The
Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted The Truth Will Set You Free
H. W. Hodgetts
Copyright The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted© H. W. Hodgetts 2012 All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1475223385 ISBN-10: 1475223382
Copyright The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted© H. W. Hodgetts 2012 All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1475223385 ISBN-10: 1475223382
Dedication This book is dedicated to all loving souls who seek Truth, and to those yet to begin their search.
CONTENTS Acknowledgements Author’s Note Introduction
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Chapter 1
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4
Chapter 2
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Chapter 3
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Chapter 4
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Chapter 5
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Chapter 6
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Chapter 7
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Chapter 8
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Chapter 9
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142
Chapter 10
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Chapter 11
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164
Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Norma Hyland for her dedication and tireless work that has made it possible for me to reach out into the world and spread the Truth.
Authors Note The Gospel of Thomas was discovered along with other Gospels, in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. These Gospels were rejected by the established church and judged as heretical. You will come to understand why, when I disclose the correct interpretation of the secret teachings of Jesus, as given in the Gospel of Thomas. There are 114 logia in the Gospel of Thomas. The term logia (Greek: " λόγια", "sayings, utterances, oracles", or singular: " λόγιον", logion) is the term applied to collections of sayings credited to Jesus. Where I have quoted from the New Testament, I have used the King James Version.
Introduction Prepare to be astounded, as secrets hidden from the world for over 2,000 years are revealed in their entirety. They are no less than the true Gospel of the Kingdom, spoken of in Matthew 24:14 ‘And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.’ When this Gospel is revealed to all nations, it will cause a change in the world such as has never been seen in the history of mankind. It will herald a new way of life, one of love, peace and harmony, and it will open the gates of Heaven. The message and the teachings were a blessing to those who sought peace, harmony and equality, but to those who were selfish and blind to the spirit, they were a threat and a curse, and therefore the true Gospel of the Kingdom had to be wiped from the face of the earth. As it was, so it is. To protect the message and the teachings from the selfish and spiritually blind, a secret language was used, an esoteric language that would confound the minds of the intellectual who understood things only materialistically. Every effort was made to wipe out the secret teachings, including the destruction of written records and anyone spreading such dangerous doctrines, which were a threat to the wealth and power of the few. The first casualty was Christ, the second was his followers, and the third was the Truth that was revealed. Even then the Testament could not be completely silenced and so the selfish and spiritually blind that had retained their positions of wealth and power did the only thing left to them. They took control of Christianity and 1
changed the teachings in their favour, thereby denying the people the true Gospel of the Kingdom, a Gospel that could only be revealed once more by a Christ. That time has come, for these are the last days of the rule of the anti-Christs. If you have read the Gospel of Thomas, then you have read the most important document that this generation has in its possession. It is no less than the revelation of the Gospel of the Kingdom that heralds the end times. The Gospel of the Kingdom has until now, been replaced by the gospel of denial, a gospel designed to subvert the true message and teachings of salvation. The gospel of denial has been used to subdue and turn people away from the Kingdom, to blind and enslave them into the servitude of the few. Salvation cannot be found in the gospel of denial, and part of its appeal, has been that it falsely absolves people of their responsibility for themselves and their sins. It is a gospel of deception that seduces people with tales of signs and wonders, of magic and mystery. It is a gospel preached by the dead for the exaltation of materialism. It is a vine planted outside of the Father’s house. It is a gospel that opposes Love and Truth. Jesus was the first begotten of the dead, (see Revelation 1:5) the first to find life in the Kingdom, the first Christ, the first to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Love; the Spirit of God. For it is written that God is Love. Love is the Father’s Law and the Father’s Way. All Truth is found in Love, and there also is found salvation. The mission of a Christ (one who is anointed by the Holy Spirit) is to bring forth the Christhood in others, to teach them Love, and to remind them of who and what they are, and where they came from. Yes and to teach them and demonstrate to them, what is required for their return home, to be with our Father.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Listen and understand, for the Kingdom has arrived once more, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is with you. Go and shout it from the rooftops that the true teachings of Christ are being restored, and that change the world has waited for is upon them.
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Chapter 1
Thomas begins
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Logion 1
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Logion 2
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Logion 3
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Logion 4
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Logion 5
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Logion 6
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Logion 7
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Logion 8
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Logion 9
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Logion 10
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas begins with the following statement:
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
In this opening statement there are two important phrases that need to be fully understood. The first is ‘ hidden words’, which means that the Logia should not be taken literally, but rather should be considered as esoteric (intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group.) The secret teachings were presented in this way, because if they had been taught in plain language, then they would soon have incurred the full wrath of what were considered to be, the spiritually blind and dead, and it would not have been possible to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. You should therefore take into account that many of the words used in the secret teachings are allegorical. (Allegory: a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.) The second phrase to consider is the living Jesus. At first glance, you may reason that this refers to Jesus being physically alive at the time when Thomas recorded Jesus’ words. However, Thomas was actually referring to Jesus’ state as a spiritual being, (fully awakened and anointed by the Holy Spirit). You should remember that Jesus was referred to as ‘the first begotten of the dead’. In other words, all who came before him were not really living as spiritual beings, because they did not know themselves as spiritual beings.
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Logion 1: He said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death".
Interpretation:
People hover between life and death, being aware of, but experiencing neither in its fullness. They find themselves between the light of Heaven, and the darkness of ignorance. They are not sure of what they are, (a spiritual or a physical being). They are not sure who they are, (a child of God, or a child of the world). They are not sure where they came from, (the spiritual realm or the material realm). Because of this, each of them experiences a mind that is divided, and they are torn. In this state suffering is inevitable. First they go one way and do wrong to others, and then they go the other way, and they are then tormented by what they have done. A person may go one of two ways, either towards Love and Truth where life is found, or towards complete ignorance of these things, which is the death spoken of. Those who search and find the true meanings of the secret sayings, will not experience spiritual death, which results in the complete loss of their true identity as a spiritual being. To be spiritually dead, also incurs the complete loss of empathy for all living things, which means that Love cannot be experienced, and that Truth cannot be known. This leads a person to believe that life has no meaning other than to serve one’s own selfish needs. To find the interpretation of the secret teachings, a person must first have a measure of Love, a realization of Truth, and a measure of the realization that they are not a physical being.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Those who are able to understand the sayings, and believe with sincerity, will come to know themselves, and will come to be known as the sons of God. See John1:3 ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God’. It is not enough to simply read the interpretations, one must see and understand the Truth in them, and recognize it in the heart. Also see in John 8:51: ‘Believe me when I tell you that if anybody accepts my words, he will never see death at all’.
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Logion 2: Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All".
Interpretation of: ‘Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds’.
To seek is to search for. In the context of this logion, the search relates to coming to know yourself and the true nature of what the Self is. So the questions to which answers must be sought, relate solely to the Self, such as, ‘I am?’ or, ‘what am I?’ or, ‘to what am I referring to when I use the word ‘I’?’ What is the nature of this thing that I am, this ‘I’ that looks out into the world, but remains separate from it? To come to know yourself, you must first realize what you are not, and then you will be left with the Self. To search is to question. To continue searching is to question beyond one’s own beliefs, and the beliefs of others. That which we desire to be true is not always true, and so a person must look beyond what they personally desire to be true. The Truth is that which cannot fall and it has no fear of questioning. The Truth is unchangeable and eternal. Knowledge of the material realm is knowledge of that which is without life and is outside of
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
the Self. The knowledge that is profitable to the Self is knowledge of the Self, and that is why it was said that you must come to know yourself. It is the nature of one’s own being that is eventuall y found by those who keep searching. Interpretation of: ‘ When he finds, he will become troubled’.
When you realize that you are not of the world (not a physical being), then you will realize that you are separated from it, and alone in a place that can be seen as a fortress or a prison (the mind). It is then that you will become troubled as you realize that there is no escape from your domain/mind. Interpretation of: astonished’.
‘When he becomes troubled, he will be
When you realize that you are not of the world (not a physical being) and that you are not in the world, and you realize that you need nothing of the world to sustain your existence. When you also realize that there is nothing that is of the world or materiality that can penetrate into your mind/domain, and cause damage to the Self, then you will become astonished, fearless and empowered as your own master, an untouchable, uncontrollable, free willed spiritual being. Interpretation of: ‘And he will rule over the All’.
‘The All’ refers to all of reality, both spiritual and material. It is the substance that all things (forms) are made from and are within. It is an infinite field of indestructible, eternal energy. The material and spiritual realms, including the Father, Heaven, the Self, and the mind are all a part of ‘the All’. Each and every form of reality is a component of ‘the All’. In this respect we are all one, and individuality is only found in the uniqueness of the form that 9
each component of ‘the All’ takes, and in the awareness, desire and will of each soul. It is the sentient (living, conscious, aware) Self, that has come to know itself as a spiritual being, which then rules over ‘the All’. Until that Self-realization is achieved, the Self finds itself clinging to and enslaved by a world, whose ways it feels compelled to conform to. Because of this (even though the Self has free will), it finds its desires and will, easily manipulated by others. In this situation, the Self is not free, not its own master, but rather it is the servant of materiality and those who serve it. The Self that has come to know itself, has no masters and as a free-willed, sentient being, it rules over All that is not sentient. The Truth will set you free. Also in Logion 77; ‘Jesus said, ‘Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there’. He was referring to ‘the All’ that he came from and was a part of. Comment: What greater gifts can a man give another, that he teach him Truth, set him free, Love him as a brother, and if necessary, suffer and give up his physical body for these things?
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 3: Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.”
Interpretation of: ‘ If those who lead you’.
This is a reference to other religious teachers. Interpretation of: 'See, the kingdom is in the sky’, then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you.
Simply put, the Kingdom is not a material place. Neither is it a material thing, and is not a part of the material realm. Such teachings emanate from the minds of the spiritually blind and dead, and it is why those teachers were referred to as ‘the blind leading the blind’. What such religious teachers taught was, and is, a religion based on materiality, which included a physical god, who inhabited a material place. If the Kingdom were in the sky or the sea, then no religious teachings would be needed to reach it and the gates to the Kingdom would be wide open for even the most evil of persons to reach and enter. Interpretation of : Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.
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Simply put, your mind is the Kingdom, or rather a part of it, as are other people’s minds. The mind is the spiritual Self’s personal domain, the place that the Self inhabits and rules over. Each spiritual being, including God, has their own personal domain (mind), and so the Kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you. When you close your eyes and look inside your mind, it is your Kingdom that you see. It is a little piece of the Father’s Kingdom that was given to you, and without which it would not be possible to experience consciousness or life, for the Self without a mind can experience nothing. Interpretation of: ‘When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father’.
When you come to fully realize your true nature as a spiritual being (Self-realization), then you will become known in the Kingdom of the Father and you will realize that it is you who is a son of the living Father, and your mind will have become prepared as a bridal chamber. If your faith in Love is sufficient, then full communion with the Father will occur and your new mind will have become a shared part of the Father’s Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the home that you left. It is Heaven that was your Mother, and it is the little piece of Heaven that was given to you that is referred to as your wife. That is why it was said, ‘a man shall leave his mother and cleave to his wife’. Interpretation of: ‘But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty’.
If you will not come to know yourself, then you dwell in a place of ignorance, in a Kingdom/mind that has no lasting treasures of Love and Truth. For if the Self is not known, then how can there be
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
unbreakable faith in such things? It is the state of the mind that determines the state of the Self. If there is poverty in the mind, then there is poverty in the Self, and what is in the Self is a part of the Self. Therefore if you dwell in a place of poverty, you become that poverty.
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Logion 4: Jesus said, "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same".
Interpretation of: ‘The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live’.
‘The man’ always represents the spiritual Self, the ‘I’ in 'I am'. ‘The man old in days’ refers to the spiritual Self, which pre-existed its new mind and physical body. ‘The seven day old child’ refers to the spiritual Self, on its seventh day of its new life journey. At this point in time, the spiritual Self has no problem realizing that it is the life, and because of this, it lives, for there is no ignorance of itself in its mind. It was said in Matthew 18:3: ‘Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’. Interpretation of: ‘For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same’.
There is the soul (the Self and mind) and there is the physical body. The soul existed before the physical body and so was first. When the Self forgets its true nature as a spiritual being, it comes to believe that it is the physical body, and thereby Self-realization is
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
lost. It is then that the two become one, because the Self sees no difference between itself, and the physical body. Note: The Self, the mind and the body are three separate and distinct things. The first two are of the spiritual, and the third is of the world.
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Logion 5: Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest”.
