Excerpts from the Translation

These are the esoteric sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the twin wrote down. And he said, "Whoever finds the inner meaning of these sayings shall not taste death."

4
Jesus said, "The old man should not delay in asking a little seven days child about the place of Life, and then that man will be alive. For the many who are first shall be last, and the last first, and they shall become a unity."

11
Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away and the one above it will pass away. Those who are dead do not live and those who are living will not die. When you consumed what is dead you made it alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? When you were a unity, you split into two; now you are two, what will you do?"

15
Jesus said, "When you look upon the one who was not born of woman, throw yourself on your face and worship him, for he is your father."

16
Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to bring peace to the world, and they do not know that I have come to bring division to the earth - fire, a sword, 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 the unified ones will rise up."

24
His students said, "Show us the place from which you live, for we need to seek it."

He said to them, "Whoever has ears, let him listen. Light exists within a man of light and he becomes light for the whole world; if he does not become light, he is darkness."

29
Jesus said, "If the flesh was created because of the spirit, it is a wonder; but if spirit is produced because of the body it is a wonder of wonders. I myself marvel how this great wealth was placed within this poverty."

36
Jesus said, "Do not care from morning to evening and from evening to morning what food you should eat or what clothing you will put on yourselves. You are much greater than the lilies that neither comb wool nor spin it. When you have no clothing, what will you wear? Who can add to the length of your life? It is he who will give you your clothing."

64
Jesus said, "A man was receiving some guests and when the dinner was ready he sent his servant to invite the guests. The servant went to the first and said, 'My lord is calling you.' He said, 'I have some money for some merchants; they are coming to me this evening, I shall have to go and give them their orders; I ask to be let off the dinner.' He went to another one and said to him, 'My lord is calling for you.' He said, 'I have bought a house and I am needed for the day. I shall not be able to rest.' He went to another one and said to him, 'My lord has called for you.' He said, 'My friend is getting married and I am making the dinner. I cannot come. I ask to be let off your dinner.' He went to another and said, 'My lord is calling for you.' He said, 'I have bought a farm; I am going to collect the rent. I cannot come. I ask to be let off.' The servant came and spoke to his lord. 'Those that you have called to the dinner have asked to be let off.' The lord said to his servant, 'Go outside, go to the way and bring whoever you may find there, so that they may dine. Buyers and merchants may not go in to the places of my father.'"

68
Jesus said, "You are blessed when you are hated and persecuted, and you are not found within the place where you are persecuted."

70
Jesus said, "When you bring to birth what is within you, it will save you. If you do not have it within you, what you do not have will kill you."

97
Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a woman carrying a jar full of flour. As she was walking on the road faraway, the handle of the jar broke; flour emptied out behind her on the road. She did not know, and she did not understand what she was suffering. When she went into her house, she put down the jar and found it empty."

98
Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like someone who wanted to kill a powerful man. He drew his sword in his own house and stuck it into the wall, so that he could see that his hand would be strong within. Then he slew the powerful man."

105
Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a whore."

114
Simon Peter said to them, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."

Jesus said, "Look, I myself will lead her, so that I may make her male and she might also become a living spirit like you males. For any woman who makes herself male will go into the kingdom."

Excerpts from "The Inner Meaning of These Sayings"

The Gospel of Thomas proclaims a change in the way that we see things and a transformation in what we are. It uses a definite set of symbols and images to communicate this and tells us that if we find the inner meaning of these sayings, we shall not taste death.

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Throughout its sayings, parables and dialogues, the Gospel of Thomas presents mankind as being in a fallen state. We are dead, we are blind and drunk, we do not know the truth, are impoverished, divided and in darkness. But there is another state. In the new state we will be alive, will be able to see, will be intoxicated rather than drunk, will know the truth, have real wealth, and be in the light. We will go into the kingdom and we will have unity. The Gospel of Thomas tells us of these two states and how we may change our state from the former to the latter.

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The Gospel of Thomas presents itself as being derived from the tradition of Judaism. It proposes that other Jewish groups of the time, such as the Pharisees, have maintained the tradition but prevented people from actually receiving benefit from it. They have the keys, but they did not go in to the kingdom and did not let in those who want to go in. (39); they are like the proverbial dog in a manger (102) .

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In understanding the inner meaning of the Gospel of Thomas, the keys to that tradition, to the esoteric meaning of Judaism and Christianity, can be restored.

Esoteric teachings give us a map of ourselves, of our inner makeup and organisation, so that we can know what our possibilities are and can understand what obstacles, what stumbling blocks, are getting in the way of them.

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One of the methods that the Gospel of Thomas uses to describe the human being is to use imagery from the first couple of chapters of the book of Genesis. The state to which we must aspire is the state from which we have fallen. It is light, it is the spirit, it is the beginning. Just as Jesus says that life is movement and rest (50), so the spirit moves across the face of the waters on the first day, and God finds rest from work on the Sabbath, the seventh day in Genesis. Rest, sometimes rendered as 'repose', is the culmination of the sequence of searching, finding, suffering, being astonished, and becoming king. Rest is not sleep, but the state of having worked and found reward, the fruit of one's labours.

Having the male and female exist as two and not being united as one is the state of being dead. When they are made into a unity we are alive, and we are made into the image of God. Biologically, the union of male and female results in a child, and this is also what happens when we bring the male and female together esoterically. Instead of the old man who is born of woman, the fallen Adam, we get a little seven days old child, who is living from the Sabbath, the day of Rest, naked without being ashamed. This new thing is as small and as precious as a pearl, with as much potential as a mustard seed. If we bring it to birth within ourselves it will save us. If we don't it will kill us, since we shall continue to be dead.

Being in the kingdom means that one is a king (2). Not a king in the worldly sense since as Thomas tells us, they cannot know truth (78), but king over oneself. second state of our ordinary daytime consciousness. In the third state we know ourselves and are known by your own higher selves, and so find the kingdom.

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Our enemy is within. It is within our own house that we will defeat the powerful man. (98) We must be prepared against the thieves; we must keep watch. (103) We must eat the lion within us (7), combine the male and female into one (22), not be divided (61),not lose the energy, the flour, that we have (97), but make it into a dough within us that can have yeast added to it (96). Our normal state is characterised by division. Every impulse, desire or thought in us calls itself 'I': "I am hungry," "I am angry," "I think such-and-such." These are actually reactions to stimuli that may come to us from outside sources or from a mechanical progression of internal states. When we briefly experience unity we can see these many 'I's for what they are. The Gospel of Thomas also refers to unity and division, and many sayings contain this relation of one to many. The many who are first shall become last, and they shall become one unity (4). We should throw back the little fish from below to take the one good, large fish (8), Jesus chooses one from a thousand (23). There are ninety-nine sheep that should be left to look for the one sheep that is lost (107). The field has many lords but the house has one lord (21). Unity is a small thing, like a mustard seed, yet when it grows can shelter the many 'I's, described as the birds of the air (20). If we think that the kingdom is in the air/heaven-in thought-then our thoughts or many 'I's -the birds-will prevent us from reaching it. (3)

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If we merely nod our heads at the Gospel of Thomas, or marvel at its profundity, we are like Jesus's students saying that twenty-four prophets spoke to Israel, and all of them spoke of you", and so forget about the living one who is in our presence. (52 ) It is not that a book gives us the answer, "rather the kingdom of the father is already spread out on the earth and no one sees it." (113) The Gospel of Thomas asks us to choose between being dead and becoming the image of God.