate reality are called agnostic (literally, "not knowing"), the person who does claim to know such things is called gnostic ("knowing"). But gnosis is not primarily rational knowledge. The Greek language distinguishes between scientific or reflective knowledge ("He knows mathematics") and knowing through observation or experience ("He knows me"), which is gnosis. As the gnostics use the term, we could translate it as "insight," for gnosis involves an intuitive process of knowing oneself. And to know oneself, they claimed, is to know human nature and human destiny. According to the gnostic teacher Theodotus, writing in Asia Minor (c. 140-160), the gnostic is one has come to understand who we were, and what we have become; where we were... whither we are hastening; from what we are being released; what birth is, and what is rebirth.

Yet to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God; this is the secret of gnosis. Another gnostic teacher, Monoimus, says:

Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. Look for him by taking yourself as the starting point. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own and says, "My God, my mind, my thought, my soul, my body." Learn the sources of sorrow:, joy, love, hate . . . If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself.

What Muhammad 'All discovered at Nag Hammadi is, apparently, a library of writings, almost all of them gnostic. Although they claim to offer secret teaching, many of these texts refer to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and others to the letters of Paul and the New Testament gospels. Many of them include the same dramatic personae as the New Testament--Jesus and his disciples. Yet the differences are striking.

Orthodox Jews and Christians insist that a chasm separates humanity from Its creator: God is wholly other. But some of the gnostics who wrote these gospels contradict this: self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical.

Second, the "living Jesus" of these texts speaks of illusion and enlightenment, not of sin and repentance, like the Jesus of the New Testament. Instead of coming to save us from sin, he comes as a guide who opens access to spiritual understanding. But when the disciple attains enlightenment, Jesus no longer serves as his spiritual master: the two have become equal--even identical.

Third, orthodox Christians believe that Jesus is Lord and Son of God in a unique way: he remains forever distinct from the rest of humanity whom he came to save. Yet the gnostic Gospel of Thomas relates that as soon as Thomas recognizes him, Jesus says to Thomas that they have both received their being from the same source:

Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out.... He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him."

Does not such teaching--the identity of the divine and human. the concern with illusion and enlightenment, the founder who is presented not as Lord, but as spiritual guide sound more Eastern than Western? Some scholars have suggested that if the names were changed, the "living Buddha" appropriately could say what the Gospel of Thomas attributes to the living Jesus. Could Hindu or Buddhist tradition have influenced gnosticism?

The British scholar of Buddhism, Edward Conze, suggests that it had. He points out that "Buddhists were in contact with the Thomas Christians (that is, Christians who knew and used such writings as the Gospel of Thomas) in South India." Trade routes between the Greco-Roman world and the Far East were opening up at the time when gnosticism flourished (A.D. 80-200); for generations, Buddhist missionaries had been proselytizing in Alexandria. We note, too, that Hippolytus, who was a Greek speaking Christian in Rome (c. 225), knows of the Indian Brahmins--and includes their tradition among the sources of heresy:

There is . . . among the Indians a heresy of those who philosophize among the Brahmins, who live a self-sufficient life, abstaining from (eating) living creatures and all cooked food . . . They say that God is light, not like the light one sees, nor like the sun nor fire, but to them God is discourse, not that which finds expression in articulate sounds, but that of knowledge (gnosis) through which the secret mysteries of nature are perceived by the wise.

Could the title of the Gospel of Thomas--named for the disciple who, tradition tells us, went to India--suggest the influence of Indian tradition?

These hints indicate the possibility, yet our evidence is not conclusive. Since parallel traditions may emerge in different cultures at different times, such ideas could have developed in both places independently. What we call Eastern and Western religions, and tend to regard as separate streams, were not clearly differentiated 2,000 years ago. Research on the Nag Hammadi texts is only beginning: we look forward to the work of scholars who can study these traditions comparatively to discover whether they can, in fact, be traced to Indian sources.

Even so, ideas that we associate with Eastern religions emerged in the first century through the gnostic movement in the West, but they were suppressed and condemned by polemicists like Irenaeus. Yet those who called gnosticism heresy were adopting--consciously or not--the viewpoint of that group of Christians who called themselves orthodox Christians. A heretic may be anyone whose outlook someone else dislikes or denounces. According to tradition, a heretic is one who deviates from the true faith. But what defines that "true faith"? Who calls it that, and for what reasons?

We find this problem familiar in our own experience. The term "Christianity," especially since the Reformation, has covered an astonishing range of groups. Those claiming to represent "true Christianity" in the twentieth century can range from a Catholic cardinal in the Vatican to an African Methodist Episcopal preacher initiating revival in Detroit, a Mormon missionary in Thailand, or the member of a village church on the coast of Greece. Yet Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox agree that such diversity is a recent--and deplorable--development. According to Christian legend, the early church was different. Christians of every persuasion look back to the primitive church to find a simpler, purer form of Christian faith. In the apostles' time, all members of the Christian community shared their money and property; all believed the same teaching, and worshipped together; all revered the authority of the apostles. It was only after that golden age that conflict, then heresy emerged: so says the author of the Acts of the Apostles, who identifies himself as the first historian of Christianity.

But the discoveries at Nag Hammadi have upset this picture. If we admit that some of these fifty-two texts represents early forms of Christian teaching, we may have to recognize that early Christianity is far more diverse than nearly anyone expected before the Nag Hammadi discoveries.

Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and second centuries. For nearly all Christians since that time, Catholics, Protestants, or Orthodox, have shared three basic premises. First, they accept the canon of the New Testament; second, they confess the apostolic creed; and third, they affirm specific forms of church institution. But every one of these-the canon of Scripture, the creed, and the institutional structure--emerged in its present form only toward the end of the second century. Before that time, as Irenaeus and others attest, numerous gospels circulated among various Christian groups, ranging from those of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to such writings as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth, as well as many other secret teachings, myths, and poems attributed to Jesus or his disciples. Some of these, apparently, were discovered at Nag Hammadi; many others are lost to us. Those who identified themselves as Christians entertained many--and radically differing-religious beliefs and practices. And the communities scattered throughout the known world organized themselves in ways that differed widely from one group to another.

