The Sophian Gnostic Community

Jesus said, Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light. ... (Gospel of Thomas Logion 33) Gospel of Thomas for Awakening See more

His disciples said to him, Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it. He said to them, Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness. ... (Gospel of Thomas Logion 24) Gospel of Thomas for Awakening See more

Simon Peter said to them all, Mary should leave us, for women are not worthy of this Life.... Yeshua said, Then, I myself will lead her, making her male if she must become worthy like you males! I will transform her Into a living spirit [anthropos] Because any woman changed In this way Will enter the divine realm.4 This particular logion has caused considerable distress to many feminist scholars, who hear Jesus saying that a woman must be transformed into a man (or led by a man) in order to enter the kingdom. But that is to fall prey to the same literalism that Jesus himself is trying to lift us above. He is not saying that Mary Magdalene must become a man; he is saying that she must become a living spiritan anthropos, or a fully human being. You can almost hear the irony in the first part of his response: If it is so all-fired important to you males that she be malepoof! Let her become male!, or a table, or a tree . . . whatever outer form you please! The important point is the inner transformation. Any woman who succeeds in becoming anthropos will enter the kingdom (and presumably any male, too). As we have seen in logion 22, the real qualifying test is when you are able to make two become one . . . so that a man is no longer male and a woman female, but male and female become a single whole . . . then you will enter in. So long as the disciples remain trapped in outer forms, they are far, far from the kingdom. In this sense, the final logion is both consistent with all Jesus has taught throughout the gospel and a fitting note on which to endjust as it is here. The church’s failure to distinguish between outer forms and inner authority is, then as now, the story of its tragic inability to corporately walk forth along the path the Master has laid out for it. Excerpt From: Cynthia Bourgeault. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. Apple Books.

Jesus said, The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same. ... (Gospel of Thomas Logion 4) Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

. . . tell us about matter. Will it survive or not? The Savior answered: All of nature with its forms and creatures exist together and are interwoven with each other. They will be resolved back, however, to their own proper origin, for the compositions of matter return to the original roots of their nature. Those who have ears, let them hear this.... Then Peter said to him: Since you have explained everything to us, tell us one more thing. What is the sin of this world? The Savior replied: Sin as such does not exist. You only bring it into manifestation when you act in ways that are adulterous in nature. It is for this very reason that the Good has come among you pursuing its own essence within nature in order to reunite everything to its origin. Then he continued: This is also the reason for sickness and death, because you embrace what deceives you. Consider these matters, then, with your spiritual intellect. Attachment to matter gives birth to passion without an Image of itself because it is drawn from that which is contrary to its higher nature. The result is that confusion and disturbance resonates throughout one’s whole being. It is for this reason that I told you to find contentment at the level of the heart, and if you are discouraged, take heart in the presence of the Image of your true nature. Those with ears, let them hear this Peace be with you. May my peace reside within you. Guard carefully that no one misleads you saying, Look, he is here, or He’s over there, for the Son of Humanity already exists within you. Follow him, for those who seek him there will find him. Go forth, now, and proclaim the Good News concerning the Kingdom. Beyond what I have already given you, do not lay down any further rules nor issue Excerpt From: Cynthia Bourgeault. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. Apple Books.

In the simplified version of this story that most Christians absorb through the skin, this amounts to the following tenets: Jesus came to earth to found a religion called Christianity, called his male-only disciples to be its apostles and priests, and gave them the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The obvious anomalies are overlookedwhy Mary Magdalene, who was specifically given the first apostolic charge by Jesus himself to announce the news of his resurrect...ion, was not included among the apostles, and why Paul, who was not at the Last Supper and never met Jesus in his earthly life, was. But such is the power of blinders. And if you doubt the hold that this story still has on the church, or its ability to inflict serious consequences on the lives of contemporary Christians, consider that in one Catholic parish of my acquaintance, during a recent Maundy Thursday service (where the central symbolic act reduplicates Jesus’s washing of the disciples’ feet), a priest refused to wash the feet of any women on the basis that only men were present at the Last Supper. The message being sent about the value of women and their full inclusion in the body of Christ is only too obvious. What’s worse is that it’s patently untrue. Excerpt From: Cynthia Bourgeault. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. Apple Books. See more