The Gospel of Thomas
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Hidden, and Clues

The Gospel of Thomas starts with 'These are the hidden logia'. Admittedly there not said by Jesus, nevertheless the key-word is one used frequently by him. It comes in sayings #0, #1, #5 (twice), #6, #32, #39, #83 (twice), #96, #108 and #109. Therefore it behoves us to recognize the intended meaning and its implications. It turns out that it may be one of the words of the lost language of parables that carries a distinctive meaning.

In the Coptic it has three spellings HOP, HOP, HEP which Crum does not distinguish, and translates as to be hidden or to hide. The Metanoia scholars render it as cache or cacher which translates to be hidden or to hide.

Some writers translate the word as secret (The Secret Sayings ..., The Secret Gospel ...). This may be merely a failure to look up the Coptic word in Crum's Dictionary. More likely, it may be a confusion, perhaps unconsciously, with the mystery religions of that time, thus importing into Thomas a concept completely alien.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary comes to our help in discerning the subtle difference between hidden and secret. First, secret comes from Latin 'separate, set apart', whereas hidden comes from a more basic English word. Secondly, in defining hidden it says 'keep a thing from view without intention of secrecy'.

So something hidden is meant to be found.

Finding of course is another of Jesus' favourite words, the most-frequently used one in the Gospel of Thomas. Furthermore, in several sayings finding and hidden are intimately related. Thus:

5.3          what is hidden from you shall be revealed
6.10        For there is nothing hidden that shall not be manifest,
68.5        and the hidden things shall be manifested.
109.3     who owned in his field a hidden treasure ....
             While ploughing, he [buyer] found the treasure.

This concept of finding what is hidden comes by implication in three other sayings. It lies in the 'stone' used in the ancient language of parables, as in #19.6: even these stones will minister to you. and in #77.7&8:
lift up the stone, and you shall find me there.

Here the meaning is that there are hidden qualities in the words of Jesus even though they appear inanimate. (See also the mini-essay Stone.)

In saying #33:

What you will hear in one ear
and in the other Ear,
that proclaim from your housetops.

The 'other Ear' is our third or spiritual ear with which, once it is awakened, we can hear the inner meanings hidden in the literal words of Jesus. This saying goes even further, for its 'proclamation' is the very opposite of secrecy.

Professor Stevan Davies starts his commentaries in his 'The Gospel of Thomas' with a clear statement about the hidden nature of the sayings:

The "hidden-ness" of the sayings has to do with their enigmatic character. The meaning of these sayings is hidden in them as, for example, leaven is hidden in dough (saying 90) or a treasure might be hidden in a field (saying 109). The Gospel of Thomas is optimistic that what is hidden will be revealed (sayings 5, 6, 108). These are not sayings that were supposed to be kept secret from other people ....

So Jesus was not trying to baffle or perplex people. He was using his distinctive technique of giving sayings that have deeper inner meanings or greater import than first meets the eye, and either present a challenge or offer us more (depending on one's personality) that we have to find for ourselves. He is not like the solicitous servant or obsequious butler who offers us glasses of living water on a silver tray; he is a dynamic figure spurring us to rise to his level of spiritual awareness.

In doing this, he does not however leave us high and dry. He gives us clues. The spotting of these clues is not only a prerequisite to finding the hidden meanings, but it is also just as important. Experience shows that unless these clues are followed up subsequent studies, relying on our own pre-existing ideas, can lead to fruitless conclusions.

Thomas starts by the very direct clues:

#01  These are the hidden logia ....
           He who finds the inner meaning

Jesus goes on to sprinkle clues generously:

#2      Let him who seeks not cease from seeking until he finds;
#8      That wise fisherman .... chose the large fish without trouble.
#5      Know him who is before your face,
#59    Look on Him who is living
#46    he who amongst you becomes as a little child
#18    For in the Place where the beginning is,
#48    If two make peace with each other in this single house,
#22    When you make the two One
#94    He who seeks shall find
#90    come to me,

In our third book 'Jesus untouched' many more clues are offered to the discerning reader. The most obvious and significant one is the title name given to each Teaching and repeated, for guidance and emphasis, at the top of every page.