Yet by A. D. 200, the situation had changed. Christianity had become an institution headed by a three-rank hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons, who understood themselves to be the guardians of the only "true faith." The majority of churches, among which the church of Rome took a leading role, rejected all other viewpoints as heresy. Deploring the diversity of the earlier movement, Bishop Irenaeus and his followers insisted that there could be only one church, and outside of that church, he declared, "there is no salvation." Members of this church alone are orthodox (literally, "straight-thinking") Christians. And, he claimed, this church must be catholic-- that is, universal. Whoever challenged that consensus, arguing instead for other forms of Christian teaching, was declared to be a heretic, and expelled. When the orthodox gained military support, sometime after the Emperor Constantine became Christian in the fourth century, the penalty for heresy escalated.

From The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.

The "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas

by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer
These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.

1 And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."

2 Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

3 Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."

4 Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live.

For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one."

5 Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised."]

6 His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"

Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."

7 Jesus said, "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human."

8 And he said, The person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!

9 Jesus said, Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure.

10 Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."

11 Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away.

The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"

12 The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?"

Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."

13 Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."

Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."

14 Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.

When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them.

After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you."

15 Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."

16 Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to casy peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.

For there will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone.

17 Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."

18 The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"

Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.

Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

19 Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being.

If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you.

For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

20 The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like."

He said to them, It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.

21 Mary said to Jesus, "What are your disciples like?"

He said, They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. when the owners of the field come, they will say, "Give us back our field." They take off their clothes in front of them in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them.

For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions.

As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come.

Let there be among you a person who understands.

When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!

22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom."

They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

23 Jesus said, "I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one."

24 His disciples said, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it."

He said to them, "Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."

25 Jesus said, "Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye."

26 Jesus said, "You see the sliver in your friend's eye, but you don't see the timber in your own eye. When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's eye."

27 "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father."

28 Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.

But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways."

29 Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels.

Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."

30 Jesus said, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."

31 Jesus said, "No prophet is welcome on his home turf; doctors don't cure those who know them."

32 Jesus said, "A city built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden."

33 Jesus said, "What you will hear in your ear, in the other ear proclaim from your rooftops.

After all, no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does one put it in a hidden place. Rather, one puts it on a lampstand so that all who come and go will see its light."

34 Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a bind person, both of them will fall into a hole."

35 Jesus said, "One can't enter a strong person's house and take it by force without tying his hands. Then one can loot his house."

36 Jesus said, "Do not fret, from morning to evening and from evening to morning, [about your food--what you're going to eat, or about your clothing--] what you are going to wear. [You're much better than the lilies, which neither card nor spin.

As for you, when you have no garment, what will you put on? Who might add to your stature? That very one will give you your garment.]"

37 His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."

38 Jesus said, "Often you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me."

39 Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so.

As for you, be as sly as snakes and as simple as doves."

40 Jesus said, "A grapevine has been planted apart from the Father. Since it is not strong, it will be pulled up by its root and will perish."

41 Jesus said, "Whoever has something in hand will be given more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little they have."

42 Jesus said, "Be passersby."

43 His disciples said to him, "Who are you to say these things to us?"

"You don't understand who I am from what I say to you.

Rather, you have become like the Judeans, for they love the tree but hate its fruit, or they love the fruit but hate the tree."

44 Jesus 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."

45 Jesus said, "Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they yield no fruit.

Good persons produce good from what they've stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness they've stored up in their hearts, and say evil things. For from the overflow of the heart they produce evil."

46 Jesus said, "From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is so much greater than John the Baptist that his eyes should not be averted.

But I have said that whoever among you becomes a child will recognize the kingdom and will become greater than John."

47 Jesus said, "A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows.

And a slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other.

"Nobody drinks aged wine and immediately wants to drink young wine. Young wine is not poured into old wineskins, or they might break, and aged wine is not poured into a new wineskin, or it might spoil.

An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, since it would create a tear."

48 Jesus said, "If two make peace with each other in a single house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move from here!' and it will move."

49 Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again."

50 Jesus said,

"If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.'

If they say to you, 'Is it you?' say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.'

If they ask you, 'What is the evidence of your Father in you?' say to them, 'It is motion and rest.'"

51 His disciples said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?"

He said to them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it."

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 have spoken of the dead."

53 His disciples said to him, "is circumcision useful or not?"

He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."

54 Jesus said, "Congratulations to the poor, for to you belongs Heaven's kingdom."

55 Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be my disciple, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters, and carry the cross as I do, will not be worthy of me."

56 Jesus said, "Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a carcass, and whoever has discovered a carcass, of that person the world is not worthy."

57 Jesus said, The Father's kingdom is like a person who has [good] seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, "No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them." For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be pulled up and burned.

58 Jesus said, "Congratulations to the person who has toiled and has found life."

59 Jesus said, "Look to the living one as long as you live, otherwise you might die and then try to see the living one, and you will be unable to see."

60 He saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb and going to Judea. He said to his disciples, "that person ... around the lamb." They said to him, "So that he may kill it and eat it." He said to them, "He will not eat it while it is alive, but only after he has killed it and it has become a carcass."

They said, "Otherwise he can't do it."

He said to them, "So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten."

61 Jesus said, "Two will recline on a couch; one will die, one will live."

Salome said, "Who are you mister? You have climbed onto my couch and eaten from my table as if you are from someone."

Jesus said to her, "I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was granted from the things of my Father."

"I am your disciple."

"For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness."

62 Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries.

Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

63 Jesus said, There was a rich person who had a great deal of money. He said, "I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing." These were the things he was thinking in his heart, but that very night he died. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!

64 Jesus said, A person was receiving guests. When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his slave to invite the guests. The slave went to the first and said to that one, "My master invites you." That one said, "Some merchants owe me money; they are coming to me tonight. I have to go and give them instructions. Please excuse me from dinner." The slave went to another and said to that one, "My master has invited you." That one said to the slave, "I have bought a house, and I have been called away for a day. I shall have no time." The slave went to another and said to that one, "My master invites you." That one said to the slave, "My friend is to be married, and I am to arrange the banquet. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me from dinner." The slave went to another and said to that one, "My master invites you." That one said to the slave, "I have bought an estate, and I am going to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me." The slave returned and said to his master, "Those whom you invited to dinner have asked to be excused." The master said to his slave, "Go out on the streets and bring back whomever you find to have dinner."