Interpretation:
That which is in your sight, is sight itself, the observer that is you. If you recognize this, your ‘Self’ will become plain to you. In Truth you cannot hide from yourself, you can only choose to ignore the true nature, of what you refer to, when you use the word ‘I’. It is as if the Self hides from itself, in plain view of itself. That which is most obvious, usually receives the least amount of attention, and through ignorance comes forgetfulness. It is the Self that is taken for granted, as its relevance is ignored. There is a difference between knowing, and realizing the importance of what it is that you know. A person may say ‘I know I am a spiritual being’, but when the full realization of what they profess to know is revealed to them, it is like an earthquake that has shaken the soul, and caused a paradigm shift in consciousness, a rebirth . The Self is incredibly obvious, but people are led to only focus on, and recognize things that are outside of the Self, that is the mind, and the material things of the world. That which is hidden from you is your Self, and the only way to find your Self, is to ignore the world and its endless cry for your attention.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 6: His disciples questioned him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?" Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered."
Interpretation of: ‘Do not tell lies’.
If you tell lies you may deceive others, but you cannot hide the lies from yourself, and then knowing that you have lied, you will have put on the garments of self-condemnation and shame. It is better to die in Truth than live in the denial of it. Interpretation of: ‘And do not do what you hate’.
You must do what is in your heart. To do otherwise is to do what you hate, and to make yourself a deceiver. There is no profit for the soul in doing things that are absent of sincerity. If you do what you hate, then you will become the servant of what you hate, and what you hate will become your master. Interpretation of: ‘For all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered’.
In the Kingdom of Heaven the mind is an open book. This Gospel of the Kingdom has not been given to condemn those who have 17
sinned, but rather it is given to prepare those who know they have sinned, and wish to turn from sin, and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is for these sinners that Christ came. Those who sin and do not realize that they have sinned, (the spiritually blind and dead), remain in their innocence, for they know not what they do.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 7: Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man.”
Interpretation:
A person may have two self-identities/two egos; one as a spiritual being, and the other as a physical being. The two self-identities cause the mind to be divided, which results in a struggle between the two, until one is consumed and the other becomes the master, resulting in an undivided mind. Either one of these self-identities may eventually have complete domination. ‘The lion’ represents the self -image of being a physical body. ‘The man’ represents the true image of being a spiritual being. Blessed is the Self who knows his true identity as a spiritual being, and consumes the false identity of being a physical being. Cursed is the Self who believes that he is no more than a physical being, and consumes his true identity as a spiritual being.
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Logion 8: And he said, "The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Interpretation of: ‘The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea’.
‘The man’ who ‘is like a wise fisherman’, is a reference to both Jesus and his disciples. See in Matthew 4:19: ‘And he said unto them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’. The casting of ‘the net’ refers to attracting people with the Christ teachings. ‘The sea’ refers to the collective minds of possible converts. The ‘small fish’ represents the souls that were attracted, but were not spiritually aware enough to receive Christ’s teachings. Such people are left until they grow spiritually. ‘The large fish’ refers to the person whose soul was spiritually aware enough, and therefore worthy to receive Christ’s teachings. See Logion 62: ‘ It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries’. The wise teacher has no problem choosing worthy students.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation of: ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear’.
Let those who are capable of understanding the secret meanings of what I say, hear what I’m really saying. In other words, what was said was for those who understood the secret meanings.
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Logion 9: Jesus said, "Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed and worms ate them. And others fell on the good soil and it produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure."
Note: Before we consider the meaning of Logion 9, we must first take into consideration, its related scripture interpretation in the New Testament.
See in Mark 4:13-20: ‘Then he continued, “Do you really not understand this parable? Then how are you going to understand all the other parables? The man who sows, sows the message. As for those who are by the roadside where the message is sown, as soon as they hear it Satan comes at once and takes away what has been sown in their minds. Similarly, the seed sown among the rocks represents those who hear the message without hesitation and accept it joyfully. But they have no real roots and do not last - when trouble or persecution arises because of the message, they give up their faith at once. Then there are the seeds which were sown among thorn-bushes. These are the people who hear the message, but the worries of this world and the false glamour of riches and all sorts of other ambitions creep in and choke the life out of what they have heard, and it produces no crop in their lives. As for the seed sown on good soil, this means the men who hear the message and accept it and do produce a crop - thirty, sixty, even a hundred times as much as they received”.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The meaning is spelt out quite well in the Gospel of Mark, but there are still a few things that need explaining to fully understand what has been written. Interpretation of: ‘Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them’.
The sower is the one who is teaching the message of Christ. The handful of seeds represents the teachings. The scattering of the seeds represents giving some of the teachings to the people. Note: The first thing to notice is that both the Logion and its related scripture, take into consideration four different types of people, and their reactions when they receive the teachings. Interpretation of: ‘Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up’.
Some teachings were listened to by onlookers , who were referred to as ‘birds’, because they thought they were already free, and had all that they needed. They rejected the teachings immediately, because these people were those who were referred to as; the spiritually blind and dead. Interpretation of: ‘ Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears’.
These are the people who accepted the teachings, because the teachings sounded good, and made them feel good and respected by others, but when their faith in the Love and Truth within the teachings was tested, they rejected the teachings, because the teachings had not taken root in their minds, and therefore also were not in their hearts.
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Interpretation of: ‘ And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed and worms ate them’.
The explanation in Mark 4 is very good and so the only thing that needs clarifying is the reference to ‘worms’. The worms represent the subconscious reasoning’s that consume conscious reasoning’s. Interpretation of: ‘ And others fell on the good soil and it produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure’.
The good soil of course is the fertile mind of the spiritually aware soul, also referred to as, ‘the large fish’. The good fruit is of course the Love and Truth that has grown from the seeds (teachings) that were planted in the mind. The seeds grow into vines and produce fruit that contains even more seeds. This is how Love and Truth is spread. See also in John 15:1: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 10: Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes”.
Interpretation:
Christ delivered the Truth, which caused a fire of discontentment in the minds of those who heard it; a fire that would destroy the lies in men’s minds, and awaken them spiritually; a fire that would cause discontentment with the world and its ways. He was guarding that fire until it blazed, and people began to call out for Truth. See logion 28. See also in Matthew 10:34 ‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword,’ (Truth).
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Chapter 2
Logion 11
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Logion 12
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Logion 13
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Logion 14
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Logion 15
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Logion 16
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Logion 17
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Logion 18
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Logion 19
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Logion 20
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 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. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive. When you come to dwell 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?"
Interpretation of: This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away.
Jesus was speaking to others concerning their minds. Each mind is a Kingdom, a piece of Heaven given to them. The divided mind will pass away, and the undivided mind which is above it, will pass away, because in the end each soul will share the mind of God. Interpretation of: The dead are not alive and the living will not die.
The dead referred to are those who believe that they are physical beings that are of the world. They are not living because they have not come to know themselves. The living are those who know that they are a spiritual being, and not of the world, because they have come to know themselves. It is these who will not experience the death spoken of, ever again, for once life is found it is everlasting, just as when Truth is realized, it cannot be denied. Interpretation of: ‘In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive’.
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In the days when you consumed your false identity of being a physical being, you made that part of yourself, which was dead, alive. Interpretation of: ‘When you come to dwell in the light, what w hat will you do?’
When you come to know yourself (realize what you are), what will you do? To dwell in the light is to dwell in Truth. To dwell in the darkness is to dwell in ignorance of the Truth. bec ame Interpretation of: ‘On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?’ On the day when you came to know yourself as a spiritual being, you realized that you had been living with two Self identities. One as a physical being and one as a spiritual being, but you had not noticed the difference, because the two Self identities had been merged into one. When you realized your true Self identity, both of your previous identities became apparent, and the one became two. What will you do when this is realized? How much will you have to give up? For each Self-identity requires the fulfillment of its own desires and has h as its own attachments.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 12: The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?" Jesus said to them, them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
Interpretation:
Heaven and earth came into being for life and its perfection in Love and Truth. James was the only one capable of teaching as Jesus did, because he fully understood the secret teachings and their meanings, and he had come to know himself and Truth. When Jesus departed it was James who was to become the new leader. It was not for the sake of James only that Heaven and earth came into being, but rather it was for the sake of all God’s children, so that they could learn how to become righteous and loving.
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Logion 13: Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare "Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like”. Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher." Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like." Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out." And he took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up”.
Interpretation of: ‘Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like”. Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous angel”. Matthew said to him, You are like a wise philosopher”.
They did not realize that Jesus was the son of God, a spiritual being, and so they had no way of describing him correctly. Interpretation of: ‘ Thomas said to him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like”.
Thomas recognized that Jesus was a spiritual being, and not like anyone he had ever known and so was lost for words to describe who he was like.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation of: ‘Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out”.
Thomas called Jesus master, but because Thomas had understood Jesus’ teachings on a deep and personal level, and therefore had come to know himself. Jesus told him ‘I am not your master,’ which meant that Thomas had become a free spirit and the master of his own domain/mind. Thomas could see and hear what the others could not at that time, because of the spiritual sight that Jesus had given him. Interpretation of: ‘And he took him and withdrew and told him three things’.
The three things that Jesus told Thomas are hinted at in Logion 14 and they are: 1. They say to me what they think will please me, because they are still blind and do not yet realize who I am. They see the body which is the clothes, but do not see the one wearing them. 2. Satan is not a spiritual being. It is a Self-identity created because of one’s ignorance to their true nature as a spiritual being. Because of the self-created, false identity of being a physical body, the Self acts according to the rules of the world. It is this Satan consciousness that divides the mind, it blinds a person to the Spirit and Truth, and it is the cause of temptation and sin. When a person has a divided mind, it is because Satan is within them, and it is they who are Satan. 3. Those who have heard my voice and have understood, are my true brothers. But those who have heard my voice and not understood are not yet my brothers. They listen and try to do as I teach them, but they merely conform to my will, rather than their hearts, which take them another way because they are ‘little faiths’. They do what they think is good seeking only acceptance. 31
Interpretation of: ‘If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up”‘.
Stones represent words, and in the context of this logion, they are insults that hurt. The fire that would come out of the stones is the fire of repentance that would torment their minds. In other words they would feel ashamed and sorry for what they had said. Jesus withdrew with Thomas from the other disciples because it was about them that Jesus was speaking. In the beginning, the disciples found the teachings of Jesus hard to understand which lead to Jesus becoming frustrated with them. The following scriptures should also be taken into account, concerning the reference to Satan being within the person. See in Matthew 16:22: ‘Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men’. It is quite plain here that Peter was speaking through his Satan consciousness and that Jesus was speaking back to Peter’s Satan consciousness, which was Peter’s alter ego.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 14: Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth - it is that which will defile you."
Note: You have to keep in mind that Jesus was teaching them a new way; a way that was different to what others had taught them. Interpretation of: yourselves’.
‘If you fast, you will give rise to sin for
To ‘give rise to sin’ for the Self, is to cause one’s own temptation. See also Logion 6. Interpretation of: ‘If you pray, you will be condemned’.
If you pray as you have been taught by others to, then you will be condemned for your lack of faith in the Father to provide what you need. Jesus taught them the proper manner of praying when he taught them the Lord’s Prayer which is as follows: Our Father which are in Heaven, Hallowed by thy name; Meaning: Praise the Father with love, which is true worship.
Thy Kingdom come; Meaning: Let my kingdom (mind) be as yours. 33
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven; Meaning: Let us love one another and live by the truth.
Give us this day our daily bread; Meaning: Give us the Truth that feeds our hungry spirit.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive others; Meaning: Forgive us for what we have done wrong, as we forgive those who have done wrong to us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; Meaning: And let us not become vain, but guide us with your spirit.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen; Meaning: For yours is Heaven, and the greatest power, Love and Truth, and your greatness is unsurpassed and eternal, Amen.
The correct way to pray is to express one’s Love for the Father and each other, to ask for guidance and forgiveness, and for strength. These things must be sincere, from the heart, and not merely to exalt the self before others. It is wrong to ask for things of the world. It is wrong to offer the Father things of the world. It is wrong to ask the Father to act against the will of another, and thereby removing that person’s freedom of will. It is wrong to ask the Father to punish another. It is wrong to exalt oneself over others, to the Father. So you see Jesus was teaching that if you pray in the old way you would be condemning yourself.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The Lord’s Prayer is the only prayer that is needed and it should be said in private. You should have faith that the Father knows what you want and therefore to ask shows a lack of faith. Interpretation of: s pirits’.
