Commentary on the Gospel of Thomas–1—by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 Introduction to the Gospel of Thomas
Readers of The Christ of India are aware of the hypothesis (we think it is a fact) that from the very beginning there were two Christianities.
One was the Christianity we know today, even though greatly altered, that developed in the Mediterranean world over the centuries. It accommodated itself to the current religious beliefs–especially those of the Roman emperors–and even absorbed and conformed itself to them to such an extent that after three centuries it became the state religion of the Empire presided over by the unbaptized and blatantly unchristian “Saint” Constantine. He was only the first in a series of “vicars of Christ” (this expression originated with the Byzantine emperors and only some time later was appropriated by the Bishop of Rome, who even stole the title “Pope” from the Bishop of Alexandria) who ruled over the Church as well as the state, and who, despite their often shockingly violent and immoral lives were declared saints of the state servant-church. Today, divided into thousands of warring and warlike sects–the three leading ones being the Byzantine Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic Churches–it has become a multi-headed monster that, however wounded, flourishes with the tenacity and intensity often encountered in the mad and the madcap.
The other Christianity was the religion learned by Jesus during His “lost years” in India and brought by Him back to the west, to Israel. Rejected and martyred for teaching that religion, after His resurrection He returned to India and lived twenty or more years at peace in the Himalayas practicing His religion, which was neither Judaism nor “Christianity” but the Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Religion) that had originated in India countless millennia before His birth in Judea.
Ten of the original twelve Apostles were missionaries to the Mediterranean world and planted the seeds that have mutated into contemporary Christianity. One, however, had nothing to do with those activities, but instead went directly to India and lived more than a decade in the Himalayas with Jesus and His spiritual teachers, learning and adopting the religion of the Vedic rishis as his own. This apostle was Saint Thomas, the Twin, who truly was the spiritual twin of His Master.
After Saint Thomas and Jesus went to Ephesus to be present at the death of the Virgin Mary, Saint Thomas went on to Israel and persuaded a large number of the Qumran Essenes to come with him into South India (the present-day Kerala) to practice the religion Jesus had taught (virtually in vain) to the Israelites. They agreed and did so, linking up with a vast number of Brahmins who had emigrated from Kashmir after becoming disciples of both Jesus and Saint Thomas.
The spiritual descendants of Saint Thomas and Jesus never called themselves Christians but “Ishannis”–those of Isha–for Isha was the spiritual name given to Jesus in India as well as a title of Shiva. For Jesus, Thomas, and their followers the Ishannis were considered a branch of the Shaivite sampradaya (denomination), which at that time was the spiritual equivalent of the Advaita Vedanta school of today. Things went well for the Ishannis, and in time they could be found throughout India, though concentrated in the south. The advent of the “Christian” Portuguese put an end to this fifteen hundred year idyll. Using the Portuguese army, the Roman Catholic authorities gathered and destroyed all the spiritual texts of the Ishannis and imposed the Syrian Christian traditions on them. Eventually they rebelled, but over the next five hundred years they forgot or consciously abandoned much of their original spiritual character, about which we would know little if it were not for oral tradition and the official documents of condemnation and conversion issued by the Roman Church.
In December of 1945, an Egyptian farmer near Nag Hammadi unearthed in his field more than fifty ancient Christian books, written in the Coptic (ancient Egyptian) language. Among them was the book now know as The Gospel of Thomas. According to the Pistis Sophia (Codex Askewianus), after His resurrection Jesus instructed Philip, Matthew, and Thomas to set down His words in writing. Apparently he did so. While Saint Thomas was in Israel visiting the Qumran community, Saint Matthew gave him a copy of his gospel, and perhaps at that time Saint Thomas gave Saint Matthew a copy of his record of Jesus’ sayings. However that may be, the Indian copies were destroyed by the Europeans. But since the Nag Hammadi discovery we now possess Saint Thomas’ gospel, and by studying it can see that he was indeed a teacher of the Eternal Dharma.
The translation I will mostly use in this commentary is that of Thomas O. Lambdin.
1) Portions of three Greek copies of the Gospel of Thomas were found in Oxyrhynchus Egypt about one hundred years ago. They are known as Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1 (Oxy P 1) probably written not much later than the year 200, Oxy P 654, which can be dated to the middle or end of the third century, and Oxy P 655 dated not later than A. D. 250. The complete (Nag Hammadi) version in Coptic can be dated to about 340 A.D. The Coptic version is believed to be a translation of the Greek version. [Go back]
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