Buyers and merchants [will] not enter the places of my Father.

65 He said, A [...] person owned a vineyard and rented it to some farmers, so they could work it and he could collect its crop from them. He sent his slave so the farmers would give him the vineyard's crop. They grabbed him, beat him, and almost killed him, and the slave returned and told his master. His master said, "Perhaps he didn't know them." He sent another slave, and the farmers beat that one as well. Then the master sent his son and said, "Perhaps they'll show my son some respect." Because the farmers knew that he was the heir to the vineyard, they grabbed him and killed him. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!

66 Jesus said, "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone."

67 Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking."

68 Jesus said, "Congratulations to you when you are hated and persecuted;

and no place will be found, wherever you have been persecuted."

69 Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who have been persecuted in their hearts: they are the ones who have truly come to know the Father.

Congratulations to those who go hungry, so the stomach of the one in want may be filled."

70 Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."

71 Jesus said, "I will destroy [this] house, and no one will be able to build it [...]."

72 A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."

He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?"

He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?"

73 Jesus said, "The crop is huge but the workers are few, so beg the harvest boss to dispatch workers to the fields."

74 He said, "Lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the well."

75 Jesus said, "There are many standing at the door, but those who are alone will enter the bridal suite."

76 Jesus said, The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a peal. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself.

So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys."

77 Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.

Split a piece of wood; I am there.

Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

78 Jesus said, "Why have you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a person dressed in soft clothes, [like your] rulers and your powerful ones? They are dressed in soft clothes, and they cannot understand truth."

79 A woman in the crowd said to him, "Lucky are the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you."

He said to [her], "Lucky are those who have heard the word of the Father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, 'Lucky are the womb that has not conceived and the breasts that have not given milk.'"

80 Jesus said, "Whoever has come to know the world has discovered the body, and whoever has discovered the body, of that one the world is not worthy."

81 Jesus said, "Let one who has become wealthy reign, and let one who has power renounce ."

82 Jesus said, "Whoever is near me is near the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom."

83 Jesus said, "Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the Father's light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light."

84 Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!"

85 Jesus said, "Adam came from great power and great wealth, but he was not worthy of you. For had he been worthy, [he would] not [have tasted] death."

86 Jesus said, "[Foxes have] their dens and birds have their nests, but human beings have no place to lay down and rest."

87 Jesus said, "How miserable is the body that depends on a body, and how miserable is the soul that depends on these two."

88 Jesus said, "The messengers and the prophets will come to you and give you what belongs to you. You, in turn, give them what you have, and say to yourselves, 'When will they come and take what belongs to them?'"

89 Jesus said, "Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Don't you understand that the one who made the inside is also the one who made the outside?"

90 Jesus said, "Come to me, for my yoke is comfortable and my lordship is gentle, and you will find rest for yourselves."

91 They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you."

He said to them, "You examine the face of heaven and earth, but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine the present moment.

92 Jesus said, "Seek and you will find.

In the past, however, I did not tell you the things about which you asked me then. Now I am willing to tell them, but you are not seeking them."

93 "Don't give what is holy to dogs, for they might throw them upon the manure pile. Don't throw pearls [to] pigs, or they might ... it [...]."

94 Jesus [said], "One who seeks will find, and for [one who knocks] it will be opened."

95 [Jesus said], "If you have money, don't lend it at interest. Rather, give [it] to someone from whom you won't get it back."

96 Jesus [said], The Father's kingdom is like [a] woman. She took a little leaven, [hid] it in dough, and made it into large loaves of bread. Anyone here with two ears had better listen!

97 Jesus said, The [Father's] kingdom is like a woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking along [a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her [along] the road. She didn't know it; she hadn't noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty.

98 Jesus said, The Father's kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one.

99 The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside."

He said to them, "Those here who do what my Father wants are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter my Father's kingdom."

100 They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, "The Roman emperor's people demand taxes from us."

He said to them, "Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine."

101 "Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother [...], but my true [mother] gave me life."

102 Jesus said, "Damn the Pharisees! They are like a dog sleeping in the cattle manger: the dog neither eats nor [lets] the cattle eat."

103 Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive."

104 They said to Jesus, "Come, let us pray today, and let us fast."

Jesus said, "What sin have I committed, or how have I been undone? Rather, when the groom leaves the bridal suite, then let people fast and pray."

105 Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."

106 Jesus said, "When you make the two into one, you will become children of Adam, and when you say, 'Mountain, move from here!' it will move."

107 Jesus said, The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety- nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, 'I love you more than the ninety- nine.'

108 Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him."

109 Jesus said, The (Father's) kingdom is like a person who had a treasure hidden in his field but did not know it. And [when] he died he left it to his [son]. The son [did] not know about it either. He took over the field and sold it. The buyer went plowing, [discovered] the treasure, and began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished.

110 Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world."

111 Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death."

Does not Jesus say, "Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy"?

112 Jesus said, "Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh."

113 His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"

"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."

[Saying added to the original collection at a later date:] 114 Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."

Scholars Version translation of the Gospel of Thomas taken from "The Complete Gospels"

The Gospel According to Mary
Chapter 4
...Will matter then be destroyed or not?

22) The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots.

23) For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone.

24) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

25) Peter said to him, Since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world?

26) The Savior said There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin.

27) That is why the Good came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to its root.

28) Then He continued and said, That is why you become sick and die, for you are deprived of the one who can heal you.

29) He who has a mind to understand, let him understand.

30) Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body.

31) That is why I said to you, Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature.

32) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

33) When the Blessed One had said this, He greeted them all,saying, Peace be with you. Receive my peace unto yourselves.

34) Beware that no one lead you astray saying Lo here or lo there! For the Son of Man is within you.

35) Follow after Him!

36) Those who seek Him will find Him.

37) Go then and preach the gospel of the Kingdom.

38) Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.

39) When He said this He departed.