‘If you give alms, you will do harm to your
Remember that Jesus was teaching a new way, different to the one that was taught by others. Alms are food, money or other donations given to the needy and poor, they are given as charity. There are two points to take note of here. If you are able to give material things to others then it is because you have more than you need in the first place. Those who rely on charity are more blessed than those able to give it. Jesus told his disciples to go out in the world with nothing. If you have more than the poorest, then you are not making yourself the least and therefore, you are harming your spirit. See in Luke 9:3: ‘And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece’. To do otherwise would make them look like hypocrites when they taught others to turn from worldly things. The soul needs nothing that is of the world, to think that it does, is harmful to the spirit. The soul has to take care of the basic needs of the physical body, to continue interacting with the world, but the soul should never put the needs of the physical body before the souls needs. Interpretation of: ‘When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you’.
Ask for nothing for your services, and accept with gratitude, any food that they may give you. 35
Interpretation of: ‘And heal the sick among them’.
It is not the physical bodies of the people that Jesus and the disciples were concerned with healing, but rather it was their souls, because the soul is eternal and the body is temporary. Where there is spiritual healing, there is also the possibility of incredible physical healing. Interpretation of: ‘For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth - it is that which will defile you’.
It is not what you eat or drink that harms your soul, but rather it is the words that you speak in error, so be careful of what you say. The sayings in Logion 14 are referred to in Matthew 6.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 15: Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. That one is your father."
Interpretation:
The spiritual Self is not born of physical woman, not born of the flesh. It is the way of those without a degree of spiritual sight, that when they see a person they see them as a physical being. All spiritual beings were once a part of the Father who shed them as a flower sheds seeds. When a soul is perfected in the ways of the Father, it becomes a perfect image of the Father. It becomes one with the Father. The Father becomes the son, and the son becomes the Father. When you see your own true image as a spiritual being, you are seeing the Father. It is then that you should surrender with great humility and Love to your true Self, and in doing so you are worshipping your Father, for you are one with Him. See in John14:10-11: ‘Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake’.
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Logion 16: Jesus said, "Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary."
Note: These are secret teachings which means they should not be taken literally. They have deeper, hidden meanings and should not be interpreted as if they were spoken in plain language. This logion contains secrets that are extremely well hidden. Interpretation of: ‘They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth’.
Dissension: Strong disagreement; a contention or quarrel; discord, difference in sentiment or opinion; disagreement. Note: At first glance this logion may appear to be referring to conflict between people, if this were so there would be nothing hidden or secret in the logion. It should therefore be realized that this logion refers to conflict within the soul. Interpretation of: ‘Fire, sword, and war’.
‘Fire’ refers to torment in the mind. ‘Sword’ refers to the deliverance of Truth and ‘war’ is a reference to the spiritual battle of light against darkness within each soul.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation of: ‘For there will be five in a house: three will be against two and two against three’.
To understand the meaning of three against two, and two against three, you must first consider what is written in Logion 19: For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death. 1. The tree of Life – Perfect awareness, seeing with clarity and from which nothing is hidden, including the Self. 2. The tree of Knowledge – of good and evil, revealing all that is knowable, both right and wrong. 3. The tree of Wisdom – Perfect reasoning, revealing the Absolute Truth of what is right. 4. The tree of Love – Perfect desire, righteous pleasures. 5. The tree of Peace – Perfect willpower, expressing righteous ways of contentment. In the Kingdom of Heaven, all five trees are perfect, but for those who have not yet come to know themselves, and therefore exist in a divided mind, their tree of Life is a false one, and their tree of Love remains unperfected. This sets the two against three, and the three against two. Without Life and Love, the other three trees remain imperfect, and therefore conflict is inevitable. The Truth remains opposed. Reasoning remains faulty and peace cannot be found in a house where there are two masters. Interpretation of: ‘The father against the son, and the son against the father’.
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The Father opposing the Self’s will, and the Self opposing the Father’s will. Interpretation of: ‘And they will stand solitary’.
When the Truth about the Self is realized, the tree of Life will become perfect and when Love is the only desire, the tree of Love will become perfect, and then all trees will become perfect. When you stand alone (solitary), with nothing that can be taken from you, then the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours. Love, Truth and Selfrealization can never be taken once you have reached this enlightened state. See also in Matthew 10:34-35: ‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law’. Note: A spiritual being is always referred to in the context of being male, whereas mind (a spiritual beings domain/kingdom) is always referred to in the context of being female. Interpretation of: ‘For I am come to set a man at variance against his father’
There are those who think that they are doing God’s will, until they learn the Truth, it is then that the Self realizes that its will is at variance, (not the same as) the Father’s will. Interpretation of: ‘The daughter against her mother’.
The daughter is a reference to the Self’s personal Kingdom/mind, and the mother is a reference to the Father’s personal Kingdom/mind (the Kingdom of Heaven).
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation of: law’.
‘The daughter in law against her mother in
Note: In laws are not related to the true Self, they belong to the spiritually blind and dead, who believe that their mother is their physical mother, and that their mind was given to them by that mother.
When reading spiritual teachings, do not let materialistic reasoning take control.
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Logion 17: Jesus said, "I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind."
Interpretation:
It is the physical senses that cannot see, hear or touch that which is spiritual, therefore the things to be given were spiritual, the secrets of the Self and the Kingdom. The human mind is the divided mind, and that which never occurs to the divided mind, is the Self’s true nature as a spiritual being.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 18: The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said, "Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death."
Interpretation:
The beginning was with the Father in Heaven and the end is that way also. Blessed is he who comes to know himself as he did in the beginning and chooses the way of the Father, for he will know the Father and Heaven, and he will have eternal Life.
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Logion 19: Jesus said, "Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will minister to you. For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death."
Interpretation of: ‘Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being’.
Blessed are the children of the Father, who existed as a part of the Father before they became the Father’s children. Consider this to be like a flower and its seeds. The flower produces the seeds from itself. So the seeds existed as the flower, before they then existed as flowers in their own right. So like the flowers, the Father’s children, came into being before they came into being. Interpretation of: ‘If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will minister to you’.
Words produce concepts/images in the mind. Jesus likened words to stones, saying that his words would minister to them that is serve and guide them, (as opposed to the words of other teachers that would harm them). Interpretation of: ‘For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. ‘
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The five trees that remain unaffected are trees of knowledge, in other words the five parts of the Absolute Truth. The five trees are:
1. The tree of Life – Perfect awareness, seeing with clarity and from which nothing is hidden, including the Self. 2. The tree of Knowledge – Of good and evil, revealing all that is knowable, both right and wrong. 3. The tree of Wisdom – Perfect reasoning, revealing the Absolute Truth of what is right. 4. The tree of Love – Perfect desire, righteous pleasures. 5. The tree of Peace – Perfect willpower, expressing righteous ways of contentment. Interpretation of: ‘Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death’.
Whoever attains these five trees will not experience the death spoken of in Logion 1. Paradise refers to God’s Kingdom. These trees never lose anything that is of them, and they remain undisturbed in the good times and the troubled times.
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Logion 20: The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like." He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."
Interpretation:
Even the smallest of Truth likened to ‘the mustard seed,’ can grow very large and eventually fill the mind with Truth, which then attracts those who are searching for Truth. The ‘tilled soil’ is the fertile mind where Truth can grow. ‘Birds of the sky’, refers to those who are searching for Truth. ‘Birds of the sky’ search for seeds to feed on just as souls search for grains of Truth, which is spiritual food. A bird will always choose to rest in a sheltered place, close to its food supply, just as the disciples stayed close to Jesus, who sheltered them from their worldly worries. Think of the mind of Jesus when thinking of the ‘great plant,’ and think of those that he taught as ‘the birds of the sky’ . The seeds of Truth in Jesus’ teachings fell into the minds of those he taught. ‘The kingdom of heaven’ contains only Love and Truth. It takes only one small seed of that Kingdom to fall into a fertile mind, and eventually the whole of that mind is filled with Love and Truth, and so becomes the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
See also in Matthew 13:31-32: ‘Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof’.
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Chapter 3
Logion 21
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Logion 22
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Logion 23
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Logion 24
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Logion 25
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Logion 26
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Logion 27
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Logion 28
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Logion 29
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Logion 30
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 21: Mary said to Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?" He said, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them. Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Note: There is the Old Testament, and those who claim the authority to teach it, and there is the New Testament, which Jesus claimed authority to teach. If there had been nothing wrong with the Old Testament, then there would have been no need for a New Testament. Interpretation of: ‘They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs’.
The ‘field’ that the disciples had settled in was the mind -set that contained the teachings of the Old Testament, as taught by its 49
teachers. They were teachings that deprived people of knowledge of themselves, and of the one true Father, and so the disciples had settled into a way that did not belong to God’s children. Interpretation of: ‘When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field’.
When those who claim to have authority to teach the Old Testament, come to the disciples they will, tell the disciples to stop challenging their authority and teachings, and to stop leading the people another way. Interpretation of: ‘They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them’.
The disciples will take off their garments of indoctrination and basically say, keep your teachings we want none of them, for we have a New Testament of God’s Word. Interpretation of: ‘ Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming’. Note: ‘House’ refers to the soul. The ‘owner’ of the house is of course, the Self. The ‘thief’ is the one who would steal the Truth that you have and replace it with lies. Interpretation of: ‘He will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods’.
He will be on guard for those who would try to destroy his faith and take away his Truth, just as they tried to do to Jesus. Interpretation of: ‘ You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize’. Arm yourself with great faith and the wisdom to defend it, because those of the world will come to test you, as you expect them to. Be ready to tie their hands with their own beliefs. Interpretation of: ‘ Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it’.
Let there be among you a man of wisdom, when your Truth comes to fruition, let him store it firmly in your heart.
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Logion 22: Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom”. They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."
Interpretation of: ‘When you make the two one’.
When you make the divided mind (which is two), into an undivided mind (which is one). Interpretation of: ‘When you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below’.
The state of the Self is dependent on the state of the mind. Likewise the state of the mind is dependent on the state of the Self. When the two are in conflict, peace is lost. If the mind is full of Truth, and the Self accepts that Truth, then the Self will be at peace, and the Self which is ‘above,’ will be like the mind, which is ‘below’. This is why Jesus said, ‘I am the Truth’. Only the acceptance of Truth, will end the conflict between the Self’s desires and worldly temptations
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
in the mind. When you realize that you don’t need the things of the world, then its temptations will be silenced, as will the desire for them. Interpretation of: ‘When you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female’.
When you realize that a spiritual being has no gender and therefore you are not a physical being. Interpretation of: ‘ And when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye.
When you learn to see with your spiritual eyes, that is have spiritual sight. Interpretation of: ‘And a hand in place of a hand’.
This means your true Self’s will, in place of your false Self’s will. Interpretation of: ‘And a foot in place of a foot’.
This means your spiritual journey in place of your physical one. Interpretation of: ‘ And a likeness in place of a likeness’.
This means God’s image in place of the physical body’ s image, because we are made in God’s image and not the image of a physical creature. Interpretation of: ‘Then will you enter the kingdom’.
Then your mind will become as the Kingdom of Heaven. You must come to know yourself.
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Logion 23: Jesus said, “I shall choose you, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and they shall stand as a single one.”
Interpretation:
Only 1 in a 1,000 was capable of understanding and accepting the Truth, and out of those, only 2 in 10,000 had the faith in Love required to live by the Truth. Those who are capable of understanding and accepting the Truth are those that can come to know themselves as a spiritual being, and therefore can enter the Kingdom within. This Kingdom, which is within is like a room. It is their domain/mind, and in there, there is a doorway leading to Heaven, which is God’s Kingdom/Heaven/home. However, this doorway will not open unless there is perfect faith in Love. The doorway is guarded by cherubim (Love) and the flaming sword of Truth. So there is only 1 in 1,000 that recognizes and accepts Truth, but out of these, there are only 2 in 10,000, who have enough Love to be called Sons of God, and to teach as Jesus did. It is these that Jesus chose, and they became brothers and stood as one.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 24: His disciples said to him, “Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.” He said to them, “Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness”.
Interpretation of: ‘ Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it’.
Jesus was of course, in the Kingdom of Heaven, his enlightened mind. It is obvious that the disciples knew where the physical body of Jesus was, but what they wanted to know, was where he was as a spiritual being. Although they could see the light that Jesus radiated, they could not see the place where the light came from. Interpretation of: ‘ There is light within a man of light’.
The place where Jesus was as a spiritual being was of course, in his mind that had been made in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven. It was the mind of one who was Self-realized as a spiritual being, and his mind was full of light because it contained only Love and Truth. His mind was like that of the Fathers. When the mind is full of light, the Self is also full of light; therefore the man of light is the man who has an enlightened mind. Interpretation of: ‘ And he lights up the whole world’.
