The Secret Sayings of Jesus
Exploring the Hidden Gospel
I am not a man of religion, nor do I walk within the bounds of any established teaching, dear reader, though by custom and record, I am counted among the Christian fold.
I was baptised at three years of age, a ceremony performed, if I am honest, more for appearance and worldly standing than for any conviction of the soul.
My mother did not believe in God; a rather startling contradiction against the faith I was formally brought into.
My father never spoke to me of things divine, though silence is not always denial, and I do not presume to know what dwells in his heart.
As for me?
I believe in a Creator.
I believe with all my being that this world, and the order and wonder woven into it, is the work of a higher intelligence.
I must speak plainly:
I find the tales of chance and chaos utterly preposterous
That from nothingness, an explosion should spring forth without cause, without source, and from that empty fury fashion the living world; this I cannot accept.
That a single cell appearing from nowhere should grow into a fish, then as if by miracle forge legs and lungs, forsake the deep, and become beast, then ape, and then ourselves; this is not science, it is a fable woven from assumptions.
I shall not dwell longer upon such things, for we have moved far beyond the need to argue them, curious mind.
This evening, however, brings something that may well be among the most profound and important truths we have yet uncovered together.
Of all the wisdom kept from our sight, of all the truths never taught to us, what follows stands among the greatest.
It is not locked away in some vault, you may find it with but a few keystrokes.
Yet it remains almost entirely unknown, seen only in quiet circles and among those who seek the old books.
Or so it seems to me.
And so I shall speak no more of preliminaries.
Let us turn now to what was written, there is no better time than the present moment to begin.
Translation:
“GOSPEL OF THOMAS
These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke, and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down.
And Jesus said: Whoever finds the true meaning of these words shall never know death.
Jesus said: Let the one who seeks keep on seeking until they find. And when they find, they shall be deeply troubled; and once troubled, they shall stand in wonder, and shall rule over all things.
Jesus said: If those who guide you tell you, "Look, the Kingdom is in the heavens," then the birds of the heavens will reach it before you. If they tell you, "It is beneath the earth," then the fish will find it before you. Rather, know this: the Kingdom is already within you, and also all around you. When you come to know yourselves truly, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you yourselves are that very poverty.
Jesus said: An old man need not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old child about the place of life, and he shall live. For many who are first shall come last, and all shall become one and the same.
Jesus said: Understand what lies before your eyes, and what is hidden from you shall be revealed. For nothing remains hidden that shall not be brought to light.
Then his disciples asked him and said: Should we fast? How should we pray? Should we give to those in need? What ways should we follow?
Jesus said: Do not lie, and do not do what you despise. For all things lie open before the light of heaven. Nothing is hidden that shall not be made known, and nothing is covered that shall not be uncovered.
Jesus said: Blessed is the lion eaten by a human, for the lion shall become human. And woe to the human eaten by a lion, for the lion shall become human still.”
And so, dear reader, let us first understand what this document is; this extraordinary collection known as:
the Gospel of Thomas
This is not a text that was passed down openly through the ages, nor one you will find resting between the gospels upon the shelf.
For centuries it was known only through faint whispers and scattered references, its very existence debated, doubted, and ultimately set aside, as though those in authority had decided it was not meant to be read.
Then in the year 1945, within the dry and quiet earth of Nag Hammadi in Egypt, a great treasure was unearthed, curious mind.
An ancient library sealed within clay jars, hidden away perhaps by those who feared what it contained, and there preserved across seventeen hundred years lay this Gospel written in the ancient Coptic tongue, waiting patiently through all those centuries for the moment when the world might once again be ready to hear it.
It opens with words that carry the weight of a doorway, telling us these are not teachings shouted to the crowds upon the mount, but sayings shared privately with those who were ready to understand beyond what is commonly taught.
And the very first promise is profound beyond measure, for it tells us that to grasp the true meaning of these words is to touch something beyond death itself.
Consider that, dear reader.
It does not say that belief alone shall grant you life, nor that adherence to a creed, nor the performance of sacred rites.
It says that whoever finds the meaning shall not taste death.
Understanding itself is the key.
Truth itself is the doorway.
To truly comprehend is to partake in something eternal, and that alone tells us how different this teaching is from everything we have been accustomed to.
It speaks then of the journey itself, that we must keep seeking until we find, and when at last we do find we shall be deeply troubled.
This is such an honest and beautiful truth, one so rarely spoken.
Real truth does not comfort us at first; it unsettles us.
It undoes everything we once held certain, everything we were taught from childhood, everything upon which we built our understanding of the world.
And only once we have been shaken, once we have stood in that holy disturbance, do we begin to marvel.
And from wonder comes a kind of sovereignty, where we begin to understand our true place within the whole of existence.
We are not meant to accept what we are told.
We are meant to seek, to be shaken, to marvel, and at last to rule over our own understanding.
There follows perhaps the most luminous insight of all, one that turns every temple and every hierarchy entirely upon its head.
We are told that the Kingdom which people have been taught to seek in the distant heavens or beneath the earth is actually closer than breath itself, lying within us and all around us.
Those who point elsewhere are guiding you toward a place the birds and the fish will reach before you ever could.
The Kingdom is not somewhere you must travel to after death.
