February 17 2009: THE BOOK OF JOB

The Book of Job
Week of 17 Feb '09

1

1: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.

<>The book of Job faces the issue of unjust suffering. Supposed dates for this book ranges from 1000 BCE to the post-Exile (after 539). Reference to being taken away in chains may refer to a late date. But the text is timeless. It's not even clear if Job is Jewish. Verse 1 (above) is important because we know for certain that Job is "blameless and upright." The point is, Job's friends cannot be right that his sufferings are caused by his sins. God repeats these words. The reader can see the prologue has a fairytale quality and is in prose, like the epilogue (end). The rest of the text is poetry. It's assumed the prose part was older and used as a frame for the greater poem. Verse 5 (below) shows how careful Job was to make sure not even his children sinned against God. So there's no question of Job's goodness. Job's "comforters" (his friends) don't know this; we do. This adds dramatic irony to the poem (we know something important the characters don't).
4: His sons used to hold a feast in the house of each on his day.
5: And when the days of the feast had ended, Job would bless them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings; for Job said, "It may be my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.
6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

Here we get the phrase "sons of God" (it appears elsewhere and also is implied in Genesis when God says, "Let US make man in OUR own image"). It's clear the early Hebrew religion was not a strict monotheism (=belief in one god). But what "sons of God" means is not certain.
7: The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."

<>Satan will later, in Christian thought, become the chief "enemy" of God and his creation, Man. He owns the world, since Satan offers it to Jesus. But in Hebrew's strict "monotheism," only God  has power. Satan is not an "enemy" but more like a prosecutor. His job (assigned by God) is to find wrongdoers (like police today).  The word was not a name but a common noun: "the Satan" (ha-Satan in Hebrew). Only in the Christian book of Revelation is Satan linked to the serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempted Eve to eat the apple. Thus in Christian thought, Satan is the cause of all suffering. Note in v. 8, God approves of Job, which contradicts claims later made by Job's "Comforters":
8: And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?"
9: Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing?
10: You have put a hedge about him and his house and all he has. You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11: But touch all he has, and he will curse you."
A common argument is that people are good because not tempted. But note, Satan's power over Job is limited by God: Satan is not allowed to kill Job.
12: And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand." So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
13: Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house;
14: and there came a messenger to Job, and said, "The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them;
15: and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
16: While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
17: While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "The Chalde'ans formed three companies, and made a raid upon the camels and took them, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
18: While he was yet speaking, there came another, and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house;
19: and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you."

As we say in an American proverb: "When it rains, it pours." But Job's response is to "worship": Verse 21 is famous:
20: Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped.
21: And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
22: In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

2

3: And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? He still keeps his integrity, although you moved me to destroy him without cause."
4: Then Satan answered the LORD, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
5: But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you."
6: And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power; but spare his life."
7: So Satan afflicted Job with sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8: And Job took a potsherd [a piece of broken pottery] with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
9: Then his wife said to him, "Do you still keep your integrity? Curse God, and die."
10: But he said to her, "You speak like a foolish woman. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
11: Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eli'phaz the Te'manite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Na'amathite. They made an appointment together to comfort him. 
Only the names are important, not the places: Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar (later, Elihu). These are "Job's comforters."

3

1: After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2: And Job said:
3: "Let the day perish when I was born.
11: "Why did I not die at birth?
13: For then I should have been at rest. . . .
20: "Why is light given to him that in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
21: who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22: who are glad when they find the grave?
25: For the thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
26: I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."
The reader can see that "the patience of Job" (as in the Letter of James) is no patience at all. Job is impatient. He voices Greek ideas: Better to die young, but best is never to never be born.

4

1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
2: "If I speak a word with you, will you be offended?
3: Look, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
5: But now it has come to you, and you are impatient.
6: Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

Eliphaz's argument is common in the book of Proverbs: God rewards the just and punishes the wicked. But we know, from God's own mouth, that Job is just.
7: "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
8: Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
17: `Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?'

5

17: "Happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.
26: You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.
27: Hear, and know it for your good."

7

Then Job said:
16: I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

This is a parody of Psalm 8, but turning it around: for Job, to be God's "chosen" is not good but bad:
17: What is man, that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him,
18: dost visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19: How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle?
20: If I sin, what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a burden to thee?
21: Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be."

8

1: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2: "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3: Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
6: If you are pure and upright, surely he will rouse himself for you and reward you with a rightful habitation.
7: And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be great.
8: "For consider what the fathers have found;
9: for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.  
13: Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless man shall perish.

