FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (11) - PART TWO: HUGH MCGREGOR ROSS 'THIRTY ESSAYS ON THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS'

 Hugh McGregor Ross has an American counter-part, Professor Stevan Davies; these two scholars have studied the Gospel of Thomas and each, in similar ways, has opened the eyes of readers to the spiritual wisdom of the sayings of Jesus as recorded by Thomas. Stevan Davies writes in 'The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained' (2002): 'The Gospel of Thomas presents a vision of all human beings as potential children of God within whom already, unbeknownst to them, the divine light is shining.' How wonderful it is that our founder, George Fox, arrived at the same conclusion through his mystical experiences leading to his truth-finding in1647: we are all children of the light. 

1647, in England and 1945, in Egypt, when the only surviving copy of the Gospel of Thomas emerged from the ground in an earthenware jar, are key years and places when humanity was blessed. 

The Light and the Truth - in the Sayings of Jesus recorded by Thomas these are to be found within us.

In the first part of this blogpost, I summarized some of the knowledge and ideas of Hugh McGregor Ross recorded in his 'Thirty Essays on the Gospel of Thomas' (1990). In this post, I share the rest of his wisdom.

• The Gospel of Thomas was branded as heretical by Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, in the early third century. Ross notes that the original meaning of the word 'heresy' was neither abusive nor complimentary - it means literally a choice, for example of principles. But Christians such as Paul in the first century and then Ignatius in the second century began to apply it to views they regarded as erroneous - not representing a proper understanding of Christian belief. They were intent on creating a church for everyone with a defined dogma of belief. Other religions offer a pathway to a deeper personal spirituality: the Jewish faith has Hasidism; Islam has Sufism; Hindus have the Vedanta. The early Christian churches set in place a rigid and persecuting intolerance of difference that has severely distorted the understanding of the historical Jesus. 
• The sayings of Jesus that are recorded by Thomas are independent of any external authority. The hearer/reader is left making their own sense of words that may at first seem nonsensical. Yet always there is a profound and enlightening spiritual message as we will see. Those committed to a church hierarchy are likely to be threatened by such direct messaging of truth. 
• It is also the case that there is no trace of the prevalent Christian idea that people are to be saved from their sins by a redemptive Saviour. Original sin is absent. This is not the Christianity of the convert, Paul, whose interpretation of the significance of Jesus shaped the biblical canon. 

Original sin - Adam and Eve and the Apple - shades of misogyny as well as a terrible misunderstanding of human nature?

• It is often claimed that the Gospel of Thomas is a Gnostic Gospel. This is in part because it was found amongst many other books that certainly are Gnostic, and it seems likely that the monastery at Nag Hammadi in Egypt was following that Gnostic tradition. The basic theme of Gnosticism - a form of religious belief and practice found all over the Mediterranean area during the time Christianity developed - was that we need to escape from the material world since it is evil and created by an inferior god, a demiurge. We need to find sanctuary in another sphere where the full life of the spirit is possible and the divine spark in humanity can be fulfilled. The flesh is evil since it is material. Such views clearly clashed with Christian teaching. 
• Yet the emphasis on Gnosis remains of great value to the seeker after spiritual Truth, with its transforming qualities. Gnosis is attained by following a path and being guided by one who already has knowledge of this path. The Gospel of Thomas is attuned to all these positive features, even if the rejection of the material world as evil was most certainly not in the sayings of Jesus recorded by Thomas. Thomas and the other followers of Jesus and his teaching believed in the spiritual life being possible in this material world where evil could be overcome. 
• One of the key themes of this Gospel is to know who or what is at one's very centre. Here in Logion 3 we read: 'When you know yourselves/then you will be known,/and you will be aware that you are/the sons of the Living Father.' This kind of knowledge is entirely independent of any ecclesiastical authority - just as George Fox found in his transforming mystical experiences. There is no hint in the Gospel of Thomas that it is from original sin that we are to be saved by the redeeming death of a Saviour God. Instead, we have the claim from Jesus in logion 113 that the Kingdom is already here: 'His disciples said to him:/On which day will the Kingdom come?/Jesus said: It will not come by expectation./They will not say: "Behold, it is here!"/or "Behold, there!"/But the Kingdom of the Father is spread out over the earth/and men will not see it." It will remain unknown until people find peace and harmony - the 'repose' that comes from being sure about oneself inwardly.

