The Gospel of Life (Gospel of Thomas)

Today I look at the first saying in the Gospel of Thomas. It says, “And he said, ‘Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die.’” Another translation says, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death." Another puts it, “Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death.”

The theme is Life. Eternal life. It is about conquering death. This is the theme of the Gospel of Thomas.  It is the Gospel of Life. The purpose of this gospel is knowing eternal life. 

In exploring this theme I look at the four ways of salvation in classic Indian thought: the devotional path called bhakti, the path of works called karma, and the path of knowledge called jnana, and the path of meditation called raja. I show how they are present in Christianity. 

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Transcript

Today I look at the first saying in the Gospel of Thomas. In response to the last episode, which explored the prologue, someone asked which English translation of the Gospel of Thomas I prefer. Honestly I have not decided. Hopefully later I can recommend the best translation, but I am not there yet. In the meantime I suggest that those who are interested can compare various translations at the Gnostic Society Library website found at gnosis.org.

It is not clear if the first saying in the Gospel of Thomas is spoken by Jesus or Thomas. It does not say it was Jesus. It simply just says, “He said.” I suspect this is Thomas speaking. In any case, the first verse says, “And he said, ‘Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die.’” Another translation says, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death." Another puts it, “Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death.” Regardless of the translation, you get the point.

The theme is Life. Eternal life. It is about conquering death. This is the theme of the Gospel of Thomas.  It is the Gospel of Life. The purpose of this gospel is knowing eternal life. This is also the stated purpose of the Gospel of John. John ends with the words: “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

These words in Thomas - “Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die” - echoes the famous words of Jesus in the Gospel of John, “He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” 

It should go without saying that both the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of John are not saying that we will never physically die. We all physically die. Everything that is born dies. Even Jesus physically died. It means that when we discover what we truly are, then we realize that even though we physically die, yet shall we live. That is the message of the gospels of John and Thomas. 

The difference between these two gospels is how this life is realized. The canonical gospel says that eternal life comes through believing in Christ. In other words it is through faith. The Gospel of Thomas says it comes through discovering the truth that Jesus proclaimed. That sums up the difference between traditional Christianity and mystical Christianity, between Christian nonduality and Christian fundamentalism. 

Faith is present in mystical Christianity, but it is not the main theme. Union with God is the main theme. Faith is the beginning of the spiritual life, not the completion of it. A helpful way of looking at this is by seeing a parallel to the four paths of salvation in Hinduism. 

In Indian thought there are four paths: the devotional path called bhakti, the path of works called karma, and the path of knowledge called jnana, and the path of meditation called raja.  The first two are where most Christians get stuck. Faith and works. Christians have been arguing about faith and works ever since the apostles Paul and James. The Protestant Reformation was fought over this issue. The role of faith and works is still debated and preached about a lot these days. 

The way of knowledge is also talked about by Christians, but they tend not to travel very far enough on this path. They get stuck in dogma. In traditional Christianity correct knowledge defined as doctrine is seen as essential to salvation. That is why statements of faith are so important in traditional Christianity. For conservative Christians correct doctrine is how they tell true Christians from the heretics, in their opinion. 

Even though a lot of Christians will say it is all about faith, it becomes very clear very quickly that they do not really mean that. They insist that you have to hold to the right ideas about God and Christ as defined in creeds and confessions of faith. Therefore traditional Christianity – including evangelical Christianity – is actually salvation by knowledge – at least in part - even though they say it is by faith alone by grace alone.

But the path is knowledge is much more than accepting the religious tradition in the form doctrines. The path of knowledge is about questioning the traditional beliefs. It is cutting through the overgrown jungle of beliefs and arrive at the source of knowledge. True knowledge is not found in ideas. True knowledge comes through digging deep and finding the core of truth. 

I just finished rereading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. He says, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” True Knowlege is not accepting the teachings of a religion based on religious authority. It is discovering for yourself whether or not they are true. I would call this the way of deconstruction. In other episodes I have shared how I deconstructed my Christianity. I needed to know what was really true. This deconstruction is the path of knowledge. 

That is what the apostle Thomas is known for. Thomas is known as the doubting apostle. He is called Doubting Thomas. In the Gospel of John, he did not accept that Jesus had risen from the dead based simply on the testimony of the other apostles. He needed to see for himself. When he saw for himself, only then did he exclaim, “My Lord and my God.”

We might call Thomas the patron saint of deconstructionists. He is certainly the apostle that most clearly exemplifies the path of knowledge. Fundamentalists will boast proudly of their secondhand faith. They say, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.” What they are really saying is that they are not going to think for themselves. They are going to accept traditional teaching without investigating whether or not it is true.

Thomas would not accept what the apostles said. He needed to investigate for himself. That is the way of knowledge. This is essential for spiritual liberation. Otherwise knowledge is nothing more than dead religious tradition. 

In my discussion of Thomas, I have already moved beyond the way of knowledge to the fourth way of salvation. It goes beyond analytical examination of what is true and false to experience the divine directly, which is also what Thomas did. 

Indian thought calls this the path of meditation, but that term can be misleading. It does not have to be a organized religious discipline. It is a natural direct awareness of Reality. Once again in Walden, Thoreau talks about living in his cabin at Walden Pond. He says that some days he began the day sitting outside, and he was still sitting there at the end of the day. He had spent the whole day in meditation without any intention of doing so.

Transcendentalists had spiritual practices, but they were not regimented. They came naturally. In this way the path of meditation could be better described as intuition or direct awareness of the Divine. The word intuition best describes my experience. I no longer put aside a set time and a place for a discipline of meditation. But I meditate all day. Throughout the day I am continually aware of the Kingdom of God shimmering behind and through and in all things. 

This is raja, the royal way. This is the way of Thomas. This is the Gospel of Thomas. I think that is why he ended up in India, if Christian tradition is to be believed. He was living on the western end of the Silk Road, and he may have come across travelers from India. He heard about their religion, which is why he traveled there. In any case Thomas knew the Divine directly. This unitive awareness is the fulfillment of all four paths. 

This is direct intimate knowing of God.  It is oneness with God spiritually. Realizing this oneness is called God-realization or Self-realization or nondual awareness or unitive awareness. When one knows firsthand what we really are, then we know without a shadow of a doubt that we will not die. That is the first saying in the Gospel of Thomas.