Stevan Davies on Thomas Sayings in Mark Part II, Unit 4

In this final section of the second article by Stevan Davies on the use of Thomas material in Mark, we are discussing the section Mark 6:1-6, and examining the "Christian drift" in the editing style of Mark, hand in hand with the article, but emphasizing as always the view from a Course standpoint.

Here is the material from Mark (NIV):

Mark 6
A Prophet Without Honor
 1Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
   "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph,[a] Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
 4Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Davies concludes this is strung together from Logion 31, in the Pursah version: "A prophet is not acceptable in his own town. A doctor does not heal those who know him." In other words, in this case it is not really a matter of altering the meaning of the statement much per se, but dressing it up as a story.

Next comes Mk. 7:14-23, Made up of GTh 14 (c) and 45(b), both of which are skipped in the Pursah version, so I will skip over them here.

Then comes the final clause of Logion 4,"Many of the first will be last and they will become as a single one." Davies sees versions of this in Mk. 9:35, 10:31, 10:43-44 and in all cases, besides the fact that they seem to be based on this text, I don't immediately see any editorial slanting of the meaning in a particular direction. Although clearly this statement has been read in any number of ways, and the pure saying by itself tends to be more thought provoking than having it as a story element. The context tends to sway the reader to a certain way of understanding the statement. Taken in it's juxtaposition in Logion 4, with the statement: "The person old in days should not hesitate to ask a little child the meaning of life, and that person will live," one starts to hear a frequent topic in Jesus's teachings namely that human adulthood is not what it's cracked up to be - think of "except ye become like little children," etc. - and that the seedling of what we really are, the Christ-child lives within us, and will grow within us if we rely on it for guidance, in lieu of our "mature" judgment. That way we will live, for we will return to who we are as spirit, instead of dying in the service of this form which is our body, and which is perishable by definition. The ego always wants to be first, but never is, for it is not an original thought. What Jesus teaches is "I choose the second place to gain the first," (ACIM, Lesson 328) meaning that by choosing to identify ourselves as the created, not the creator (as the ego wants us to be, seeking to play God, and be "first" in that sense), and when we choose to identify with the created, with the sonship, we will be one, because the sonship is one, as God only has one son, who simply imagines being many, by virtue of his belief in the reality of the "tiny mad idea" of the separation.

Next comes Mark 11:15-19, corresponding to Logion 64(b), which I'll also skip here as Pursah skips it in her edition of the text, clearly doubting the authenticity of this very judgmental sounding statement.

The next episode is Mk. 11:22-23, here in the NIV version:

22 "Have[a] faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Based on Logion 48 in the Thomas material, which Pursah does include in her edition. Evidently this is almost the core definition of the miracle, though it has been much misunderstood, usually because of people again taking something literally which should not be understood that way. As some people have said, once you pick up that mountain, what are you going to do with it. But the miracle, the change of mind that makes us choose peace instead of war, love instead of fear, does make the seemingly impossible possible. The physical effects, whatever they may be or not be, are not the point of the miracles, though the world always seeks the physical effects as proof. If, how, and when our change of mind finds expression in form is not our job, but the job of the Holy Spirit. It is our inner choice for peace which will move obstacles out of the way, first inner obstacles, and gradually we'll experience it in our lives as well, but never in the form of the typical ego trap of thinking that forgiveness will pulverize this rock against which we stubbed our toe. That is not the point.

Davies finds allusions to Logion 48 in several other verses in Mark.


Next comes Mk. 12:13-17, again in the NIV version:

13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
 15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
   " 'My house will be called
      a house of prayer for all nations'[a]? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'[b]"

This corresponds to Logion 100, and except that it is worked up into a story, I don't think the meaning is clouded by the treatment. Evidently it means that you leave the world alone, you do not try to spiritualize the world. So you just do what's normal in the world, Jesus's teachings pertain to what's going on in the mind.


This concludes this series of reviews of Stevan Davies's brilliant work on the evolution from Thomas to Mark, showing how the simple sayings become enhanced and embellished into stories, and often times with a theological slant that is beginning to betray the theological influence of Paul. So where the early Jesus of Thomas is distinctly non-Christian, in the treatment in Mark the shift towards an early Christian interpretation of him under the influence of Paul is in full swing.

I hope these articles were fun to read, as they were fun to write. I am not writing them as a contribution to Biblical scholarship - I leave that to Stevan Davies. The point here is to help us to start to hear how this process works. It is how the ego twists our guidance to its own purposes, and we will stumble upon this issue in our own relationship with Jesus as our Internal Teacher many times, when we hear something, and our ego has a tendency to use such guidance for its own purposes immediately, and see to it that we understand it in a way that has the ego's "imprimatur," so as to prevent that we should ever follow Jesus directly. The Course says the ego always speaks first, and is always wrong. This is what we should keep in mind in learning to listen. And as the Course so clearly says in many places, we can learn to tell the difference by how peaceful we feel inside.