Hebrew poetry does not use rhyme, the main element of poetry in Western literature. Instead the main element of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. In parallelism, the poetic line is divided into two parts; the second part either repeats the first idea, contrasts the first idea, or adds to it. These 3 kinds of parallelism are called,
(a) synonymic, (b) antithetic, (c) progressive. I'll give 3 examples from everyday life:
Synonymic: "Buy me a Coca-Cola; bring me home a soft drink."
(The second half of the line says the same thing as the first half, using different words.)
Antithetic: "Buy me a Coca-Cola and not a Pepsi Cola."
(The second half opposes the first half.)
Progressive: "Buy me a Coca-Cola; and then I will quench my thirst."
(The second half advances the idea of the first half.)
These examples are not elegant but show how simple it is to use Hebrew parallelism in everyday speech. Note in v. 14 synonymic parallelism: the second half of the line  repeats the first half in different words. Same with v. 15. Verse 20 is an example of antithetic parallelism, since the second half contrasts against the first. Verse 21 is an example of progressive parallelism. The main point is to recognize that most verses in Hebrew poetry are BALANCED. All the following verses are balanced: "Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more." It's an example of progressive parallelism: the evildoer feels shame, then is destroyed.

14: His confidence breaks in pieces, and his trust is a spider's web.
15: He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
20: "Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
21: He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
22: Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."

9

1: Then Job answered:

King Lear cries out, "I am a man more sinned against than sinning!" The point of the book of Job is even greater, for God says that Job is blameless. What follows is an attack on the goodness of God:
21: I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.
22: It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23: When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24: The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges -- if it is not he, who then is it?
32: But he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.  
34: Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
Job has gone all the way here: who else causes evil but the all-powerful God. Therefore God is not good ("If God is God he is not good / If God is good, He is not God"). Yet because of God's power, Job is helpless ("he is not a man, as I am"). So God appears here like a tyrant.

10

1: "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2: I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you fight against me.
3: Does it seem good to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
4: Hast thou eyes of flesh? Dost thou see as man sees?  
7: Yet thou knowest I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand?
8: Thy hands fashioned and made me; and now thou dost turn about and destroy me. 
Mary Shelley will later base her Frankenstein novel on these ideas of the creator destroying his creation. Here Job claims to be superior to God in moral values.

11

1: Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered:  
13: "If you set your heart aright, you will stretch out your hands toward him.
14: If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents.
16: You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.
17: And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
18: And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in safety.
19: You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; many will entreat your favor.
20: But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last."
More proverbial wisdom, which (we know) does not fit Job's case. Job rejects the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. But this is also the wisdom of the Deuteronomist (defending God's role in history). So this is an advance in Hebrew thought, based on Deuteronomist ideas that God is always right. 

12

1: Then Job answered:
2: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
3: But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

Job is ironic: he called upon God and God answered him! That's like going to the police for justice and being arrested!
4: I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
10: In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. 
Compare the Afro-American spiritual, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

13

2: "What you know, I know; I am not inferior to you.
3: But I would speak to the Almighty; I desire to argue my case with God.
4: As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
7: Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him?
8: Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God?
9: Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
Job is prophetic here; at the end God takes Job's side and accuses his "comforters." Now Job mocks the proverbs:
12: Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.  
16: This will be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him.
18: Behold, I have prepared my case; I know I shall be vindicated.
28: Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14

1: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2: He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not.  
5: Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,
6: look away from him, that he may enjoy, like a hireling, his day.
7: "For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
8: Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the ground,
9: yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
10: But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?

15

1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
7: "Are you the first man born?
8: And do you limit wisdom to yourself? 

This suggests another reference to Psalm 8, though not spoken by Job:
14: What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?"

16

1: Then Job answered:
2: "Miserable comforters are you all.
3: Shall windy words have an end?
4: I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.
16: My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness;
17: although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18: "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
19: Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. 
Job appeals to the "earth" not to hide God's murder of him! He also appeals to some "witness," but it's not clear to whom. Perhaps one of the "sons of God"? Is this witness equal to God?

17

1: My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
13: If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
14: if I say to the pit, `You are my father,' and to the worm, `My mother,' or `My sister,'
15: where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?
16: Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
"Sheol" is what we call Hell; the Hebrew Sheol was more like a shadowy place for the dead, with no punishment or reward. In Hebrew thought there is no afterlife, though this idea emerges in the "intertestamental period": that is, the period between the writing of the Old and New Testament. Job knows if he doesn't succeed on earth, there is no hope.

18

1: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:  
3: "Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
4: You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock removed out of its place?
5: "Yea, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.  
7: His strong steps are shortened and his own schemes throw him down.
8: For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a pitfall.
11: Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels."
More proverbial wisdom from Bildad: the evil are punished, etc. But Bildad asks if Job wants to change the world; why not just accept things as they are; and thus accept his own guilt.