The light from an enlightened soul radiates outward. It is not light that is visible to the physical eyes, but other souls are aware of it. Words cannot describe it other than they are somehow shining or glowing, and so other souls are left experiencing what they cannot 55
understand or explain. What is actually being realized by the observer, is complete peace, total confidence and fearlessness in that person. To a lesser degree it is like the effect felt when in the presence of someone of great fame. The feeling is one of awe. Interpretation of: ‘ If he does not shine, he is darkness’.
The fullness of life can only be experienced in a mind full of light, anything less is described as death. If you add one drop of ink to a glass of clear water, then the whole of the water will become tainted and lose its clarity. Likewise, if there is anything in the mind that is untrue or unloving, then the whole mind will be tainted, and therefore the fullness of life cannot be experienced. If a man does not shine it is because there is darkness in his mind. Even a little darkness destroys the purity of the light. See also in Matthew 6:22-23: The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If all the light you have is darkness, it is dark indeed! ‘The lamp of the body’ is the spiritual eye. If your spiritual sight is sound, then the whole of your soul will be full of light. But if your spiritual eye has any blindness to the Self, Love and Truth and is turned to the things of the world, then your whole soul (Self and mind) will be full of darkness. (It will contain less than perfect light).
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 25: Jesus said, “Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye.”
Interpretation of: ‘ Love your brother like your soul ’.
You must first Love yourself completely, because if you don’t then what measure of Love are you being asked to Love your brother by? To Love your soul is to Love the Self and your mind. You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven while wearing the garments of Self-condemnation. It is not vanity to Love yourself for the Love and Truth that you carry. It is those who have no Love and Truth, and yet exalt themselves above others, who are vain. No-one exalts themselves above those that they Love. Love others as you are loved by our Father, for we are all God’s children and not one of us is loved less than another. Even our Father loves those who stand against Him and those who oppose His will. Love is not dependent on being pleased by someone, if it were so then how could we Love our enemies? Interpretation of: ‘ Guard him like the pupil of your eye’.
The pupil of your eye is that which sees with spiritual sight, it is the awakened Self. So guard your brother as you guard yourself, that is Love and care for one another as I have loved and cared for you. Do not let him fall into darkness, just as you guard yourself from falling into darkness.
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Logion 26: Jesus said, "You see the mote in your brother's eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye. When you cast the beam out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to cast the mote from your brother's eye."
Interpretation:
You see your brother’s ignorance of Truth, but you do not see your own, which is far greater. So when you have realized and corrected your own ignorance, then you can correct the ignorance of others. Until then, you are not qualified to teach or judge your brother. This saying also relates to ‘the blind leading the blind,’ ‘and judge not lest ye be judged’. If you have not come to know yourself as a spiritual being, then how can you be sure what is true? If you believe that you are no more than a physical being, then your reasoning will be based on that, and that is like a beam in the spiritual eye, preventing you from seeing the whole picture. In other words, your Truth will have come from biased reasoning. See also in Matthew 7:3-5: ‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye, Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye’. Always search for understanding when considering the errors of others, for it is far more loving than condemning them.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 27: Jesus said, "If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the father."
Interpretation of: ‘ If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom’.
If you do not turn your attention away from the world that is outside of you, you will not find the Kingdom which is within you. Note: Jesus went into the desert to fast from the things of the world before he began his mission. This was of course, to overcome any worldly desires or attachments. Interpretation of: ‘ If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the father’.
The Sabbath is a day of rest from the world. If you do not observe the time of rest from the world, as a time for inner contemplation, then you will not be able to enter the Kingdom and be with the Father. You may rest from the world whenever you choose.
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Logion 28: Jesus said, "I took my place in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found all of them intoxicated; I found none of them thirsty. And my soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent."
Interpretation of: ‘ I took my place in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh’.
As a spiritual being I took possession of my physical body, with which I would interact with the world, and I walked amongst them, appearing as flesh to them. Interpretation of: ‘ I found all of them intoxicated’.
I found them all under the influence of the world and blinded to themselves and each other. Interpretation of: ‘ I found none of them thirsty’.
I found none of them desiring spiritual Truth, for the world was all that they knew. Interpretation of: ‘ And my soul became afflicted for the sons of men’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
I felt great sorrow for them for they did not know themselves and therefore believed that they were the sons of their physical fathers. Interpretation of: ‘ Because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight’.
Because they are without empathy for each other and they do not have spiritual sight. They cannot see or feel what they are doing to each other, because they do not know themselves. Interpretation of: ‘ For empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world’.
For without the Word they came into the world, and without the Word they seek to leave it. Interpretation of: ‘ But for the moment they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent’.
For the moment they are under the influence of the world. When they come to realize their true nature as a spiritual being and turn from the world, they will feel the hurt of shame, in realizing how foolish they had been.
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Logion 29: Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty."
This is the big question isn’t it? Interpretation of: ‘If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders’.
Is your awareness, desire, will, and consciousness, the product of something that is not biological, something which existed before the flesh, and merely uses the flesh/body to interact with the world? (If so it would be a wonder). Or Is your awareness, desire, will, and consciousness, no more than the product of a biological programmed computer called the brain? If so then that would mean that what we call the Self and the Mind came into being because of the flesh, and to serve the flesh. (If so it would be a wonder of wonders). If our beginning was that we first crawled out of some primordial swamp on to the land, and then evolved into what we are today, then what would that mean? Well first of all, crawling onto land would necessitate a conscious decision, which would mean that awareness, desire, will and
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
consciousness were already in place. So if awareness, desire, will and consciousness were already in place as a biological program, then you have to consider how such a complex program could possibly form, in such a primitive biological life form. Could such a complex program form simply by chance, from an infinite amount of random permutations? Can you imagine how many components would have to fall into perfect order to result in a program that creates awareness? If you took just 6 dice and threw them in turn, how many times would you have to do this until they all landed in sequence 1 to 6? Then of course, that program would need another program to replicate itself. If the flesh came into being before the spirit, then the flesh would not even know that it existed, or even the environment that it existed in. Without awareness, how could the flesh be aware of a need to change and adapt, or a need to survive? You have heard the question; ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg’, now try this one; ‘what came first, physical senses or awareness?’ Why would the flesh form physical senses if it had not yet developed the awareness to take advantage of them? If awareness had not yet developed, then what would be the need to form physical senses, because they would be obsolete? The Self and the mind are not made of atoms; therefore they cannot be of the flesh. Interpretation of: ‘Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty’. 63
The ‘great wealth’ is of course is the spiritual Self and the mind, the spiritual being. The ‘poverty’ is of course the physical body and the illusions that it deceives the spiritual being with.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 30: Jesus said, "Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."
Interpretation of: ‘Where there are three gods, they are gods’.
Where there are three gods, they are false or materialistic gods created by men. Note that ‘gods’ is spelt with a small ‘g’ and so does not refer to God. Interpretation of: ‘Where there are two’.
Where there is the Father and the son, there are two Gods; a God and a god. Genesis 3:22: ‘And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us’. Interpretation of: ‘Or one’.
When the son is in perfect harmony with the Father, meaning that his will and desires are the same, then the Father and the son become as one. Jesus said, ‘I and the Father are one,’ and ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’. The Father becomes the son, the son becomes the Father. See in 1 John 3:2 ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God’. The son of a physical being is a physical being; the son of a God is a god. All of God’s unperfected children are gods in the making. 65
Interpretation of: ‘I am with him’.
We are a family in harmony with each other.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Chapter 4
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Logion 31: Jesus said, "No prophet is accepted in his own village; no physician heals those who know him”.
Interpretation of: ‘No prophet is accepted in his own village’.
Here Jesus relates himself to the prophets. The people, who Jesus grew up around, could not accept that he was anything special. They had become too familiar with him and saw him as an ordinary person, in the same way that they saw themselves. This is because they saw only the physical and not the spiritual. Interpretation of: ‘No physician heals those who know him’.
A physician is a healer and all healing requires an amount of faith from the person being healed. It is a thing that would be absent in close acquaintances. You cannot heal by faith those who have no faith in you.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 32: Jesus said, "A city being built on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden”.
Interpretation of: ‘ A city being built’.
The city being built was the New Jerusalem; the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Interpretation of: ‘ On a high mountain’.
It was being built on a higher level of consciousness, one whose foundation were Love and Truth. Interpretation of: ‘And fortified cannot fall’.
That which is fortified with perfect faith cannot fall. Interpretation of: ‘Nor can it be hidden’.
Nor can it be hidden because of the light it radiates.
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Logion 33: Jesus said, “Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lamp stand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light”.
Interpretation:
Tell others the things that I teach you, do it openly and without fear. Let them see the light of your new mind and don’t try to hide it. Do not be afraid to make public what is in your heart. There are some who hear the Truth, and in recognizing and understanding it, their lives are changed. Yet they try to hide the light it has created within, and they fear to speak the Truth they have received and believe in. The Truth is meant to be shared not hidden. To hide the Truth is to be ashamed of it, yet who can reject the Truth but those in most need of it. No-one hides a light unless they fear those living in darkness will reject them. What favour then will you have done them? What goodness will you have brought into their lives? Do not hide the Truth you have learned as if it were something to be ashamed of.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Do not hide your light, because those living in darkness will have no way out of the darkness, when they eventually realize where they are. Some will be drawn and some will not, but even one drawn to the light will mean you have become a saviour.
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Logion 34: Jesus said, "If a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit."
Interpretation:
If a man who is spiritually blind becomes the teacher of a man searching for Truth, then they will both end up without the Truth and therefore spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead is to be in complete ignorance of the spirit, and therefore also ignorant of the spiritual nature of the Self. See also in Matthew 15:14: ‘Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch’. Note: The ‘pit’ or ‘ditch’ represents the depths of the false Self’s consciousness, where the worst animal instincts rule.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 35: Jesus said, "It is not possible for anyone to enter the house of a strong man and take it by force unless he binds his hands; then he will (be able to) ransack his house."
Interpretation:
The house represents the mind; the strength of a man is his confidence in his beliefs. You cannot make a man change his beliefs and accept yours unless you first destroy that confidence. If you can show the man that his beliefs are in error, then he will be unable to argue and you can change his mind. Think of how Jesus dealt with those who opposed him. He used their own doctrines and beliefs against them and in doing so, made their wisdom look foolish. See also Matthew 12:29: ‘Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house?’ Note: It should also be realized that even today, the houses of many loving souls are being ransacked by materialists, because they do not have the Truth or the wisdom to defend their Love.
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Logion 36: Jesus said, "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear”.
Interpretation:
The ‘morning until the evening’ is the time of light; it was the time that Jesus was with his disciples. His coming was the morning, and his leaving the world was the evening. The ‘evening until the morning’ represents the darkness in the world that the disciples would have to endure, after Jesus left the world. It would last until the disciples found their own light within, and became sons of God also. The physical body is the clothes that the soul wears, and you should not be concerned if these clothes, (the physical body) are torn or stripped from you, because your true body is your spiritual body. It doesn’t matter whether you are dressed in fine clothes or rags, the body remains the same. Likewise it doesn’t matter what your physical body is like, because the soul is independent of that too. The physical body is the clothes that the soul wears. You should not worry about what you as a soul wears, or indeed what other souls wear. It is the soul that is more important and true beauty is always found within a person. What does it profit a man when he puts more importance on his physical body than on his soul, because there comes a time for everyone when their body is taken from them?
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
It is the garments that the Self as a spiritual being wears that matters, and these garments are not physical or material. The Self’s garments are found in the mind. For the enlightened Self, they are a white robe. For the unenlightened Self, they are garments of condemnation.
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Logion 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"
Interpretation of: ‘When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?’
It is not the physical body of Jesus that the disciples wanted revealed to them, but rather it was Jesus’ form as a spiritual being that they wanted revealed to them and they wanted to know when this would happen. Interpretation of: ‘ When you disrobe without being ashamed’.
When you face yourself with complete honesty and you are not ashamed. Interpretation of: ‘A nd take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them’.
And you take up your garments of condemnation (un-forgiveness for the Self and for those who have wronged you) and you discard them as if they were nothing and of no worth. Interpretation of: ‘ Then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
It is then that you will see your true Self, and in seeing your true Self, you will also al so see the true image of Jesus, and ‘you will not be afraid,’ knowing that there will be no judgement or punishment to suffer and knowing that there is no inequality between the sons of God. See logion 3: ‘You will realize that it is you who are the sons o f the living father’.
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Logion 38: Jesus said, "Many times have you desired to hear these words which I am saying to you, and you have no one else to hear them from. There will be days when you will look for me and will not find me."
