GOSPEL OF THOMAS

These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke, and which Didymos Thomas wrote down.

"Whoever finds the meaning of these sayings will not experience death.

Let him that seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will become astonished, and he will rule over all."

Jesus said: "Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become like me; and I shall become he, and the hidden things will be revealed to him. One who seeks will find; for one who knocks it will be opened.

Fortunate is the one who has worked hard and has found life.

Fortunate is the one that came into being before coming into being.

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you, if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. For many of the first will be last and will become a single one."

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are sons of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty. One who knows all but is lacking in oneself is utterly lacking.

If the flesh came into being because of the spirit, it is a marvel, but if the spirit came into being because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty."

Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

The kingdom is like a man who had a treasure hidden in his field but did not know it. And when he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know about it. He took over the field and sold it. The buyer went plowing, discovered the treasure, and began to lend money at intrest to whomever he wished.

I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Do not give what is holy to dogs or they might throw them upon the dung heap. Do not cast your pearls before swine, or they might turn around and swallow them down.

His followers said, "When will you appear to us and when shall we see you?"

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the child of the living one and you will not be afraid.

Often you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me."

His followers said, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it."

Jesus said, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."

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, established itself, and appeared in their image.' If they say to you, `Is it you?' say, `We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living father.' If they ask you, `What is the evidence of your father in you?' say to them, `It is motion and rest.'"

Jesus said, "Look to the living one as long as you live, or you might die and then try to see the living one, and you will be unable to see."

Jesus said, "I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was given from the things of my father. For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness."

He said to them, "Whoever has ears to hear should hear. There is light within a man of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine it is darkness."

The followers said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?"

Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are, you are to go to James the just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."

Jesus said to his followers, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."

Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him.

When Thomas came back to his friends, they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and consume you."

Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to impose peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to impose conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in a house: There will be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone."

Jesus said, "Look! I have cast fire upon the world, and see! I am watching until it blazes."

Jesus said, "Whoever is near me is near the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom."

Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty. But now they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent."

Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered, nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. As for you, be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves."

Jesus said, "A prophet is not acceptable in the prophet's own town; a doctor does not heal those who know the doctor."

Jesus said, "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: That is the cornerstone."

Jesus said, "Fortunate are you when you are hated and persecuted; and no place will be found, wherever you have been persecuted."

Jesus said, "Fortunate are those who have been persecuted in their hearts: They are the ones who have truly come to know the father. Fortunate are they who are hungry, that the stomach of the person in want may be filled."

Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am the all:

From me all has come forth, and to me all has reached. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

Jesus said, "Why have you come out of the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a man in fine clothes, like your rulers and your powerful ones? They are dressed in fine clothes, and they cannot understand the truth."

A woman in the crowd said to him, 'Fortunate are the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you."

He said to her, "Fortunate are those who have heard the word of the father and truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, `Fortunate are the womb that has not conceived and the breasts that have not given milk.'"

Jesus said, "Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a corpse, and whoever has discovered a corpse, of that person the world is not worthy."

Jesus said, "Let one who has become wealthy rule, and let one who has power renounce it."

Jesus said, "Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the father's light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light."

Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will bear!"

Jesus said, "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."

The followers said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be."

Jesus said, "Have you discovered the beginning, then, so that you are seeking the end? For where the beginning is, the end will be. Fortunate is the one who stands at the beginning: That one will know the end and will not taste death."

If you become my followers and listen to my sayings, these stones will serve you.

For there are five trees in paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

Then they said to him, "Then, shall we enter the kingdom as babes?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, the 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 will the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom."

Jesus said, "I shall choose you, one from a thousand, and they will stand as a single one."

Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it alive. When you are in the light, what will you do?

On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"

Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not see death."

Does not Jesus say, "Whoever has found oneself, of that one the world is not worthy"?

Jesus said, "Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh."

His followers said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?"

He said to them, "What you look for has come, but you do not know it."

His followers said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"

"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, `Look, here it is,' or `Look, there it is.' Rather the father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it."

Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, `Look, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, `It is in the sea,' then the fish will proceed you. Rather the kingdom is inside you and is outside you.

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