Simon-gathercole
https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/simon-gathercole
sjg1007@cam.ac.uk
Dear sir,
I have a Google search flag set to notify me on any new mention of the Gospel of Thomas. It picked up a review of your book here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionqanda/2023/08/question-why-did-early-christians-choose-only-four-gospels/
I have been a bi-vocational engineer/evangelist-pastor in Utah since 1982. Married 42 years with 4 C and 8 GC. Now retired from engineering, I am full time evangelist-teacher.
My interest in GOT is incidental. I have been studying Hebrew pun, riddle and Notarikon for 25 years. My studies have not been entered into the Academic discussions. But I have made observations that you may be interested in.
The early church was first Jewish. The Greeks did not wish to be Jewish. By 400 AD they had chased all the Jews from the church, Augustine insisted that the Septuagint was more reliable than the original Hebrew, and that the scriptures were to be interpreted literally. This compound error created all kinds of interpretive problems, such that during the 'sensus plenior' debates of the last century the only thing they could agree upon was that they could not read the OT the way that Jesus and the NT authors did.
Early childhood education specialists told me that one does not understand a language well until the ability to do pun and riddle is well developed.
The never-ending debate on gospel priority becomes humorous once a proper genre is identified for scripture. I have been doing evangelism in the heart of Mormonism for decades. I would not teach doctrine from a Mormon apostle even if he accidentally got it right. If you have the wrong number of gods, your doctrine cannot be trusted. Likewise, I dismiss the teachings of the Nicolaitans who lost their first love, and adopted doctrines of Balaam and the Judaisers. I have no fascination for the early church fathers as do many 'scholars'. These are the ones who denied access to the scriptures for 1200 years and have seeded hostilities to the word of God at every turn.
The 'Synoptic Problem' is actually the key to understanding the hermeneutic of the early Jewish church.
We have been told that the NT authors received contradictory magic knowledge of literal historical events, which we account for by citing human frailty. Yes. That's an exaggeration. It characterizes the assumed genre of the gospels.
Consider a different stage. Jesus taught the disciples. He taught them in prophetic riddle, always speaking of the cross in a hidden way so they would not understand. If they could believe and be saved by teaching alone, the cross would not be necessary. After the cross he sent the Spirit to remind them of what they were taught. Some guys returned from the road to Emmaus who had a quick lesson in reading scripture. They learned that if you read about Adam, Noah and Abraham, you were not reading the Bible that Jesus did. He said it all spoke of him. This can only be true if the scriptures are not merely literal-historical.
As they studied the scriptures (OT) they were reminded of the things Jesus did. At 10-12 year intervals they wrote a book and threw it over the wall at the Gentile church which did not wish to learn Hebrew. It was delivered by messengers who were teachers. The books were outlines of the sermon, their memory and Jewish training of the scriptures filling in the gaps.
Everything in the gospels is an interpretation of the 'sensus plenior' or Paul's 'mystery' as seen through the life of Christ. The history was a live action play containing prophetic riddle using the lives of people, not merely words.
The earliest book was Mark and is most primitive in the ability to unpack the mystery. He began the story with the preaching of John, the baptist. 10-15 years later, in the Jewish church they had discovered that Israel was a shadow of Christ, so Matthew started the story with Abraham. By the time Luke wrote, they discovered that the history before Abraham also spoke of Christ, and begin the story with Adam.
John learned to unpack Notarikon, the attribute of Hebrew where words get their meaning from the combined meaning of the letters. Modern rabbis twist this saying that Notarikon is merely acronyms. John gets his doctrine of Joh 1:1-4 from the Notarikon of the first three words of Gen 1:1.
The gospels were authoritative because they were the official communique from the Jewish church to the Gentile church delivered by preaching messengers to update them on the current state of scholarship concerning the unpacking of the 'mystery hidden from the beginning'.
The GOT is a later writing which appears to be an attempt to teach the riddles of scripture. I have not closely examined other extra-biblical writings to see if they have the nature of riddle. But GOT is maligned because it's genre is misidentified.
Nearly every critical author uses 114 to mock Thomas:
(114) Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
What do we know from scripture IF scripture is written in prophetic riddle?
Paul says that when he speaks of marriage he speaks of Christ and the church. He also says that the man was not deceived, but the woman was. When we read of Adam we see Christ. Christ was not deceived, but the bride was. He said, "Forgive them, they know not what they do." from the cross. In marriage, why do we take a vow when Jesus said we should not vow? Because the ceremony is the preaching of the cross through symbols. The man and woman do not take a vow. They play-act Christ and the church and their covenant.
So a woman, one who is deceived and does not understand is not worthy of life (in symbol), must become male, that is be taught. Additionally, 'Mary' means 'rebellious'. The one who does not understand and is rebellious, must be taught.
How do we know the angels do not marry? They all have male names. They know God. "Marriage in Hebrew also means 'doctrine'. The bride is those who are taught by Christ.
Now Jer 30:6 makes sense. The woman, those who don't understand are made to be male by teaching. The day comes when the now male brides are pregnant and are fruitful and multiplying as per Ge 1. They are fruitful by the fruit of the Spirit, and multiply by teaching.
Incidentally, there is a saying among the Sikhs in India, where Thomas is supposed to have taught, that all males must become virgins. Adding it to the riddle: those who understand must become the virgin bride of Christ.
As the Hebrew messengers delivered the gospels and preached around them. The eyes of the Greeks glazed over. They had no interest in the Hebrew riddles. They lost the oral part of the delivery. They didn't remember that the account of Jesus in the temple when he was 12 was a fulfillment of the riddles concerning the nine kings of Chedorlaomer.
They even forgot the Hebrew root for 'agape' in favor of their Greek definition. In Hebrew, it is 'the combatants'.[1] Agape love is the love of God that he gave his enemies. While we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. They forgot the Hebrew meaning of mammon, which is 'the believing ones'. You cannot serve God and self.
'Mustard' in Greek sounds like 'bruised by anger' in Hebrew. The seed of the woman with the bruised heel was the least of all the seed because he served us all on the cross. I can teach you how to move the mountain to the sea from the Notarikon of 'water'; מים
The Greeks did not know or care about Jewish genealogies. They certainly did not care to see the pattern of second sons in Matthew's genealogy, identifying Jesus as the fulfillment of the usurping second son, or second Adam. They are left with singular teachings elsewhere to build doctrine from, rather than the rich recapitulation in the historical record establishing the same.
I am obviously not offering proofs here. I do not have a way to introduce these observations into the academic conversation, other than to share from time to time.
I had to reverse engineer 8000 Hebrew words to get a proper meaning of the Hebrew alphabet. It speaks of Christ, so the rabbis had no interest in preserving it. I am currently rebuilding the Hebrew dictionary to show that Notarikon works.
I have written a few children's books on the dietary law showing that it speaks about good teachers. Eating is a metaphor for learning. The clean animal is the teacher that meditates on the Word of God and it produces a separated, or Holy walk.
I am doing a book on Genesis 1 showing that each day is a picture of Christ. In Notarikon, 'yom' יום is 'the creator י made clear ו through the finished work of the Son ם. I destroy the notion of contradictory creation accounts using the poetic structure to show that 2:5 belongs at the end of the first account, not the beginning of the second.
Oh yeah, since God used words to create, the alphabet precedes creation and is a short catechism from God. From it, John can say the Lamb was slain before the foundations... and Paul can say we were chosen before the earth was made.
[1] Strong H102
I am looking forward to obtaining your anthology to see if other works have the nature of GOT.
Bob Jones 801-230-2254