Interpretation:
It is the Truth that Jesus delivered to the world, for the word was incomplete, hidden in part to hide the iniquity of those who chose to ignore it for the sake of self-pleasures, and because of those who interpreted it in good faith, but out of ignorance. Those who have not known God were unable to teach God’s word, and it was God’s word that the disciples desired to hear. There would be many days when the disciples would look for the true image of Jesus as a spiritual being, but the real Jesus as a spiritual being, would not be revealed to them, until they came to know themselves.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 39: Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge (gnosis) and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."
Interpretation of: ‘ The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge (gnosis) and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to’.
The Pharisees and scribes had hidden God’s Word, and the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, from the people, for in these things was their own condemnation and the loss of their power over others. Comment: It is God’s Word and the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven that are hidden from the Christian church today. You see, Jesus’ teachings are unacceptable by those who are ‘of the world’, because they teach that:
You cannot follow the teachings of Jesus and retain wealth and power. You cannot kill or hate or cause others to do so. You cannot withhold forgiveness. You cannot put your own needs before those of others. You cannot hate your enemy. Do you see what I mean? 79
How can a person exalt themselves above others, wear fine robes and take from others to build fine temples, and fill them with worldly treasure, while there are the sick, hungry and poor outside their door? Neither the Pharisees nor the Christian church that evolved, wanted the people to find the Kingdom within and become free, because they would then have no control over such people, and so they have kept the Word and the keys hidden. As it was, so it is; but not for long. The true temple is the mind and its treasure is Love and Truth, and a keeper of such a temple leaves no suffering outside its door. So you see that the Truth was hidden from the people, because in it is the revelation of the man of sin. Interpretation of: ‘You, however, be as wise as serpents’.
Jesus referred to the Pharisees and scribes as ‘a nest of vipers’ (serpents), so what he was saying was to be as wise as them. Interpretation of: ‘And as innocent as doves’.
To be as innocent as doves, is to remain a free spirit and be without sin.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 40: Jesus said, "A grapevine has been planted outside of the father, but being unsound, it will be pulled up by its roots and destroyed”.
Interpretation:
The ‘grapevine’ referred to was the religion taught by the Pharisees and scribes. They were teaching an adulterated and incomplete version of God’s Word, and so it was ‘unsound’. That is why a New Testament was needed. It was Jesus who was to tear up the unsound religion by its roots, which were grounded in materiality, and he would do so with the revelation of spiritual Truth. Jesus likened himself to the true grapevine (the Way, the Truth and the Life). Jesus said in John 15:1: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman’.
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Chapter 5
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 41: Jesus said, "Whoever has something in his hand will receive more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has”.
Interpretation of: receive more’.
‘Whoever has something in his hand will
Whoever has Love in their heart, will be able to invest that Love by giving it to others. When that Love is returned, he will have increased the Love in his life. Interpretation of: ‘And whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has’.
Whoever has no Love in their heart, will be deprived of feeling the Love given to him by others. Comment: Love is not just a warm fuzzy feeling. It is much more than that. It requires empathy so that one may share the feelings of others, and in feeling what the other person feels, you become as one with them. Because of this, you share their sufferings and joy. Only by loving one another are we led to end suffering and care for each other, so that we may live in peace, harmony and mutual joy. Love is the Way that will end all of mankind’s trouble.
Those who are spiritually blind and dead, confuse their selfish pleasures with the pleasures of Love, not realizing that their pleasures are one way pleasures, for it is impossible for material things to Love you back, and it is impossible for power to Love you back. In fact, nothing that is of the world can receive or return Love. 83
Therefore such people should not misuse the word ‘Love’, but rather they should say, ‘I get great pleasure from that’. Those who have no empathy cannot experience the feelings of others; they cannot feel what others feel therefore, they cannot feel any Love given to them. It is such people who are capable of committing the most evil acts upon others, because they are blind and selfish. They are blind to the spirit and because of this, they see only the physical/material, which they worship and hold to be the only realty, a reality that they believe they are a part of. It is people like this who force their beliefs on the world and our children. They are no respecters of life but their own, and they rise to positions of power and authority, seeking dominance rather than equality. If you have something in your hand, then don’t let them take it away, don’t let them set you against others, for that is their way. See also in Matthew 25:29: ‘For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 42: Jesus said, "Become passers-by."
Interpretation:
Simply put, this means do not form attachments with the things of the world, for in Truth there is nothing that is of the world that you cannot do without and that includes your physical body. That which belongs to the world, will stay with the world. As a spiritual being you existed before this life journey in the world began, and as a spiritual being, you will still exist after this life journey has ended, for now you are just passing through, like a tourist. Eventually you will look back on this life journey, and wonder why you got so involved and lost in the illusion of being a part of the world. It is so easy to lose your Self in the game of worldly life. You must become passers-by. Step out of the game, step out of the illusion and begin to observe the game in progress as a spectator/watcher, rather than a participant. It is then that you will see the foolishness and futility, of those who have not come to know themselves, those who live without Love and Truth; those whose priority is to compete for the things of the world, regardless of the hurt they cause to others. Choose Love, Truth and Peace and to the rest become a passer-by.
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Logion 43: His disciples said to him, "Who are you that you should say these things to us?" Jesus said to them, "You do not realize who I am from what I say to you, but you have become like the Jews, for they (either) love the tree and hate its fruit (or) love the fruit and hate the tree.”
Interpretation of: His disciples said to him, "Who are you that you should say these things to us? ‘Jesus said to them, ‘You do not realize who I am from what I say to you’.
It is plain to see that the disciples were, at this time questioning the authority of Jesus, and therefore had not recognized him as the Messiah or as a spiritual being. Interpretation of: ‘But you have become like the Jews, for they (either) love the tree and hate its fruit’.
To ‘love the tree and hate its fruit,’ is to find great pleasure in listening to religious teachings, but hate living according to those teachings. There are many who Love the Truth when it is easy to live by, but as soon as it becomes difficult, they reject the Truth. Interpretation of: ‘(or) love the fruit and hate the tree’.
Alternatively, they find great pleasure from the profits they make as religious teachers, but hate the religious teachings themselves.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The religious teachers profited from teachings by gaining wealth, power and adoration, but they themselves hated the teachings, because in the teachings, such things are condemned.
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Logion 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”.
Interpretation:
A person may blaspheme the Father or the Father’s son, and still receive forgiveness for their ignorance and blindness, for that is the way of the Father and the son that they do not carry the burden of un-forgiveness. But to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to curse Love, and whoever curses Love has no Love or comprehension of it, and therefore cannot acknowledge the receipt of forgiveness, and so their sins stay with them. Note: To Love or feel Love requires empathy, which is also required for repentance, and without repentance there can be no forgiveness, because there must first be a recognition that forgiveness is required.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love. Love is the Law. A person may be forgiven by the Lawmaker, but they cannot be forgiven by the Law that they are in opposition to. Note: From my perspective; to blaspheme is to curse, ridicule.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 45: Jesus said, "Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they do not produce fruit. A good man brings forth good from his storehouse; an evil man brings forth evil things from his evil storehouse, which is in his heart, and says evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth evil things."
Interpretation: This logion concerns the types of people who should receive the teachings, and those who are unworthy of the teachings. Converts should be chosen carefully from those who have a measure of Love and an ability to recognize Truth. A worthy convert is recognized by the goodness in his/her heart and by the unselfish things that he/she says and does. Likewise, an unworthy convert is recognized by his/her selfishness, lack of spiritual sight and their inability to comprehend the Truth. A person’s true worth is found in their heart. See Matthew 7:6: ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you’.
See also in Luke 6:43-45: ‘For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. 89
And Matthew 7:16 -18: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 46: Jesus said, "Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist, there is no one so superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered (before him). Yet I have said, whichever one of you comes to be a child will be acquainted with the kingdom and will become superior to John."
Note: The spiritual being (the Self) is always referred to as male, and the mind which is the Self’s domain, is always referred to as female, and so the Self is referred to as man, and the mind is referred to as woman. It is the mind that gives Life to the Self, because it is the Self that is capable of awareness, but the mind gives the Self something to be aware of. Without the mind, the Self would remain unaware of anything. Life is experienced when that which is capable of awareness, has something to be aware of, therefore the Self is ‘born of women’, which means that the mind enables the Self to Live. Interpretation of: ‘ Jesus said, "Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist’.
Out of all of God’s children, from Adam until John the Baptist. Interpretation of: ‘ There is no one so superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered (before him)’.
All of God’s children are equal in the eyes of God, and so not one is superior to the other. It can also be said that each of God’s children should face each other with humility. 91
Note: This is also why Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him, so that the Law (of Love) could be fulfilled.
See Matthew 3:14 -15: ‘But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, ‘suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness’. (Love is all that is good and right) Interpretation of: ‘ Yet I have said whichever one of you comes to be a child will be acquainted with the kingdom and will become superior to John’.
Simply put, John the Baptist had Love and Truth but he had not come to know himself, and so whoever will come to know themselves, will become superior to John the Baptist. See also in Matthew 11:11: ‘Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 47: Jesus said, "It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters; otherwise, he will honour the one and treat the other contemptuously. No man drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine put into a new wineskin, lest it spoil it. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear would result."
Interpretation of: ‘ It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters; otherwise, he will honour the one and treat the other contemptuously’.
It is impossible for a person to follow two religions and to be faithful to the teachings of both. Interpretation of: ‘ No man drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine’.
No person is filled with the teachings of the Old Testament (old wine), and then immediately desires to be filled with the teaching of the New Testament (new wine). Interpretation of: ‘ New wine is not put into old wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine put into a new wineskin, lest it spoil it’.
The New Testament is not given to those whose faith is in the teachings of the Old Testament, for they will not be able to hold the
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New Testament. The teachings of the Old Testament should not be put in the New Testament, in case they spoil the New Testament. Interpretation of: ‘ An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear would result’.
A part of the Old Testament teachings, should not be used to strengthen any part of the New Testament teachings, because the New Testament is stronger than the Old Testament and they would eventually separate when tested. Note: The Old Testament and the New Testament present two different versions of God, and two different laws, one materialistic and one spiritual.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 48: Jesus said, "If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move Away,' and it will move away."
Interpretation:
The two that make peace are the two Self-images in the mind (house). To make peace, one must become the master and the other the servant. When ones true nature is revealed through Self-realization, then the spiritual Self becomes the master, and the physical body the servant. Opposing desires cease to occur as the mind becomes undivided, it is then that peace of mind is gained, (the two have made peace in the house/mind). The mountain represents the suffering (despair), which is caused by the conflict between the two masters, two Self-identities and the opposing desires that accompany each.
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Logion 49: Jesus said, "Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you will find the kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return."
Interpretation:
Blessed are you who feel alone and in an unnatural world, because of the Love that you carry. You will find God’s Kingdom which is Heaven. You are from the Kingdom of Heaven and to the Kingdom of Heaven you will return. It is you and those who are like you that have come to the world on a mission of Love; you are the ‘elect’. To be ‘solitary’ is to realize that you are an individual, an entity that is alone in the space that you exist in, separated from all that is outside of your mind, which is your personal domain. Reflect on the following:
‘I am nothing but I, and my mind and the things contained herein, are my only true possessions. All that I have that is of worth is stored here, and what is stored here, I alone have stored until I choose what is of true worth and what is not’. Realize this and you will have come to know your Self, and the Kingdom will be yours.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 50: Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?’ say to them, 'we came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?’ say, 'We are its children, we are the elect of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?’ say to them, 'It is movement and repose.'"
Interpretation of: ‘Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?’ say to them, 'we came from the light’.
We came from the first soul that is full of perfect Love and Truth, whose power and wisdom is unsurpassable; we came from God who is the Light above all light. Interpretation of: ‘The place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself’.
We came from the place where the Light was Self-begotten, where the All became sentient of its own accord. Note: Sentient: living, conscious, aware. Interpretation of: ‘And became manifest through their image’.
We came from God who was the first Self (spiritual being) and perfect mind. It was through each other that they became manifest.
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Interpretation of: ‘If they say to you, 'Is it you?’ say, 'We are its children, we are the elect of the living father’.
We are God’s children; children of the Light. It is in God’s image, (Father Self and Mother Mind) that every soul was made, but of all God’s children, we are the elect, for we are man and we have been given some of the things of our Father. Note: All living creatures have souls; every sentient being is a child of God. Interpretation of: ‘If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?’ say to them, 'It is movement and repose’.
The sign of the Father is free will, the ability to choose ones actions, the ability to move and rest according to personal desire.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Chapter 6
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Logion 51: His disciples said to him, "When will the repose of the dead come about and when will the new world come?" He said to them, "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it”.
