A Different Jesus Message

Arthur Telling, FRC

n this article, Arthur Telling, FRC, closely guarded secrets given by Jesus to his

I presents a different message from Jesus, one

based on self-knowledge, as recorded in the
ancient text, The Gospel of Thomas, discovered
inner circle.
This new gospel contains 114 separate
sayings of Jesus, some of which offer a
in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. strikingly different picture of Jesus’ message,
such as this from saying 22 of the Gospel.
Jesus said: “When you make eyes in place
of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot
Jesus said, “Those who know all, but are in place of a foot, an image in place of an
lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking,” image, then you will enter.” Departing from
Gospel of Thomas, saying 67. the canonical orthodox teaching of salvation
The Gospel of Thomas, its full text through a belief that Jesus is Lord, saying 22
uncovered in the desert sands of Egypt in the moves into heretofore uncharted territory,
middle of the last century, may be one of the something more like the Eastern religions,
oldest recorded gospels of Jesus, according and yet germane to our action-fixated
to some experts on history. Attributed to Western society. Others, such as saying 50,
Didymos Judas Thomas—the doubting are yet more abstract and intense: “If they
Thomas—and called the secret sayings of the ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father
living Jesus, this gospel in many ways reflects in you?’ say to them, ‘it is motion and rest.’”
the four familiar canonical New Testament In this saying, Jesus describes the Father
gospels. But important differences can be to be motion and rest. More conventionally,
found, purportedly revealing the more we understand the Father to be life, and all

Rosicrucian The Coptic Museum in Old Cairo,

Egypt, houses 1,200 Nag Hammadi
Digest
manuscripts, including The Gospel of
No. 2
Thomas. Photo by Olga Deulofeu, SRC.
2011

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things created. Saying 50 can be construed as rest. All of the gospels and other texts of Jesus,
saying that life is motion and its requisite, even those bound into the New Testament,
rest. Thus, without motion there is no life, were written after the ministry of Jesus had
and without rest there is no reflection on ended. Historians generally give greater
life. With motion and rest, with life and credibility to those written earliest, because
reflection, a story develops as events take they are less influenced by pagan Roman,
shape, becoming activities, as a series of Greek, and other beliefs. Marvin Meyer, a
motions are flawlessly executed so that a professor of religion at Chapman University
thing is accomplished; that “thing” being in Southern California, is a foremost
perhaps the placing of one foot before the recognized expert on historical Gnostic and
next, taking a step. Consider doing this now, orthodox Christian written doctrines. The
to stand and take a step with your foot. This Nag Hammadi Scriptures, edited by Meyer
is “motion,” and to reflect on it and to begin contains his translation of the Gospel of
contemplating upon where that foot will Thomas from the original manuscript, as
land is “rest.” It is “making a foot in place of well as his commentary. Based on evidence
a foot”—the imagined foot landing where from earlier-found page fragments of the
the foot is to land. Thomas Gospel, this gospel may be from
This territory, called self-awareness, is not a very early date, according to Meyer who
unfamiliar to a Hindu, Buddhist, or Chinese cites the work of leading papyrologist Soren
Taoist. It is unfamiliar to the West. For the Giversen. Meyer concludes that it may
West has taken step after step, moving foot rival “that of any of the New Testament
after foot, putting little thought into the gospels,” in regard to how soon the gospel
exercise, instead contemplating only upon was recorded in writing after the ministry of
the end destination. “I’m going to build a Jesus was done. And “in literary genre and
patio,” a person might say. But that person content” the gospel is consistent with some
does not put thought into the totality of each earliest known texts, says Meyer. Gospel of
of the separate movements that will combine Thomas sayings appear to be transmitted in
for achieving it. The person ends up with an earlier form than the canonical, orthodox
a patio, but has traded self-awareness for gospels. Thomas parables of Jesus appear
it. This is okay, for a patio is of great value. simply as stories, yet New Testament gospels
But the patio would be more enjoyable had often have “allegorical interpretations”
the person gained, or at least avoided losing, appended to them that appear to reflect “new
self-awareness. situations” experienced by Jesus followers.
Such is the way of Western humanity; The early written Thomas Gospel may be
creating exceptional fine forms yet losing our more reliably closer to what Jesus thought.
essence. And the Eastern mystic? He or she Second-century church officials spoke of
has self-awareness, but may not have a patio. the Thomas Gospel, among others in use at
To “make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in the time by the various largely unorganized
place of a hand,” is to contemplate on your Christian churches, but key Church leaders
every movement. To make “an image in place declared these other gospels to be heretical,
of an image” is to reverse the order of Divine and condemned them. Meyer notes that
Power; to make the image with your mind, they seem to have intended to limit the
so that your mind is no longer enslaved by number of valid gospels to four, and this
the images and sensations that perpetually was without a scientific basis. The subjective
surround you in your waking life. The nature on which some books were bound
building blocks for this task are motion and into the New Testament and which others

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 were called false teachings and discarded, is others who want to enter to do so. New
reason to seriously consider that the message Testament phrases such as Matthew 23:13
of Jesus may be more comprehensive than repeat the very same idea: “A plague on you,
what the New Testament gospels—Luke, scholars and Prushim, hypocrites! You lock
Mark, Matthew, and John—convey. Their people out of the kingdom of the skies. You
focus of good deeds and right behavior do not enter, nor let others go in.” There is
is crowned by a mandatory worship of another hint found in even orthodox gospels
the one Divinity and of “I, the Son.” But that the true teaching of Jesus, the teaching
did Jesus intend for this “I, the Son” to be of eternal life beyond this world, cannot
himself, or as this new message hints of, be a mere belief, but is rather a profound
was he referring to the Self, not a physical experience grounded on knowledge that
human? “When your eye is clear, then your will be snuffed out and never revealed in an
whole body is filled with light,” said Jesus, authoritative classroom structure.
from Luke 11:34. This canonical orthodox If the knowledge spoken by Jesus is of
phrase, closely worded like the Thomas self-awareness, how can a modern world
Gospel to put “eyes in place of an eye,” is comprehend it in logical terms, and how
construed by church teachings to mean may it be obtained by Western people who
making oneself pure or clean. But if Jesus have little time for the Eastern practice of
is speaking of cleansing the body through meditating for long hours? Making “a hand
eyes that are pure, why does he say “eye” in in place of a hand and a foot in place of a
singular when we know that we have two foot” is a daily exercise that will bring a
eyes? The Thomas Gospel explains it. The person’s waking and dreaming selves together
eye is that part of the mind where images into one body: “When you make the two
form, such as in a dream. The two “eyes” are into one, and when you make the inner like
external, a mere lens for interfacing with the the outer, and the outer like the inner, and
world through the “eye” which makes the the upper like the lower,” also from Thomas
two physical eyes. saying 22. When the body dies and turns
Saying 39 of Thomas warns against to dust, the mind will have created and
the scholarly classroom approach: The recreated an image of the body. And the
scholars have taken and hidden “the keys of person, whose mind recreates the body, will
knowledge,” having not entered nor allowed live, as Jesus promised.

Rosicrucian
Digest
No. 2
2011

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