Gospel of Thomas Saying 110

[gnostic ken]

What does Saying 110 say/mean to you?

110 Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world."

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110) Jesus said, "Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world."

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110.)

He who has found the world and riches, should then deny the world.

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110. Y'shua says: Whoever has found the system and been enriched,

let him renounce the system.

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(110) Jesus says: "The one who has found the world (and) has become

wealthy should renounce the world."

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Polebridge/Excerpts/thomas.html

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl_thomas.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/thomas.htm

http://www.ntgateway.com/noncanonical-texts/gospel-of-thomas/

[gnostic ken]

28 May 12, Clive said:

You can not serve God and Mammon.
Once the true kingdom is found and understanding is given, renounce the old way of being.

30 May 12, I said:

One can no longer serve the religious hierarchy once one has experienced inner truth.

Ken

Fri Nov 14, 2003 7:21 am, I said:
When you discover true reality the physical reality isn't so
important anymore.

Sat Apr 3, 2004 7:23 pm, Scott said:
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there* "is."

* "... then there (just) 'is'."

Aug 09, 2007 07:02 PDT, I said:
Okay, to me "found the world" means "understands the nature of
physical reality." "Become wealthy" means "has gained knowledge of
spiritual reality."

So what this saying is saying to me is once you understand the true
nature of What Is, you won't place so much importance on physical
things.

Ken

Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:50 pm, gravy8654 said:
"Found" tells me that "he" was looking for the world so Jesus is saying that he
is looking for and at the wrong thing for true "life" We can also place a lot of
our safety on money or wealth, whatever it might be (knowledge, money, things)
these things are fleeting and temporary and then the cares of this world sneak
up one you and before you know it, you are faced with loosing it. We need to
focus on the real life which will never go away

Clint

Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:39 am, I asked Clint:
Hi Clint,

So you believe the "world" is not real?

Ken

Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:18 am, Clint answered:
Hello Ken

I believe that the world as many people know it is not real, especially the
cares of this world. I think that what Jesus was saying is that the one who
finds what he believes as the world or our own conception of what the world
might be (wealth, power, status, safety) Sometimes we fall into that trap of
work and regular life because we think that we must have it for safety and being
comfortable and then we need more and more and we forget the true "Life" and to
me the true "world" is the will of the Father. Don't get me wrong, I think that
the world is real and we all need to work and support our families. What I meant
was that that passage was saying to me that we can get into a groove and be
living but not living for the true life, Jesus and the will of Father in our
lives and HE wants us to shed that way of thinking and rely on Him

Clint

Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:52 pm, I responded:
Hi Clint,
Thanks.

I think our life is real, it just isn't all that is real. Think of kindergarten,
it is real, but it isn't our whole life. It is just a stop along the way were we
learn things and move on.

IMO.

Ken

30 May, 12, I said:

As you can see my take on this one has changed a bit. I did see it as talking about our relationship with the physical universe. Now I see it as talking about our relationship with organized religion.

Not that both couldn't be true. I do believe these sayings have more than one level of meaning.

IMO.

Ken

30 May, 12, Clive said:

These sayings do seem to have many levels of meaning.
The level of meaning I'm getting seems to be where you were back in 2003.
Clive.

31 May, 12, I said: 

I think perhaps some of Steve's Zen has rubbed off on me.

Ken

[gnostic ken]

Sun Feb 17, 2013 4:03 pm, Oregon George said:

In an earlier essay on GTh 81, I argued that the word, "rich," in that saying

and in this one, referred to material riches. I no longer think so. On

reexamining the evidence, I believe that in both cases, it refers to spiritual

riches. I will not go into my reasons here for reevaluating that earlier

saying, but at some point I will submit another post.

The key phrase in this saying is "Whoever has found the world." The Coptic word

for find is "quin." Complicating the matter is another Coptic word, "xe,"

literally meaning "fall," which when joined with the word for "onto" or "upon,"

means "fall upon" or "find." In short, in Thomas the two Coptic words may both

be translated as "find." However, there seems to be a shade of meaning that

separates the two. In my earlier post on GTh 81, I correctly identified "xe" to

suggest discovery. But "quin" does not suggest an expected discovery, as I

maintained. It suggests instead a discovery of the truth about something, a

truth under the surface of the thing. So in the context of Thomas, when one

seeks, he finds (quin) not what he expects to find, but something extraordinary

(2, 92 and 94). As used in this saying, finding is equivalent to knowing, as in

these sayings:

56) Jesus said, "Whoever has come to understand/know the world has found a

corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world."

80) Jesus said, "He who has known the world has found the body, but he who has

found the body is superior to the world."

So in this saying we have, "Whoever has found the world and becomes rich, let

him renounce the world." The similarity of this with the above sayings is

unmistakable. In all three cases, knowing or finding the world is the same as

discovering the real truth about it. The world is a "corpse," just as the

"body" is, and he who discovers this is superior to the world (GTh 56 and 80). 

Likewise, he who finds the world, who really sees it for what it is, becomes

rich, not physically rich, but spiritually rich. His illusions about the world

are gone. He knows it is a corpse, something dead and certainly not his Source.

He knows what is true and what is false, and therefore, he has no trouble in

leaving the world behind. The irony is that only those who are truly rich,

spiritually fulfilled, can afford to renounce the world.

Thank you.

George Duffy

Corvallis, OR