Interpretation of: ‘His disciples said to him, ‘When will the repose of the dead come about’
When will the spiritually dead find rest and peace? Note: There is no rest or peace for the spiritually blind and dead, because they think they are of the world, and therefore must act according to its ways, which puts them in conflict and competition with others for the things of the world. Interpretation of: ‘And when will the new world come?’
When will the new way of life come, a new world where people see each other as more precious than the things of the world? Interpretation of: ‘He said to them, "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it”‘.
They did not realize that Jesus was the first begotten of the dead, the first of the dead to find repose, and that the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the new world, had arrived, for the Kingdom of Heaven was within him. The disciples could not see what was in front of them.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Note: It was only much later that the disciples came to know themselves, and were raised, (resurrected) into spiritual Life, where they found their repose.
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Logion 52: His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you”. He said to them, "You have omitted the one living in your presence and have spoken (only) of the dead."
Interpretation:
The twenty four prophets all spoke in the way that Jesus did, but none had come to know themselves. Jesus was the twenty fifth, but unlike the twenty four who were spiritually dead, Jesus was living because he had come to know himself as a spiritual being. Jesus was the spiritually alive prophet. The first begotten of the dead, which means there were none living before him.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 53: His disciples said to him, "Is circumcision beneficial or not?" He said to them, "If it were beneficial, their father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become completely profitable."
Interpretation:
Circumcision is unnatural and painful. It is unloving to cause pain to others. If it was beneficial then God would have made the physical body already circumcised, and they would have been born that way. Circumcision became an Abrahamic tradition, performed as a token of a covenant with their God. ‘True circumcision in the spirit’ refers to the removal of a person’s ignorance and is ‘completely profitable’. Note: You must ask yourself, why would God require that a person be circumcised as a token of a covenant, when God can see into the hearts of people, and therefore know where their Love and loyalty lies?
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Logion 54: Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”
Interpretation:
Blessed are the poor, for they have so little of the world to give up, and so entering the Kingdom of Heaven, will be so much easier for them.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 55: Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple to me, and whoever does not hate his brothers and sisters and take up his cross in my way wa y will not be worthy of me."
Interpretation:
The mother and father of flesh is flesh. The brother and sister of flesh is flesh. The Father and Mother of souls is God. You cannot become a disciple of Jesus unless unless you hate the flesh. It is the soul of a person that you must recognize and Love. To ‘take up your cross,’ is to surrender your life l ife to Love, and be prepared to suffer and die for for the sake of others, others, and to be faithful to Love, whatever may or may not come. See John 15:13: ‘This ‘This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you’. (Love one another as I have loved you etc.)
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Logion 56: Jesus said, "Whoever has come to understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world”.
Interpretation:
Whoever comes to realize that the world (the material/physical) has no life, will realize that it is they themselves that are life, and therefore they are superior to the world, which is no more than a corpse.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 57: Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a man who had good seed. His enemy came by night ni ght and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be be pulled up and and burned."
Interpretation of: ‘ The kingdom of the father is like a man who had good seed’ seed’.
The ‘good seed’ is the Father’s Testament to the world, (the seeds from which is made, the bread of Life), it is the Testament that is usually referred to as, the Old Testament, but a more accurate description would be to refer to it as, the First Testament. Interpretation of: ‘His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed’.
The enemy who ‘sowed the weeds among the good seed’ were the spiritually blind and dead, who in the darkness of their ignorance were unable to interpret, or understand the true meanings of the Father’s Testament, and so they so they added what they believed were the true meanings, which required some additions and omissions to the Testament, so that they were able to twist it in their favour. As it was, so it is. Interpretation of: ‘The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds weeds and pull up up the wheat along with them’ them’. 107
The Father did not allow His prophets to challenge the adulterated scriptures, because in doing so, there was the danger of the Father ’s Testament being lost also. Interpretation of: ‘For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned’.
The harvest within the mind is the gathering in of the Truth, which occurs when a person comes to know themselves, for when they come to know themselves, the things that are untrue (weeds) become ‘plainly visible,’ and they are destroyed in the conflict between Truth and lies. It is the Self that gathers the Truth into its heart and in doing so, the Truth becomes a part of the Self, this is why Jesus said, ‘I am the Truth’. See also: Matthew13:24-30: and its interpretation in Matthew 13:36-43. Interpretation of: ‘Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field’.
‘The tares’ (weeds) are the things that are untrue, and ‘the field’ is the mind, the place where the seeds are sown. Interpretation of: ‘He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man’.
He that delivers the seeds of Truth is the Father’s child that has come to know himself. ‘Son of man’ means son of the Father. Son of men means son of physical man. Interpretation of: ‘ The field is the world’.
‘The field’ is the mind, and to the Self, the mind is the world that the Self lives in.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation of: ‘The good seed are the children of the kingdom’.
There is the Father, who is a spiritual being, and there is the Father’s Kingdom of Heaven. ‘The good seed’ are the seeds of Truth, which are not spiritual beings. The seeds of Truth are of the Father’s Kingdom of Heaven, but they are not of the Father Himself. All seeds of Truth are in themselves, children of the Kingdom of Heaven, because that is what gave birth to them, just as a wheat plant gives birth to its seeds. Interpretation of: ‘But the tares are the children of the wicked one’.
‘The tares’ are the untruths which originate in the mind of those who have the false Self-identity of being a physical being. It is the person who has this false Self-identity that is referred to as ‘the wicked one’, and is usually referred to as ‘Satan’. Interpretation of: ‘ The enemy that sowed them is the devil’.
The devil of course, refers to the evil heart of ‘the wicked one’. Interpretation of: ‘The harvest is the end of the world’.
‘The harvest’ is the end of the old mind, and the beginning of the new mind. With this new mind comes the rebirth of the soul. Interpretation of: ‘And the reapers are the angels’.
Angels of the light are messengers of Truth. A soul that has become enlightened is a messenger of Truth, but not only this, because every word that they speak becomes a messenger of Truth also. Interpretation of: ‘ As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world’.
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The end of this way of life for mankind will come when the Truth is revealed to all, and can no longer be hidden. It will be the end of the conflict within the collective consciousness. This will come with the deliverance, to all nations, of this Gospel of the Kingdom. Interpretation of: ‘ The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire’.
Those who have become a Self-realized shall become messengers of Truth, and all that is untrue in their kingdom/mind, shall be gathered and destroyed in the conflict between Truth and that which is untrue. There will also be the destruction of all false Selfidentities, which have done ‘iniquity’, that is to say, broken the law of Love. Interpretation of: ‘There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth’.
There shall be the hurt of repentance which cleanses the soul when Truth is realized. Interpretation of: ‘ Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear’.
Then shall the True Self, who has become the son of God, be filled with light and shine forth in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 58: Jesus said “Blessed is the man who has suffered and found life”.
Interpretation:
Blessed is the one who has suffered in a divided mind and has found their True Self, for they have found Life.
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Logion 59: Jesus said, “Take heed of the living one while you are alive, lest you die and seek to see him and be unable to do so”.
Interpretation:
Those who have two Self-identities, one as a spiritual being and one as a physical being, exist in a divided mind. It is the Self’s True identity as a spiritual being that has Life, and it is their false identity of being a physical being, that has no life. Even though the Self has two identities, and a divided mind, the True Self and its part of the mind, are still present, although its authority is intermittent. So: You should ‘take heed of’, (pay attention to ) your True Self, while you are aware of it, ‘lest you die’ (lose your True Self -identity), and seek to find it again and be unable to.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 60: a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples, "That man is round about the lamb." They said to him, "So that he may kill it and eat it”. He said to them, "While it is alive, he will not eat it, but only when he has killed it and it has become a corpse”. They said to him, "He cannot do so otherwise." He said to them, "You too, look for a place for yourself within repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten."
Interpretation:
‘The lamb’ represents the True Self, the Self that has Life. ‘The man’ represents the false Self, the Self which has no life. As long as the True Self maintains even a little of its true Selfidentity, its Life cannot be taken by its false Self, but when the false Self destroys the True Self’s identity, then the false Self will become the unchallenged master. Interpretation of: ‘He said to them, "You too, look for a place for yourself within repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten’.
Look for a place of peace within yourself, where you can rest from the world, in case you lose your True Self completely and be consumed by your false Self.
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Note: Always keep the following in remembrance:
I am a spiritual being, not a physical being. My physical body is there; ‘I’ am here. My mind is there; ‘I’ am here. Self Mind Body World You must come back to your Self, to know your Self.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Chapter 7
Logion 61
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Logion 62
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Logion 63
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Logion 64
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Logion 65
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Logion 66
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Logion 67
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Logion 61: Jesus said, "Two will rest on a bed: the one will die, and the other will live." Salome said, "Who are you, man that you ... have come up on my couch and eaten from my table?" Jesus said to her, "I am he who exists from the undivided. I was given some of the things of my father." <...> "I am your disciple." <...> "Therefore I say, if he is destroyed, he will be filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be filled with darkness."
Note: At the end logion 60, Jesus made the following statement: ‘You too, look for a place for yourself within repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten’. Interpretation:
The two that rest on the bed, is a reference to the divided Self, with its two identities. Whichever identity the Self acts out, the Self has faith in that identity, therefore the Self’s faith is divided also. It is as if the Self is living two different and alternating lives, each with their own set of rules. When the Self loses faith in both of its identities, it is as if they have been put to sleep. Hence the reference; ‘two will rest on a bed’. The Self that has then lost its two identities, is left with no identity at all, with a mind that is at peace, except for one question; ‘Who am I?’ and it is in this new virgin mind, (Salome) that the Self must begin its search for its True identity. The mind then becomes the student/disciple to the Self. To eat from the table is to contemplate and digest reasonings obtained from the mind, (meditation, contemplation, realization).
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
If the Self then chooses to believe that it is a physical body, the whole of the mind and the Self, will become full of the darkness of ignorance, and the Self will become completely spiritually blind and dead, and will be of no more worth than a corpse. If false identities are destroyed, then the Self and the mind are filled with light. It is in this higher state of consciousness that the false Self no longer exists, and only the True Self exists in solitude. Selfrealization then occurs naturally, and the Self has come to know itself. The things that were given by the Father are Love and Truth, when they are fully acknowledged and understood, then the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived, and the Self realizes that it is he who is the Son of the Living Father. When these things are accomplished, the Son of man will have come, and that Son of man will be you. See also in Luke 17:34: I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
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Logion 62: Jesus said, "It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries. Do not let your left (hand) know what your right (hand) is doing."
Interpretation of: Jesus said, “It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries”.
It is to those who have a little spiritual sight that I give more. See also in Matthew 13:10-13: ‘And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Interpretation of: Do not let your left (hand) know what your right (hand) is doing”. Note: Here the word ‘hand’ contained in brackets, was not in the original text, but were added later by translators.
Do not let the spiritually blind and dead know what the spiritually sighted and living, are doing. Always use the secret language to protect the teachings.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 63: Jesus said, "There was a rich man who had much money. He said, 'I shall put my money to use so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouse with produce, with the result that I shall lack nothing.' Such were his intentions, but that same night he died. Let him who has ears hear."
Interpretation:
As soon as a person begins to think only of themselves, and their own worldly needs, they are committing spiritual suicide.
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Logion 64: Jesus said, "A man had received visitors. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite the guests. He went to the first one and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said, 'I have claims against some merchants. They are coming to me this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I ask to be excused from the dinner.' He went to another and said to him, 'My master has invited you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a house and am required for the day. I shall not have any spare time.' He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'My friend is going to get married, and I am to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.' He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a farm, and I am on my way to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused.' The servant returned and said to his master, 'Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.' The master said to his servant, 'Go outside to the streets and bring back those whom you happen to meet, so that they may dine.' Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my father."
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Interpretation:
There are those who are spiritually dead, and there are those who are only spiritually sick. The spiritually dead do not realize that they are spiritually dead, and therefore their priorities are the things of the world, and they have no need or interest in spiritual teachings, and not knowing Truth, they do not know when they have sinned, because they do not know the Law of Love. Jesus said about such people, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’. To be guilty of breaking a law, you must first know the law. The spiritually sick are still able to see the need for spiritual healing, and it is they who are worthy of the teachings that will heal their souls. Such people are sinners, because they knowingly break the Law of Love. It is for such people that the New Testament was given, so that they may be saved and have Life. Only the living may enter the places of the Father, for they prefer the things of Heaven, more than things of the world. See also in Luke 14:16-21: ‘Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind’.
