This concludes the Gospel of Thomas. Please join me for a study of Psalm 31 at http://31stpsalm.blogspot.com/.

Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the domain of Heaven." (114 Thomas)

What is male? What is female?

We tend to think in physical terms. This is the result of our positivist and empiricist heritage.

Prior to the last three-hundred years the question, especially in a religious context, would have been more broadly cast.

I wonder what words for male and female Peter and Jesus used?

They were probably speaking Aramaic to each other, but the meaning of their Aramaic would have been influenced by their religious understanding.

In Hebrew scripture the two most common words for male are 'iysh and zakar.

In Genesis we read, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24). Man, father, and one are all 'iysh.

The Hebrew 'iysh is derived from 'anash meaning sick, desparate, woeful, incurable.

Also in Genesis we read, "He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created." (Genesis 5:2) Both male and Man are translations of zakar.

The noun zakar is - except for context - the same as the verb zakar. The verb means to remember, to think, to be mindful.

I suppose that Peter could have meant 'iysh. What if Jesus replied with zakar?

His disciples said to him, "When will the (Father's) imperial rule come?" He said, "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' 'Rather, the Father's imperial rule is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it." (113 Thomas)

We live in God's domain.

We are usually blind and deaf to it. But we are immersed in God's domain.

We are distracted. We are preoccupied. We are afraid.

Beauty abounds. Love abounds. Grace abounds. We are inheritors of abundance.

Yet we often reject the reality of abundance for the illusions of worry.

The synoptic parallel is Luke 17:20-21. Above is a Russian icon of the Apostle Thomas.

Jesus said, "Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh." (112 Thomas)

It is not flesh or soul. It is flesh and soul. God's domain celebrates the wholeness of physical and spiritual.

It is not a matter of one depending on the other, nor even of mutual dependence. It is shared strength.

The Coptic translated above as depends is, perhaps, better translated as "clings." This is an attachment born of separation.

We are separate from God. But this is not our birthright nor our destiny. Our fulfillment is found in reunion.

Flesh and soul, self and God, past and future, you and me converging in the now.

Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death." Does not Jesus say, "Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy"? (111 Thomas)

For better or worse death-avoidance is not - yet - a major motivation for me.

Finding myself is a major motivation.

It is likely that finding myself will require a death and rebirth of the self.

I am preoccupied with self rather than source-of-self.

Intellectually I accept losing this self in order to become the self intended by God. Practically I am far from doing so.

Jesus said, "The one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, should renounce the world." (110 Thomas)

Thomas is very Greek in his tendency to perceive the material and spiritual worlds in tension.

Yet he consistently communicates that God's domain is present in the world.

If this world is God's domain, what is the source of tension... or is Thomas misperceiving reality?

There are moments when I seem to experience God's domain. There are many days when I do not. What is the difference?

The Coptic for world is kocmoc. This is a loan word from the Greek koxmox or cosmos.

In daily language koxmox suggested an arrangement, the opposite of chaos. Chaos is disorganized potential. Cosmos is organized potential.

Pythagoros used the word for his "world system." But it could also be used to suggest a superficial cosmetic.

When I am outside God's domain I am usually preoccupied with myself or I am distracted by some passing illusion... cosmetic concerns.

I know God's domain when I allow myself to experience the totality of God's creation... the cosmos.

Above is Thomas in stained glass from the Church of St. Thomas in Harty, Kent.

Jesus said, The (Father's) imperial rule is like a person who had a treasure in his field but did not know it. And [when] he died he left it to his [son]. The son [did] not know (about it either). He took over the field and sold it. The buyer went plowing, [discovered] the treasure, and began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished. (109 Thomas)

God's domain has long been with us, but most of us have not recognized it.

We are as likely (more likely?) to find God's domain by accident as when actively seeking.

God's domain is as a great treasure. All that we might need or desire is provided.

Many or most or even all who find God's domain misuse the treasure.

Matthew's gospel also tell's us that God's domain is as a treasure hid in a field. There the treasure is found by accident and secured by stealth, even by fraud.

