Metalogos The Gospels of Thomas & Philip & Truth

— Bhagavad Gita 9.17
It is spoken by the Maker, Modeler, Mother-Father
of Life, of Humankind.
— Popul Vuh of the Quiché Maya, Prologue.
In a remarkable saying in the Thomas Gospel,
the Savior asserts: ‘My mother bore me, yet my
True Mother gave me the life.’ 1 (Th 101; cf. Th 15
46) This passage— the only recorded occasion in
which Christ seems to refer to God as his Mother 2
— is subsequently elucidated by an equally
surprising entry in the Philip Gospel: ‘Some say
that Mariam was impregnated by the Sacred Spirit.
They are confused, they know not what they say.
Whenever was a female impregnated by a
female?’ (Ph 18) For in this latter logion, attention
is being drawn to the fact that ‘spirit’ is of feminine
gender in the Semitic languages (Heb, xwr
[rúakh]: breath, wind, spirit). This fundamental
1 ta.maau gar n-ta.[s.mast ero.i eb]ol [ta.maau] de m-.me a.s.5
na.ei m-.p.wn6; see Bear in Th Notes.
2 But see the Gospel of the Hebrews: ‘The Savior says:... my Mother the
Sacred Spirit’ (cited by Origen, Commentary on John ii.12.87), as well as
the maternal image in the Mother Hen parable at Mt 23:37, and also the
quotes from Gilles Quispel and Raymond Brown in ‘Recent Scholarly
Comments’, Introduction, above.
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