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Logion 65: He said, "There was a good man who owned a vineyard. He leased it to tenant farmers so that they might work it and he might collect the produce from them. He sent his servant so that the tenants might give him the produce of the vineyard. They seized his servant and beat him, all but killing him. The servant went back and told his master. The master said, 'Perhaps he did not recognize them.' He sent another servant. The tenants beat this one as well. Then the owner sent his son and said, 'Perhaps they will show respect to my son.' Because the tenants knew that it was he who was the heir to the vineyard, they seized him and killed him. Let him who has ears
Interpretation:
‘The good man’ is the Father. ‘The ‘vineyard’ is the Word. ‘The tenant farmers’ were those who were authorized to teach the Father’s Word. ‘The produce’ is the people who have received the Word and turned to the Father with Love and Truth. ‘The servants’ are the prophets who the Father sent, and who were rejected and attacked by those who had been authorized to teach the people.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The Father sent His ‘son’, but those who had been authorize d to teach the Word, knew that His son was to take authority over them for the teachings, and so they seized him and killed him, to retain their authority, wealth and power. See also in Matthew 21:33-39: ‘Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves. This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him’.
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Logion 66: Jesus said, "Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone."
Interpretation:
‘The cornerstone’ is the first to be laid in the building of the Self’s temple/mind; it is Love and it is the stone that the spiritually blind and dead reject, in favour of worldly things. See also in Matthew 21:42: ‘Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?’
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 67: Jesus said, "If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient."
Interpretation:
Knowledge alone will not get you into the Kingdom of Heaven, you must also Love yourself completely. Any doubt as to one’s worth, will make you completely unacceptable for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, wearing garments of condemnation, either condemnation of the Self or of others. What does it profit a man if everyone Loves him, yet he does not Love himself?
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Logion 68: Jesus said, "Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted. Wherever you have been persecuted they will find no place."
Interpretation:
Those who are loving and speak the Truth, are hated and persecuted by those who have neither. Those who suffer hate and persecution for Love and Truth are blessed, for they shall find the Kingdom. Wherever you have been persecuted, they will find no place of repose (rest).
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 69: Jesus said, "Blessed are they who have been persecuted within themselves. It is they who have truly come to know the father. Blessed are the hungry, for the belly of him who desires will be filled."
Interpretation:
Blessed are those who have a conscience and suffer for it, because that suffering is true repentance. It can only occur in those who know Love and Truth, and in knowing these things, the Father is known also. Blessed are those who are hungry for Truth, for they will be filled with it. Those who hunger for Love will have their Love fulfilled.
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Logion 70: Jesus said, "That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. That which you do not have within you will kill you if you do not have it within you."
Interpretation:
The Love that you have within will save you , if you have faith in it and express it. The absence of Love means the absence of Truth and empathy. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love; the Spirit of God. If you have Love then the Holy Spirit is with you, therefore also, so is God. If you do not have these things within, then you will become spiritually blind and dead.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Chapter 8
Logion 71
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Logion 72
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Logion 73
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Logion 76
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Logion 77
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Logion 78
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Logion 79
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Logion 80
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Logion 71: Jesus said, "I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it [...]."
Interpretation:
I will destroy this divided mind, and no-one will be able to rebuild it as a divided mind again, for where there is light, there can be no darkness.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 72: A man said to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me”. He said to him, "O man, who has made me a divider?" He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?"
Interpretation:
Jesus was not a divider, it was division that he sought to end, especially the division within the minds of people, because when people’s minds are divided, they are also divided against each other, just as the brothers referred to in this logion are.
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Logion 73: Jesus said, "The harvest is great but the labourers are few. Beseech the Lord, therefore, to send out labourers to the harvest."
Interpretation:
There are many who are ready to enter the Kingdom, but there are so few to show them the Way. Make an urgent appeal to the Father, for more who are able to teach others, that is pray for more help. See also in Matthew 9:37: ‘Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his har vest’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 74: He said, "O Lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the cistern."
Interpretation:
There are many who are thirsty for Truth, but the teachers they go to, have none.
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Logion 75: Jesus said, “Many are standing at the door, but it is the solitary who will enter the bridal chamber”.
Interpretation:
There are many who wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is only those who stand alone, in an undivided mind, that will enter the bridal chamber. This is the first time that the words, ‘bridal chamber’ have been mentioned, and so the bridal chamber needs explaining. The bridal chamber is the place of the new virgin mind (Salome), which is also mentioned in Logion 61. The mind is always referred to as female, and the spiritual Self, is always referred to as male. The mind therefore, is the companion of the spiritual Self, this is why the mind is referred to as the spiritual Self’s wife. It is also why it was said in Genesis 2:24: ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh, (one soul)’. The Mother of God’s children is the Kingdom of Heaven, (the Father’s mind). It is called ‘the Mother’, because it is the mind that gives the spiritual being life. What you have to realize is, that without a mind, the Self cannot experience anything, and therefore cannot experience life. Every spiritual being begins its life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and to bring a spiritual being into life, is to give birth to it, therefore all of God’s children are born in Heaven, and Heaven is their Mother.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
The Self’s wife (mind) began as a piece of God’s mind. Before it was given, all knowledge was removed from it, making it virgin. Therefore it became the Self’s personal mind/companion, (the Self’s wife). When the Self has lost its true identity, it can no longer be called a son of the Father, likewise when the mind has lost its knowledge of Love and Truth, it can no longer be called the Kingdom of Heaven, and instead it is referred to simply as, the Kingdom of the Self. When the Self has come to know itself, and it has regained the knowledge of Love and Truth, then the mind becomes the bridal chamber, it is there where the Self and the mind make new vows, and are remarried in the presence of God. The Father and Mother’s children are then united in one house.
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Logion 76: Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a merchant who had a consignment of merchandise and who discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone for himself. You too, seek se ek his unfailing and enduring treasure where no moth comes near to devour and no worm destroys”.
Interpretation:
When Jesus begins with the words ‘the kingdom of the father is like’, he is alerting those who are listening, that what he is about to talk about, is not related to worldly things. The word ‘merchant’ is a reference to a spiritual being (the Self). The ‘consignment of merchandise’ refers to the knowledge gained by all previous previous reasonings. To sell this merchandise, means to relinquish all claims upon it, and to exchange it for something of greater value for the t he Self alone. The ‘pearl’ is of course a pearl of Truth. In this case, the Truth that is found is knowledge of the True Self. The ‘unfailing and enduring treasure’ is of course, knowledge of the Self, which once realized, cannot be destroyed d estroyed by others (moths), or by sub-conscious reasonings (worms), that exist below the surface of the mind.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 77: Jesus said, "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there”.
Interpretation of: 'Jesus said, ‘It is I who am the light which is above them all’.
If there is even a little darkness in a man, then he is full of darkness. Jesus was the light above all men, because there was no darkness in him. In him there was only Truth. Interpretation of: 'It is I who am the all.’ Note: see Logion 2 concerning the All.
Everything that exists is a part of the All, regardless of the form that the All takes. Interpretation of: ‘ From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend.’
What Jesus is saying here is: I am a form of the All that came forth from the All, and it is to me that the rest of the All extends itself, because I rule over the All. Note: Spiritual beings are parts of the All that became sentient (living, conscious, aware), and it is because of this and their free will, that they rule over the parts of the All which are not sentient or free-willed. Think of the All as the substance from which everything is made. It is an infinite field of indestructible energy. 137
Interpretation of: ‘ Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there’.
Simply put, a piece of wood is a part the All, and that which lies beneath a stone, is also a part of the All. The All is found everywhere, in the various forms that it has taken, be it matter, mind or spiritual being. We are truly all a part of the One, which is the All, for we are the All that came forth from itself.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 78: Jesus said, "Why have you come out into the desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a man clothed in fine garments like your kings and your great men? Upon them are the fine garments, and they are unable to discern the truth”.
Interpretation of: ‘ Jesus said, “Why have you come out into the desert?”
The desert is the mind that is empty of Truth, which is the spiritual water that gives Life. Interpretation of: ‘ To see a reed shaken by the wind?’
‘The reed shaken by the wind’ is a reference to the soul whose will is bent to and fro by the world. Interpretation of: ‘ And to see a man clothed in fine garments like your kings and your great men? Upon them are the fine garments, and they are unable to discern the truth’.
Those referred to as ‘kings and great men’ are the rich and powerful, they are the ones who have everything that is of the world, but they cannot see that which is Truth, because they are spiritually blind and unable to discern Truth.
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Logion 79: A woman from the crowd said to him, "Blessed are the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you”. He said to her, “Blessed are those who have heard the word of the father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, 'Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not given milk”.
Interpretation of: ‘ A woman from the crowd said to him, “Blessed are the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you”.
The woman was blessing the womb and breasts of Jesus’ physical mother, believing that it was his physical mother that gave him life. Interpretation of : ‘He said to her, “Blessed are those who have heard the word of the father and have truly kept it”.
Jesus was saying: The ones that are truly blessed are those who have heard the Truth, and because of their faith in it they have lived by it. Interpretation of : ‘For there will be days when you will say, 'Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not given milk”.
For there will be days when you will wish that you hadn’t been born and raised as a physical being.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 80: Jesus said, "He who has recognized the world has found the body, but he who has found the body is superior to the world”. But he who has found the body is superior to the world”.
Interpretation:
Those who believe that they are physical beings, see no distinction between the Self and the body, but those who recognize the world, as that which has no life, are then able to recognize the difference in nature between, Self, mind and body, and they realize that they are superior to the world and the body that they now recognize.
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 81: Jesus said, "Let him who has grown rich be king, and let him who possesses power renounce it".
Interpretation of : ‘Jesus said, "Let him who has grown rich be king’.
Let him who has gathered his treasure, (Love and Truth) into the Kingdom within, be his own master, the king of his own domain (mind), Interpretation of: ‘And let him who possesses power renounce it’.
And let him who possesses power over other people, renounce it. Let them be their own master also.
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Logion 82: Jesus said, "He who is near me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from the kingdom”.
Interpretation: Note: See in Logion 10: Christ delivered the Truth, which caused a fire of discontentment in the minds of those who heard it; a fire that would destroy the lies in men’s minds, and awaken them spiritually; a fire that would cause discontentment with the world and its ways. He was guarding that fire until it blazed, and people began to call out for Truth.
Those who were near the fire were near to the one who had started it, and was fuelling it. Those who were far from Jesus, were the ones not receiving his teachings, and so were far from entering the Kingdom.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 83: Jesus said, "The images are manifest to man, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the father. He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light”.
Interpretation of: Jesus said, ‘The images are manifest to man, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the father’.
The fact that the Self and mind exist, is obvious to the Self, but the conscious awareness of these things, remains hidden in the subconscious. The Self will become fully, consciously aware of itself, but the visual image of the Self will remain hidden within consciousness. Interpretation of: ‘He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light’.
When the mind is full of light, the Self is also full of light and the two are indistinguishable. Therefore, the image of the Self cannot be seen in the light. The enlightened mind is the same as the Father’s mind, (the Kingdom of Heaven). The enlightened mind is the mind of one who has come to know himself, and that mind is full of Love and Truth.
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Logion 84 Interpretation of: Jesus said, “When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into being before you, and which neither die nor become manifest, how much you will have to bear!”
Interpretation of: ‘Jesus said, “When you see your likeness, you rejoice”.
When you come to know yourself, you rejoice. Interpretation of: ‘ But when you see your images which came into being before you’.
But when you realize the true nature of the Self and the mind, which came into being before they came together as a soul. Interpretation of: ‘A nd which neither die nor become manifest, how much you will have to bear’.
And which are immortal and invisible, how difficult will it be to accept the true nature of your Self.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 85: Jesus said, “Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you, for had he been worthy, he would not have experienced death”.
Interpretation of: great power’.
‘Jesus said, "Adam came into being from a
Adam came into being from the Father, as did every spiritual being. Adam is the name given to each and every, newly created spiritual being. Adam actually means, ‘new man’. Interpretation of: ‘A nd a great wealth’.
The great wealth is the Father’s treasures in Heaven; they are the treasures of Love and Truth. Interpretation of: ‘But he did not become worthy of you, for had he been worthy, he would not have experienced death’.
Every newly created spiritual being experiences spiritual death, (loss of their true identity), because every newly created soul, has to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. The old Self that had lost its true identity, is not worthy of the new Self, that has come to know itself and become enlightened.
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Logion 86: Jesus said, “The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head and rest”.
Interpretation:
The deceivers have their places to hide, and those who think they have all that they need, rest in their ignorance, but the son of man can find no place to rest his mind, for his Love for others compels him to end their ignorance and suffering. There is nowhere to lay down the burden. See also Luke 9:58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 87: Jesus said, “Wretched is the body that is dependent upon a body, and wretched is the soul that is dependent on these two”.
