EXCERPTS

Saying 3

Just as saying 2 describes what happens when one seeks and finds (one is astonished, rules, and rests), this saying describes where it happens (inside of you and outside of you), and how it happens (by knowing yourself). One has the feeling that if these two sayings could be fully understood and applied, all the other sayings in this collection would likewise be understood. Indeed, Jesus appears to offer here a road map as to where he intends to take his listeners.

Saying 15

God is the womb of life. In the realm of the Kingdom, there is no other womb but His. So in saying 79, when it says, “Blessed is the womb that has not conceived and the breasts that have not given milk,” it is God’s womb to which it is referring. Therefore, in this saying, “he who was not born of woman” is the one who was born from the womb of God, the one who was created as spirit, not as flesh. This one is God’s true creation.

Saying 16

Nothing in Thomas will make any sense until it is understood that all appeals in this gospel are appeals for vigilance, not on the level of the world, but on the level of the mind. Its focus is on understanding the world as it is, having the right thoughts about it, rather than changing it for whatever purpose. When the word “world” appears in Thomas, it nearly always is presented as an idea, not a fact.

Saying 57

There is an underlying message in this gospel, which is this: The laws of this world are not the laws of the Kingdom. What makes sense in one realm makes no sense in the other. From the viewpoint of each, the other is absurd. Throughout the text, we see this message repeated again and again.