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?