Interpretation:
Wretched is the spiritual body (the Self) that is dependent upon the physical body, because the Self believes that it is that physical body, and wretched is the soul (Self and mind) that depends upon these two.
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Logion 88: Jesus said, “The angels and the prophets will come to you and give to you those things you (already) have. And you too, give them those things which you have, and say to yourselves, 'When will they come and take what is theirs?”
Interpretation:
The angels and the prophets will come to you through their teachings, and will confirm the Truth that you already have inside of you. And you too do as they have done, and give to others the Truth which you have, and say to yourselves, when will others come and take the Truth that is theirs.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 89: Jesus said, “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not realize that he who made the inside is the same one who made the outside?”
Interpretation:
The outside of cup represents the physical body. The inside of the cup represents the soul. Both were made by God. There are those who cleanse their bodies and put on fine clothes, to gain the respect of others, yet inside they are ‘full of corruption’. First cleanse the inside of the cup, because it is the inside of the cup that contains what you will drink.
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Logion 90: Jesus said, “Come unto me, for my yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find repose for yourselves”.
Interpretation:
Jesus carries Love and Truth, instead of carrying the burden of the things of the world. As a teacher he was compassionate and caring, and those who became his students/disciples, found rest from worldly cares.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Chapter 10
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Logion 91: They said to him, “Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you”. He said to them, “You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment”.
Interpretation:
They had sight and understanding of the world. They could recognize the things of the world, and so could see what the moment held and what was to come. For example, they could tell what the weather would be like tomorrow by reading the sky. But concerning spiritual things they were blind, and so were unable to comprehend the soul of Jesus, or realize the importance of his presence. They did not realize that he was the Messiah and that the Kingdom of Heaven had arrived.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 92: Jesus said, “Seek and you will find. Yet, what you asked me about in former times and which I did not tell you then, now I do desire to tell, but you do not inquire after it”.
Interpretation:
Those who seek must keep on seeking until they find. If you stop seeking then you will not find. A good teacher teaches his students according to their ability to understand, he takes them through one level at a time. In the beginning the disciples were eager in their search, but there were some teachings that they were not yet ready for, and so Jesus withheld that knowledge until they were ready. By the time that they were ready, and Jesus wanted to tell them, his disciples had lost their eagerness to learn.
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Logion 93: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they [...] it [...]”.
Interpretation:
Do not give my teachings to those who Love the world and have no spiritual sight, or desire for it, for they will treat the teachings as rubbish, and they will become hostile to you, and try to make you look foolish and liars. See also in Matthew 7:6: ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 94: Jesus said, “He who seeks will find, and he who knocks will be let in”.
Interpretation:
Those who seek do so with sincerity, and it is they who will find. To knock is to focus your attention on and to question (ask). You knock on a door because you want to be let in. Likewise you ask a question because you want to be let in on its Truth. See also in Matthew 7:7: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’.
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Logion 95: Jesus said, “If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to one from whom you will not get it back”.
Interpretation:
If you have money to lend then you already have more than you need. You should not take advantage of those who are in need, by lending them money and charging them interest, because you make their struggle even greater. What then have you done for them that is good? You will do far more good by giving the money you do not need, to those who have less than they need, and your reward will be greater.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 96: Jesus said, “The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman. She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough, and made it into large loaves. Let him who has ears hear”.
Note: When Jesus begins with the words ‘the kingdom of the father is like’, he alerting those who are listening, that what he is about to talk about, is not related to worldly things. Interpretation of: ‘ The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman’.
This is a reference to the mind of Jesus (the mind is always referred to as female). Interpretation of: ‘ She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough’.
His mind took a little Truth that would entice curiosity and concealed it in a parable. Interpretation of: ‘ And made it into large loaves’.
And made it into food for hungry souls, (spiritual teachings).
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Logion 97: Jesus said, “The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on the road, still some distance from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her on the road. She did not realize it; she had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she set the jar down and found it empty”.
Interpretation: Note: ‘Meal’ is pre-germinated whole grain that is still encased in the husk.
‘A certain woman’ represents the mind of a certain person. The ‘jar full of meal’ refers to the mind that contains the unrealized Truth. While on their life journey and still far from its end, this person lost their true spiritual identity and the unrealized Truth began to be lost completely. When the person came to the end of their life, they looked into their mind, and found it empty of Truth. Do not wait until the end of your life to search for Truth, for if you do not water the seeds of Truth with the Spirit, then they will not germinate and grow, but instead they will eventually be buried so deep in the subconscious, that they will never see the light.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 98 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the powerful man”.
Interpretation:
Here we look into the mind of Jesus, when he withdrew into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to overcome his false Self-identity as a physical being, so that his faith in his true identity as a spiritual being could be perfected. In ‘his own house’ (mind), he struggled against his false ident ity, testing it against his faith and with the Truth that he carried. The remnants of the belief in his false identity, was ‘the wall’ that he tested his Truth on. On leaving the desert, his false Self-identity (his alter-ego) tried to tempt him, but he destroyed it completely with his Truth. This destroyed all of the darkness and his mind became full of the light of Love and Truth. It was after this that Jesus began his mission to free others from the darkness. See also in Matthew 4:1: ‘Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil’.
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Logion 99: The disciples said to him, “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside”. He said to them, “Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. It is they who will enter the kingdom of my father”.
Interpretation:
Jesus did not consider physical beings as being his family, because they are of the flesh. Jesus knew that he was a spiritual being and it was other spiritual beings that he considered to be his true family. It is not physical beings that will enter the Kingdom of the Father, for it is a spiritual realm and only those who do the Father’s will, can enter there.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 100: They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Caesar's men demand taxes from us”. He said to them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine”.
Interpretation:
Give unto those who are of the world, the things of the world. Give unto God the things that are of the spiritual world. And give unto me what is mine, which is my peace.
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The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 101: “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my mother [...], but my true mother gave me life”.
Interpretation:
Whoever does not hate physical beings as I do cannot become a disciple to me. Whoever does not Love spiritual beings as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my physical mother brought my physical body into the world, but my true Mother, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, gave me Life. For the flesh gives birth to flesh, and spirit gives birth to the spirit. See also in Luke 14:26: ‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple’.
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Logion 102: Jesus said, “Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat”.
Interpretation:
The Pharisees were in the temple and in control of the Father’s Word, which is the bread of life, but they would not eat that bread themselves, neither would allow anyone else to.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 103: Jesus said, “Fortunate is the man who knows where the brigands will enter, so that he may get up, muster his domain, and arm himself before they invade”.
Interpretation:
Fortunate is the man, who knows what the enemies of his faith will say to challenge his faith, so that he may ready himself, gather his thoughts, and prepare himself with the correct responses, before they enter his mind as an enemy.
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Logion 104: They said to Jesus, “Come, let us pray today and let us fast”. Jesus said, “What is the sin that I have committed, or wherein have I been defeated? But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray”. Interpretation:
The only reason to pray is for forgiveness, because the Father knows your needs without you having to ask. Fasting is done to overcome the temptations of the physical body. Jesus had committed no sin, and therefore was not in need of forgiveness and he had not been defeated by the temptations of the physical body, so there was no need for him to fast from the things of the world. When the Self that has come to know itself, leaves the enlightened mind (bridal chamber), then let them fast and pray.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 105: Jesus said, “He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot”.
Interpretation:
You cannot know a person as both a physical being and a spiritual being and so, he who knows his mother and father as physical beings, must also see himself as a physical being, and if he believes this, then his mind has already been prostituted to the world, in other words, he is renting his mind out to the world, to gain for himself the things that are of it.
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Logion 106: Jesus said, “When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move away,' it will move away”.
Interpretation:
When you make the divided mind undivided, then you will become the true spiritual beings that you are, and because of the power of your faith, you will say to the mountain of despair, ‘move away’, and it will move away.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 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 sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, ‘I care for you more than the ninety-nine’.
Interpretation:
Jesus referred to himself and a shepherd and his disciples as sheep. The largest sheep was a reference to Mary Magdalene. It was Mary that Jesus loved more than the others. He had saved her from being stoned, and she had become a disciple, but she drifted back into her old ways, so Jesus went and found her and brought her back into the flock and she became one of the greatest of his disciples and his closest companion. See also the Gospel of Phillip:
There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary. As for the Wisdom who is called 'the barren', she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of [the saviour was Mar]y Ma[gda]lene. [Christ loved] M[ary] more than [all] the disci[ples, and used to] kiss her [softly] on her [hand]. The rest of [the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Saviour 171
answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness. See also the Gospel of Mary:
See also in Matthew 18:11-13: ‘Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of the women. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray’.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 108: Jesus said, “He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him”.
Interpretation:
He who will listen to and understand my teachings, will become Self realized and enlightened like me. We will become as one, and all of the mysteries that were hidden from him, will be revealed to him.
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Logion 109: Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a man who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know (about the treasure). He inherited the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went ploughing and found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished”.
Interpretation:
It should be realized that this parable describes the journey that the Self takes, from the time that it loses its true identity, until the time it finds it again, and achieves enlightenment. It can be seen that there are three characters in this parable, which are the man, his son, and the new owner. These three characters do not represent three different people, but rather they represent three different personalities of the same spiritual being. So we start with a man (spiritual being), who has a treasure in his field (mind), but does not know about it. When he begins to lose his faith in his true identity as a spiritual being, he comes to believe that he is a physical being, and is now referred to as dead. His true Self-identity as a spiritual being fades into the background, but still exists. There are now two Self identities, one strong, one weak. Because of this the Self becomes divided against itself, each with its own desires and rules. This causes the mind to become divided also.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
His new strong identity as a physical being, is referred to as ‘his son’, and it is this son (the false Self), that inherits the greater part of the mind from his true Self. This new false Self (son), did not know about the treasure in its mind either. Eventually the ‘son’ became weary with the world, and the condemnations from the spiritual Self, which acted as his conscience and so he ‘sold’ the part of the mind that he controlled, to the spiritual Self in exchange for peace. The one who bought it went searching in the field (mind), and found the treasure. The treasure was of course, the Truth concerning the Self’s true identity as a spiritual being. It is the pearl mentioned in logion 76. Interpretation of: ‘He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished’.
He began to teach, this new found knowledge of the Self to others, and he profited from his teachings by gaining brothers. Note:
Lend = teach. Money/treasure = knowledge. Interest = a profit.
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Logion 110: Jesus said, “Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world”.
Interpretation:
Whoever realizes the true nature of the world, and then recognizes that he is not of the same nature as it, and then finds the treasure within, let him renounce the world. Logion 80: ‘Jesus said, “He who has recognized the world has found the body. But he who has found the body is superior to the world”.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 111: Jesus said, “The heavens and the earth will be rolled up in your presence. And the one who lives from the living one will not see death”. Does not Jesus say, “Whoever finds himself is superior to the world?”
Interpretation:
Whoever comes to know himself will have eternal life and he will experience a paradigm shift in consciousness, as all false beliefs and illusions collapse, making way for true reality, and a new Heaven and earth will be seen. He will never look at either the spiritual world or the material world the same again.
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Logion 112: Jesus said, “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh".
Interpretation:
The flesh will eventually die, no matter how much the soul takes care of it. The soul that depends on the flesh for its life will experience death also.
The Gospel of Thomas Fully Interpreted
Logion 113: His disciples said to him, “When will the kingdom come?” Jesus said, “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is’. Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it”.
Interpretation:
The Kingdom will not come by waiting for it, because it is already here, the K ingdom is the mind, it is the Self’s domain, a piece of the Father’s Kingdom that was given to you to rule. Because there are many minds, the Kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and men neither see it, nor realize it.
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Logion 114: Simon Peter said to him, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life”. Jesus said, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven”.
Interpretation:
This logion reveals the ignorance of Simon Peter, concerning the nature of the Self. At this time, Simon Peter regarded Mary as a female physical being, and therefore considered her not worthy of Jesus’ teachings or to enter the Kingdom. At this time, Mary also considered herself as a female physical being, but Jesus knew that she was a spiritual being, and that all spiritual beings are referred to as male. Jesus also new, that it was only the mind that was referred to as female. When Jesus said that he would lead Mary in order to make her male, what he meant was that he would teach her to come to know herself as a spiritual being, which were make her spiritually a male. It is only those who have come to know themselves as a spiritual being that are referred to as, living spirits. When Jesus referred to the other disciples as males, he was of course referring to them as spiritual beings and not their physical gender. Every woman who comes to realize that she is a spiritual being, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and have eternal life with the Father.