Difference between revisions of "Gospel of Thomas - Chapter 059"

(57) Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a man who had good seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned."

Mt 13:24 ¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

Mt 13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

Mt 13:26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

Mt 13:27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

Mt 13:28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

Mt 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Mt 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

The kingdom of our Father refers to the kingdom of David in Mt 10:11. Thomas is equating the prophecy concerning the Kingdom of David with that of the Kingdom of Heaven/God. He is saying that David's kingdom is a type of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The seed of the woman is Christ when interpreted singularly, and the church when interpreted as being plural. The enemy is that old liar, the serpent.

We are reading the English text of a Greek manuscript written of a teaching that was done in Hebrew. We pull in the Hebrew words for the original weeds in Ge 3:18 קוץ thorns and דרדר thistles.

The subroot of קוץ means to irritate. It is used in words like abomination, wrath, impatient and awake. It is a fun riddle.

In Ge 38, Judah (a shadow of God) has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah representing Adam, Israel (the nation) and Joseph, the husband of Mary. The story which follows is a shadow of the birth of Christ.

Er means awake and the verse says he was called Er or called awake. Awake is the opposite of asleep. Asleep is used to say that someone is dead. And when you are dead you return to the dust. So Er was called Awake, or he was 'called alive from the dust' confirming that he represents Adam. The story goes on to say that he was killed because of sin, as was Adam.

In the story, he was made to be flesh from the dust. Paul further clarifies the riddle saying that he had a thorn in the flesh (2Co 12:7), confirming that the flesh itself is the thorn and Paul cried out...

Ro 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The second word from Ge 3 is דרדר whose root is דר meaning generation. Since it is repeated the weed is a generation in the flesh and the spirit. Therefor in the parable we have that the weeds are the flesh and a wicked generation. These are the things which opposed Christ. (Mt 16:4)

The enemy sowed at night which, as before, is a time of grace. Though there was wickedness and sin, God did not destroy them. He allowed, within each person, a sinful flesh to grow with a faithful spirit, in the same manner that we each are goat and sheep, and old man and a new man. He also let the wicked generation grow with the faithful generation.

The final lesson is that we are not to be the judges. On may look like a goat, but in the end God has purified the sheep. One may look like he is part of the wicked generation, as did the thief on the cross who mocked Jesus, but while he hung there repented and acknowledged Jesus as he asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. (Lu 23:42)

Go to Gospel of Thomas - Chapter 060