Gnostic sources often do depict Jesus answering questions, taking the role of teacher, revealer, and spiritual master. But here, too, the gnostic model stands close to the psychotherapeutic one. Both acknowledge the need for guidance, but only as a provisional measure. The purpose of accepting authority is to learn to outgrow it.
When one becomes mature, one no longer needs any external authority. The one who formerly took the place of a disciple comes to recognize himself as Jesus' "twin brother." Who, then, is Jesus the teacher? Thomas the Contender identifies him simply as "the knowledge of the truth." According to the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus refused to validate the experience that the disciples must discover for themselves:
When one becomes mature, one no longer needs any external authority. The one who formerly took the place of a disciple comes to recognize himself as Jesus' "twin brother." Who, then, is Jesus the teacher? Thomas the Contender identifies him simply as "the knowledge of the truth." According to the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus refused to validate the experience that the disciples must discover for themselves:
They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you." He said to them, "You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment."
~ The Gnostic Gospels - Elaine Pagels ~
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