The Thomas Code: Solving the mystery of the Gospel of Thomas Kindle Edition

Maybe the author knew what s/he was talking about, but even though I’ve studied mystical numerology for many years as well as cryptography, I hadn’t a clue how to grok what was being relayed. “Who’s on First” anyone? It was THAT confusing! And I’m also quite familiar with the Bible, having read it through from cover to cover numerous times and researched it six ways to Sunday and back, both by comparing various scriptures within the Bible itself to each other and by researching the works of Biblical scholars as well as numerous ‘secular’ texts in the areas of archaeology, ancient and Biblical history and in other areas. And in my opinion, the Bible is one of the most confusing puzzles of all!The Lost Books of the Bible, Mystical Christianity and Gnosticism et al, have always intrigued me. This book, however… not so much. I’m a fast reader, and this was a fairly short book at approximately 325 pages. Yet it took me 5 months – not only to read it – but to WANT to read it.Still, I wanted to give it a fair shot. But ultimately what I determined is that it’s quite likely that this ‘book’ was a red herring, so to speak. Just as with the so-called ‘canonized’ books of the Bible, it is likely that it was carefully crafted by the Roman government in their obviously quite successful attempt to redirect the attention of those who had been drawn to the teachings of an extremely controversial Hebrew Rabbi? Prophet? by the name of Yehoshua, later to be re-christened with the Greek name Iesous, and then still later the Latinized version, Jesus. (Although there could be another reason for this, the fact that Yehoshua’s name was Latinized is suspect, since Latin was of ROMAN origin.)Allegedly, these actions, initially, were undertaken in an effort to better control what many have referred to as ‘The Jesus Movement,’ as opposed to the ‘Christians,’ the latter name given to those who followed the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings which the laity believed were the teachings of the ‘God-man’ Jesus – teachings which had been significantly altered from their original form.It’s quite likely that the real ‘author’ of this book was the so-called ‘Apostle’ Paul who never met Jesus (hearing a voice on the road to Damascus doesn’t count, regardless of what Saul/Paul claimed) and fought and argued with the few actual Apostles who remained alive after Yehoshua’s death, over the beliefs, procedures and religious protocols (especially regarding circumcision) to which Yehoshua’s original/early followers adhered.In fact, it has been determined by many Biblical scholars and researchers that by the time Saul/Paul began his ‘ministry,’ he was also a Roman government ‘plant’ possibly working with the Jews in order to confuse Yehoshua’s teachings and pave the way for a New Roman Religion.Well, I’d say it worked. There’s been lots of confusion around Yehoshua’s teachings. The question is: were any of the utterances that were believed to have been made by ‘Jesus,’ and found in the New Testament section of the Bible really made by ‘Jesus’?At least of those words which are found in the Bible. It’s possible, however, according to a rumor that’s been going around for many years that Jesus actually DID write a book filled with his insights and wisdom, and which was likely secreted away by either Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea or the Essenes, with whom he is believed to have studied.As for The Thomas Code: aside from the inherent confusion as far as the subject of this particular book/author, The Thomas Code, itself, was supposedly ‘based’ (quite loosely, I might add) on the events that were later believed to be the actual source of the four canonized Gospels of the New Testament or the ‘Christian Greek Scriptures’ of what has come to be known as The Bible. Yet these four so-called ‘Gospels’ were actually taken from a much earlier scroll that was dubbed ‘Q’ – which stands for the German word ‘quelle,’ and is translated ‘source.’ – by German researchers.Bottom line: I was not impressed with this book at all. The fact is, it was more confusing than enlightening. Does that make me a dunce? Possibly. But I’ve studied these subjects for at least 55 years and have noted many conflicting comments/beliefs within the Bible itself, as well as anachronisms and what have been determined to be outright concoctions and fabrications along with numerous/various other Biblical researchers. This may be why for so long the Roman Catholic Church had banned the reading of the Bible by the laity. And then, of course, there was the Inquisition. But that’s another (though closely related) story.Ultimately, a confusing mishmash that’s likely based on erroneous information anyway.