We can understand 'Kingdom' as the realm we live within; Jesus's Middle-Eastern world was a network of kingdoms.

• The idea of 'repose' features several times in this Gospel. This is definitely a symbolic repose, not merely a resting. It is a vibrant state, with everything inwardly alive, but in equipoise through being in total harmony. In logion 50, we have this advice from Jesus for his disciples: 'If they question you:/What is the sign of the Father in you?"/say to them:/"It is a movement with a repose."   
• If we compare the Gospel of Thomas with the four Gospels of the Bible, it is appropriate to consider the possibility that the sayings of Jesus might have been more comprehensive than those recorded by the evangelists, three of whom had never met him (John being the exception). Over seventy of the logia are related to passages in the Biblical Gospels, leaving forty-five that are unique to Thomas's record. Where there are links between the Biblical Gospels and Thomas's Gospel, Ross suggests that the Thomas version may in some instances be closer to the original saying. For example, the Beatitudes in Matthew and Luke include the idea that one is blessed when men revile and persecute you. Ross suggests this is a redaction to take account of the persecution contemporary Christians were suffering when these Gospels were being written. The original saying is the one found in logion 69: 'Happy are they who have been pursued in their heart./ It is they who have known the Father in truth.' The urge to find spiritual Truth at the depth of one's being is the way to happiness. Seek and you shall find. As we read in logion 108: '...the hidden things shall manifest to him'.
• We know that the Gospel of Thomas existed during the formative period when the Gospels of the Bible were being written and that it was used within a Church that was quite widespread. We also know that much in it was rejected by other Churches that were now establishing orthodoxy as they came to ascendancy. Ross suggests that the Gospels of the Bible may have been consciously moulded and redacted so that similarities with the Gospel of Thomas were minimized. Thomas proclaims a spiritual Master with the Truth and Light within all of us; this is a far cry from the Christ as Son of God, redeeming humanity from their original sin by His own sacrifice. Ross also speculates that the picture of 'doubting Thomas' that has come down from the biblical Gospel account may have been an attempt to belittle Thomas by making him doubt Jesus on his resurrection appearance to the disciples. 

Doubting Thomas - but is the story itself an invention? 

• Something new is an emphatic theme of the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus's words are clear: he was presenting a new way of understanding Truth. This is in marked contrast to the Biblical Gospels that link the events and sayings of Jesus to quotations from the Old Testament. The continuity of Christianity with the Hebrew religion is a vital part of the Canon.
• The release from the Ego that both fuels us and blinds us is vital. Our ego can be contrasted with our real Self. Being egoistic or selfish, competitive and proud, depressed or fearful: all are manifestations of the ego. We need to transfer our attention from the ego that threatens to dominate us to the real Self so Truth becomes known.  
• There is nothing in the Gospels of the Bible, coming directly from the living Jesus, to justify the extreme emphasis our Churches place on death and an after-life. By contrast, the Gospel of Thomas gives no suggestion that there is a continuation of life after death. Death in Thomas's Gospel is symbolic in character: in logion1, we read: And he said:/He who finds the inner meaning of these logia/will not taste death.' 
• To avoid dying to the Truth even as we live out our life-span, we need to strip ourselves from the grip of a dominating Ego. Logion 4 captures the idea perfectly: 'Jesus said:/The man old in days will not hesitate/to ask a little child of seven days/about the Place of Life,/and he will live,/for many who are first shall become last/and they shall be a single One.'  A baby is born without an ego - look at a baby of seven days, and you are looking at egolessness. That is perfection. That should be our aim. Jesus is clear: the baby is our exemplar, our competence model.