‘The Gospel of Thomas stresses that light is part of what is inward.’ Photo: by Olga Kononenko on Unsplash
Peeping at Tom, part one: Deak Kirkham looks at the Gospel of Thomas
‘It might be considered a Quaker gospel.’
The four canonical gospels of the New Testament are familiar: the synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke), which, broadly, have a similar structure and share a considerable amount of material; and the Gospel of John which differs in tone, style, theology and arguably in its view of Jesus. But these texts are not the only ones which present an account of the ministry and meaning of Jesus of Nazareth: a number of other ancient documents also concern themselves with this, one of which, arguably the most important, is the Gospel of Thomas.
Contemporary knowledge of the Gospel of Thomas dates to 1945, when a collection of papyri were discovered in the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. Now known as the Nag Hammadi library, these fifty-two Coptic documents constitute a major archeological discovery. Usually considered the foremost text in the find, the Gospel of Thomas is a series of what scholars have classified into 114 sayings of Jesus.
While called a ‘gospel’, this document bears no structural similarities to the four canonical gospels, each of which dedicates considerable space to the crucifixion-resurrection narrative, as well as miracles, teachings, and in some cases dialogues between Jesus and others. By contrast, the Gospel of Thomas is simply a list of sayings, mostly beginning with ‘Jesus said.’ It makes no mention of Jesus’ infancy, ministry or location, and offers no comment on the events of Easter (the word ‘cross’ appears only once, in the saying ‘Take up a cross and follow me’). Moreover, while many of the sayings show similarities with the synoptic gospels, many are unique to Thomas and cover themes which are peripheral to or absent from the canonical gospels.
The Gospel of Thomas has attracted considerable scholarship, and editions are widely available. Solid scholarly works include Elaine Pagels’ Beyond Belief and Stevan Davies’ The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Wisdom. This two-part article will contribute to commentary on the Gospel of Thomas by examining the text from a Quaker perspective. Indeed, I will tentatively advance the claim that it might be considered ‘a Quaker gospel’. To achieve this, we will consider a number of themes in Thomas that sit easily with concerns and ideas within the liberal tradition of Quaker thinking. In this first part of the article we will consider first inwardness, and then the nature of salvation.
Inwardness
The lengthy saying 3 reads as follows: ‘Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty”.’
Here we have an echo of the famous statement in Luke: ‘The kingdom of God is within you’. In Thomas, however, the kingdom is within and without, a binary that anticipates other motifs in the text. ‘Know yourselves’ means understanding this inside/outside kingdom, which in turn builds relationship with God.
The prominence of this comment at the head of the Gospel, as well as its depth, is noteworthy. The emphasis on an inner kingdom, coupled with the thought that it is also outside of us, chimes with concerns in contemporary Quakerism: the inner light which impels us to live well and act well in the real world.
Two other instances are worth quoting in relation to this theme of inwardness. The lengthy saying in 22b includes this in response to the disciples’ question ‘If we are infants, will we enter the kingdom of God?’; ‘When you make the outside like the inside and the inside like the outside and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female… then you will enter’.
Then in 69a we have an example of several Thomasine beatitudes which do not appear in the synoptics. Jesus states: ‘Blessed are those who have been persecuted within themselves.’ Then, in the following saying we have ‘When you give rise to that which is within you, what you have will save you.’ Salvation itself seems here to be framed in terms of connecting with something interior.
Light has a place in this theme of the inward. The synoptics and Johannine traditions discuss light largely in the context of Jesus himself; Thomas also identifies Jesus with the light in 77a: ‘I am the light above everything. I am everything. Everything came forth from me.’ Light moreover is a pre-existing place in saying 50: ‘Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself”.’’
The Gospel of Thomas, however, stresses that light is part of what is inward, and that it is in all people: ‘There is light existing within a person of light. And it enlightens the whole world.’ The connection to the central Quaker notion of the inner light is clear: light is a divine, inner inherent part of the constitution of humans.
Salvation
Thomas is silent on the notions of faith and grace that dominate the canonical gospels and the writings of Paul. He is also silent on the notion of a sacrificial death, framed in judicial language. By contrast, spiritual life in Thomas seems more to do with seeking. ‘Seek and you will find’, familiar from the New Testament, is saying 92a. It is not always clear what is being sought or how to do it, but several comments suggest it relates to the here-and-now. For example, saying 2 may be read as a statement of what the Gospel of Thomas is about: ‘Jesus said, “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all”.’
Then, in later sayings we read:
‘Recognise what is right in front of you and that which is hidden from you will be revealed’ (saying 5).
‘They said to him, “Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you”. He said, “You read the face of the sky and the earth, but you have not recognized who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment”’ (91).
‘His disciples said to him, “When will the kingdom come?” Jesus replied, “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is’. Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it”’ (113).
The rejection of salvation offered by a sacrificial death, leading to a resurrected heavenly state, is in striking contrast to the New Testament. Contemporary liberal Quakers tend to share this scepticism, instead anchoring their spiritual lives in the present world. For Friends, this spiritual life is available to all, through awareness of, and attention to, the present, tangible world.
Next week: innocence and intimacy