19

1: Then Job answered:
9: "He has stripped from me my glory, and taken the crown from my head.  
13: He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14: My kinsfolk and my close friends have failed me;
15: the guests in my house have forgotten me; my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
16: I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must beseech him with my mouth.
17: I am repulsive to my wife, loathsome to the sons of my own mother.
18: Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
19: All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20: My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

"The skin of my teeth" is an English idiom; meaning, a close call.
21: Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 
23: "Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  
25: For I know my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth;
26: and after my skin has been destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God,
27: whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall see, and not another. My heart faints within me!"

Scholars insist the Hebrew is unclear in the verses above. One reading is "avenger" instead of "Redeemer." No matter. These verses have become a key text for Christians, who insist it refers to Christ as Redeemer. Handel wrote a beautiful aria on these verses for his oratorio, Messiah.

20

1: Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered:  
4: "Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5: that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

The following verses suggest the Tower of Babel:
6: Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
7: he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, `Where is he?'  
28: The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
29: This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."

21

1: Then Job answered:  
7: "Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Job's reasoning is he doesn't want the wicked to suffer later, but NOW.
19: You say, `God stores up their sins for their sons.' Let him recompense it to themselves, that they may know it.
29: Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
30: that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31: Who declares his way to his face, and who requites him for what he has done?  
34: How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."

22

Job's comforters have been discredited by scholars. But their wisdom is part of the Torah, the Deuteronomist, and the book of Proverbs. Here Eliphaz suggests Jesus' prayer that "Thy (God's) will be done."

1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:

Note 3 parallel forms. The first is progressive parallelism; the second is antithetic; the third is synonymic:
21: "Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.  
29: For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly.
30: He delivers the innocent man; you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."

29

The most painful part of bad days is remembering the good days, as Job does here. Verse 15 is famous; these are some of the best lines in the book:

1: And Job continued:
2: "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
7: When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
8: the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood.
15: I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
16: I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17: I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
21: "Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
22: After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
23: They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

30

1: "But now they make fun of me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

31

This has been called Job's Code of Honor. It's one of the great chapters on ethics in the Bible. Note the egalitarian ("equal rights") thinking in verse 15, looking ahead to the American Constitution: "all men [and women] are created equal":

13: "If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me;
14: what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
15: Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
16: "If I have withheld anything the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17: or have eaten my food alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it
18: (for from his youth I reared him as a father, and from his mother's womb I guided him);
19: if I have seen any one perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without covering;
20: if his loins have not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21: if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw help in the gate;
22: then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.
23: For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.
24: "If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence;
25: if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much;
26: if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor,
27: and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand;
28: this also would be a sin to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.
29: "If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him that hated me, or rejoiced when evil overtook him
30: (I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse);
31: if the men of my tent have not said, `Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?'
32: (the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the wayfarer); 
35: Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36: Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a crown;
37: I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him." The words of Job are ended.

32

4: Now Eli'hu had waited to speak to Job.  
Scholars agree that Elihu's words are a later addition. Elihu is never mentioned by the others or by God. But why the addition? It's possible the writer or redactor (editor) felt the others did not answer Job strongly enough. Otherwise Elihu does not add anything new:

33

1: "But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to my words.  
9: You say, `I am clean, without sin.'
12: "In this you are not right. I will answer you. God is greater than man.
13: Why do you fight against him, saying, `He will answer none of my words'?
14: For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.
15: In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber on their beds,
16: then he opens the ears of men, and terrifies them with warnings,
17: that he may turn man aside from his deed, and cut off pride from man.
19: "Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with pain in his bones;
20: so he loathes bread, and his appetite dainty food.  
22: His soul draws near the Pit, and his life to those who bring death.
23: If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him;
24: and he is gracious to him, and says, `Deliver him from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom;
25: let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor';
26: then man prays to God, and he accepts him, he comes into his presence with joy. He recounts to men his salvation,
27: and he sings before men, and says: `I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not requited to me.
28: He has redeemed my soul from going down into the Pit, and my life shall see the light.'
29: "Behold, God does all these things
30: to bring back his soul from the Pit, so he may see the light of life."
Elihu's argument is that, by suffering, the sinner finds God and so is saved; thus suffering has a purpose.

34

1: Then Eli'hu said:
4: "Let us choose what is right; let us determine what is good.
5: For Job has said, `I am innocent, and God has taken away my right;
6: in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.'
7: What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water,
8: who goes in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men?
9: For he has said, `It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'  
12: Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
17: Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
18: who says to a king, `Worthless one,' and to nobles, `Wicked man';
19: who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?
20: In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

38

1: Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3: Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

"Gird up your loins" is a common phrase in the Bible. It means prepare yourself for work the modern version would be "roll up your sleeves." The following speeches by God are sublime, evoking images of immense degree, power, height, and depth and making Job (and us) feel terribly small. "When the morning stars sang together" (v. 7) is a great phrase. In traditional criticism, the "sublime" is contrasted against the "beautiful." Beauty can be measured (like a Japanese garden; a serenade; an early classical symphony by Haydn or early Mozart; a Shakespeare comedy). The sublime goes beyond human standards and understanding; the person feels small before the sublime: Shakespeare's or Greek tragedies; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; a landscape from the Romantic period in Germany or America. This distinction is not limited to art. A person has a sense of beauty in a Japanese garden, but has a sense of the sublime while standing on a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean. The book of Job is certainly sublime, while the book of Proverbs or the Song of Songs is beautiful. The book of Proverbs has beauty because we see ourselves in its wisdom; we can measure its wisdom against ordinary life and say, "How true! Perfectly expressed." But the sublime is extra-ordinary; a sudden terror takes over us: "I never realized how small and weak we are; how immense the universe against my little life. Where's the meaning then?" Of course, the meaning is just that: the feeling of being stripped, or "naked" (as Job says early in the book); and so in a paradoxical way, we find ourselves only by losing ourselves, as Jesus says. That's why we feel good after seeing King Lear or any tragedy; or rugged mountain climbing. Note how sublime the following verses are:
4: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5: Who determined its measurements -- surely you know! 
6: Or who laid its cornerstone,
7: when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8: "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb,
11: and said, `Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?

Verse 11 (above) is referred to on the keystone that Silas finds in The DaVinci Code.
12: "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13: that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
21: You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
28: "Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29: From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?
30: The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.  
34: "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? 

39

19: "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength?
20: Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.
21: He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
22: He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
25: When the trumpet sounds, he says `Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26: "Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads his wings toward the south?
27: Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?"

40

Some scholars identify "Behemoth" with the hippo and Leviathan with the crocodile; others insist these are mythological creatures:

15: "Behold, Be'hemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.
16: Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.
18: His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. 

41

1: "Can you draw out Levi'athan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
15: His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.
16: One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
17: They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
20: Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21: His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. 
27: He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
28: The arrow cannot make him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble.  
32: Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be hoary.
33: Upon earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.
34: He beholds everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride."

42

One can argue that Job is the first Existentialist, since he does not accept "eternal" values (written, spoken, taught, received), but must find out for himself. This allows us to reconcile the wisdom of the Comforters with Job's own wisdom. In other words, they are all right; but the "Comforters" don't realize that Job must find out the truth for himself and not accept it, unlived, from books. There are two kinds of knowing: knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is what Job finds at the end, not mere knowing. Knowledge is what we get in books; wisdom is what we get in life ("now my eyes see").
1: Then Job answered the LORD:  
5: "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee;
6: therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
7: After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eli'phaz the Te'manite: "My wrath is against you and your two friends; for you have not spoken what is right, as my servant Job has.
8: Now take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."
12: And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.
16: After this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.
17: And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
In the end, God sides with Job, NOT Job's Comforters! Job lives 140 years, twice the "normal" lifespan of Psalm 90 ("threescore years and ten"=70) and twenty more years than Moses, who died at 120.