The 13th chapter of Matthew is one kingdom parable after another. It begins with the sower of seeds, then the parable of the weeds, then the mustard seed, then yeast. After the treasure in the field comes the pearl of great price, then the parable of the net, and the chapter ends with the neighbors of Jesus rejecting his teaching.

They knew Jesus better than any others and yet rejected him. They refused to recognize what could be clearly heard and seen. I wonder how often I make the same choice?

Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him." (108 Thomas)

What is intimacy? Something physical, often sexual, is the typical understanding.

In my experience listening and being heard are the most intimate human acts.

When we speak of our deepest fears or profoundest hopes and someone hears us there is a joining.

When we can listen to another - question another - without judgment or agenda and come to some understanding of the other from the other's perspective, there is an enfolding of one into the other.

Jesus will listen to us. Are we willing to talk? Are we ready to question Jesus? Are we able to listen carefully?

Jesus said, The (Father's) imperial rule is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninetynine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, "I love you more than the ninetynine." (107 Thomas)

The toil expended to recover that which is lost binds us to what we are seeking. Whether we find it or not, our relationship with it is deepened.

It is a mistake to suppose the shepherd held the biggest sheep in any special regard before it went astray. A more helpful insight is that no matter how "big" we may be, we can lose ourselves. Nor was it the going astray that prompted the love. The first reaction was more likely concern or annoyance. But the toil of seeking, rewarded by recovery, has distinguished this big loser from the many others in the heart and mind of the shepherd.

Increasingly I give thanks for my flaws and failures. They encourage self-criticism and impel me to seek God. I am encouraged by Jesus' assurance that God is seeking after me, working with me, and will receive me with particular love when I am found.

The synoptic parallels are Luke 15:3-7 and Matthew 18:12-14.

Above is a 17th Century depiction of Thomas and the risen Jesus by Gerard van Honthorst.

Jesus said, "When you make the two into one, you will become children of Adam, and when you say, 'Mountain, move from here!' it will move." (106 Thomas)

In the Psalm assigned for today we read, "With my whole heart I seek you." (Psalm 119: 2)

In the gospel assigned for today we read of Jesus condemning the Pharisees and scribes, "For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23: 27-28)

Our hearts are often divided. We may seek fame or fortune, security or comfort, more than we seek God. We may seek to hide our division - even from ourselves - but the offspring of division will continue to multiply.

The offspring of wholeness is creative power. When our division from God is closed, when our intention is God's intention, our purpose God's purpose, then whatever we might undertake will be achieved.

The synoptic parallels are Luke 17:5-6, Matt 17:19-20, Matt 21:18-22, and Mark 11:20-25.

Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore." (105 Thomas)

We can be impatient with those who offer essential insights. Their explanations can be subtle or sometimes complicated and often contrary to our preconceptions.

As a result, we may resist their insights and berate their contributions. Too often we exclude them and seek to undermine them.

Yet... to know our origins can be important to knowing our destiny. To know the mystery of our beginnings can help us resolve many other mysteries.

They said to Jesus, "Come, let us pray today, and let us fast." Jesus said, "What sin have I committed, or how have I been undone? Rather, when the groom leaves the bridal suite, then let people fast and pray." (104 Thomas)

In the synoptic gospels Jesus also compared himself to a bridegroom. Here is what Mark relates, "And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days." (Mark 2: 19-20)

In Mark the disciples are the children of the bridechamber. Another translation is more simply "wedding guests." In yet another translation they are "attendents of the bridegroom." The Greek used in Mark is huios. Most often this referred to any male offspring, implying a sense of dependence on the father. It is also the Greek that is used when Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. Are each of us huios?

Is the bridegroom gone? We can more readily agree with Thomas that he has left the bridal suite. The marriage has been consumated. The days of wedding celebration are ended. But the bride and groom remain among us. The mystical union of one and the other persists and from this union proceeds offspring and blessings. Are we, perhaps, as adopted children, both attendants to and descendents of the union?

