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Wow, I thought I started a paragraph about the Gospel of Thomas, but can't find it on this blog. Funny- so if you see a sentence started somewhere that makes no sense, thats what its about, haha. Anyway, after watching some documentary on the theory of Jesus having gone to India and studying with Hindu scholars, I was moved to read up on the Gospel of Thomas.

I'm an avid studier of Jesus (and other prophets/mystics) and want to put His teachings in visual form- much is anyway as in my piece The Seed Sower. Throughout this, I'm also working on the Journey into Motherhood series, dedicated to our child-to-be, full of the experiences and thoughts that came into being before our being comes into being :)

Much of the text is confusing--- very cryptic- such as "84. Jesus said, 'When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!' " What could that mean?

I'm thinking the scripture as a whole is ambiguous so people can apply it to themselves in whatever time and situation they find themselves in~ none of the writing is concrete at all. Gotta love that! So much of the scholarly speak hinges on that his teachings were time related and contextual (for the specific people who were dealing with a specific issue), but I don't- I don't believe that he was teaching the present people as much as everyone... that the sermons given at the time is meant to be applied in the particular way you think in your time.

But, going there, the first part is easy-

“When you see your likeness, you are happy...”: when you see someone like yourself/your child/people who look like you/same religion, values, race, gender? “you are happy”. Able to relate to them? Alive? When you see living people alive?

“But when you see your images that came into being before you...: Ancestors? Anthropology? "and that neither die nor become visible...": Angels? Dead people? Bodies? Because they’re already dead? Their spirits? Ghosts? How can you see something that isn’t visible? Could be about bones, anthropology- “how much you will have to bear!” Anxiety, worry… When you see people like you, you’re happy, but when you are faced with having the same outcome of your predecessors, you’re going to get anxious? But then, that’s my interpretation. If it doesn’t “become visible”, its probably mental apparitions, thoughts- possibly?

The text is filled with passages like this- simple, wise, amorphous.

In many places, the 5 major religions might be the topic- the family of 5 quote, in particular.

“16. Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. (OK, having shaken the foundation of their belief system…)

For there will be five in a house: (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism- “house” as in unity, they are of the same family) there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone." (Stand alone as in solitary? Or lonliness, having lacked something? Kept separate?)  

 The quote “After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you," should be yelled off mountain tops :) 
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