What if the four Gospels of the Bible aren’t the most reliable source for the spoken words of Jesus? What if there was another source that consisted merely of the things Jesus said, with no attempt to weave a story around the sayings? Almost like someone had jotted them down in a notebook as he spoke?
Well, such a document exists, and it’s called the Gospel of Thomas. In the book The Quantum Sayings: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas, author Keith Giles tells the story behind the gospel and most importantly, the “hidden” meaning of the 114 sayings within it. The resulting book is mind-blowing.
If you’re not familiar with the Gospel of Thomas, it’s for good reason. It’s still frowned upon by most churches today. In the first few centuries of the Common Era, it was banned by the church, which ordered all copies of the gospel be destroyed. But in 1945 it resurfaced, when copies of Thomas buried in sealed jars were unearthed in Egypt. It was not until 1977 that an English translation was available to the public.
Some scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas actually came before the four canonical Gospels, or at least around the same timeframe that Mark, Matthew and Luke were written. A few even believe it predates the letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the early Christian church (circa 48 to 58 CE).
As Giles points out, one thing that sets the Gospel of Thomas apart from the other gospels is that “it’s a sayings text with no doctrinal teachings.” There are no narrative stories about the life of Jesus, only the words Jesus spoke to his closest followers. Giles emphasizes:
There is no birth story, no details of his early life, nothing about where he was born or where he grew up. Nothing is said about his miracles or his crucifixion, the resurrection, or the ascension. This document is quite simply a collection of the sayings of Jesus, half of which already appear in the four New Testament Gospels.
The tricky part: figuring out what Jesus meant.
Pick up a copy of the Gospel of Thomas, and you’ll find that Jesus often speaks in coded language and parables that can be hard to decipher. That’s where The Quantum Sayings: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas becomes invaluable. Assisted by William G. Duffy’s The Hidden Gospel of Thomas, Giles provides the key to unlocking the meaning of the Thomas sayings. In a nutshell:
- The key to understanding Thomas is that in most of the 114 sayings, Jesus was speaking about non-dualism.
- The primary message of Thomas is that we are one with Jesus and everything and everyone else.
You might be wondering, what’s non-dualism? It’s the belief that there’s no real separation between ourselves, God, and the rest of existence. We are all part of the same whole or as Beth Bradford said on Medium, “We are all swimming in the same soup.” Any apparent separation is an illusion. In terms of the Gospel of Thomas, Giles explains:
The rubric for almost every single saying in Thomas is rooted in a non-dualistic framework. There is no “Us” and “Them.” There is only “Us.” Everything is in Christ and Christ is in all things and all people. We are not separated from God, or from one another. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
Giles explains that this means “The Truth is not ‘out there’ somewhere beyond us, it is within” us. No need to consult a book, attend a conference, or talk to a priest or guru to find the answers we need. We merely need to tap into the idea of non-duality and realize the connection between us and all things seen and unseen.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Giles informs us that “Christ spoke against the notion of separation between God and mankind. Separation is a lie. Dualism is an illusion. All are one in Christ, and the outward symbols of separation—race, religion, gender, economic status—are dissolved in the reality of our shared oneness in Christ.”
What follows are four passages from The Quantum Sayings: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas. The words in italics are the actual sayings from Thomas, while the text that follows are lightly edited excerpts of how Giles explains them. (Please note that he goes into much greater detail in the book.)
4 Sayings from the Gospel of Thomas
In the prologue of the Gospel of Thomas, it’s stated that the sayings are from the “living Jesus.” Giles explains this means “they did not come post-crucifixion. They were actually heard by his disciples when he was physically alive in the flesh—spoken as he walked, talked, and taught, travelling and teaching in Judea during the First Century.”
SAYING 3
If those who lead you 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 fishes will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside of you and outside of you.
When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father.
When we understand that our Oneness with the Divine is inseparable, we realize that we already have everything we need to be at peace, to find rest, and to experience true, lasting fulfillment. If the Kingdom is both inside and outside, then the concepts of inside and outside become meaningless. Everything is in the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is in everything and everyone.
SAYING 7
Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion that becomes a man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the man becomes a lion.”
Both the “man” and the “lion” are not meant to be interpreted literally. Here, the “man” refers to the true person within each of us, the true Self. The “lion” is a metaphor for the false self, the Ego. The Lion of our Ego wants to be in control, devours its enemies, and accepts the false notion of an “Us and Them” universe.
Our True Self recognizes the illusion of duality and knows that Truth is found through realizing we are not separate but are one with the Source, and therefore, with all things. When our fear-driven Ego is “consumed,” it becomes subdued by the peaceful, free, and innocent “True Self.” The True Self then can realize its own Oneness with everyone and everything.
SAYING 22
Jesus said to them: “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below —that is, to make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female … then you will enter [the kingdom].
If we are all one in Christ, there is no separation—no outside, no inside, and no male or female. There is no separation between us. We are all One in Christ Jesus. Christ is all and is in all. Our Oneness with Christ makes us One with everyone, everywhere.
SAYING 48
If two make peace with one another in one and the same house, (then) they will say to the mountain: ‘Move away,’ and it will move away.
Whenever two people make peace with one another, they become one and the same. Their house becomes a single house, their hearts beat in perfect time together, and they begin to breathe in unison. All this happens simply because they have come to the realization that they are not two separate people; they are merely different expressions of the One who fills everything in every way.
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