From: "Stevan Davies" <miser17@epix.net>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Date:          Wed, 7 May 1997 15:48:04 +0000
Subject:       re: P and GoT
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> On Tue, 6 May 1997, Stevan Davies wrote:
> 
> > Why doesn't Thomas just say "beware the demiurge!" like all
> > the other gnostic texts do? 
> 
> Because "these are the SECRET sayings . . . whoeverFINDS THE
> INTERPRETATION of these sayings will not taste death." Apart from
> this rather straightforward invocation of a more or less esoteric
> practice of reading, MOST of the sayings in Thomas are obscure as
> can be. He doesn't just come right out and say what he means re.
> ANYTHING. 
> Bill

Yeah. I'm afraid so. I just went and looked and I can't find much
of anything that's straightforward. This derives from Jesus himself,
of course. As you know this is a powerful argument against your
gnostic Thomas thesis, because when you read actual Gnostic
material it's trying as best it can to make everything clear in
detail. Now, it doesn't do this very well if you come at it from the
outside, but it's not from lack of trying. The Gospel of Philip, for
example, time and again tries to make things clear, define terms,
and so forth. The idea of secret hiddenness characterizing gnostic
texts either comes from people not having read gnostic texts
or from people making the inane error of assuming that since
they don't understand the texts the texts must have been designed
for them not to understand them.

Try it and see. 

http://home.sn.no/~noetic/nhl.htm

If everybody on crosstalk would just read a couple actual real
undeniable gnostic texts this discussion would have a lot more
going for it. The link above will give you a selection of 
full nag-hammadi text translations.

Thomas, following Jesus' general practice, may well be designing
sayings for people not to understand them (at least not those who 
lack the secret hermeneutic). But that is NOT characteristic
of gnosticism!

Steve