Gnostics: Week of June 2007

The Gospel of Thomas

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The Gospel of Thomas is one of many Gospels that circulated freely among early Christians. Most scholars date it to the end of the first century CE, which would make it contemporary with the Gospel of John, with which it shares some ideas. In fact, some scholars argue that John, despite his high Christology that made Jesus almost the same as God, wrote his Gospel specifically to oppose the Gospel of Thomas, as well as the group of Christians that made Peter their leader.
Other scholars speculate that Thomas might be the missing "Q" source on which Luke and Matthew built their own Gospel narratives. The unknown "Q" text ("Q"=German "quelle," or "source") is presumed to have been a collection of sayings, without narrative, from which Luke and Matthew took their Jesus sayings (parables, etc.) to include in their narrative Gospels. But this thesis is not widely accepted. What is certain is that Thomas belongs to a Gnostic sect.
Gnosticism included many ideas; but chief among these were a strong dualism, not entirely absent from the canonic Gospels (Jesus compares being in the world and being of the world in John's Gospel); but the strain is much stronger in Thomas. Above all, divinity is understood to be in all of us; whereas John, apparently to oppose Thomas (this is pure speculation, however) seems to purposely emphasize that Jesus was "God's only begotten son."
Note too the word, "begotten" (not created, like Adam and his descendants). Also, John says , The light shines in the darkness but has not understood it." Hence for John "light" has been rejected by mankind. Finally, only Jesus "gave [mankind the] right to become children of God."
The famous prologue of John seems specifically written to oppose any idea that all people are "sons of God" (as indeed the synoptics suggest, where Jesus' divinity is never clearly stated).
There are other subtle attacks on Thomas in John (whereas in the synoptics, Thomas has no individuality at all); the most famous being the scene (included only in John) of "doubting Thomas," thus marking (the Gnostic?) Thomas forever in a mocking idiomatic phrase down to the present (a "doubting Thomas" needs proof: knoweldge, not faith)..
The Gnositc idea was that "in the beginning" God made the light; that light had nothing to do with the sun and the moon, which were created afterwards. Therefore the light must still be present, if one could return to "pre-Adamic" consciousness, without separation of male and female (notice the famous ending of Thomas' Gospel). It is important to remind students that though the canon seems obvious to us today, for hundreds of years, until 367 when Bishop Athanasius declared only "27 canonic books" of the New Testament, most Christians would have studied many Gospels instead of the four we know today. Finally, John's Gospel won the war, as it were. Today Jesus is considered the divine and only Son of God, a place higher than at he 3 synoptics gave him. Hence the anger over films such as The Last Temptation of Christ, which suggest Jesus was as much man as God (in any case, part of church doctrine, where Jesus is "made flesh," though he is also "true God of true God." As for the "secret" part of Gnosticism, this comes from Jesus' parables, where he claims to speak in parables in order to hide his true wisdom from those unworthy of receiving it (consider the other parable: "throwing pearls to pigs"). As for Thomas, that name is a nickname meaning "twin," which itself is symbolic (as is much in the Gospels, such as the curing of the blind man, since Jesus is the "light" of the world and those who don't see this are "blind"). Thomas' real name is "Judas, not Iscariot," as he's called in the Gospels to distinguish him from the Judas who betrayed Jesus. The point is "Thomas" is the twin of Jesus, a point that Jesus makes. And for Gnostics, we are all twins of Jesus, of the Divine Light that shines from Creation in Genesis.
Finally, the reader should be aware that there are numerous verses from the canonic Gospels that also appear in Thomas, but I've omitted them to minimize reading. Serious students should refer to the original complete Gospel of Thomas from an online site, but only what is here is part of the reading assignment:
These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.
1. And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
2. Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"
That is to say, to discover who we really are we frighten us (like all psychological or emotional growth does). But once we pass that stage, we'll become greater than we are: we'll "reign" as kings that we really are.
3. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
This is similar to Luke 17:21: if the Kingdom of God is a place, others will get there first. But it's not a place; it's within you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
"Knowing" in Gnosticism is more like emotional knowledge than intellectual knowledge; it's a lot like the "knowing" that takes place when we understand our emotional hangups; or when a married couple go in for marriage counseling, and both spouses discover things about themselves on the way to understanding themselves in order to change.
4. Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live.
Similar to a saying of Jesus in the canonic Gospels; because the child is nearer to the divine light, as in Wordsworth's famous Immortality Ode.
For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one."
The motif of the "single one" is important in Gnosticism, which believes that divinity is single; thus the notorious last saying, which pleas to make women "male." Gnosticism is more like a psychology than a theology: as in Freud, everything is within, if we dig it out of ourselves:
5. Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.
For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised.]"
6. His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"
His disciples want advice on how to live; but Jesus says simply to trust one's nature:
Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."
10. Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."
Here we get the "light" motif in dramatic form, as a fire.
11. Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away.
This seems to suggest a strong dualism: Heaven will pass away, and the one above: that is, the evil God, who controls the world (v. 11).
When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
That is, are you able to be in the light? The day you became two refers to Genesis: the one (Adam) became two (Adam and Eve; more importantly from a Gnostic view, male and female, the fall into flesh/body. (Bear in mind, many of these sayings have puzzled scholars since their discovery, though their meaning can be guessed from general Gnostic beliefs.)
12. The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?"
Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
Note in this Gospel James is picked as leader, not Peter or John ("the disciples whom Jesus loved" in the Gospel of John).
13. Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."
Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."
Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."
Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."
Thomas is put above the other disciples because he has truly become "intoxicated." Note Gnostics don't speak of "sin" and "repentance," but "knowing" and "ignorance." And unlike John, Thomas ("twin") and Jesus are now equals, because Thomas has "become intoxicated from the bubbling spring" Jesus tended. Note, below, that even in this "secret" Gosepl there are secrets too secret for Thomas to tell the other disciples.
And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
14. Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.
Another puzzling remark (v. 14) but seeming to oppose church doctrine (Gnostics were anti-church). Gnostics cared only about freeing themselves from this muddy earth and going back to the Light from which they came. Ethics was not a big issue for them.
15. Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
V. 15 has more anti-body rhetoric.
17. Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
