Showing posts with label Gospel of Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gospel of Thomas. Show all posts

Friday 26 July 2019

Gospel of Thomas and Nature of Jesus

Jesus  Christ his original name was Jeshua ben Joseph. He was born in a Essene family and as such as a devout Jew he only worshipped the Only One True God of Israel, the God of Abraham Who is a singular eternal Spirit Being no man can see.

Throughout the times we can see Jews also at times came to worship several gods. At that time - Moses had to fight with that fact already and Jesus encountered it again. For Jesus it was clear that there is Only One True God, and that it was not him, but the one Who is greater than him and without Him Jesus can do nothing..

It is strange to find Jesus being aware of the plans for his future. So in the Gospel of Thomas Jesus is having a slap against Trinitarian doctrine, declaring that a doctrine of 3 gods is polytheistic if one understands that each of the gods is a separate god. Thus there is only one true God

Sayings
(30) Jesus said, "Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."
Translated by Thomas O. Lambdin (from Coptic)

(30) Jesus said "Where there are three, they are without God, and where there is only one, I say, I am with that one."
Translated by Marvin Meyer (from Greek)

Jesus has always been with that One God of Israel Who is One, and not two or three.
Jesus is denouncing the idea of trinity, whether that be 3 in 1 or three separate beings.
To Jesus, for whom there is only One, denounces a cluster of three gods, also known as a trinity of gods.
This teaches us that the Father is the Undivided One, the Deity he is not divided into 3 persons.
Lots of Trinitarians argue with the first phrases of John's Gospel that Jesus would be God. Though they forget there is spoken about a word and The Word, the Speaking of God. 

The 'Word" appearing in flesh does not mean that Jesus was part of the trinity or an angel in heaven before he was born. First of all taht word becoming in the flesh gives us to understand taht what God spoke in the Garden of Edne had become a reality. For the apostle John it was very clear that his master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ) was that promised one who would break the curse of death.
Secondly, “to appear” means to look at behold, to allow one’s self to be seen, Jesus was in the world but the world did not know him until he made his appearance on the world stage, when he was about 30 years old.
 

It was the word that became flesh when Jesus says 
"I appeared in the flesh"
The Logos or word, which is identical with Theos or Deity, now Theos was the Logos, that is Deity and was the word having become flesh. This is Deity manifested in flesh. Jesus came from the seed of David according to the flesh that is in the sameness of sinful flesh but being the son of God his character was clean so he was without sin (that is transgression of God's law) but we may not forget he had the sinful nature and as such could be tempted and could sin. (Remember also that God can not be tempted and can not sin.)

From the Messianic Writings we come to know that it is in the sinless man of flesh and blood, who did not do his own will, but managed always to do God His Will that God condemned sin in the flesh when Jesus was made sin for us, for it was in the flesh of Jesus that God condemned sin in the flesh and killed the one who has the power of death that is the devil which is our own desires and when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

In the Gospel of Thomas it is said
(101) Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to Me. And whoever does [not] love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a [disciple] to Me. For My mother [gave me falsehood], but [My] true [Mother] gave me life."
For My birth mother [gave me death], but [My] true [Mother] gave me life."
Jesus birth mother (Miryam/Miriam/Mary/Maria) could only give him death or falsehood which we understand to be sin in the flesh. But his true mother give him life and as such the promised one by God, came into being only some 2 millennia ago (and not earlier). 


According to this physical law, the Seed of the woman spoken about in the Garden of Eden,  was born into the world from a woman of flesh and blood who also had a sinful nature. The nature of Mary was as unclean as that of other women; and therefore could give birth only to "a body" like her own, though especially "prepared of God" (Heb. 10:5).
Had Mary's nature been immaculate, as some claim, an immaculate body would have been born of her; which, therefore, would not have answered the purpose of God; which was to condemn sin in the flesh; a thing that could not have been accomplished, if there were no sin there.

This view of sin in the flesh is enlightening in the things concerning Jesus. The apostle says,

 "God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21);
and this he explains in another place by saying, that
 "He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3)
 in the offering of his body once (Heb. 10:10,12,14).

Far too many people forget that Jesus is the sent one from God who came to declare God and showing the world that he is the Way to God.


