Commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, by Robert Miller: "The religious background of this way of thinking is to be found in Gnosticism, a religious movement which flourished during the period of Christianity's rise. Gnosticism as a movement was very diverse, but its theological orientation may be described generally as anti-cosmic. Gnostics believed that the world (kosmos) is evil, a mistake in the divine order. Gnostics themselves, consequently, did not see themselves as part of the evil world. Having originally descended from God, their presence in the world is itself the result of a tragic error, a fall, an entrapment. Over time, however, the world had worked its anesthetizing powers on them, so that they had forgotten their origins, their God, until such time as a savior, a revealer, came toremind them of their heavenly origins. "Of course, not all of this is found in Thomas. ... Still, the rudiments of this type of thinking are present throughout Thomas: the deprecation of the world and the flesh (Thom 56 and 80); the tendency to remove oneself from the world (Thom 21:6); even perhaps a primitive catechism for the return home (Thom 49 and 50). ... Thomas shares with Gnosticism a basic concern for personal identity within a world which was widely perceived as brutal and mean. Thomas presents us with a Jesus whose words call one from out of the chaos into a quest, to seek and to find (Thom 2, 92, and 94), and finally to discover one's true identity as a child of God (3:4)." Thom 3: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) imperial rule is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) imperial rule is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." Thom 24:3-4: "There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark." Thom 25: Jesus said, "Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye." Thom 31: Jesus said, "No prophet is welcome on his home turf; doctors don't cure those who know them." Thom 42: Jesus said, "Be passersby." Thom 48: Jesus said, "If two make peace with each other in a single house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move from here!' and it will move." Thom 50: Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established (itself), and appeared in their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?' say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.' If they ask you, 'What is the evidence of your Father in you?' say to them, 'It is motion and rest.'" Thom 61:5: "For this reason I say, if one is (whole), one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness." Thom 62: Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to those (who are worthy) of (my) mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Thom 67: Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking." Thom 70: Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you (will) kill you." Thom 77: Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."