Eye Exam (The Gospel of Thomas)

This episode is on saying 26 in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "You see the sliver in your friend's eye, but you don't see the timber in your own eye. When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's eye."This saying in the Gospel of Thomas has a famous parallel in the Gospel of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”The differences between the canonical and noncanonical versions are few but important. They are the difference between duality and nonduality.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode examines the 25th saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "Love others like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye.” Among other aspects, it explores how love of others guides social and national morality from a nondual perspective.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode explores the 24th saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. His disciples said, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it." He said to them, "Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."This saying is about the spiritual search for the Eternal Christ. Jesus disciples say to him, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it.” In answering their inquiry Jesus directs them to what the Quakers call the Inner Light. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode covers the twenty-third saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus says: "I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one." Here is a slightly different translation: "I shall choose you, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and you shall stand as a single one." This verse deals with the rarity of spiritual awakening and the nature of spiritual awakening. In discussing the nature of awakening I will explore the three spiritual stages of life leading to awakening.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The twenty-second saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is the clearest example of Christian nonduality that we have in any gospel. Some of these metaphors in this passage are familiar to us from other sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, as well as similar sayings in the canonical gospels. Others we have not come across before. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" 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, and 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 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."View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode is on the 21st saying in the Gospel of Thomas. I will read it for you: Mary said to Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?" He said, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them. Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The twentieth saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is one that is familiar to Christians who have read the canonical gospels. It is known as the parable of the Mustard Seed. Thomas’ version goes like this:The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the kingdom of Heaven is like." He said to them, "It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of heaven."At first hearing it may sound identical to the New Testament parable. But listen again. Here is the version found in the Gospel of Luke. Pay attention to the differences.Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”They sound similar, but the small differences make a big difference. Let’s look at the differences and what they teach us about the Kingdom of Heaven, which is Jesus’ term for Divine Awareness.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

 Today I am looking at the nineteenth saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will minister to you. For there are five trees in paradise for you. Summer or winter they do not change and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death." This saying naturally breaks down into the segments. First is a beatitude. Then there is the statement about the stones. And third is the enigmatic saying about the Trees of Paradise. All three have echoes in the canonical gospels. Once again the Gospel of Thomas gives us new insights into the New Testament sayings. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode we look at the 18th saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. “The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us how our end will be.’ Jesus said, ‘Have you discovered 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.’" View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode we look at Easter through the eyes of the apostle Thomas as found in the Gospel of Thomas. I contrast it with the canonical view of this apostle as “Doubting Thomas” as depicted in the famous story in the Gospel of John. We find that Thomas – like the apostle Paul -  had an understanding of the resurrection of Jesus as a spiritual experience that is beyond the physical senses and beyond the human mind to understand.  In this episode I mention my book “The Evolution of Easter: How the Historical Jesus Became the Risen Christ.” Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/EVOLUTION-EASTER-Historical-Became-Christ/dp/1983077143/ View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU