It’s been a busy weekend for me. Spent the better part of it hanging out and conversing on all sorts of topics with Zac from Alchemically Braindamaged. So I’m trying to get back into the swing of my regular writing routine again. And I thought I’d start with the very last lines from the Gospel of John which I finished shortly before Zac’s arrival. It reads:
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
John, of course, is sequentially the last of the Four Gospels and the flavor of it is radically different from the other three Synoptics. This passage in particular interests me greatly however. It seems to me to invite the reader of the Gospels to recognize that these four parallel tales only tell a fraction of the real story of Jesus. In fact, an exceedingly small fraction. So much so that if the full story were told, it would literally take the resources of the entire world to tell the story.
This also seems to me to be a recapitulation of the opening lines of John (nevermind of Genesis):
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
If Jesus is the Word (the Logos) and the entire world was created through the Word, then it only makes sense that the telling of that story would - in essence - require the entire world. It is the closest parallel I have found to the apocryphal gnostic Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus says:
“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.â€
It also seems to me to invite the reader to continue exploring the story of the Gospel as it is esoterically written across the face of the earth and across all Creation. But maybe that’s easier said than done. How are you supposed to find Jesus under rocks or hidden up in the branches of a tree? How are you supposed to “read” these other hidden works of Jesus of which the Gospel of John speaks?
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
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- More about why Wicca is stupid
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6 Comments
For some new eyes on interpreting the gospels see if you can get your hands on ‘The Mark’ by Maurice Nicoll. As for rocks and trees, if you bring a sense of newborn wonder to your beneficial encounters with them, hopefully they might transfer some of their noble spirit to you:)
Dunno man, to me that last quote really sounds like a description of nondual perception.
In the same gospel he says “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 kingdom is within you and it is outside you.”
I kind of think he was just a very misunderstood teacher of enlightenment.
Hmm, I guess that’s what they were saying in the link…. Oh well.
This is a very Demiurge-like thing to say. Not that I think Jesus is the Demiurge, but it seems like an interesting avenue of exploration. Maybe a discussion of how Jesus and the Demiurge relate to one another, or whether Jesus is the redemption of the Demiurge, or perhaps the Demiurge is Jesus’ evil twin.
I think it’s meant more in the Platonic sense: the light being Absolute Light, Absolute Good. See that video on alchemy and Platonism that Zac linked to
Yeah, I saw it. I just thought it was an interesting line of inquiry. Maybe I should start blogging again.