"Be passers by"-Jesus?

[Lancer]

Mike, watch you don't become constipated!

[The Mad Monk]

All I will say is, I know enough of the New Testament to know when somebody's been plucking verses from the Gospel at random.

[st_swithin]

RUN FORREST RUN!! SLIDE, FORREST, SLIDE!!

[Elok]

Originally posted by Lancer
So, if it's a joke, then there is no record of what Jesus said from day to day. Just the sermon on the mount and a few other tidbits are the only record of the time of the messiah on this earth.
To me, seems even harder to believe. This might be it, might not, but maybe someone of the chosen had the foresight to take notes on the trail while chatting up the Son of God...

The thing is, most of what Christ says that is mentioned in the other gospels makes some form of sense. The stuff added by this account is utter gibberish. Unless the son of god liked to take big hits off of a crack pipe from time to time, these aren't the words of Christ. Most of it is just variants on the gnostic theme of secret wisdom(as in, gnosis) revealed to the few without going into any detail as to what that secret wisdom might be. The parts that actually say something useful appear to have been lifted from other accounts and modified to fit gnostic theology. Garbage, all of it.

[cinch]

And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever." And presently the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw [it], they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh.

********************************************

This makes absolutely no sense! Why would Jesus curse a tree, just 'cause it happened to be lacking in fruit production this year? And why would he waste his time performing a miracle just to kill said tree? Completely un-Christlike and preposterous; clearly made up my some damned fools years after Christ's death.

...

Wait... sorry, that's from the Book of Matthew.

My bad!

[Elok]

The fig tree incident served many purposes. It reminded the disciples who they were dealing with and the kind of power they were given, first of all, but perhaps more importantly it makes the point that if you fail to make good use of the strength you are given, it's curtains for you. People who just trudge through life without making something of value from their time are "fruitless," so to speak.
It's also a subtle hint of things to come; reread the last line you quoted.

[JohnT]

*JohnT finally clicks on link*



OMG! This isn't a joke!?!?



How could people believe, much less understand such nonsensical rubbish?

[cinch]

So you are able to find meaning in obscure, metaphorical parables like The Fig Tree, but find this:

"(3) Jesus said: If those who lead you say unto you: Behold, the Kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of the heaven will be before you. If they say unto you: It is in the sea, then the fish will be before you. But the Kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then shall you be known, and you shall know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if ye do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty. "

... to be the work of nonsenical, heretical madmen.

Methinks you decide what you're going to find before looking, sometimes...

[st_swithin]

Sometimes the more visible you are, the more invisible you can become.

Whereas the IRS seems to be able to find me no matter WHERE I go.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by st_swithin
Sometimes the more visible you are, the more invisible you can become.

Whereas the IRS seems to be able to find me no matter WHERE I go.

Yes, we certainly do.

[st_swithin]

Thanks a lot. Like I don't have enough troubles in my life already.

[Dr Strangelove]

Many of these verses can easily be recognised as having some sort of corresponding relationshp to verses in the four gosples. That some of them are very difficult to uinderstand could reflect the way language was used when the Thomas verses were written. The four Gospel books have been re-written several times over the past two millenia in order to make them understandable to contemporary people. The question about the Thomas writings is then is the source document authentic?

[st_swithin]

Is the King James version of the Bible, freely given out to every hotel room in the US of A, either accurate or authentic? Maybe Gideon just has a printing press and waaaaaaay too much time and money on his hands.

[JCG]

Well, the fact that the Gospel of Thomas has a lot of "nice" stuff in it shouldn't be the only criteria used to determine whether it's canonical or not, and vice versa.

I personally think there's no 100% correct method to do such an analysis, either way....those who decide that would need to examine other details to even get close (like the language and date of the original documents, as has been mentioned).

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
I can tighten it some more if you'd like.

Not today please - I'm not feeling well and its making me snippy.