In case Jesus would not have the nature of man or when he would be God, we would not have anything of the then fraudulent actions, like his so called death, because God can not die. Then we would also have nothing with his so called resurrection, because when Jesus would be God than we still have no proof that man can step out of the dead.

Sin could also not have been condemned in the body of Jesus, if it had not existed there. Therefore Jesus had not to be God, but had to be a man of flesh and blood, able to sin and able to fail as well able to have a free choice to do as he wanted to do or to follow (and putting his own will aside) his heavenly Father, the Only One true God.

Jesus his body was as unclean as the bodies of those for whom he died; for he was born of a woman, and "not one" can bring a clean body out of a defiled body; for "that", says Jesus himself,
 "which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6).

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Find also to read:

Looking at what the Gospel of Thomas Teaches

Looking at what the Gospel of Thomas Teaches

Biblical Christian Gnostic Teachings looks at "The Theology of the Gospel of Thomas".

The non-canonical sayings gospel or writing of logia by the apostle Thomas, commonly known as "Doubting Thomas" , brings not a narrative account of the life of Jesus, but some 114 of the sayings attributed to his master teacher Jesus Christ. Almost half of these sayings resemble those found in the Canonical Gospels, while it is speculated that the other sayings were added from Gnostic tradition.

Originated in Hellenistic Judaism we may find in this second of seven contained in what modern-day scholars have designated as Codex II from a school of early Christians, possibly proto-Gnostics.

In this book is said that Jesus is alive and is called the living one meaning the risen lord. It tells us we can live by Jesus' sayings and should take into account about things which Jesus speaks.

The listener should seek the truth, which can be found in the Holy Scriptures whereto Thomas gives some overview of things Jesus said we should remember. With his writings Thomas wants us to join him on a journey 
that will make us kings and at the end it will lead to rest (Greek Saying 2)
 Naturally being it a gnostic writing we have to look at it as not a divine inspired book, but as just one of the several civic writings about the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ). Though it request us to be exclusively committed to the truth like the fisherman who came to follow that son of man who said to them he was the sent one from God.

Also in this book we are assured that the kingdom we are looking for should be found on earth and not in heaven (saying 3 82 113) It is within us and it is to be spread out upon the earth. it is not in the world of the dead (saying 59).

The work tells us there is a spiritual kingdom on earth right now. It is within us if Jesus is in us and all around us (saying 3 24 22 51 77 82 113).

In this work we also come to know that if we follow Jesus we can become 
a man of light lighting up the whole world (Saying 24) like a city built on a high mountain (Saying 33)
and that Jesus tells us to tell others (33 50).

By presenting this writing the apostle Thomas points to the fact that we should look at Jesus as the Kingdom near us, him being the origin of the new creation (77 82 3 49 14 50 7) and that we should pass by the thinking of the flesh and be passers by of all other teachers and teachings (Saying 42)

> find to read

  1. Casting the Fire of Kingdom upon the World The Gospel of Thomas
  2. Non-Docetic Gnosticism in the Nag Hammadi Library
  3. My siblings and My mother The Gospel of Thomas Saying 99
some of the sayings: 
  1. Prophecy in the Gospel of Thomas
  2. seeks rule and rest Gospel of Thomas Saying 2
  3. Gnosis is to Know Thyself Gospel of Thomas Saying 3
  4. Gnosis And Intuition Gospel of Thomas Saying 3
  5. it is not “pie in the sky when you die, bye & bye.” Gospel of Thomas Saying 3
  6. Gospel of Thomas Saying 4
  7. James the Just Gospel of Thomas Saying 12
  8. The Light Within The Gospel of Thomas Saying 24
  9. Taking Off A Garment Gospel of Thomas saying 37
  10. meditating about death gospel of thomas saying 63
  11. The Gospel of Thomas Saying 77
  12. Should we worship mary Gospel of Thomas saying 79
  13. The “twin” of Christ Gospel of Thomas Saying 108

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  1. The nature of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas
  2. Miracles in the Gospel of Thomas
  3. Forgiveness in the Gospel of Thomas
  4. Love in the Gospel of Thomas
  5. The Doctrine of Sin in the Gospel of Thomas
  6. The Theology of the Gospel of Thomas
  7. Does the gospel of Thomas teach the Trinity?
  8. What the Gospel of Thomas Does Not Teach