Chapter 5
1) But they were grieved. They wept greatly, saying, How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did not spare Him, how will they spare us?

2) Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brethren, Do not weep and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for His grace will be entirely with you and will protect you.

3) But rather, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us and made us into Men.

4) When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.

5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.

6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.

7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.

8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,

9) Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.

10) I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?

11) The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision and it is [...]

(pp.11-14 missing)

Chapter 8:
...it.

10) And desire said, I did not see you descending, but now I see you ascending. Why do you lie since you belong to me?

11) The soul answered and said, I saw you. You did not see me nor recognize me. I served you as a garment and you did not know me.

12) When it said this, it (the soul) went away rejoicing greatly.

13) Again it came to the third power, which is called ignorance.

14) The power questioned the soul, saying, Where are you going? In wickedness are you bound. But you are bound; do not judge!

15) And the soul said, Why do you judge me, although I have not judged?

16) I was bound, though I have not bound.

17) I was not recognized. But I have recognized that the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly.

18) When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.

19) The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.

20) They asked the soul, Whence do you come slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?

21) The soul answered and said, What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome,

22) and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died.

23) In a aeon I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient.

24) From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence.

Chapter 9
1) When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her.

2) But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas.

3) Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things.

4) He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?

5) Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?

6) Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered.

7) Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries.

8) But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.

9) That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.

10) And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.

The Gospel According to Mary

Gospel of Truth

Translated by: Paterson Brown, BA (Amherst), PhD (London)
MetaLogos Home Page

1 . The Gospel of Truth is joy for those who have received from the Father of Truth the gift of recognizing him, thru the power of the meaning who comes forth from the fullness which is in the thought and mind of the Father. This is he who is called the Savior---That being the name of the task which he is to do for the atonement of those who had been unacquainted with the name of the Father.
(Jn 17)

2. Now the the gospel is the revelation of the hopeful, it is the finding of those who seek him. For since the totality were searching for him from whom they came forth--and the totality were within him, the Incomprehensible Inconceivable--One, he who is beyon all thought--Hence Unacquaintance with the Father caused anxiety and fear. Then the Anxiety concensed like a fog so that no one could see.

3. Wherefore delusion grew strong, contriving its matter in emptiness and unacquaintance with the Truth, preparing to substitute a potent and alluring fabrication for truthfulness. But this was no humilation for him, the Incomprehensible Inconceivable-One. For the anziety and the amnesia and the deceitful fabrication were nothing--whereas the established Truth is immutable, imperturbable, and of unadornable beauty. Therefore despise delusion! It has no roots and was in a fog concerning the Father, preparing labors and amnesia and fear in order thereby to entice those of the transition and take them captive.

4. The amnesia of delusion was not made as a revelation, it is not the handiwork of the Father. Forgetfulness does not occur under his directive, although it does happen because of him. But rather what exists within him is acquaintanceship --this being revealed so that forgetfulness might dissolve and the Father be recognized. Since amnesia occurred because the Father was not recongnized, thereafter when the Father is recognized there will be no more forgetting.

5. This is the Gospel of him who is sought, which he has revealed those perfected thur the mercies of the Father as the Secery Mystery:
YESHUA the Christ!
He enlightened those who were in the darkness because of forgetfulness. He illumined them. He gave them a path, and that path is the Truth which he proclaimed.

6. Therefore delusion was enraged at him, and pursued him in order to suppress and eliminate him. He was nailed to a tree, he became the fruit of recognizing the Father. Yet it did not cause thow consume it to perish, but rather to those who consumed it he gave a rejoicing at such a discovery. For he found them in himself and they found him in themselves--the Incomprehensible Inconceivable--One, the Father, this Perfect--One who created the totality, in whom the totality exists and of whom the totality has need. For he had withheld within himself their perfection, which he had not yet bestowed upon them all
(Jn 19:18, 14:20)

7. The Father is not jealous, for what envy could there be between him and his members? For if the way of this Aeon had prevailed they would not have been able to come unto the Father, who retains within himself their fulfillment and bestows it upon them as a return to himself with a recognition which is single in perfection. It is he who ordained the totality, and the totality is within him and the totality had need of him. It is like a person with whom some have been unacquainted, yet who desires that they recognize and love him. For what did they all lack except acquaintance with the Father?
(Jn 14:9)

8. Thus he became a reposeful and leisurely guide in the place of instruction. The Logos came to the midst And spoke as their appointed teacher. There approached those who considered themselves wise, putting him to the test--yet he shamed them in their vanity. They hated him because they were not truly wise. Then after them all, there also approached the little Children, those who have the acquaintance of the Father. Having been confirmed, they learned of the Face-Forms of the Father. They recognized, they were recognized, they were glorified, they glorified. Revealed in their heart was the Living Book of Life, this which is inscribed in the thought and mind of the Father and which has been within his Incomprehinsiblity since before the foundation of the totality. No one can take this away, because it was appointed for him who would take it and be slain.
(Mt 18:10)

9. No one of those who trusted in salvation could have become manifest unless this book had come to the midst. This is why the merciful and faithful-One---YESHUA!--patiently endured the sufferings in order to take this book, since he knew that his death would become life for many. Just as the fortune of the deceased master of the estate remains secret until his bequest is opened, so also the totality remained hidden so long as the Father of the totality was invisibe--this--One thur who all dimension originate. This is why YESHUA appered, clothed in that book.
(Rev 5:1-5)

10. He was nailed to a tree in order to publish the edict of the Father on the Cross. Oh sublime teaching, such that he humbled himself unto death clad in eternal life! He stripped himself off the rags of mortality in order to don this imperishablity which none has the power to take from him. Entering into the empty spaces of the terrors, he brought forth those who had been divested by amnesia. Acting with recognition and perfection, he proclaimed what is in the heart [of the Father, in order to] make wise those who are to receive the teaching. Yet those who are instructed are the Living, inscribed in this Book of Life, who are taught about themselves and who recieve themselves from the Father in again returning to him.


