The Tao of Christ
The Tao of Christ is a podcast which explores the mystical roots of Christianity, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God, which church historian Evelyn Underhill called the Unitive Life, which Richard Rohr calls the Universal Christ, and which I refer to as Christian nonduality, unitive awareness, or union with God. This is the Tao of Christ.
The Tao of Christ
The Trinity According to Thomas (Gospel of Thomas)
In the 30th saying in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus deals with the topic of the Trinity. At least it seems like he is referring to the Trinity. He may be talking about tritheism or even polytheism. He is certainly talking about duality and nonduality.
See also the episode entitled “Trinity and Nonduality.” at this link:
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In the 30th saying in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus deals with the topic of the Trinity. At least it seems like he is referring to the Trinity. It should be noted right at the start that the full-blown doctrine of the Trinity that we know today cannot be found in the New Testament, much less the Gospel of Thomas. The word trinity is not used in the Bible. As far as we know the first person to use that term was Tertullian who lived around 200 AD. The doctrine of the Trinity was debated for centuries and was not finalized until the fourth century.
Yet we do find the terms Father, Son and Holy Spirit used in the NT, sometimes grouped together. The most famous example is the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is reported to have commanded his disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Although the consensus of biblical scholars is that this baptismal formula is a later addition to the text.
Yet there are other references to Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas. We do not find them in saying 30, which we are looking at today. But they are in saying 44 where Jesus says, "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven." That is a parallel passage to a canonical saying.
So, the three terms in the Trinitarian formula are used very early in Christianity. What those three words refer to and how they are related to each other in the idea of the Trinity is a later development. Yet it can be safely said that the historical Jesus used these three terms. Now let’s get to our saying for consideration today. Saying 30 is translated in different ways:
"Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."
"Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."
Another translation capitalizes the word Gods: “Where there are three Gods they are Gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him.”
It is not clear that Jesus is referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit here. He could be talking about polytheism. After all Jesus lived among the Greeks and the Romans. He grew up in the area known as Galilee of the Gentiles, near the Decapolis, which are Ten Greek Cities. So, Jesus would have been familiar with their deities.
The three major Roman gods, often referred to as the Capitoline Triad, are Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Jupiter was the king of the gods and god of the sky. Juno was the queen of the gods and goddess of marriage and women. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare. These three deities were the most important and widely worshipped in Roman religion. These may be what he is talking about when he talks about three deities.
If Jesus is referring to polytheism in this saying, then what Jesus is saying is truly revolutionary for a Jew to say in that time and place. Jews were fierce monotheists. For Jesus to say, "Where there are three deities, they are divine” or “Where there are three gods, they are gods” is radical. He seems to be acknowledging polytheism as a legitimate expression of spirituality.
He would be saying that all religions are valid expressions of the one Reality that monotheists call God. He would be saying that when people worship any deity, they are knowingly or unknowingly worshiping the one Deity. That is radical. That would be considered blasphemy for Jews, as well as Muslims and Christians today. Yet I think that is part of what Jesus is saying here.
I think it is also possible that Jesus is talking about what we would call the Trinity. We know from saying 44 that Jesus is familiar with the three terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What he meant by those terms is almost certainly not what the later Church meant by those terms. Yet he used these terms.
He may have in mind these three terms when he says, "Where there are three deities, they are divine” or “Where there are three gods, they are gods.” It is just too much of a coincidence that the Trinity is three and Jesus talks about three deities here. If this is the case, what is Jesus saying about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
First of all, this is not the fully developed doctrine of the Trinity, which was formulated and argued about by the church for the next three and a half centuries. The three persons of the Trinity are not three gods or three deities. That is known as tritheism. If Jesus is talking about the Father, Son, and Spirit as three deities, then he is teaching what the later church labeled heresy.
To understand what Jesus is talking about here, we must read the rest of the saying. Jesus says, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one." So, he is moving beyond any talk of three deities and pointing to oneness.
Jesus is transcending theological disputes. It is the same approach he used in the previous saying 29. In that saying Jesus was not getting into the whole metaphysical discussion about body and spirit. Jesus did not care about philosophical or theological distinctions. They were a waste of time in his opinion.
What he cares about is the One. Jesus was focusing on Oneness and not duality. “Where there are two or one, I am with that one," Jesus said. Jesus may be thinking of duality in general or he may be thinking of the Father and Son. Jesus often talked about the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Gospel of John. The church also argued about that for centuries as they developed the doctrine of the incarnation. But here Jesus is not going to get into discussion of three divine figures or two divine figures. He chooses the one.
“Where there are two or one, I am with that one." Jesus focused on the One, with a capital O. He opts for nonduality over duality. Jesus was a teacher of nonduality. Having said that I also think that there is value in pondering the later Christian doctrine of the Trinity. I devoted a whole episode to that topic, entitled “Trinity and Nonduality.” You can do a search for that, and I will put a link to that episode in the description.
I see the Trinity as we have it today as functioning like a Zen Koan that points us beyond reason. Trinity says that three is one. 1+1+1=1. That is not mathematically true, but it is spiritually true. When we delve deeply into the Trinity, it points us beyond multiplicity to the divine reality of nonduality. Three is one. Two is one. The Ten Thousand things are one. All is one. And Jesus says, “I am with that one.”