Other clues are given by occasional words added in the translation from the ancient document and, perhaps of more value, the notes and even a few mini-essays that are given at the end of those Teachings where experience shows that they may be of benefit. It is emphasised that these are not commentaries on the sayings nor explanations of the inner meanings, for that could frustrate Jesus' practice of requiring us to find the inner meanings by our own efforts. That is how he leads us to greater awareness of the spiritual Truth he embodied.

H.McG.R.
Written 14th April 2003

Essays

  • Hidden & Clues
    The Gospel of Thomas starts with 'These are the hidden logia'. Admittedly this not said by Jesus, nevertheless the key-word is one used frequently by him, therefore it behoves us to recognize the intended meaning and its implications. It turns out that it may be one of the words of the lost language of parables that carries a distinctive meaning.
  • Coherence
    In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the description of an experiment of sorting cards to make groups of sayings with like-for-like meanings, it is written "it was discovered that a coherent set of spiritual Teachings were revealed"
  • Searching
    Gospel of Thomas is for people who are searching—searching for inner peace, tranquillity, timeless certainties, happiness and joyousness in this life, in the here and now. It is for those who at some time in their lives even if not now search for answers to mankind's most fundamental questions "From whence did I come? To where will I go?" It may even go some way to give solace to those who search for release from suffering—the greatest scourge of mankind.
  • Stone
    Maurice Nicoll, one of the great spiritual teachers of the West during our times, writes in his book 'The New Man' (1950) "All sacred writings contain an outer and an inner meaning. Behind the literal words lies another range of meaning, another form of knowledge. According to an old-age tradition, Man was once in touch with this inner knowledge and inner meaning"
  • Monakhos
    There are three significant words in Thomas that have come down to us in untranslated Greek. We cannot tell whether they were originally spoken in Aramaic, but by their very nature that seems unlikely. Therefore they were spoken by Jesus in Greek, and it means that when he used them he was speaking to the Hellenists. Thomas did not have to translate them, they were not translated into Coptic, and they cannot be translated into English. All we can do is to try to grasp the meanings that Jesus intended.
  • Metanoia
    This is another Greek word used by Jesus that has come down to us without ever having been translated is Métanoïa. Nor, like the other two, can it be adequately translated into English. We just have to try to seek out the meaning Jesus intended.
  • Makarios
    Another of our untranslated and untranslatable Greek words in Thomas is makarios. It is used in the beatitudes of the N.T. Gospels, where it is almost always rendered as 'blessed'. This rendering of the word can be very misleading, for it can be confused with 'blest', an entirely different word. The difference lies in the person concerned. A state of blessedness exists within a person; being blest involves another person outside oneself.
  • Empty Desert
    In our little island in a temperate climate we can have no real awareness of an empty, uninhabited desert. Wherever you are a person or house is likely to be seen. Whichever way you look there will be trees and beyond them some hills will arise. But even though the climate of Palestine was more temperate in Jesus' time, he and all his listeners must have been fully aware of the desert around them and deeply aware of its emptiness.
  • Knowing not Belief
    Here is a typical Teaching that was discovered in the Gospel. In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the sayings that are relevant to this particular Teaching are grouped together, without being in any way altered. These are typeset to show they are our words, not those of Jesus. They are merely to prompt the reader's understanding, but it is for the reader to discern the real significance of the Teaching.
  • Happiness and Joyousness
    Happiness is one of the themes Jesus speaks of most often in the Gospel of Thomas. Only knowing and finding occur more often. The theme of happiness comes in ten of the sayings, which are scattered throughout the Gospel. What it must imply is that as Jesus and his disciples travelled around during his ministry, this must have been a frequently recurring theme. It may be unexpected that Jesus spoke of it so often—but there are many aspects of the Gospel of Thomas that come as a surprise to us.