11. Because the perfection of the totality is in the Father, it is necessary that they all ascen unto him. When someone recognizes, he recieves the things that are his own and gathers them to himself. For he who is unacquainted has lack--and what he lacks is great, since hwat he lacks is that which will make him perfect. Because the perfection of the totality is in the Father, it is necessary for them all to ascend unto him. Thus each and every one recieves himself.

12. He pre-inscribed them, having prepared this gift for those who came forth from him. Those whose names rhe foreknew are all called at the end. Thus someone who recognizes has his name spoken by the Father. For he whose name has not been spoken remains unacquainted. How indeed cna anyone harken whose name has not been called? For he who remains unacquainted until the end is a figment of forgetfulness and will vanish with it. Otherwise why indeed is there no name for those wretches, and why do they not heed the call?

13. Thus someone with acquaintance is from above. When he is called he hears and responds and returns to him who called, ascending unto him. He discovers who it is that calls him. In recognition he does the will of him who called. He desires to please him, and granted repose he recieves the name of the One. He who recognizes thus discovers from whence he has come and whither he is going. He understands like someone who was intoxicated and who has shaken off his drunkenness and returned to himself, to set upright those things which are his own.

14. He has brought many back from delusion. He went before them into the spaces thur which their hearts had migrated in going astray due to the depth of him who encompasses all dimensions without himself being encompassed. It is a great wonder that they were within the Father without recognizing him, and that they were able to depart unto themselves because they could neither comprehend nor recognize him in whom they were. For thus his violation had not yet emerged from within himself. For he revealed himself so that his emanations would reunite with him in recognition.

15. This is acquaintance with the Living Book, whereby at the ending he has manifested the eternal-ones as the alphabet of his revelation. These are not vowels nor are they consonants, such that someone might read them and think of emptiness, but rather they are the true alphabet by which those who recongnize it are them selves expressed. Each letter is perfect thought, each letter is like a complete book written in the alphabet of unity by the Father, who inscribes the Eternal-Ones so that thur his alphabet they might recognize the Father.

16. His Wisdom meditates on the menaing,
His Teaching expresses it,
His Acquaintance revealed it,
His Dignity is Crowned by it,
His Joy unites with it,
His Glory Exalted it,
His Appearance manifested it,
Hid Repose recieved it,
His Love embodied it,
His Faith embraced it.


17. Thus the Logos of the Father comes into the totality as the fruit of his heart and the Face-form of his will. But he supports them all, he atones them and moreover he assumes the Face-form of everyon, purifying them, bringing them back--
Within the Father,
Within the Mother,
Yeshua of Infinite Kindness.
The Father uncovers his bosom, which is the Holy Spirit, revealing his secret. His Secret is his Son! Thus thru the compassions of the Father the Eternal-Ones recognize him. And they cease their toil of seeking the Father and repose in him, recognizing that this is the repose.

18. Having replenished the deficiency, he dissolved the scheme . For the scheme is this world in which he served as a slave, and deficiency is the place of jealousy and quarreling. Yet the place of unity is perfect. Since deficiency occurred because the Father was not recognized, thereafter when the Father is recognized there shall be no deficiency. Just as with ignorance, when someone comes to know, the ignorance dissolves of itself--and also as darkness dissipates when the light shines--so also deficiency vanishes when perfection appears. Thus from that moment on there is no more scheme, but rather it disappears in the fusion of the unity. For now their involvements are made equal, in the moment when the fusion perfects the spaces.


19. Each one shall recieve himself in the unification, and shall be purified in acquaintanceship from the multiplicity into unity--consuming matter in himself like a flame, darkness with light, and death with life. Since these things have thus happened to each one of us, it is appropriate that we think of the totality so that the house be holy and silent for the unity.

20. I tis like some who move jars from their proper places to unsafe places, where they are broken. And yet the Master of the house suffered no loss but rather rejoiced, for those unsound jars were replaced by thes which are fully perfect. This the judgement which has come from above, like a double-edged sword drawn to cut this way and that as each one is judged.

21. There came to the midst the Logos, which is in the heart of those who speak it. This was not a mere sound, but rather it was incarnate. A great disturbance occured among the jars---for lo some were emptied, others were filled, some were supplied, others were overturned, some were cleansed, others were broken. All of the spaces quaked and were agitated, having neither order nor stability. Delusion was in anguish at not discerning what to do--distressed and lamenting and cropping-hair from understanding nothing.

22. Then when recognition approaced with all its emanations, this ws the annihilation of delusion wich was emptied into nothingness. The Truth came to the midst, and all his emanations recognized and embraced the Father in Truth and united with him in perfect power. For everyone who loves the Truth attaches himself to the mouth of the Father with his language by recieving the Holy Spirit. Truth is the mouth of the Father, his language is the Holy Spirit joined to him in Truth. This it the revelation of the Father and self-manifesation to his Eternal-Ones. He has revealed his secret, explaining it all. .

23. For who is the Existent-One, excecpt for the Father alone? All dimensions are his emanations, recognized in coming forth from his heart likes sons from a mature person who knows them. Each one whom the Father begets had previously received neither form nor nam. Then they were formed thru his self-awareness. Although indeed they had been in his mind, they had not recgnized him. The Father however is perfectly acquainted with all dimesions, which are within him.

24. Whenever he wishes he manifests whomever he wishes, forming him and naming him. And in giving him a name, he causes him to come into being. Before they came into being, these assuredly were unacquainted with him who fashioned them. I do not say however that those who have not yet come into being are nothings--but rather they pre-exist within him who shall intend their becoming when he desires it, like a season yet to come. Before anyone is manifest (the Father) knows what he will bring forth. But the fruit which is not yet manifest neither recognizes nor accomplishes anything. Thus all dimensions themselves exist within the Father who exists, from whom they come forth, and who established them unto himself from that which is not.
(Th 19)

25. Whoever lacks root also lacks fruit, but still he thinks to himself: "I have become, so I shall decease---For everything that (earlier) did not (yet) exist, (later) shall no (longer) exist." What therefore does the Father desire that such a person think about themself?: "I have been like the shadows and the phantoms of the night!" When the dawn shines upon him, this person ascertains that the terror which had seized him was nothing. They were thus unacquainted with the Father because the did not behold him. Hence there occurred terror and turmoil and weakness and doubt and division, with many deceptions and empty fictions at work thru these.