St. Paul: "As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
—1 Corinthians 2:9-10.
18. The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"
Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
That is, the Light from which we came.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
19. Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being.
That is, the Light of Genesis, before Creation of the sun, moon, man, woman; that is to come into being before coming into being.
22. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom."
They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
The same idea: two must become one, as before Adam and Eve, to capture the first Light, before sun and moon, etc.
24. His disciples said, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it."
He said, "There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
27. "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the (Father's) kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father."
This is a beautiful idea of what the Sabbath originally meant: a day to rededicate one's self to God; and, according to Thomas, finding the divinity in ourselves. Only when we give up the world (and the world's demands) for at least one day can we do this.
28. Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty."
Created man is "empty" of the Light and may die without knowing the Light (though Gnostics believed in a spark within. This idea survives among Quakers who believe in the "inner light."
29. Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels.
Note the ambiguity here. It can be made orthodox ("straight thinking") by referring to Jesus, the "flesh" that became spirit; or it can be a Gnostic idea: that flesh can never inherit the spirit.
Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."
30. Jesus said, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."
31. Jesus said, "No prophet is welcome on his home turf; doctors don't cure those who know them."
See Synoptics. As there, the idea seems to be faith: we are healed by people we respect; but we only respect the unfamiliar.
37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
The idea here seems to return to a sexless infancy; at the very least, giving up the social self before one can find the true self.
39. Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so."
See Synoptics; similar even today, when "educated" people try to control truth.
42. Jesus said, "Be passersby."
The motif of "strangers in a strange land," whcih goes back to Moses, down to (Letter to the) Hebrews, nicely put.
49. Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again."
V. 49 is a strong Gnostic thought, as is v. 50 below:
50. Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.'"
51. His disciples said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?"
He said to them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it."
Similar to Synoptics and John.
53. His disciples said to him, "Is circumcision useful or not?"
He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."
A witty rejection of circumcision.
56. Jesus said, "Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a carcass, and whoever has discovered a carcass, of that person the world is not worthy."
Gnostic rejection of the world, which is "dead" (probably dead in Spirit).
59. Jesus said, "Look to the living one as long as you live, otherwise you might die and then try to see the living one, and you will be unable to see."
Similar to Jesus' escathological parables, such as the Ten Virgins.
60. He saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb and going to Judea. He said to his disciples, "that person ... around the lamb." They said to him, "So that he may kill it and eat it." He said to them, "He will not eat it while it is alive, but only after he has killed it and it has become a carcass."
They said, "Otherwise he can't do it."
He said to them, "So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten."
Flesh can only inherit flesh; the eater will be eaten. Only getting away from the world will stop the process of death. But many of these sayings are still puzzling!
61. Jesus said, "Two will recline on a couch; one will die, one will live."
This could refer to the temptations of the flesh. "Two will be on a couch; one will indulge in the flesh (eating, sex) and die, the other will live. Salome questions Jesus on the couch:
Salome said, "Who are you mister? You have climbed onto my couch and eaten from my table as if you are from someone."
Jesus said to her, "I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was granted from the things of my Father."
"I am your disciple."
The same dualism again:
"For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness."
62. Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries.
"Don't throw pearls before swine." But Gnostics make this into a secret knowing.
64. Jesus said, "Buyers and merchants [will] not enter the places of my Father."
Jesus tells the parable of the banquet, then ends with v. 64. The point is obvious: people with worldly cares lack dedication to spiritual values.
66. Jesus said, "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone."
From the Psalms and in the synoptics, Peter, etc. One of the key ideas in Christian thought.
67. Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking."
This shows that "knowledge" in Gnosticism is emotional, not intellectual.
70. Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."
You must have that divine spark within, to save yourself; otherwise, you will be damned.
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Gnostic ideas similar to John, but different too: for John there is only one "begotten" Son of God; so only one source of divinity.
84. Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!"
This is the divine Light before Adam's creation. Another reading is that the first Creation story showed the creation of true Man and Woman; but the second creation story showed the Creation of Fallen Man, possibly by an evil God; see v. 85 below:
85. Jesus said, "Adam came from great power and great wealth, but he was not worthy of you. For had he been worthy, [he would] not [have tasted] death."
87. Jesus said, "How miserable is the body that depends on a body, and how miserable is the soul that depends on these two."
Another Gnostic attack on the flesh.
91. They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you."
He said to them, "You examine the face of heaven and earth, but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine the present moment."
V. 91 might almost be a Zen (Ch'an) saying, like others in this Gospel
97. Jesus said, "The [Father's] kingdom is like a woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking along [a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her [along] the road. She didn't know it. When she reached her house, she discovered it was empty."
This is similar to Buddhism: finding the truth by emptying our minds.
98. Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one."
Not in the canonic gospels, but similar to other parables. The following is similar to the parables of readiness (ten virgins, etc.) in the canonic gospels:
103. Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive."
105. Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."
Because our real Father is in Heaven.
106. Jesus said, "When you make the two into one, you will become children of Adam, and when you say, 'Mountain, move from here!' it will move."
When male and female are both one gender, we will see the Light before the sun and moon were created: the real light.
108. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him."
There is not one son of God (as in John) but as many who "drink" from Jesus' mouth: follow his words.
Does not Jesus say, "Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy"?
More of Gnostic psychology: the truth is within, making us superior to the world.
112. Jesus said, "Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh."
More Gnostic dualism.
[Saying probably added to the original collection at a later date:]
114. Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life."
Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."
The motif of a non-gendered salvation.

