‘The Thomasine Jesus has a big overlap with liberal Quakerism.’ Photo: by Olga Kononenko on Unsplash
Peeping at Tom, part two: Deak Kirkham looks at the Gospel of Thomas
‘Note the striking similarity to Fox’s interpretation of scripture.’
Last week, I suggested that the Gospel of Thomas, a key document in the Nag Hammadi library discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945, contains ideas and themes which overlap with central concerns of contemporary liberal Quakerism. Looking at ‘inwardness’ and ‘salvation’, I tentatively characterised it as ‘a Quaker Gospel’. There are other links, too, one of which may be about returning to some beginning or a state of infancy.
Take saying 18: ‘The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.”’
Stevan Davies’ (2013) presentation of the Gospel capitalises the word ‘beginning’ here and associates it with the pre-Fall Eden where Adam dwelt in intimacy with God. Davies reads the following saying in the same way: ‘Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who existed before coming into being”’. Indeed, Adam himself is referenced later, but as someone unworthy: ‘Jesus said, “Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you. For had he been worthy, he would not have experienced death.”’
This return to innocence, and by implication intimacy with God, is taken up elsewhere using the trope of nakedness: ‘His disciples said, “When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see You?” Jesus said, “When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid”.’
Taken together, these themes seem to suggest that returning to an innocent, unclothed beginning is a key aim of spiritual life. We may ponder whether it is this that we find when we seek the light inside ourselves.
Quakerism, of course, once had a tradition of going naked as a sign. But note the striking similarity to George Fox’s interpretation of scripture, which includes a return to a state as in Eden. In a famous passage from his Journal, Fox writes: ‘Now was I come up in spirit through the flaming sword, into the paradise of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness, being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus, to the state of Adam, which he was in before he fell. The creation was opened to me… I was immediately taken up in spirit, to see into another or more steadfast state than Adam’s in innocency, even into a state in Christ Jesus that should never fall. And the Lord shewed me that such as were faithful to Him, in the power and light of Christ, should come up into that state in which Adam was before he fell.’
Fox interprets his mystical experiences not as a judicial exchange of punishment and freedom by means of crucifixion and sacrifice, but in terms of a radical return to a pre-Fall Eden, when humanity was in intimacy with God. To the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas, and perhaps to George Fox, these were historical claims. They are unlikely to be so for contemporary Quakers but, as a myth, a metaphor for understanding intimacy with the Divine, the links are clear. They may appeal more to the modern mind than the idea of salvation by grace through faith.
The flip-side of the inwardness discussed in part one may be external religious practices. Quakerism is not primarily a religion of ritual; the insights of the radical reformation included a profound scepticism of these forms of religion. Likewise, the Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas seems to reject a number of outward religious practices. On circumcision, for example, he says: ‘If it were useful, then they would have been born already circumcised. On the other hand, true circumcision of the spirit is entirely beneficial.’
Here we see links to both early and contemporary liberal Quaker thought: firstly, the rejection of rituals; secondly, using the language of ritual in relation to inward concerns: circumcision of the spirit.
Similarly, fasting is given a spiritual interpretation: ‘If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the father.’
That said, the world per se is characterised negatively. In saying 56 we have, ‘Whoever has known the world has found a corpse’ and in 27a we read ‘If you do not fast from the world you will not find the kingdom’. This is a theme Quakers may struggle with: Quakers usually view the world as a positive place. Friends are businesspeople, teachers and social workers, and tend to see the world as a place in which to enact transformation. The world as a corpse may not appeal broadly to the Quaker mind.
Although the Thomasine Jesus exhorts us to fast from the world, loving others is an essential part of the message. This is similar to the canonical Gospels, but the point demonstrates some ‘Quakerly’ characteristics of the Gospel of Thomas. A key saying is about love for one’s siblings: ‘Love your sibling like your own soul; look out for that person like the apple of your eye.’
Tolerance for others is also strongly recommended, in an exhortation familiar from the canonical gospels: ‘You see the speck in your sibling’s eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye. When you expel the beam from your own eye then you will be able to see to expel the speck from the eye of your sibling.’ Saying 95 is also of interest: ‘If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to one from whom you will not get it back.’
We have now surveyed a number of points of contact between the Gospel of Thomas and Quaker thinking. To conclude, we note something that the Gospel of Thomas lacks: it is devoid of supernatural elements such as healings, raisings from the dead, nature miracles, voices from heaven, telepathic knowledge on the part of Jesus, and of course the resurrection. While some within the liberal Quaker tradition are happy to take these events at face value, for others they belong to a pre-scientific age. So of course does the Gospel of Thomas, but the fact that it makes no claims as to supernatural powers or events (as well as no reference to the cross or resurrection) means the book can perhaps sit more easily among Friends who emphasise the rational and the empirical.
There is much more to say about the 114 purported sayings of Jesus that constitute the Gospel of Thomas. But I hope to have shown that the concerns of Thomasine Jesus can be viewed as having a substantial overlap with a number of themes in contemporary liberal Quakerism: the Jesus of Nazareth who was a teacher of wisdom, and a prophet of the divine, and who speaks to a rejuvenated, experiential religion, may sit more easily with contemporary Quakerism than the virgin-born, miracle-working Jesus of a sacrificial death and resurrection.
For these reasons at least, the Gospel may therefore merit consideration by Friends, and indeed it may be appropriate to consider it ‘a Quaker Gospel’.
