COURSE OVERVIEW
Copyright Michael F. Ledwith 2006

1. The Corruption of Scripture.
 

Most fervent Christians of all varieties believe that the Bible, especially the New Testament, is the inspired written words of God. They believe that those words were in some shape or form sent down directly from Heaven by God via the equivalent of e-mail of fax, or were communicated through the direct inspiration of every word written down by the authors of the biblical books.

Unfortunately we do not have those original copies of any of the books of the Bible, not even of the New Testament. What we do have are multiple generations of error-ridden copies of those originals.

For the first three centuries of its existence Christianity was an illegal and fugitive religion. What copying of the original documents took place was done by amateurs, in far from ideal circumstances, however diligent and devoted the copiers themselves undoubtedly were.

The original versions of the books of the New Testament as we have them were written in Greek, and they were unprofessionally copied throughout the first 300 years before Christianity became the state religion under Constantine. About 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the Bible survive today, even though some manuscripts only contain small fragments of the texts. Of these texts only ten contain the full bible as we know it today, and only four of these are earlier than the tenth century!

In that collection of manuscripts some scholars estimate that there are as many as 400,000 places where the manuscripts are at variance with each other, or to put it in context as one noted biblical scholar expressed it, there are more variations of the text of the New Testament than there are words in the New Testament.

So in what sense can we claim to have in the scriptures the inspired written words of God, since there is so much uncertainty about what the correct words are?

Some of these variations in the text are simply accidents of scribal copying. Some were deliberate changes to accommodate different theological points of view, or to ensure that sacred scripture corresponded to the teachings of the early church - the reverse of what one thought would have been the correct procedure! Good examples are the changes made in relation to the debate about whether Jesus was divine or human or a combination of both, or the status of women in the early Church, and there are several others.

The King James Version of the Bible has rightly been beloved for centuries by Christian believers all throughout the English speaking world, not least for the classically beautiful English prose in which it is written. Unfortunately for the King James Bible, it is a translation of one of the most corrupted of the Greek texts that have survived.

Many of our most cherished beliefs such as how to understand the divinity of Jesus, the nature of the Holy Trinity, and many of the central bible stories we remember from childhood, are based on either deliberate or accidental copying of the biblical text. Obviously a knowledge of these very matters are essential for anyone who wishes to have an in-depth understanding of fundamental matters concerning human life and destiny before God, which is why this will form the topic of the first teleconference.

2. The True Teaching of Jesus about Women.
 

After I had spoken at a Conference held after the first "What the Bleep" movie, I was interviewed by the Editor of a distinguished Protestant magazine. We had been discussing the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. He said to me ""Don't you think that if Jesus had some sort of relationship with Mary Magdalene that it would have interfered with his divinity?"

I said: "Before I answer I want to ask you this; what kind of horrible estimate of womanhood lies behind your question? And what kind of understanding of sexuality are you working with?" Surely neither womanhood or sexuality are evil or unclean, any more than being a man would make you automatically evil or unclean?

There is little doubt that Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code was correct when it said that traditional Christianity has downgraded the status of woman, even though the novel exaggerated how late a development this had been, for the downgrading had started quite early on and not just with the Church of Constantine.

The position of the early Church on women was dominated by the view of St. Paul who at one time said there was no distinction between male and female. But at the same time he saw that the emancipation of woman in the Roman world led to what he considered a breakdown of morality. Paul believed the Church should model its teachings about women and the family on strict Jewish traditional values, even though he knew that this would lead to the downgrading and subjugation of women.

In this regard I think it is very well worthwhile to take a serious look in this teleconference at the true estimate Jesus had of women, which turns out to be quite different from what we find in the New Testament and in the main Christian tradition.
In this teleconference which has as its all-over theme: "The Corruption of Scripture" I believe this is one of the great practical examples of how the message of Jesus was warped to suit the particular agendas of early Christianity, so that the true version of what he taught did not come down to us. In the last series of Teleconferences I look at this issue in the context of the so called Gnostic Scriptures, found in Lower Egypt in 1945. Now I propose to look at this same issue in the light of how the teaching of Jesus fitted into the historical context of the Ancient Near East, and Judaism and how they thought about the status of women. These ways of thinking have shaped most of the bodies of fundamental legislation and practice in almost all of our modern democracies.