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THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS
Doubtless one of the major archeological finds of the 20th century; this long-lost Gospel of Judas was found in the 1970s. In it, Judas, instead of being the villain, becomes the hero, helping Jesus to escape his bodily self; the other disciples are misguided. Jesus appears in many forms in t his Gospel, which is therefore also "docetic" (Docetism was a belief that Jesus only seems to be in the flesh; because if Jesus is the Light, how can light share in the evils of the flesh? This is similar to God's appearance as three men [angels] to Abraham, and other such epiphanies or "God appearances" in the Bible.) This Gospel is also odd because Jesus has a mocking tone (laughing at his disciples' errors). This, as many Gnostic gospels, is a very lacunose text ("lacuna" are missing parts); and what remains is puzzling enough, but enough is known about Gnosticism to make sense of it. I have greatly edited all 3 texts in this handout; but serious students are advised to consult the originals of these and other apocrypha, easily available on the Internet.

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The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover.
Often [Jesus] did not appear to his disciples as himself, but he was found among them as a child.
One day he was with his disciples in Judea, and he found them gathered together and seated in pious observance. When he saw his disciples, offering a prayer of thanksgiving over the bread, [he] laughed.
The disciples said to [him], "Master, why are you laughing at [our] prayer of thanksgiving? We have done what is right." He answered and said, "I am not laughing at you. <You> are not doing this because of your own will but because it is through this that your god [will be] praised."
Note their God is called "your" God, as if it was not the same as Jesus' God.
They said, "Master, you are […] the son of our god."
Jesus said to them, "How do you know me? Truly [I] say to you, no generation of the people that are among you will know me."
This mocks apostleship, since they will not "know" who Jesus is. Note below the view that the disciples' God is not the same as Jesus'. (An ellipsis [. . . ] shows lost text.)
When his disciples heard this, they started getting angry. When Jesus saw their lack of [understanding, he said] to them, "Why has this
agitation led you to anger? Your god who is within you and […] have provoked you to anger [within] your souls. [Let] any one of you who is [strong enough] among human beings bring out the perfect human and stand before my face." They all said, "We have the strength." But their spirits did not dare to stand before [him], except for Judas Iscariot. He was able to stand before him, but he could not look him in the eyes, and he turned his face away.
Judas is the hero among the disciples, able to stand up to Jesus, yet not look him in the face.
Judas [said] to him, "I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo [the female part of God]. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you."
Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. For someone else will replace you, in order that the twelve [disciples] may again come to completion with their god."
Note that Judas is given a special and secret "knowledge," and a divine task to betray Jesus. He is superior, not inferior, to the others.
The next morning, after this happened, Jesus [appeared] to his disciples again.
They said to him, "Master, where did you go and what did you do when you left us?" Jesus said to them, "I went to another great and holy generation." His disciples said to him, "Lord, what is the great generation that is holier than us, that is not now in these realms?"
Above, Jesus means he went to the place where eternal Light is. Then he laughs again. Then a statement of strong dualism, saying his disciples will never reach that place, because they are too earthly:
When Jesus heard this, he laughed and said to them, "Why are you thinking in your hearts about the strong and holy generation? [37] Truly [I] say to you, no one born [of] this aeon will see that [generation], and no host of angels of the stars will rule over that generation, and no person of mortal birth can associate with it. The generation of people among [you] is from the generation of humanity by [which] you rule." When [his] disciples heard this, they each were troubled in spirit.
Next Jesus mocks the early Christian church. Jesus attacks "their" God and calls their followers "cattle." Note that a "priest" is called a "minister of error."
They [said, "We have seen] a great [house with a large] altar [in it, and] twelve men—they are the priests, we would say—and a name; and a crowd of people is waiting at that altar. And the men who stand [before] the altar invoke your [name]."
Jesus said to them, "[They] have planted trees without fruit, in my name, in a shameful manner." Jesus said to them, "Those you have seen receiving the offerings at the altar—that is who you are. That is the god you serve, and you are those twelve men you have seen. The cattle you have seen brought for sacrifice are the many people you lead astray before that altar. For to the human generations it has been said, 'Look,
God has received your sacrifice from the hands of a priest'—that is, a minister of error. But it is the Lord, the Lord of the universe, who commands, 'On the last day they will be put to shame.'"
Jesus said, "It is impossible to sow seed on [rock] and harvest its fruit."
Judas said to Jesus, "Look, what will those who have been baptized in your name do?"
Jesus says that in betraying him, Judas will be greater than all the other disciples. To "sacrifice the man that clothes me" means that Jesus is trapped in mortal flesh; Judas is doing him a favor by releasing him. This is similar to Shakespeare's Richard III sarcastically saying that by murdering his brother Clarence he will be helping him by sending him to Heaven. Gnostics believed in guiding stars; here Jesus says that Judas' star leads the way. Judas embraces his destiny by entering the cloud:
Jesus said, "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me. Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars
surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star."
Judas lifted up his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it.
The Gospel ends on Judas' betrayal (not the crucifixion or resurrection) because this is the fulfillment Jesus was waiting for as part of the divine plan:
They [Jewish priests and scribes] approached Judas and said to him, "What are you doing here? You are Jesus' disciple." Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money and handed him over
to them.