26. It was as if they were sunk in sleep and found themselves in troubled dreams---
either fleeing somewhere,
powerlessly pursuing others,
or delivereing blows in brawls,
or themselves suffering blows,
or falling from high place,
or sailing thru the air without wings.
Sometimes it even seeems as if they are being murdered although no one pursues them, or as if they themselves are murdering their neighbors since they are sullied by their blood.

27. Then the momment comes when those who have endured all this awaken, no longer to see all those troubles--for they are naught. Such is the way of those who have cast offf unacquaintance like sleep and conider it to be nothing, neither considering its various events as real, but rather leaving it behind like a dream of the night. Recognizing the Father brings the dawn! This is what each one has done, sleeping in the time when he was unacquainted. And this is how, thus awakened, he comes to recognition.

28. How good for the person who returns to himself and Awakens, and blest is this-One who has open the eyes of the blind! And the spirit ran after him, resurrecting him swiftly. Extending her hand to him was was prostrate on the ground, she lifted him up on his feet whoe had not yet arisen. Now the recognition which gives understanding is thru the Father and the revelation of his Son. Once they have seen him and heard him, he grants them to taste and to smell and to touch the beloved Son.
(Th 19!)

29. When he appeared, telling them about the Incomprehensible Father, he breathed into them what is in the thought of doing his will. (Jn 20:22) Many received the Light and returned to him. But the materialists were alien and did not behold his likeness nor recognize him, although he came forth incarnate in form. (Jn 1:14) Nothing obstrucths his course--for imperishability is indomitable. Furthermore he proclaimed beforehand that which was new, expressing what is in the heart of the Father and bringing forth the flawless Logos.

30. Light spoke thru his mouth, and his voice gave birth to life. He gave to them the thought of Wisdom, of Mercy, of Salvation, of the Spirit of Power, from the Infinity and the Kindness of the Father. He abolished punishment and torment, for these caused some who had need of mercy to go astray from his face in delusion and bondage. And with Power he pardoned them, and he humbled them in acquaintanceship.

31.He became a path for those who strayed,
Acquaintance for the unaware,
Discovery for those who seek,
Stability for the wavering,
and Immaculate Purity for those who were defiled.

32. He is the Shepherd who left behind the 99 sheep which were not lost, in order to go searching for This-One which had strayed. And he rejoiced when he found it. For 99 is a number that is counted on the left hand, which tallies it. But when 1 is added, the entire sum passes to the right hand. So it is with him who lacks the one, which is the entire right hand--he takes from the left what is deficient in order to transfer it to the right, and thus the number becomes 100. Now the signification of what is in these words is the Father.
(Mt 18:12-13, Th 107)

33. Even on the Sabbath he labored for the sheep which he found fallen into the pit. He restored the sheep to life. bringing it up from the pit, so that you sons of heart--understanding may discern this Sabbath on which the work of Salvation must never cease, and so that you may speak from this day which is above, which has no night and from the perfect Light which never sets.
(Mt 12:11, Th 27, Ph 142)

34. Speak therefore from your hearts,
For you are this perfect day and within you dwells this abiding Light.
Speak of the Truth with those who seek it, and of acquaintanceship unto those who in delusion have transgressed.
Support those who stumble,
Reach out your hand to the sick,
Feed those who are hungry,
Give repose to the weary ,
Uplift those who yearn to arise,
Awaken those who sleep--
For you are the Wisdom that rescues!

35. Thus strength grows in action. Give heed to yourselves--be not concerned with those other things which you have already cast out of yourselves. Do not return to what you have regurgitated, be not moth-eaten, be not worm-eaten--for you have already cast that out. Do not become a place for the Devil, for you have already eliminated him. Do not reinforce those things that made you stumble and fall. Thus is uprightness!

36. For Someone who violates the Torah harms himself more than the judgement harms him. For he does his deeds illicitly, whereas he who is righteous does his deeds for others. Do therefore the will of the Father, because you are from him. For the Father is kind, and things are good thru his will. He has taken cognizance of whatever is yours, so that you may repose yourselves about such things--for in their fruitaion it is recognized whose they are.
(Jn 16:28, Lk 6:43-44)

37. The Sons of the Father are his fragrance, for they are from the grace of his face. Therefore the Father Loves his fragrance and manifests it everywhere. And blending it with matter, he bestows his fragrance upon the Light, and his repose he exalts it over every likeness and every sound. For it is not the ears that inhale the fragrance, but rather the Breath (SPIRIT) has the sense of smell and draws it to Oneself--and thus is someone baptized in the fragrance of the Father.


38. Thus he brings it to harbor, drawing his original fragrance which had grown cold unto the place from which it came. It was something which is psychic form had become like cold water permeating loose soil, such that those who see it think it to be dirt. Then afterwards, when a warm and fragrant breeze blows, it evaporates. Thus coldness results from the seperation. This is why the Faithful-One came--to abolish division and bring the warm fullness of Love, so that the cold would not return but rather there should be the unification perfect thought. This is the Logos of the Gospel of the finding of the fullness by those who await the Salvation which comes from on high. Prolonged is the hope of those who await--those whose likeness is the light which contains no shadow--at that time when the fullness finally comes.

39. The deficiency of matter did not originate thru the infinity of the Father, who came in the time of inadequacy--althought no one could say that the indestructible would arrive in this manner. But the profundity of the Father abouned, and the thought of delusion was not with him. It is a topic for falling prostrate, it is a reposeful topic--to be set upright on his feet, in being found by This-One who came to bring him back. For the return is called Metanoia .

40. This is why imperishability breathed forth--to follow after the transgressor so that he may have repose. For to forgive is to remain behind with the light, the Logos of the fullness, in the deficiency. Thus the physician hastens to the place where there is illness, for this is his hearts desire. But he who has a lack cannot hide it from him who has what he needs. Thus the fullness, which has no deficiency, replenishes the lack.

