Exploration of the Gospel of Thomas

I am restarting this thread, based on Lynn's advice: https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/s...00#post1980000

As per prior thread, please note that this is for positive, constructive dialogue around the sections within the Gospel of Thomas.

I've been exploring the Gospel of Thomas recently and have found many gems herein. What are some that interest you?

JL

For context prior to discussion of its content, I've also looked into the origins of the Gospel of Thomas and found the following:

The gospel according to Thomas is an ancient collection of sayings attributed to Jesus and thought to be recorded by his brother Judas, the Twin (Thomas means "twin" in Aramaic). It slept for two millennia in a stone jar until it was accidentally exhumed by a group of fertilizer gatherers in the northern Egyptian desert in 1945.

Further,

Scholars speculate that the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture.

It's interesting that religion often gets caught in the cross fire of politics and power.

JL

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by janielee

I am restarting this thread, based on Lynn's advice: https://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/s...00#post1980000

As per prior thread, please note that this is for positive, constructive dialogue around the sections within the Gospel of Thomas.

I've been exploring the Gospel of Thomas recently and have found many gems herein. What are some that interest you?

JL

V. 37 seems very informative

Originally Posted by Molearner

V. 37 seems very informative

Molearner,

I read it, it is ..

Wow. It's ..

Thank you for pointing it out - it's indeed informative.

I honor and adore the Truth of the Divine Ones.

(37) His disciples said, "When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid"


jl

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by janielee

Molearner,

I read it, it is ..

Wow. It's ..

Thank you for pointing it out - it's indeed informative.

I honor and adore the Truth of the Divine Ones.

(37) His disciples said, "When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid"


jl

I read the garment as being the ego. Grinding the garment into the dust was putting it to death. It was in the Garden that men felt their separateness from God and this being separate was the birth of the ego. Man originally expressed no fear of God....because as spirits they were part of God.

Molearner,

Yes, that's exactly how I read it. I'm not used to parsing understandings but let me give it a go


Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid"

The disciple is ready and unashamed to let go of that which was once held in repute and for security.

Unashamed indicates willingness and surrender

Take up your garments i.e. that which you you deem to be yours and cloak around you

Relinquish ego and the false, separate sense of self

Place them under your feet
As it should be; ego in its rightful place

Like little children
Return to source, return to innocence

then you will see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid
for there is no fear in this realm, and united are They with God. Here there is no death and no fear.

JL

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by janielee

Molearner,

Yes, that's exactly how I read it. I'm not used to parsing understandings but let me give it a go


Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid"

The disciple is ready and unashamed to let go of that which was once held in repute and for security.

Unashamed indicates willingness and surrender

Take up your garments i.e. that which you you deem to be yours and cloak around you

Relinquish ego and the false, separate sense of self

Place them under your feet
As it should be; ego in its rightful place

Like little children
Return to source, return to innocence

then you will see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid
for there is no fear in this realm, and united are They with God. Here there is no death and no fear.

JL

Janielee,

Yes....thanks. I especially resonated with your emphasis on surrender and innocence. Surrender implies trust. Innocence perhaps an assumption of equality ?

Originally Posted by Molearner

Surrender implies trust. Innocence perhaps an assumption of equality ?

Yes, I do believe that surrender implies both trust and willingness.

God, Thy Will be done

Innocence perhaps an assumption of equality...

Let me reflect on this one a little more...there is Always Equality when being with God, I do believe

(sense)

...Yes, innocence an assumption of equality...

I agree, thanks Molearner

Originally Posted by janielee

Molearner,

I read it, it is ..

Wow. It's ..

Thank you for pointing it out - it's indeed informative.

I honor and adore the Truth of the Divine Ones.

(37) His disciples said, "When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid"


jl

Hmmm….. I think the ego plays into it, but I also think perhaps there is a more subtle or deeper meaning, it seems to pervade the book, although I am not sure I can capture it in any sensible way.

The ego is our mind’s image of who we are, and indeed for many, it is just who they believe themselves to be without ever really giving it much thought. For most if not all of us, we have some degree of shame associated with that image. We see it and feel it is not as it should be, we feel that we are not who we should be. And so we cover it up so that the world can’t see it, but God can still see it, so we cover it up even from ourselves and now though perhaps God can still see it, we can’t see it, and so we don’t feel quite so naked. Yet if we disrobe our ego, either to God, to others, or to ourselves, it becomes naked, all can see it, they, God, and us. Though we don’t really ever have anything to be ashamed of, we don’t know this, and we become ashamed of who we believe ourselves to be. We judge the flaws we perceive in others, and fear they and God judge the ones we perceive in ourselves.

Within us there is also an innate knowledge of good and evil, we may not completely understand it or how to let it guide us, yet we feel it is there and we compare our ego, our image of self, to it as well. Even if the world is not telling us we are not aligned with what it thinks we should be, we are innately comparing ourselves to that inner knowledge and finding we often are not measuring up to who we believe we should be. So we feel ashamed and our shame motivates us to become more like that innate image of what is good, that innate knowledge we carry deep within us.

I think that inner knowledge is arising from who we are at the foundation of our being. There is a spark of the divine at the core of our being, at root, we are a part of God. It is this that we acknowledge within each other with the word Namaste. We sense it’s presence, know its divine nature and goodness, and wish to bring it forth and let it become who we are.

The son of man is man’s offspring. What comes from man. Man evolves through the experience of life (lives) to move ever closer to realizing the promise of that divine spark within him. Until eventually we make the two, man and God, become as one. There is no longer any separation and hence any shame to motivate the movement of the one toward the other, and man can stand before God, disrobed and naked and not fear judgment nor be ashamed. Not because of his ignorance of his nature as an imperfect man, as Adam was ignorant until he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and only then became ashamed, but because he has become known to himself as his divine nature. Then we will see that it is we who are the sons of man. We will see the son of the living one, and recognize it in and as ourselves. No longer will we live as the poverty that is the egoic self. We will have become known to ourselves and will not be afraid to show who we are, and can trample that robe, that impoverished egoic self, beneath our feet. We will have found and entered the kingdom of heaven within ourselves.

[Molearner]

I am looking at 17......”what has never occurred to the human mind”. Is not the mind informed by the senses....including dreams ? What is offered here is beyond reason, experience, rational, logic. It contradicts that there “is nothing new under the sun” unless we properly understand this as being beyond the sun. Hahaha.....I want to interpret something right to be elgible for the promise of number 1.......:)