Customer Reviews

The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus

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If you're interested in Thomas, but baffled but what translation/edition/commentary to get, look no further. This is the one. Most English translations of Thomas are a bit too scholarly, detached and clinical. In addition, almost all are translated by non-mystics. The fact is that it takes a mystic to understand a mystic. Liberals and conservatives alike are baffled by the teachings of the greatest mystic, Jesus of Nazareth, and concretize his teachings in unintended ways. Another problem is that editions which offer commentary or history vary greatly in quality and relevance. Some might dwell on Coptic grammar, or speculations (more likely assertions) of what might or might not have been gnostic beliefs, or whether Thomas is gnostic or not, or "authentic" or not, rights and wrongs in Church history, etc.

Leloup avoids these irrelevancies, and treats the text gently from his own wisdom, which is considerable. He seems a most intelligent mystic who knows the path the Jesus describes in Thomas. The layout of the book could not be better. The first 50 pages present the English translation side-by-side the Coptic, and the remainder is a saying-by-saying commentary (with numerous references to relevant Bible passages). Newcomers will undoubtedly want to read the short gospel straight through, and those who are already convinced of Thomas' worth will probably go straight to the commentary which Leloup says are more like meditations springing up from the "tilled earth of silence."

The translation here by Leloup and Rowe is brilliant. Instead of a word-for-word literalism, he uses a principle more like the dynamic equivalence which most modern Bible translations use. An example of the difference:

Where most translations of the prologue and first saying follow very closely to this:

"These are the secret words of the living Jesus, which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down.

"And he said, 'whoever finds the meaing of these words will not taste death.'"

The Leloup/Rowe translation gives us:

"These are the words of the Secret.
They were revealed by the Living Yeshua.
Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.

And Yeshua said,
'Whoever lives the interpretation of these words
will no longer taste death.'"

All of the minor changes are significant, and I greatly feel, enhance the intended meaning. Whether or not the words were meant to be secret (and they're not now!) the whole theme of the gospel is the Secret of the Kingdom, the Secret of true Life. "words of the Secret" is a brilliant choice, as is "lives the interpretation" over "finds the meaning." Anyone who has spent any effort on spiritual practice soon learns that a solely intellectual understanding of spirituality counts for nothing.

Lastly, Leloup's phrase "will no longer taste death," brings home that we are in death, and in the process of dying. This Kingdom that Jesus preaches is a transforming awareness and renewal by God's Spirit that obliterates the taste of death. We become alive, immersed in the awareness of the One who really is, ruled by God, the Kingdom of the Father.

I find it very interesting that most people don't know the history of the Bible and how it came to be. Most Christians simply accept the four gospels with no questioning of any sort. I would imagine that other religious doctrines share much of a not exactly linear history like the Bible does. Aren't all religions essentially historical mythology?

Most believers will accept the Bible at face value and never even think outside the pages of the book. Little do Christians know that there is much more to the story than we know or so it seems. There are many more than just four accounts of Jesus' life. Why aren't these in the Bible? Who had the authority or rather the audacity to lay into a manifest only 4 gospels?

I found this book to be quite an intriguing read. Much more mystical and less fire and brimstone that the Bible tends to be. I found this book to be quite an inpirational read. Wonderful to see a Christ that was as human as all of us. And that's just the point Christ was trying to make. We are no different than he is, we are not apart from him. We are all the same, all children of God or Energy or the Universe, whatever you want to call it.

This gospel was a refreshing read and one the mirrors other books or articles I have read on Buddha, Judaism and Hinduism. I don't believe in the supernatural part of Christianity I was exposed to. Well at least not any more. Most religion is mythological and metaphorical and has much to teach us but we all know that most of us get "caught in the metaphor" as Joseph Campbell put it. The purpose I now believe is to transcend the metaphor.

I would never have the conceit to say one religion should reign over another because there is so much similarity between all the world religions (all religions for that matter) that it amazes me how we still compartmentalize this religion versus that religion.

But that's a much bigger issue than my little ole review here. I give the book four stars because I felt that the author's interpretation could have been a little more detailed. Some of the logions in the book are interpreted by a mere paragraph and I am sure there is much more history there than just one paragraph. Nonetheless, this book is a wonderful read! I highly recommend it!

The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus
By Jean-Yves Leloup
ISBN 1-59477-046-8 (Inner Traditions, 2005)

The Thomas manuscripts discovered at Nag-Hammadi in 1945 were quickly buried beneath a mountain of conflicting interpretations from "scholars." Now, Jean-Yves Leloup gives a page-by-page clear translation of some of the best gnostic scriptures I've read, especially in light of the early Sumerian clay tablet information that has been published in the last 40 years. Thomas makes it clear that the message of Jesus was nondualistic and told of the coming of a "new man" in our time based on inner and outer knowledge. Since these manuscripts predate the gospels by centuries, they will be an important read for anyone looking for truth and not simply wanting to validate preexisting beliefs.

Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide magazine [...]

This gospel is fantastic, why wouldn't the Roman Catholic Church want to have so many Wisdom sayings from Jesus in the bible? This book was one of the first unearth gospels that I read and truly helped me understand Jesus' teachings. If you're a spiritual person that does not like others to think for them then I recommend this book to you. You can then go down the list of Nag Hammadi gospels found (Phillip, Mary Magdalene, The Secret Book of James, ex).

Not only is the translation of the Gospel of Thomas by Jean-Yves Leloup subtle and beautiful, but the commentary is well-thought out, coherent, and insightful. Leloup really brings Thomas to life for the modern seeker who feels there is something deep and something worth paying attention to in this lost Gospel. It is an excellent aid if you aren't sure or don't know how to plumb the Gospel's wisdom. The remarks on each verse are more than commentary: they are meditations. Leloup skillfully uses analogies and clarifies the meanings of terms peculiar to Thomas and the Gnostics. If you were to select one book to guide you through this mystifying and sometimes abstruse or strange collection of sayings, you could do no wrong by choosing this wonderful and wise translation and commentary.

If you are at all curious about Jesus Christ you should read Thomas. It gives insight to Jesus's teachings. In fact read all the Gnostic gospels. They give another light to Jesus.

i love this book. it gives a new view of the teachings of Jesus found in the gospel of Thomas. the book brought the teachings to life. made them alive and real. it lead you in a new direction in understanding them. i believe these 114 verses are a better reference of Jesus true message. maybe even the earliest teaching by The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of JesusJesus.
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I prefer the Patterson and Robinson translation to this one. It has more scholarily research behind it, and it just feels less forced and more appropriate. That may not sound like a good reason to trust that translation more, but with items like the Gospel of Thomas one must rely on their gut to decided which translation rings more true as there are so many interpretations that vary so dramatically.
Unfortunately there is too much awkward text and strange meanings in this text for me to fully trust it.
I have to believe that as scholars rigorously immerse themselves in the Coptic language clearer translations of the true intention of the text will be revealed. I believe the Patterson & Robinson translation to be the closest text to realizing that eventuality.

As J. Needleman explains in his excellent introduction, gnosis is consciousness. It emphasizes the role of knowledge in religious life, not of faith. Gnosis is transformational knowledge: knowledge combined with virtue and moral power.

The Gospel of Thomas contains 114 logia (sayings of Yeshua) as food for meditation. It is a mixture of general human insights, exhortations and warnings, clad in contradictory, irrational, dualist, essentialist and falsely enigmatic sentences. It ends on a purely misogynist note. Many of its sentences and metaphores (mustard seed, the log in one's eye) are also quoted in the Christian New Testament. Hereafter a few examples.

General: 'know yourself'; 'no one is prophet in his own village'; 'what is expressed is what overflows from the heart'.
Exhortation: 'do not throw pearls to swine'.
Contradictory are logicons 109 'the man began to lend money at interest to all who wanted it' (as a good deed) and log. 95 'If you have money, do not lend it with interest.'

Irrational: 'the one who Is before existing' 'How is it that this Being, which is, inhabits their nothingness'
Essentialist: 'I come from the One who is Openess'.
Dualist: distinction between body, soul and spirit.
Falsely enigmatic: 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's'.

Surprisingly, the overall atmosphere is severe (don't do this), challenging (do this) and divisive (those who are not with me, are against me). The general picture of the world is hostile: 'When the tenants realized that he was the inheritor of the vineyard they killed him.' 'The Kingdom of the Father is like the man who wanted to kill a man of power.'
That worldview is mightily pictured in log. 16 'People may think that I come to bring peace to the world. They do not know that I have come to sow division upon the world: fire, sword, war ... father against son and son against father.'
The editor Jean-Yves Leloup shows how biased his commentary sometimes is in the case of this key saying of Yeshua: 'division' becomes 'undergo' the fire (purification).

Considering apparently his saying 'whoever has power, may he renounce it' as wishful thinking, Yeshua stands on the side of the hungry, the poor, the persecuted: 'Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven'.

The final logicon is shamefully misogynist: 'for women are not worthy of the Life'. It reveals the deep anti-feminist feelings of the young Christian Church. The editor's comment here is pure jesuitism: let us forget these words!

This is certainly a revealing text, which ultimately constitutes a defense of the many against the powereful few: 'To see people like your king and courtiers in elegant clothes? They wear fine clothes, but they cannot know the truth.'
It is a confusing but worthwhile read, and that eminently for the powerful 'Christians'.