the Living One Gospel of Thomas Saying 59

Saying 59

(59) Jesus said: Look upon the Living One so long as you live, that you may not die and seek to see him, and be unable to see him.

Sayings 59 and 60 deny the Pagan-Pseudo-Christian doctrine that one’s encounter with God and one’s divine rest occur after death in heaven. “You must find the knowledge of the living one” this has a double meaning first It applys to God and therefore individuals are called “Sons of the living Father” as in Saying 3 and it is also applys to the Lord Jesus. Jesus and the father are one so here the Living one is both Jesus and the Father (saying 0, 3 cp. Jn 17:3).

By knowing the living father and the living Jesus we become sons of the living one (cp. 24 37 38 50 59) and this must happen before death you must do it before you die for when you die you will not be able to see him. So we must look upon the Living One before we die in order not to be left in the grave forever but whither you die a second death this again is up to you whither you be a good servant or a wicked one. Thus in saying 60 at the conclusion of the dialogue, we hear that unless you seek and find a place of rest you will become a corpse. This is a very similar observation to that in this saying telling us that unless you find the living one while you live for when you die you will be unable to do so.

For death is death and not another journey in life death is unconsciousness and the dead know nothing so “The dead are not alive” Saying 11, Cp. 15, 51, 52, 59, 85 Ecc 9:5, 10 Ps 115:16,17 146:3, 4.

And death is compared to sleep in the bible "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:1-2). Jesus also agreed with Daniel, who had declared that "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (12:21). This is how John's Gospel records his saying:
". . . The hour is coming, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his (Jesus') voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29). (Jesus' "all" is the same as Daniel's "many": it is all who during their lifetime have "heard the voice of the Son of God", v.25.)

Look where the dead are: "in the tombs" ("sleep in the dust of the earth", Daniel); they "come forth" by resurrection ("they awake", Daniel); they come forth either to life or to judgement. The harmony between Jesus and Daniel is complete; the Lord is endorsing the teaching of the Old Testament on this important matter of the place, the state, and the fate of the dead.

59)## Jesus said, "Take heed of [listen to and obey] the Living One while you are alive [while you have the Keys to the mystery within you - before you are robbed of them], lest you die [go back under subjection to the false teachings of a dead religion] and seek to see Him and be unable to do so [see v-44]."