Gospel of Thomas - Zinner
GOSPEL OF THOMAS
Here are the secret teachings of the living Jesus; and he wrote them, even Judah the twin, and Thomas said:
Logion 1 “Whoever finds the interpretation of these teachings will not taste of death.”
Logion 2 Jesus said:
“One who seeks, let them not cease seeking until they find;
and when they find, they will be troubled;
and when they have been troubled, they will be amazed;
and when they have been amazed, they will reign;
when they have reigned , they will rest.”
Logion 3 Jesus said:
“If those who push you around say to you,
‘Behold the kingdom is in the sky,’ the birds of the sky would enter her before you.
And if they say to you that she is under the earth in the watery abyss, then the fish of the sea would enter her before you.
But the kingdom of God is both inside you and manifest to the outer eye.
One who knows oneself will find the kingdom,
and when you know yourselves, then you will be known,
and you will see that you are children of the living father.
But if you do not know who you are, you will dwell in poverty and you will be that poverty.”
Logion 4 Jesus said:
“The man old in days will not hesitate to ask an infant seven days old concerning the place of life, and he will live.
For many who are first will become last; and the last will become one.”
Logion 5 Jesus said: “Know what is in front of you, and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you.
There is nothing which is hidden which will not be made manifest.”
Logion 6 “His disciples asked him and said to him: how should we fast? And how should we pray? And how should we give arms? And how should we observe dietary laws?
Jesus said: ‘Do not lie, and do not do anything against your conscience, for Heaven sees all things. There’s nothing that has been hidden that will not be made manifest.’ ”
Logion 7 Jesus said: “The lion that a man will eat is blessed for the lion will become a man. But the man that the lion will eat is cursed, for the lion will become a man.”
Logion 8 He said: “The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea; he drew it up full of little fish from the sea. Among them the wise fisherman found a good large fish. He cast the little ones back to the sea; he chose the large fish without trouble.
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Logion 9 Jesus said: “Behold, the sower went out, he filled his hands and cast forth. Some, indeed, fell upon the road; the birds came, they gathered them. Others fell upon the rock, and did not send roots down to the earth, and did not send forth ears reaching to the sky. And others fell upon thorns; they choked the seed, and worms ate them. And others fell upon good earth, and it produced good fruit (reaching) up to the sky. It brought 60 per measure and 120 per measure.”
Logion 10 Jesus said: “I have cast cast a fire upon the world, and behold, I watch over it until it burns.”
Logion 11 Jesus said: “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will also pass away. And those who have died are not alive, and those who are alive will not die. In the days when you ate what was dead, you made it live. When you come to be in the light, what will you do? On the day you were one, you became too, but when you became two, what will you do?”
Logion 12 The disciples said to Jesus: “We know that you’ll depart from us. Who will be our leader?” Jesus said to them: “Wherever you will find yourself, you will go up to James the Just, the one for whom heaven and earth came into being.”
Logion 13 Jesus said to his disciples: “Make a comparison and tell me what I am like. Simon Peter said to him: “You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew said to him: “You are like a wise sage.” Thomas said to him: “Master, my mouth will not allow me at all to say what you are like.” Jesus said: “I am not your master; because you drank you were intoxicated from the bubbling spring I have measured out.” And he took him aside and spoke to him three words. But when Thomas approached his companions, they asked him: “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them: “If I were to tell you even one of the things he told me he would gather stones and cast them at me, fire would come from the stones and burn you.”
Logion 14
Jesus said: “If you fast, you will give birth to sin, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give alms, you will harm your own spirits. And in any land you enter, walking in the districts, if they receive you, eat whatever is placed before you; heal the sick among them. For what enters the mouth will not file it, but what comes out of your mouth, that is what will defile you.“
Logion 15
Jesus said: “When you look upon him who was not born of woman, bow your face to the ground and worship him, for he is your father.”
Logion 16
Jesus said: "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world, and they do not know that I have come to cast divisions upon the world: fire, sword, war. For five will be 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 on their feet as single ones.”
Logion 17
Jesus said: “I will give you what eye has not seen, what has not been heard, what hand has not touched, and what has not entered the human mind.”
Logion 18
The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said: “Have you discovered the beginning so that you may inquire about the end? For where the beginning is, from there will the end come forth. Blessed is the one who will stand in the beginning, for they will know the end, and they will not taste of death.”
Logion 19
Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who existed from the beginning, before they existed. If you come to exist as my disciples and if you will hear my words, these stones will serve you, for to you belong five trees in paradise which stay green in summer and winter, and their leaves do not fall. One who will know them will not taste of death.“
Logion 20
The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like.” He said to them: “She is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. When, however, it falls onto the earth prepared for it, it sounds for a large branch which becomes a shelter for the birds of the sky.”
Logion 21
Mary said to Jesus: “Who are you disciples like? He said: “They are like small children living in a field that is not theirs. When the masters of the field come, they will say: ‘Return our field to us.’ They strip naked in front of them and return their field to them. Therefore I say, if the master of the house knows that the thief is coming, he will keep watch before he comes, not let him tunnel into the house of his domain in order to take his property. You, however, keep watch beforehand. Gird up your loins in a great power, so that the thieves do not discover a path to get at you, because they will find the defense you’re counting on.” Let there be one who among you who understands. When the grain opened, he arrived with haste, his sickle in hand; he reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.
Logion 22
Jesus looked at some infants breastfeeding. He said to his disciples: “These infants breastfeeding are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him: “And so if we are infants we will enter the kingdom?” Jesus said to them: “When you make the two one. When you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and above like below, and when you make the male and the female to be only one, so neither is the male male nor the female female, when you replace an eye with an eye, and a hand with a hand, and a foot with a foot, and an image with an image, then you will enter the kingdom.”
Logion 23
Jesus said: “I will choose you, one from among a thousand, and two from among ten thousand , and they, being only one, will stand up.”
Logion 24
His disciples said: “Show us the place where you are, because we need to seek after it.” He said to them, “One who has ears let them here. Light dwells within a person of light, and they light up all the world. If they do not become light, they are darkness.”
Logion 25
Jesus said: “Love your brother as your own soul. Guard him as the apple of your own eye.”
Logion 26
Jesus said: “You see the splinter in the eye of your brother; the log, however, in your own eye, you do not see. When you dislodge the log from your own eye, then you will be able to see clearly enough to remove the splinter from the eye of your brother.”
Logion 27
“If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom; if you do not keep the sabbath of service, you will not see the father.“
Logion 28
Jesus said: “I stood in the midst of the world, and I went forth and appeared to them in flesh. I found them drunk, everyone of them; I did not find a single one thirsting. And my soul grieved for the children of humanity, because their minds are blinded, and they do not recognize, for they entered the world empty, and they seek to leave the world empty. They are drunk now; but when they become sober, they will repent. “
Logion 29
Jesus said: “It is a wonder if the flesh came into existence for the spirit; but it is the greatest of wonders if the spirit came into existence for the body. But I am amazed at how this great wealth dwells in this poverty.”
--From: Samuel Zinner. The Gospel of Thomas: In The Light of Early Jewish, Christian and Islamic Esoteric Trajectories. United Kingdom: Matheson Trust, 2011.