Visitor Comments
Jesus expresses amazement at the fact that our true nature, our soul, is enhanced by its attachment to and association with a physical body. And even greater amazement that this was not a one way street and souls are just as readily viewed as created to benefit physical bodies. This is a true symbiosis with the existence of both necessary to the expression of the Glory of God as it is unfolding in the Universe.
- active-mystic
Here Jesus approaches the limits of his cognitive understanding. There is nothing to marvel at. As Zen Buddhists say it is "nothing special".
- Rodney
Jesus might have been alluding to the fact that Man exists above other animals in creation in that he has a soul; he was not simply granted a body and grew a soul to fit it, the soul was a gift from the Creator.
- Captain Munky
Others have said the same [e.g. Silver Birch]. Matter is inferior, spirit is superior. Quantum thoery agrees. See Ibn el-Arabi's statement on this in his 700-year-old book Bezel of Wisdom
- Thief37
We have been born into this corrupt flesh. Blessed is he who wins the war with this flesh and gains understanding.
- Random
Doresse is correct. Your soul is perfect and godly. The mind and physical bodies (gross, astral, causal) can be likened to layers over a shining light bulb. The outer layers block the brilliance of the soul's true light. Jesus is amazed that such depravity covers such a wealth of God.
- Petrus
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Scholarly Quotes
Gerd Ludemann writes: "'Flesh' is a link by key word to 28.1. The whole is a praise of the spirit which has taken up its abode in human bodies or in the flesh. For 'spirit' as an element of light in human beings cf. 24.3." (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 605)
F. F. Bruce writes: "Flesh and spirit are antithetical: spirit does not need flesh as its vehicle, and it is unthinkable that spirit exists to aid flesh. In the conditions of earthly life, spirit is the 'great wealth' that resides in the 'poverty' of a mortal body (cf. Sayings 85, 87, 112)." (Jesus and Christian Origens Outside the New Testament, p. 126)
Helmut Koester writes: "Jesus even marvels over how it is that something so glorious as the spirit has become mired in the flesh" (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 126).
Funk and Hoover write: "This group of sayings has a strongly ascetic tone. The depreciation of the body is a frequent theme in Thomas (note especially sayings 87 and 112, but also see the remarks on Thom 28:1-4). Such ideas are not confined to Thomas, but appear elsewhere in early Christian literature (John 3:6; Gal 5:16-18; Rom 8:3-11). However, the profile of Jesus as one who willingly associates with outsiders and the unclean and is remembered as a drunkard and a glutton (Matt 11:19//Luke 7:34) does not square with these remarks that belittle the body and recommend asceticism." (The Five Gospels, p. 489)
Marvin Meyer writes: "This saying expresses surprise at the close relationship between the spirit, the immortal dimension of human beings, and the flesh or body. Inasmuch as the saying intimates that the spirit within may actually exist for the benefit and salvation of the body, it resembles saying 7." (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 82)
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