The Gospel of Thomas the Athlete

Secret Sayings   Jackson Snyder

This Thomas, identified with the disciple, is, in the context of the tradition it is written, the twin brother of Jesus. His gospel is composed of dialogue between Thomas and Jesus, as recorded by Matthew or Matthias. It is one of the installments of the Nag Hammadi Library, and was not known before its discovery in 1945.

You have heard it said, Everyone who seeks truth from the true Wisdom of God will grant himself wings to fly away from the lust that scorches men's spirits, as well as every spirit that the eye can see.

Blessed is the wise one who has searched for the truth. When that one finds truth, he rests on it unafraid forever, undaunted by skeptics.

It is useful and good to know the end. All things visible to men will dissolve, including men themselves. The vessel they call flesh will dissolve. Flesh will be dissolved to nothing. Those that have given up or otherwise denied the faith will count the flame as punishment for what they have renounced. The ordeal will make them finally realize that they are visible indeed and outside the invisible kingdom they once inhabited. Even those with a measure of spiritual insight will be scorched and perish, because their worldly concerns had overshadowed their first love. 

The dissolving of all things will happen unexpectedly. What will be left of men will appear to be shapeless ghosts unable to abandon their pain-filled corpses, dwelling forever in the dimness of the graveyard, their souls corrupted and ruined. 

Woe to you, godless ones, who have no hope, yet rely on a future that you have created for your own safety and security. Your future will never become reality! Woe to you, whose hope is set on your prison of flesh - you will surely die! How long will you be oblivious to the truth? How long will you suppose yourselves to be imperishable? Your hope is set on the world; your god is this life! Your blindness is ruining your chances by corrupting your souls.

Woe to you. The fire is already burning you up from within, and it is insatiable! Woe to you, for you are in the grip of an inward fire, which devours you openly, but secretly destroys your souls! Be prepared to meet your companions! 

Woe to you because of the wheels that grind in your minds. Woe to you captives bound in dark caves! You laugh! In mad laughter you rejoice! You do not reflect on your dire circumstances nor understand that you are already in perdition: living in darkness and death! 

On the contrary, you are drunk on fire, and consumed by bitterness! Your minds are deranged from your inner burning; the poison is sweet, as are the blows of your adversaries! Darkness rises as sunlight to you, for you have traded your freedom for bondage! You have surrendered your minds to the folly of your ways - you meditate on smoke, thus your hearts are blackened from it! 

Light only exists within light.  Any light you might have shone has been hidden in the haze - it enshadows you like a shroud! Consider whom you have believed! Don't you know that your confidence cannot be placed in those who share your desperate situation? That the baptism of the world is in dirty waters? That you are the victims of your own untimely whims? 

Woe to you who dwell in this error. Why can't you heed the light of the sun which observes all from the sky as it circles. Only light can free you from your enemies! Even the moon, with its lesser light, can judge you by observing the bodies left from your slaughtering!

Woe to you sex perverts, who thrive on immoral and wanton acts with with women! Woe to you, in the grips of the powers of your bodies! You are so afflicted! Woe to you, servants of the powers of demons!

Woe to you who destroy your limbs in fire! Who is it that can quench the burning with refreshing dew? Who is it that can chase away the darkness that enshrouds you, enlighten your inner man, and cleanse the polluted baptismal waters with holy sunlight?

Who is it that can hide the confusion that torments you? It is not too late! The light of the sun and the moon together with fresh air, holy spirit, clean earth and unpolluted water will give you a new fragrance if you allow it to be so!

For if the light does not shine on your bodies, they will dry up and die like weeds or grass. If the light shines on these, they become so strong that they grow to choke out the grapevine! But if the grapevine prevails, and shades the weeds and grasses, it alone inherits the land on which it is planted. Every place a grapevine shades it dominates! We know grape arbors dominate all the land, bringing profit to the farmer, which pleases him greatly. He would have suffered great hardship on account of the worthless plants, until he would finally have to put forth the effort to uproot them! But the grapevine, because it was so nourished by the light, was able to remove them by choking them out. Thus the grapevine strengthens its dominion even more, as the remains of the weeds become as the soil, and provide mulch. 

Blessed are you who know your stumbling-blocks, and flee alien things. Blessed are you who are reviled, and not respected because of the love that the Lord has for you. Blessed are you who weep and are held captive by the hopeless, for you will be released from every bondage. Watch and pray that you do not remain in the flesh, but that you come forth. For the flesh is a bondage of bitterness that brings much suffering and disgrace.

When you leave the passion and suffering of your bodies, you will receive rest from the Good; you will reign with the King; you will be one with him and he with you from this time on and forever. Amen.