Above is an icon of the Twelve Apostles, including Thomas.

Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive." (103 Thomas)

This translator has made a couple of choices worth noting. Others have translated "rebels" as thieves or brigands.

When the image of a thief is used, we are more likely to perceive a relationship with Luke's quotation of Jesus: "And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through." (Luke 12:39)

There is a bad tear in the Thomas manuscript which explains a variety of translations for what the forewarned collects or musters or gathers. Some translators simply indicate a lacuna. But coptic letters are legible and are very close to the coptic menter. The "imperial resources" used above strikes me as awkward. Others offer "domain" or "kingdom."

I am, perhaps, overly influenced by Luke. There the parallel saying is used as a preface to, "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." (Luke 12:40)

It seems to me that because I am forewarned I should get going, gather the kingdom received from my father and revealed by Jesus, and be fully prepared. Much of what Jesus taught related to knowing, accepting, and experiencing God's domain available to us here and now.

Jesus said, "Damn the Pharisees! They are like a dog sleeping in the cattle manger: the dog neither eats nor [lets] the cattle eat." (102 Thomas)

Sometimes we really need to get out of the way.

Why are we taking a position? What is the value?

Too often our concerns are non-productive, both for others and ourselves.

The dog has claimed turf where he does not belong. It is not a good place for him and it hurts others.

We are to be as passers-by, helping not hindering.

"Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother [. . .], but my true [mother] gave me life." (101 Thomas)

What is it to hate? What is it to love?

More to the point: How did Jesus hate and how did he love?

The Greek for hate is miseo. In the four gospels Jesus is quoted twenty-one times speaking this word. Most of the quotes warn his followers they will be hated by others or explain why Jesus is hated.

Jesus encourages hate only in the parallel versions of the saying above. Here is how Luke renders it: "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26)

Several Greek words are used for love. Jesus speaks of agapao forty-eight times. He speaks of agape on eight occasions. Jesus discusses phileo in seventeen verses. Here is what he says in Luke 6:27, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

Clearly love is the more prominent and favored act.

Hate is endorsed only for what would separate us from God.

Above is an early 19th Century Russian icon of Thomas encountering the risen Jesus.

They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, "The Roman emperor's people demand taxes from us." He said to them, "Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine. (100 Thomas)

There are those who perceive that the best translation of the Golden Rule is "do unto others as they want."

If he wants money, give him money. If she wants respect, give her respect. If he wants obedience, give him obedience.

Scripture tells us that thanksgiving belongs to God. Why do we so often give what is not wanted and hold back what belongs to God?

The synoptic parallels are Mark 12:13-17, Matthew 22: 15-22, and Luke 20:20-26.

The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." He said to them, "Those here who do what my Father wants are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter my Father's domain." (99 Thomas)

Jesus explains that his intimacy is extended to all who do what his Father wants.

The same scene is reported in the synoptic gospels. There many have perceived a rejection of family. In Thomas the tone suggests an expanded sense of family.

Scholarship on this saying in Thomas and the other gospel versions tends to focus on insiders and outsiders.

I am told the literal Coptic translated above as "Those here" is actually "those-in-these-places." Not just those with Jesus, but those in any place who do what God wants are in relationship with Jesus and God the Father.

We come into relationship with God not by what we believe, not by who we follow, but by what we do.

The synoptic parallels are Mark 3:31-35, Matthew 12: 46-50, and Luke 8:19-21.

Jesus said, The Father's imperial rule is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one. (98 Thomas)

How is God's domain as an assassin?

The assassin is prepared to take a significant risk. The assassin envisions his act. The assassin practically prepares for his act. The assassin takes action.

The assassins best known to those listening to Jesus were the Zealots, terrorist freedom fighters against Roman oppression.

To receive God's domain may require a killing of the self we have known.

In order to know the freedom of God's intention, we may be called to assassinate the self we have become.

Above is Thomas encountering the risen (and headless) Jesus.