It is not a place far away that only the righteous may enter.
It is here; it is within you.
And to know yourself truly is to be known, and to understand that you are of the very substance of the Creator.
Then the warning that follows is clear and terrible.
If you never come to know yourself then you dwell in poverty indeed.
There is no greater destitution, no poorer state of being, than to walk through your entire life unaware of who and what you truly are.
Age and wisdom are then turned entirely upside down, when we are told that an old man heavy with years may learn from an infant only days old.
The child carries a clarity the world has not yet managed to obscure.
It has not yet learned all the things that are not true.
And so all the status and learning accumulated over a lifetime may count for nothing beside that pure unburdened vision; from this there comes a great reversal.
Those who consider themselves first, greatest, most learned and most important may find themselves last.
In the end all shall be recognised as one and the same.
All distinctions fall away.
At the very source of things we are equal.
We are told further that what is hidden shall be revealed if only we have the courage to look at what stands plainly before us.
There is nothing concealed that shall not be brought to light.
Truth does not forever hide in deep caverns or distant skies, it waits to be seen.
It stands before your face plain as day, if only you will open your eyes and truly look.
And then the disciples ask the questions we all ask:
What must we do?
What rules must we follow?
What rites must we perform?
What observances shall keep us right?
And the answer comes stripped of all ceremony and ritual, stripped of all complexity and intermediary.
Do not lie.
And do not do what you despise.
That is the whole of the law; no lengthy list of duties, no complicated forms of prayer, no fasts at appointed times.
Just this:
be true and honest to your own heart
For all things lie open before the light; there is nowhere to hide that does not eventually reveal itself.
And so the entire way, the entire path, is simply to be true to yourself.
Then to end, there is the riddle of the lion and the human, deep and shifting, meant perhaps to be pondered rather than simply explained.
It suggests that within each of us there is a wild nature, a force that may be consumed and uplifted, or that may consume us in turn.
If you master the beast within it becomes part of you, and rises with you.
If the beast masters you then you become as it.
Either way one nature becomes the other.
And so the choice is always yours.
Which transformation shall you choose?
These then are the teachings; they are not history, they are not dogma, and they are not commands to be obeyed without question.
They are mirrors held up to your own soul, curious mind, inviting you to look inward, to seek, and to understand.
And so, dear reader, what we have learned this evening are the keys to life, and we must, as always, reflect on our time spent together tonight.
We have been shown that the greatest truths are not distant and hard to reach, nor locked away in temples or spoken only by those set in authority.
They are close at hand, dwelling within the very heart of who we are.
We have seen that to know oneself is the highest knowledge of all, and that until we truly look upon ourselves with honesty and compassion, we remain in poverty, no matter what riches the world may heap around us.
I would ask you then to stand before your own mirror, not in judgement, nor in vanity, but simply with wonder.
Look deeply into your own eyes and remember.
Remember that you are not just flesh and blood, nor only the sum of your habits and your days.
You carry within you the same Kingdom that the birds and the fish know by instinct.
You are stitched through with the very substance of the Creator.
And yet, like the child who has not yet learned to forget, you hold a clarity that all the learning of the world cannot improve upon.
Be gentle with yourself upon this journey, dear reader.
When the truth comes and troubles you, do not turn away in fear.
When all that you once believed begins to shake and fall away, stand firm in that holy disturbance, for it is the very ground upon which wonder is built.
To be shaken is not to be broken.
It is to be made ready for something far greater.
Be kind to others also, for in the end we are all one and the same.
The distinctions we draw between us are but shadows cast by a light we do not yet fully see.
At the source of every living thing there is but one breath, one light, one life flowing through us all.
To harm another is to harm yourself.
To lift another is to rise also.
This is the great reversal the old words spoke of.
The first shall become last, and all shall stand equal at the feet of truth.
Do not lie to yourself.
Do not act in ways that would bring you shame when you stand alone in the quiet hours.
Treat the wild and living nature within you not as an enemy to be cast out, but as a force to be understood, uplifted, and made noble; so that the beast may become the human, and the human may rise to become something greater still.
That transformation is the choice laid before you, day after day, in every thought and deed.
Let nothing be hidden within you.
Let all things be brought into the light.
Stand before your own soul plainly, and see it as it truly is.
For when you know yourself, you shall be known; when you understand who you are, you shall understand the whole world also.
These are the gifts held within these ancient words.
They were hidden away for a reason, for they grant you something that no earthly authority can ever give.
They remind you that the Kingdom is within.
That the truth stands before your face.
That understanding is the key to life eternal.
And that you are, in your own quiet and eternal way, already whole, already free, and already home.
Your presence here and your attention are the greatest support this work could ever receive, and I value them above all else.
There is no obligation to give, and no one need ever feel they must contribute to be welcome here.
If however you are able to offer something, your kindness helps me seek out these ancient words, preserve them, and share them freely with all who come seeking truth.
Every contribution, small or great, becomes another page uncovered, another voice brought once again to light.
Thank you, for being here, dear reader.
Thank You!
The Gospel of Thomas is interesting. As I've read it, it doesn't come across as Gnostic heresy to me, but rather as a collection of sayings that matches the sayings of Jesus found in the Gospels.