41. (THE FATHER) gave of himself to replenish whomever is lacking, in order that thereby he may recieve grace. In the time of his deficiency he had no grace. Thus whereever grace is absent, there is inferiority. At the time whne he received this smallness which he lacked, (then the Father) revealed to him a fullness, which he lacked, (then the Father) revealed to him a fullness, which is this finding of the Light of Truth that dawned upon him in unchangeability. This is why the Christ was invoked in their midst--so that they would receive their returning. He anoints with the Chrism those who have been troubled. The anointing is the compassion of the Father who will have mercy upon them. Yet those whom he has anointed are those who are perfected.

42. For Jars which are full are those which are sealed . Yet when its sealant is destroyed, a jar leaks. And the cause of its being emptied is the absense of its sealant. For then something in the dynamics of the air evaporates it. But that is not emptied from which no sealant has been removed, nor does anything leak away, but rather the perfect Father replenishes whatever is lacking.

43. He is good. He knows his seedlings, for it is he who planted them in his Paradise. Now his Paradise is his realm of repose. This is the perfection in the thought of the Father, and these are the LOGOI of his meditation. Each on of is Logoi is the product of his unitary will in the revelation of his meaning. While they were still in the depths of his thought, the Logos was the first to come forth. Furthermore he revealed them from a mind that expresses the unique Logos in the silent grace called thought, since they existed therein prior to being revealed. So it occurred that he (The Logos) was the first to come forth at the time when it pleased the will of him who intended it.
(Jn 1:1)

44. Now the will of the Father is that which reposes in his heart and pleases him. Nothing exists without him, nor does anything occur without the volition of the Father. But his will is Unfathomable. His will is his imprint, and none can ascertain it nor come to secern it in order to control it. But whenever he wills, what he wills exists--even if the sight does not please them. They are nothing before the Face of God and the will of the Father. For he knows the beginning and the ending of them all--at their end he shall question them Face-to-Face. Yet the ending is to receive acquaintance with This-One who was hidden. Now this is the Father--This-One from whom the beginning came forth, This-One to whom all these shall return who came forth from him. Yet they have been manifest for the Glory and Joy of his Name.

45. No w the Name of the Father is the Son. He first named him who came forth from himself, and who is himself. And he begot him as a Son. He bestowed his own Name upon him. It is the Fahter who from his heart possesses all things. He has the Name, he has the Son who can be seen. Yet his name is Transcendental---For it alone is the Mystery of the invisible, which thru him comes to ears completely filled with it.
(Mt 1:21, Lk 1:31, Jn 17:6-26!)

46. For indeed the Name of the Father is NOT SPOKEN, yet rather it is manifested in a Son. Accordingly, Great is the Name! Who therefore could proclaim a Name for him, the Supreme Name, except him alone whose Name this is--together with the Sons of the Name, those in whose heart the Name of the Father reposes and who themselves likewise repose in his Name? Because the Father is unchangeable, it is he alone who begot him as his own Name before he fashioned the Eternal-Ones, so that the Name of the Father would be Lord over their heads--This-One who is truly the name, secure in his command of Perfect Power.
(Ex 3:14, Th 13)

47. The Name is not mere WORDAGE, nor is it only TERMINOLOGY, but rather it is transcendental. He alone named him, he alone seeing him, he alone having the Power to give him a Name. Whoever does not exist has no Name--For what names are given to the Non-Existent? But this Existing-One exists to gether with his Name. And the Father alone knows him, and he alone names him.

48. The Son is his Name. He did not keep him hidden as a secret--but rather the Son came to be, and (The Father) alone named him. Thus the name belongs to the Father, such that the name of The Father is the Son. How otherwise would compassion find a Name, except from The Father? For after all, anyone will say to his companion: "Whoever could give a name to someone who existed before him?--As if children do not thus receive their names thru those who gave them birth!"

49. Firstly, therefore, it is appropriate that we think on this topic: What is the Name? Truly he is the Name--Thus also he is the Name from The Father. He is the Existent Name of the Kurios (Lord). Thus he did not recieve the Name on loan as do others, according to the pattern of each one who is to be created in his heart. Yet This-One is the Kurios (Lord) Name. There is no one else who bestowed it upon him, but he was unnamable and it was ineffable until the time when he who is perfect gave expression to him alone. And it is he who has the Power to express his name and to see him. Thus it pleased him in his heart that his desired Name be his Son and he gave the Name to him--This-One who came forth from the profundity.

50. He expressed his secret, knowing that The Father is benevolent. This is exactly why he brought This-One forth--so that he might speak of the realm and his place of repose from which he came, and render Glory to the fullness, the Majesty of his Name, and the Kindness of The Father. He shall speak of the Realm from which each One came--and each one who issued from that place shall thus be hastened to return unto it again, to share in receiving the taste of that place, receiving nourishment and growth. And his own realm of repose is his fullness.

51. Thsu all the emanations of The Father are plentitudes, and the source of all his emanation is within the Heart of him from whom they all flourish. He bestowed their destinies upon them. Thus is each one made manifest, such that thru their own meditation they [return to] the place to which they direct their thought. That place is their source, which lifts them thru all the heights of Heaven unto the Father. They attain unto his head, which becomes their repose. And they areembraced as they approach him, so that they say that they have partaken of his face in kisses. Yet they are not thus made manifest by exalting themselves. They neither lack the Glory of The Father, nor do they think of him being trite or bitter or wrathful. But rather he is benevolent, imperturbable, and kind--knowing all the dimensionalities before they come into existence, and having no need of edifcation.

52. This is the form of those who themselves belong on High thru the grandeur of the Immeasurable, as they await the single and Perfect-One who makes himself there for them. And they do not descend unto the Abode of the Dead . They have neither jealousy nor lamention nor mortality there among them, but rather they repose in him who is reposeful. They are neither troubled nor devious concerning the Truth, but rather they themselves are the Truth. The Father is within them and they are within the Father--perfected and made indivisible in the Truly Good, not inadequate in anything but rather given repose and refreshed in the Spirit. And they shall obay their source in leisure, these in whom his root is found and who harm no soul.
(Jn 17:21-23)
THIS IS THE PLACE OF THE BLEST,
THIS IS THEIR PLACE!

