Gospel of Thomas - Chapter 004
Saying 2
- (2) Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All."
This has just a small riddle, most of it is straight forward concerning the process of 'enlightenment'
When you seek you will find. The second usage of the word 'find' invokes the phonetic pun and riddle. 'Find' is מצא matsa, and it sounds like מצה matseh which is unleavened bread.(1) Unleavened bread is bread that has no leaven or teaching. Bread is the body... Jesus said "This is my body", and unleavened bread is one who has put away old teaching and is ready for new teaching. When you have found the truth, you put away the old things you thought you knew and begin again.
When you find, you are confronted with your sin and sin nature which makes you 'troubled'. The second usage of troubled invokes the second meaning of the word troubled חמר which is 'pure' and 'wine' and which represents grace. One becomes astonished at the grace which covers his sin. A het ח represent seeing or understanding, but the word het חתmeans dismay.
The word for rule משל is also the word for 'to speak in a proverb'.(2) When one is truly astonished he will speak in a proverb (the language of the wisdom of God) of "the all"which is God. We do not rule over God, we speak his wisdom.
One of the hints for interpretation that Thomas is recording is that when something is repeated twice, it has two meanings
- (1) Vowel substitution
- (2) Homograph
