Gnosis

Gnostic Gospels of Thomas John and Mary Magdaline

The Author of this book refuses to provide his or her name. This is a big RED FLAG. He or she makes commentary throughout. One would think they are being humble. But it is more likely that this commentary was given by a Pastor or Priest who doesn’t want to become known, as teaching from a book deemed heretical centuries ago is going against the teachings of his or her Domination or Church. The author of the commentary is clearly a Bible scholar. The author of these commentaries has decided to go by the humble name of the “History Academy”. In choosing this name, we can conclusively rule out that this commentary writer is seeking out “humility”. Oh, and I saw that the copyright comes from “Texas”. And as an Oklahoman myself, I know noting humble has ever come from that place.

About the Gospel of Thomas

In 1945 grave robbers dug up the tomb of an early Christian in Upper Egypt. They had discovered a jar containing 13 leather bound papyrus codices; 48 or 49 mostly Coptic translations from Greek. This consisted of 53 parchments written in Sahidic Coptic.

The Egyptian language that had been written in heirogriphic characters during the Greek era been converted to the Greek alphabet. During the Moslem conquest of Egypt, the ancient Egyptian language was almost lost. It had been replaced by the Arabic script and language. However, the Egyptian Christians kept both the Coptic language and alphabet alive, even if just barely.

Amongst those parchments that were found was the complete “Gospel of Thomas.” It is 114 sayings attributed to Didymus Judas Thomas. Didymus means “twin” in the Greek language.

The Gospel of Thomas was known to have existed in the Greek, Syriac, and Coptic language and churches at one time. However, the only version known to exist today is this version, from the Coptic language and alphabet.

The author of the book, Mr. or Ms. History Academy, quotes those 114 sayings, and speaks a little on each of them. The following assessment is based on his writing. In the gospel of Matthew, he quotes from Thomas in 41 of those 114 sayings. Mark quotes from Thomas in 8 of his 114 sayings. Luke quotes from 28 of Thomas’ 114 sayings. John quoted from 8 of Thomas’ 114 sayings. There is some overlap. Of Thomas’ 114 sayings, 33 are not quoted in any other gospel.

Of these 114 sayings, I’d like to touch on three of them a little; 12, 22, and 85.

Thomas Twelve – James the Just

Thomas 12 is a very interesting saying. In my opinion, it is directly why the Gospel of Thomas isn’t in the New Testament. Let me also freely admit – I MIGHT BE WRONG! Let me show you. It states;

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.”

Hmmm . . . but isn’t Peter considered the first Pope? James is recorded as being the Church leader in Jerusalem, of the Jerusalem Church. He is mentioned in the book of Acts as being the leader in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem is seen as a church living in poverty. Its policies were very socialistic. Acts 2:44-45 says of it; “All that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 4:34-35 echoes the same sentiment. It states, "Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of land or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." This was under James leadership.

Later Paul took over leadership, and Peter is recorded as first Pope. What happened to James being first leader? I think Church leaders saw the problem, and just decided to leave the Gospel of Thomas out of the Canon. This lone saying would contradict Church history as it has come to be known.

Thomas Twenty-Two – Making the Two into One

It says;

Jesus saw some infants being nursed at the breast. He said to his disciples; “These nursing infants are like those who enter the kingdom.” The disciples asked him; “Then shall we become as infants to enter into the kingdom?” Jesus answered them; “When you make the two into one, when you make the inner like the outer and the high like the low; when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male is not male and female is not female, when you have eyes in your eyes, a hand in your hand, a foot in your foot, and an icon in your icon, then you will enter into the kingdom.

This lesson was not chosen by the author of this book as one of the sayings that was chosen with similarities to anything found in one of the four accepted gospels. But you can easily see the similarities. So I included it as one of the thirty-three not quoted elsewhere. But we can all see where it could have easily been used as an example. There are others of those thirty-three in a similar situation.

Thomas Eighty-Five – Jesus said:

I include this one not because of what the saying says, but rather because of what the author of the comments says; Mr. or Ms. History Academy. He or she provides a definition of just exactly what a Gnostic is. Mr/Ms. History Academy states;

Gnosis is the surrender of this form of egocentric, “mortal” knowledge to the theocentric, or nondual, knowledge of the Tree of Life. As St, John of the Cross said, “May I know all things from God, not from myself; for I can know only an effect from its cause, never a cause from its effect.”

And it’s okay for the History Academy to be known however he or she wants to be known. I just can’t help but comment about Texans, that's all. It’s in the genetic makeup of all Oklahomans to mess with Texans when the chance to do so arises.

This is all I hve for now. It covers the first 78 pages of the 343 pages of the book. I’ll continue commenting as I read more.