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Thomas' Account of the Infancy of the Lord

As a child I used to love reading special issues of Superman comics showing Superman as a child, called Superboy and the problems a super boy might find. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is similar, showing Jesus as a child, doing mischief. Here are some examples below:
4. After that He was again passing through the village; and a boy ran up against Him, and struck His shoulder. And Jesus was angry, and said to him: You shall not go back the way you came. And immediately he fell down dead. And some who saw what had taken place, said: Whence was this child begotten, that every word of his is certainly accomplished? And the parents of the dead boy went away to Joseph, and blamed him, saying: Since you have such a child, it is impossible for you to live with us in the village; or else teach him to bless, and not to curse: for he is killing our children.
5. And Joseph called the child apart, and admonished Him, saying: Why do you do such things, and these people suffer, and hate us, and persecute us? And Jesus said: I know that these words of yours are not your own; nevertheless for your sake I will be silent; but they shall bear their punishment. And straightway those that accused Him were struck blind. And those who saw it were much afraid, and said about Him: Every word which he spoke, whether good or bad, was an act, and became a wonder. And when they saw that Jesus had done such a thing, Joseph rose and took hold of His ear, and pulled it hard. And the child was very angry, and said to him: It is enough for you to seek, and not to find; and most certainly you have not done wisely. Do you not know that I am yours? Do not trouble me.
8. And . . . the child laughed aloud, and said: I am here from above, that I may curse them, and call them to the things that are above, as He that sent me on your account has commanded me. And when the child ceased speaking, immediately all were made whole who had fallen under His curse. And no one after that dared to make Him angry, lest He should curse him, and he should be maimed.
9. And some days after, Jesus was playing in an upper room of a certain house, and one of the children that were playing with Him fell down from the house, and was killed. And, when the other children saw this, they ran away, and Jesus alone stood still. And the parents of the dead child coming, reproached…and they threatened Him. And Jesus leaped down from the roof, and stood beside the body of the child, and cried with a loud voice, and said: Zeno—for that was his name—stand up, and tell me; did I throw you down? And he stood up immediately, and said: Certainly not, my lord; you did not throw me down, but hast raised me up. And those that saw this were struck with astonishment. And the child's parents glorified God on account of the miracle that had happened, and adored Jesus.
10. A few days after, a young man was splitting wood in the corner,and the axe came down and cut the sole of his foot in two, and he died from loss of blood. And there was a great commotion, and people ran together, and the child Jesus ran there too. And He pressed through the crowd, and laid hold of the young man's wounded foot, and he was cured immediately. And He said to the young man: Rise up now, split the wood, and remember me. And the crowd seeing what had happened, adored the child, saying: Truly the Spirit of God dwells in this child.
13. And His father was a carpenter, and at that time made ploughs and yokes. And a certain rich man ordered him to make him a couch. And one of what is called the cross pieces being too short, they did not know what to do. The child Jesus said to His father Joseph: Put down the two pieces of wood, and make them even in the middle. And Joseph did as the child said to him. And Jesus stood at the other end, and took hold of the shorter piece of wood, and stretched it, and made it equal to the other.

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