The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus

The first verse of the Gospel of Thomas tells the reader that whoever understands the gospel's sayings will not "...taste death." It is a clear message that understanding these sayings of Jesus is key to one's spiritual growth. Thus, the onus is on the interpreter to create both an effective translation and a context to evaluate the sayings in order to facilitate this growth. Meyer does a marvelous job of meeting these demands.The book's introduction gives the reader excellent background information on the discovery and authorship of the text. The translation of the text itself is bolstered by the very helpful notes listed after the gospel. The notes made it very easy to cross-reference the gospel's text with similar passages in the New Testament's four gospels. Finally, Harold Bloom provides an interesting commentary that's useful for reflection on the gospel's themes.There is no guarantee that reading the Gospel of Thomas as translated by Meyer will provide the spiritual enlightenment that many people seek. However, Meyer does his best to allow the reader to discover this enlightenment by not clutter the text with his own views and biases. The result is that Meyer's interpretation is a perfect way to learn about and evaluate this important "lost" book of Christianity.

Christians must look beyond the Bible to seek truths about Jesus Christ. The New Testament and this book on the Gospel of Thomas tell us that the teachings of Jesus are not simple as Christian fundamentalists teach. Meyer has done a great job. And, Bloom's reading is a wonderful addition to this book.My analysis of the New Testament concludes that some of Jesus' teachings are simple. But, the New Testament has at least two other classes of sayings that are not simple. These other classes deal with the development of the human mind and the development of God's kingdom. Thus, unless one is trained with today's scientific literature on the mind and modern creation theories, one will understand only about one-third of Jesus' sayings in the New Testament and in the Gospel of Thomas. Clearly, Christians untrained in science and mathematics are making too many guesses relative the truths about the sayings of Jesus.The Gospel of Thomas, like the New Testament and the Hubble telescope,is more proof that Nature has no apocalyptic end. Thus, the only new world that people can expect after death is the world that Nature's law of reincarnation gives them.The Gospel of Thomas is an excellent addition to the New Testament because they have many simularities and can thus be compared. This is a good book to have in any home.

Another Jesus. This is not the Christ who gave his life for us, but a teacher who had learned the secret of life. It may be that Paul, the rabbi, had a vision, on the road to Damascus, of turning the life of Jesus into a religion, but Jesus didn't preach religious doctrine or procedures, he spoke in metaphors for those who could understand, the 'seekers'. His simple, ¨ Ask and it will be revealed¨, is the perfect example of his own experience. He, of course, suffered the torment of hunger and thirst for his enlightenment, but his message is clear. ¨When you were one, you became two. When you become two, what will you do ?¨ When you became two, a step on the way to understanding that can become a part of your way of life, you would have a power to do many things, miraculous things, ¨How will you act then?¨. There are so many things to try to understand in his gospel.

The Gospel of Thomas is part of gnostic literature which purports to give the most accurate data on the sayings of the historical Jesus. Yet on reading Marvin Meyer's translation one wonders to what extent this claim is justified. A great many of the 114 sayings can also be found in the synoptic gospels and those which appear to be new, especially in regard to women, may or may not have come from Jesus' lips. This is not a critque of Prof. Meyer's efforts who has given a very scholarly presentation but is the inherent problem when one takes the person of Jesus, who is known to us practically only from the Gospels, as well as from some derogatroy comments in the Talmud (see noahide.com) and then tries to decipher what He actually did or did not say. This applies of course also to the "Jesus Seminar" where inspite of scholarly efforts a majority vote is not likely to yield scientific truth. Theologians and religious scholars will find the notes Prof. Meyer enclosed very instructive but the average reader, who might expect a major surpise from the Gospel of Thomas is likely to be disappointed

A must have for Bible reference if you want and need to know "what didn't make it into the book of books". Like all the missing books that didn't make it past the ancient censors- This is very enlightening and worth great study. Reading the missing books of the Bible make the Bible- well kind of disappointing. I highly recommend anyone interested Biblical History to study this and other missing works of the Bible. You will learn much more and your mind will expand and your understanding of the old and new Testaments make more sense and are not so hard at times to grasp.

This is not purely just the written gospel of Thomas but the author offers so much more. It is obviously a well researched book and the seeker of knowledge and truth will find it a great read. While I am still inclined to hold on to my 'version' of Jesus, I enjoyed reading this book.

This is quite a discovery and it's no surprise that his writings were lost. This reads as if you reading Thomas's notes as he followed Jesus. I guess the problem is that the authenticity of Thomas as the author cannot be verified. Regardless, I found what he wrote to be closely aligned to what is in the other gospels. It's just not chronological, more or less just notes. Also note that Thomas went into India to preach Christianity there. If we want to find his writings, it's there and his church which still stands we should look!

It’s a tough read but good to expand your mind

Good

Reading the Gospel of Thomas was quite esoteric. Very mysterious. I had no idea what he was talking about, but after reading the afterword by Harold Bloom and watching some interpretations on YouTube. I have a better idea of these writings. This Jesus interests me because a lot of what he says reminds me of Hinduism and Buddhism. The spark is within us as it is outside us. It makes me wonder if that is one reason why this was not accepted into the Bible.This Jesus doesn't come to save us. Instead we have the ability to save ourselves. This contradicts what the the churches say that we need them because they have what we need. It's because we're sinful. But why because these things are within our nature that we were created with. It makes no sense to me. In my youth, I was very much attached to my ego. I wondered, "How can you just give up everything? I want to die but keep my personality and thoughts!" It is now in my 30s, I realize how childish those thoughts were.We are too attached to our ego, and the material. And it is because of those attachments we continue to be drawn to the material. In the past, I felt it was scary. The negation of self. My personality. My likes and dislikes. All of it wiped out. But, I've realized we need to embrace this idea. We were born into this world as nothing and so shall we pass on with nothing. Our memories. This baggage of the mind just prevents us from returning to the light. The light within us is not part of this created world.Reading Jorden Peterson's 12 Rules, he mentions that memory is TO remember things. But not in the way we think. It's for the things we did wrong or messed up, and to learn from it and move on. Thinking of this I was able to better move on from the things that plagued my mind.The Gnostics found knowledge. Of knowing oneself. "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed." Jesus said.Everything is available to us already. Nothing is hidden. We only need to knock on the door.

Dope dope dope dope dopeI enjoyed it so much and will recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good read and wants to know more about Christ.Very recommended and also a five star

Entertaining

Very interesting to know different views