Thomas is an apocryphal book and therefore not available as part of various editions of the Bible. So one must search outside sources for its study. And the excavations and finds in Egypt (Nag Hammadi) have become the prime sources for the study of Thomas as well as other apocryphya, also known as lost gospels, such as Mary Magdalene, Peter, etc. Thomas is unique among the Lost Gospels in that it is simply a compendium of statements/quotations attributed to Jesus rather than being biographical in nature. In addition these do not appear to be logically arranged. The author of this book, Laurie, has studied the arrangement, number, and location of these statements and related them to the mathematics of prime numbers, known to the ancient Greeks, and deduced a system of organization for this gospel. Doing this required rearranging in some cases, deleting repetitions, combining, considering multiple meanings of certain words, recounting quotations, and renumbering texts. This covers almost half of the book: the prime number mathematics is not difficult, altho the information on sequences does become complicated. However one may back off of some of that without losing content. There is a section in the middle which goes into detail and similarly analyzes the miracles of the loaves and fishes. This is particularly interesting as well as a verification of the use of his method. The remainder of the book consists of two parts -- first the rearranged and renumbered statements with commentary, and then the complete Gospel of Thomas with both the original numbering and Laurie's renumbering. Throughout he clearly explains what he has done and the reasons behind any changes, relocating, and/or deletions. One does not have to follow all of the prime number operations and sequences in the first part to benefit from the remainder of the book. Unless the math is your thing, would recommend going through it slowly and carefully to understand what is being done then concentrating on the rest. This is a carefully worked out system, altho everyone may not agreed with the textual ammendations. It is not surprising however that going between several ancient languages, working with centuries old papyrus documents, lack of translation aids, and without modern techniques certainly would involve substantial difficulties; it is an amazing sucess.

The first thing you need to do is read the 114 Logion in The Gospel of Thomas as recounted by Jean Leloup. Yes I know this attempt to bring clarity to these sayings of Jesus refers to only 108 Logion but you must first read all of the secrets "Yeshua said . . ." to familiarize yourself with the work referenced here.I am only an average math student but this fascinating numerical explanation and revealing look at the structure and purpose of this gospel, is relatively easy to follow and understand. Once you have this book you will want to read the Gospel of Thomas again and again to expand your appreciation and understanding of the gospel.

This is a wonderful example of deep analysis of a text. As a retired information analyst I appreciate its elegance and lucidity. It is interesting to compare The Thomas Code to another book, the Gospel of Thomas Unriddled, which came out four years before The Thomas Code and has a unique perspective on the meanings of the sayings.

3•2•3•2•3 = 108, which is the number of verses in the Gospel of Thomas. This means the Gospel can be organized in many different ways, for instance 6 chapters of 18 verses. When arranged in this way many enigmatic verses seem to make sense, being descriptions of the structure of the book. It could be an amazing coincidence or deliberately laid out that way. If so, it is the most amazing example of meta authorship ever. It doesn't really make this gospel any more relevant.The simple fact is that the Gospel was most likely written well into the third century by Coptic Christians and is not a hidden gospel. I have given it a 2 star rating because of the audacity.

Its hS nothing to do with scripture

Good book

This is an incredible experience. Now I see why the official church doesn't want this known by the people. And an easy read also.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It gripped my mystery-loving soul. I'm not a religious person, but this really appealed to my sense of spirituality, and the theories the author put forth about the meaning of the gospel often resonated with me. Some of the extrapolations the author made, connecting the text to the Thomas Code, felt a little bit overreaching, but on the whole it was an enjoyable read, and the final puzzle piece was brand new information to me! I'd be interested in reading The Rock and The Tower now.(Slightly mysterious though, the web pages linked in the back of the book don't exist, which is a shame as I was intrigued to find out more!)

Very in depth and mathematical but I find that its Gnostic being a Gnostic an in the Gnostic catholic church I found the actual document fascinating but the opinion of the author is like mine merely an opinion

Interesting - not sure it draws as many conclusions as one could do, yet it lays out the code in a logical manner - perhaps a bit to focused on the code - more of a technical guide than an analysis of Thomas Gospel - good read and well structured

I liked all the detailed explanations and the way the book was structured. Easy to read and very insightful. Everything makes sense and I don't remember a single moment where I wouldn't agree with the author. I recommend reading The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman after this book.

this is a wonderful book. serious work. thanks for the opportunity to know about her. was delivered super quickly and efficiently.