Buried Treasure Of The Logion

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.

1. And he said, “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.”

2. 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. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]”

-Gospel of Thomas 1-2 (Free On Gnosis.org)

The logion of Thomas are probably the most enigmatic collection of Yeshua’s teachings we have. Even their author seems to be shrouded in a mystery. Didymos (δίδυμος) means “twin,” but that doesn’t give us much to go on.

• Are we to believe Yeshua had a twin brother?
• Does it imply Thomas was double-minded?
• Was twin merely a nickname?

There is very little information on who Thomas is in the synoptic gospels. People who think in terms of physicality have come up with dozens of possible reasons why the term twin was used to describe a member of Yeshua’s inner circle. By virtue of scholarly research we are offered a lot of theory with little concrete evidence.

Then, there’s the gnostic interpretations of the name Didymos. You think a possible twin brother born in the womb of the Virgin Mary is wild just wait. Some gnostics imply that Thomas was a Holy Spirit of the demigod Yeshua manifested in the flesh. They’ll pull up the hebrew word kephel (כָּפַל) which means double. There’s whole pairs of doubles that can be paralleled together from Mary Magdalene/ Joan of Arc to Elisha/ John the Baptist.

Speculation is good fun. It’s natural to want to dive into the infinite possibilities of who/what the Twin who wrote down logion full of hidden-ness is. In many ways, the Gospel of Thomas plays on secrecy. The sayings themselves contain hidden meanings meant to lead the seeker on a journey inwards.

What better way to start diving into mystery is there? Here’s a bit of cloak and dagger word play on the authors namesake to kick off the search for clandestine wisdom.

Luckily, the Gospel of Thomas remains optimistic that the ardent seeker will unearth its treasures. There’s even a nice carrot dancing on a string to urge us onwards. “Whoever finds the correct interpretation… will not taste death.” When one considers that over half of the sayings share parallels within the synoptic gospels it’s safe to say they weren’t meant to be secrets. Consider the example of another school of thought that followed along the same lines; the infamous Zen koans:

A monk asked the priest Jōshū, “Does a dog have buddha nature, or not?” 

Jōshū replied, “Mu!”

-Jōshū’s Dog

What is mu? It could mean everything. It could mean nothing. It could mean the infinite nothingness that lies at the heart of buddhism. That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what koans are designed to bring about. In that exhausting intellectual exercise that ensues when we attempt to answer the riddle lies its wisdom.

“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. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]”

-Logia 2

Now, the discovery of proper interpretation is not the final goal of the logion. No. The realization of what the Kingdom of God is remains at the heart of the Gospel of Thomas. Consider saying 96:

“The Father’s kingdom is like [a] woman. She took a little leaven, [hid] it in dough, and made it into large loaves of bread.

We find leaven in the dough by kneading it. We find the Kingdom by working out the mysteries in the teachings. We have to take these sayings inwards and meditate on them to do so. It requires effort, but Thomas promises us we will marvel- we will be amazed by what we discover once we do.

Obviously, this form of salvation is based on gnosis- knowledge of self- not in blind allegiance to dogma, but that doesn’t take away from the validity of the logion. With each successful dive into the mysteries comes a strong emotional connection that stirs in the depths of our psyches. Ask anyone who’s ever gone through therapy and they will tell you exactly how disturbing it can be to look within themselves. All bright horizons to the side, those dark nights of the soul are no picnic.

[And after they have reigned they will rest.]

I’m not going to spoil that one directly. Anyone familiar with the Mystical Mind-state can probably guess where this is going. It is here I leave you for the day.

Adonai Elohienu. Adonai Echod.

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