We will look at the startlingly different estimate of women by Jesus in the Tibetan and Indian scrolls about the life of Jesus, which came to light at the end of the nineteenth century but which have been ridiculed, dismissed or mocked as fraudulent, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

3. The Gospel of Thomas; the Mechanics of Spiritual Evolution?
 

The countless numbers of people who have long grown tired of hearing endless emotional sermons exhorting them to guilt and sorrow for what they have done to God or to Jesus, are looking up in hope for something more. The good news is that there is more; a very great deal more. We will explore the tip of the iceberg of this 'more' in today's teleconference session.

Most of Christian history and teaching down the years have seen the Redemption of Jesus in the light of sin, evil, sorrow, and repentance. We are being saved from something, and as a result we are asked to avoid a great many things, which are listed as "sins." What we are never told is that the basic meaning of "sin" in the New Testament is 'hamartia' or 'missing the mark' - a term borrowed from archery. We have missed the target, we need to take aim again and try once more. In this context there is no place for the threats, and the hell fire and damnation for sin. How then do we go forward in an understanding of what Jesus taught as appropriate for the spiritual life?

The Gospel of Thomas found in Lower Egypt in 1945 has a very different perspective on what Jesus was and taught as compared to the Gospels that are in the New Testament. I have stated in the last teleconference series that there isn't a single word in the New Testament written by anyone who knew Jesus personally. Now we have a document that states it is written by Jude Thomas the Twin, and other early Christian documents tell us that he was the Twin of Jesus. Obviously we should pay close attention to what he has to say.

In the Gospel of Thomas there is no attempt made to paint a dramatic and exalted figure of Jesus. No account of his miracles is given, nor is his resurrection even mentioned. Yet there is was something very dramatic promised about these teachings, for we are told that those who understand and practice them "will not taste death." Needles to say this statement is brushed off as metaphor by most commentators. However, there is no evidence to suggest it was intended by its writer as anything other than a literal statement of fact.

This set of teachings does not tell us to adore and venerate Jesus, to be sorry for our sins against him, to be grateful for all he did for us, or to mortify ourselves or do penance. Instead in a short, simple and veiled way, it lays down a set of "aids to memory" for those who already knew the teachings: what I term the "mechanics of spiritual evolution". Contrary to the other accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus that we find in the New Testament, the Gospel of Thomas appears to have a different agenda. What's more - it is not something that is confined to any particular culture religion or creed, but is the birthright of every living person who has ever walked the surface of this earth. Should this not be something that you would want to know?

The Gospel of Thomas shows us how we can become what Jesus was, and we can infer that this is the reason why Jesus came to this earth in the first place. Jesus did not come to earth to die for our sins and save us from the vengeance of a savage God. What he accomplished was to lay down a path that we were to follow. This is what the Gospel of Thomas teaches us to do. Using the teachings of the Gospel of Thomas, in this teleconference I will help you to draw from them the techniques of how we can become that powerful radiant being that Jesus himself thought we could be.

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Miceal Ledwith, L.Ph., B.A., L.D., D.D., was Professor of Systematic Theology for sixteen years at Maynooth College in Ireland and subsequently served for ten years as President of the University.

He was a member of the International Theological Commission, a small group of theologians of international standing, charged with advising the Holy See on theological matters. He also served as Chairman of the Committee of Heads of the Irish Universities and as a member of the governing Bureau of the Conference of European University Presidents (CRE).

He has lectured extensively throughout Europe, South Africa, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and North America. His forthcoming books are entitled The Message Whose Time Has Come Again and The Ascent to God: The Soul’s Journey Within.

Dr. Ledwith has been a member of Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom for many years, and has been invited to speak at the major events held by the School all over the United States and throughout the world.

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