53. Wherefore let the remainder understand in their places that is not appropriate for me, having been in the realm of repose, to anything further. But it is within his heart that I shall be--forever devoted to The Father of the totality, together with those true Brothers upon whom pours the Love of The Father and among whom there is no lack of him. These are they who are genuinely manifest, being in the True and Eternal Life and speaking the Perfect Light which is filled with the seed of The Father, and who are in his heart and in the fullness and in whom his Spirit rejoices, Glorifying him in whom they exist. His good and his Sons are perfect and worthy of his Name. For it is children of this kind that he The Father desires.

Gnostic Teachings

If you read a few reports about Gnostic teachings, it is easy to get confused about what Gnosticism really is. Much of the literature available on Gnosticism is actually written by Pistics. Pistics grow up in churches preaching a uniform doctrine, presented as an easy answer and the only explanation you need to be concerned with. Gnosticism, however, is not a doctrine, per se. It does not teach its adherents to accept superficial explanations, but rather, to look behind the descriptions and to come at problems from different directions. It should not be surprising then, that it should be more diverse than Pistic teaching, covering a spectrum from the mathematics and harmonics of Pythagoris, to the magick of Simon Magus, to the Gospels of John, Philip and Thomas, to the wisdom of Apollonius of Tyana, to the poetry of William Blake, to the psychoanalysis of Carl Gustav Jung, and even the science fiction of Philip K. Dick. A couple of very old points (their origins I have forgotten) are offered:

Is the world evil?

Consider the common notion that Gnosticism teaches that the world is evil. Can a perfect God that permeates all things really create a world that is evil? (An evil archon or demigod is often postulated in an effort to explain this discrepancy. I think this is an unnecessary construct.) On the other hand, how can we say that an object (or objects) is evil, when good and evil are properties, not of matter, but of volition? At some point, we have to go past the analysis to the experience. The fundamental rule of logic says that to arrive at a valid conclusion, you must have BOTH valid premises and valid logic.
If we are honest in describing our experience of life, of living in the world, most of us would have to conclude that LIFE IS AGONY. Most of us spend far more time either in pain, or avoiding pain, or endeavoring to suppress that feeling of "quiet desperation", as Henry David Thoreau aptly put it. For thousands of years, the vast majority of "civilized" people had spent their lives as serfs, in abject poverty, a thug as their local baron and leaches for medicine. Too many of us still suffer thugs for police, shamen for judges, and doctors who would sooner push pills than address the cause of an ailment. A most frustrating aspect of it all, is a feeling, either conscious, or deep down, that it doesn't have to be that way!
Nearly all of us spend our adult lives, thinking about sex every few minutes. There is almost always a low-level frustration in the backs of our minds. Our loins beg for a joyious release, but proper society demands that sexual considerations be ignored and suppressed, bottled up in formal arraingements, sealed with magikal rituals, all the while taunting us with sexy advertising, clothes needed to hide our bodies, but sculpted to reveal and enhance.

Deeper than that is the emotional needs, the crying for companionship, community, social acceptance, family. We have made a formal religion out of community spirit, patriotism and service to others, complete with ceremonies, dogmas and sermons. Public officials act as preachers at ground-breaking ceremonies, inaugeration ceremonies, and sermonize in their speaches. The religion has its deacons (judges), wearing black shaman's robes, banging their shaman's wands on their alters, imposing rituals of black magick calculated to intimidate and cloud the reason. This religion is largely pretense, a subterfuge constructed to make us think the herd is really an extended family and that you better belong, or else. It is really a cover for the imposition of controls, controls that are only needed because the people have been deprived of the power and knowledge to meet their own needs in more rational and non-violent ways.

THIS world, this Maia, is a construct of volition, a volition acting from illusion, endeavoring to impose its illusion on others, not out of a conviction of certainty, nor evidence of efficacy, but out of a blind and irrational fear, fear of the unknown, a fear of losing control, of being helpless against the uncertainty of the universe, fear that you can never deserve heaven, because you have never reached it in life, and thus never earned it. THIS is the devil's weapon. It is by our fears that we give power to the devil. The devil, hungry for that power, plays on our fears in return. If a devil did not exist, we would create it from those fears and from the polarized, adversarial perspective imposed by our society.

For a biological perspective on the above, see "Brain Anatomy and the Gnosis"
For a related article, see "How Religions Develop"

The Raising of the Sparks
Gnosticism doesn't just seek to expose the problems of our existence; It works at finding solutions. One old Gnostic teaching that seeks to address this is: The Raising of the Sparks. Inherent in this approach is the idea that in every one of us is a spark of the divine. The problem is to find it and raise it up. This requires first, a nurturing and supportive environment, in which the individual can feel free to open up and express the god within. The power of that god within is then stimulated with massive doses of loving energy. A group of people cooperates in evoking love, and directing it to the the highest and best, to the God, within each and every other person. Love stimulates more love. Two hostile contenders, wrapped up in their anger, stimulate each other's anger, building it up to a fever pitch until something snaps. Love and anger are flip sides of the same energy. Both radiate at the same hue (red), but while anger destroys, love heals. When love is stimulated and increased to the point of snapping, it reveals extraordinary power, power to change lives, power to heal, power to transform agony into joy.
I have seen lives change from this kind of experience. I once met a woman, though young, had the lines of her face drawn down, as if from years of constant depression. She screamed during the session, immediately drawing the focus of the energy. When I saw her again, she was radiant, and in the years I knew her, she stayed radiant. Another woman had been a waif, insecure, withdrawn. She too became radiant. I had not seen her in six months, when I ran into her at a theatre. I did not recognize her, until she reminded me of the event. She now seemed as someone completely comfortable and secure with herself, and with the company of other people.
There is a healing power in all of us. Sometimes it serves no other purpose than to give us the strength to get up and go to work in the morning. It could do more, but like any other energy we have to expend, it needs to be recharged and refueled. Some people get that from their pets. Others find they can get a great deal from a new love, but if they can't sustain the relationship, they can crash and burn. There is just so much you can trade with friends in "polite" (or religiously correct) company