Essays

• Hidden & Clues
  The Gospel of Thomas starts with 'These are the hidden logia'. Admittedly this not said by Jesus, nevertheless the key-word is one used frequently by him, therefore it behoves us to recognize the intended meaning and its implications. It turns out that it may be one of the words of the lost language of parables that carries a distinctive meaning.
• Coherence
  In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the description of an experiment of sorting cards to make groups of sayings with like-for-like meanings, it is written "it was discovered that a coherent set of spiritual Teachings were revealed"
• Searching
  Gospel of Thomas is for people who are searching—searching for inner peace, tranquillity, timeless certainties, happiness and joyousness in this life, in the here and now. It is for those who at some time in their lives even if not now search for answers to mankind's most fundamental questions "From whence did I come? To where will I go?" It may even go some way to give solace to those who search for release from suffering—the greatest scourge of mankind.
• Stone
  Maurice Nicoll, one of the great spiritual teachers of the West during our times, writes in his book 'The New Man' (1950) "All sacred writings contain an outer and an inner meaning. Behind the literal words lies another range of meaning, another form of knowledge. According to an old-age tradition, Man was once in touch with this inner knowledge and inner meaning"
• Monakhos
  There are three significant words in Thomas that have come down to us in untranslated Greek. We cannot tell whether they were originally spoken in Aramaic, but by their very nature that seems unlikely. Therefore they were spoken by Jesus in Greek, and it means that when he used them he was speaking to the Hellenists. Thomas did not have to translate them, they were not translated into Coptic, and they cannot be translated into English. All we can do is to try to grasp the meanings that Jesus intended.
• Metanoia
  This is another Greek word used by Jesus that has come down to us without ever having been translated is Métanoïa. Nor, like the other two, can it be adequately translated into English. We just have to try to seek out the meaning Jesus intended.
• Makarios
  Another of our untranslated and untranslatable Greek words in Thomas is makarios. It is used in the beatitudes of the N.T. Gospels, where it is almost always rendered as 'blessed'. This rendering of the word can be very misleading, for it can be confused with 'blest', an entirely different word. The difference lies in the person concerned. A state of blessedness exists within a person; being blest involves another person outside oneself.
• Empty Desert
  In our little island in a temperate climate we can have no real awareness of an empty, uninhabited desert. Wherever you are a person or house is likely to be seen. Whichever way you look there will be trees and beyond them some hills will arise. But even though the climate of Palestine was more temperate in Jesus' time, he and all his listeners must have been fully aware of the desert around them and deeply aware of its emptiness.
• Knowing not Belief
  Here is a typical Teaching that was discovered in the Gospel. In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the sayings that are relevant to this particular Teaching are grouped together, without being in any way altered. These are typeset to show they are our words, not those of Jesus. They are merely to prompt the reader's understanding, but it is for the reader to discern the real significance of the Teaching.
• Happiness and Joyousness
  Happiness is one of the themes Jesus speaks of most often in the Gospel of Thomas. Only knowing and finding occur more often. The theme of happiness comes in ten of the sayings, which are scattered throughout the Gospel. What it must imply is that as Jesus and his disciples travelled around during his ministry, this must have been a frequently recurring theme. It may be unexpected that Jesus spoke of it so often—but there are many aspects of the Gospel of Thomas that come as a surprise to us.