became more interested in the story of Jesus rising from the dead—the otherworldly magic—than the hard work of living in this world. Christianity became a set of propositions to believe in—no matter how difficult that belief became—rather than a way to live a life of peace, care, and relationship. Yet, when we turn to the words of the Gospels, the red letters of the words of Jesus, isn’t it peace, care, and relationship—to the sacred and to each other—that we read about? Somehow, Christianity lost its way.
Yet, a framework survives: metanoia, kenosis, and perichoresis—changing the mind; emptying the self; joining in the dance of the sacred. That is the process Keats imagined; it is the process The Gospel of Thomas invites us to. There is no belief; only practice.
The Text
Scholars had long known of The Gospel of Thomas, though a relatively complete copy of it was not discovered until 1945. Unlike the canonized Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, The Gospel of Thomas contains no bios, biography. It consists, rather, of sayings or teachings of Jesus, some familiar from the Gospels, some with additions or deletions from the Gospel versions, some unknown before. Readers familiar with the canonical Gospels will be immediately struck by the similarities of many of these sayings and parables with those in other Gospels. This can be explained by one of three theories: that they are older than—and perhaps a source for—the sayings and parables that appear in the other Gospels; that they occurred in a parallel tradition that interacted little with the canonical material; or that they are derived from the Gospels for another (perhaps gnostic) purpose. What we know for sure is that the early Christian movement contained disparate and geographically dispersed traditions concerning the meaning of the life, the death, and the teachings of Jesus.
As in the case of the canonical Gospels, The Gospel of Thomas claims authorship by a noted historical personality, in this case Didymos Judas Thomas, one of the twelve followers, perhaps most famous as “Doubting Thomas.” Didymos is Greek, meaning “twin.” “Thomas” means “twin” in Aramaic. By tradition, Thomas was a brother of Jesus, though not necessarily the twin of Jesus. Also by tradition Thomas was the only one of the Twelve to leave the Roman Empire during his ministry, traveling to Syria, Persia, and ultimately India.
The Gospel of Thomas appears to have been originally written in Greek and later translated into Coptic. The Coptic text is the basis for this translation. It should be noted that the order of the sayings does not appear to reflect any progression of ideas toward a conclusion.
As mentioned previously, much debate circles around the composition date of The Gospel of Thomas. The text could be very early, perhaps even one of the sources for the Gospel According to Mark, earliest of the canonical Gospels. Or it could be later, about the turn of the second century, perhaps contemporaneous with the Gospel According to John, last written of the canonical Gospels. The date of composition makes a great deal of difference in how to understand the text. Based on a later dating of the text, The Gospel of Thomas has been labeled “gnostic,” part of a mystical branch of Christianity later considered heretical. If it is earlier, however, predating the gnostic movement, it may contain the record of a non-Platonic mystical tradition dating to the teachings of Jesus himself. This is the assumption I have worked from in the following translation.
The controversy over the dating of the text may never be resolved. There is no doubt, however, that The Gospel of Thomas is fascinating as a study in mystical, non-dual thinking, a “wisdom way” that did not enter the Western consciousness again until the discovery of Eastern thought many centuries later.
A Note on the Structure of this Book
This translation of The Gospel of Thomas is rendered as free verse. The Gospel of Thomas is made up of parables and aphorisms designed not to be prescriptive but evocative—to call out our own hearts and minds into the lived experience of the present moment. Each of the numbered sayings is designed to lead the disciples of Jesus—which now includes you—to an understanding of what has in Christian tradition been called “the kingdom of God” or “eternal life.” (The phrase in Greek is Balileia ton Ouranon.) In the Jewish tradition of which Jesus was a part the preferred term nowadays is “the Sovereignty of Heaven.” The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called it the Beloved Community. In this translation I have called it The Dance of the Sacred. Why call it that? Because in my lived experience, my deepest religious experiences—call them mystic, perhaps—have manifested as an invitation to join the dance of all that is. You are invited.
Prologue
These are the secret sayings of the living Jesus
that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.
Meditation
Why is it Jesus
Will speak this way?
Aphorisms and parables:
Who do they keep out?
Not the poor;
not the uneducated;
not those in pain.
Rather, those left out
are those unwilling
to consider paradox;
those who already
“know it all.”
1
He said:
Whoever realizes the meaning of these words,
that person will never die.
Meditation
The Buddhist poet Nagarjuna said something similar,
Nothing comes into existence
and nothing disappears.
Nothing is eternal;
nothing ever ends.
Nothing is identical
and nothing is different.
Nothing moves here or there.
2
Jesus said:
Do not stop until you find.
And when you find,
you will be troubled.
Yet, having been troubled,
you will become amazed,
and then you will be
master of all.
Meditation: Bobbing on Surfaces
Because of your bother
With the surfaces,
The old masters say,
You have lost what is basic,
What
