Stevan Davies is professor of religious studies at College Misericordia and has studied the Gospel of Thomas for more than 20 years. In this edition in the Skylight Illuminations series, he provides very able commentary on the text, which contains many sayings by Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. Here's how Davies describes his task: "Immortality is said to be the reward of anyone who successfully decodes Thomas's enigmatic sayings. The correct interpretation of the sayings is not the final goal but the means to the goal, the discovery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Thomas's Gospel is an exercise book, a list of riddles for decoding. The secret lies not in the final answers but in an effort to find the answers." This ancient source, which exists outside the canonical New Testament, is tailor-made for spiritual seekers, especially those interested in Jesus as a mystical sage.

Elsewhere in his commentary, Davies points out that the reader will find no miracle stories, no virgin birth narrative, and no references to the crucifixion or resurrection in the Gospel of Thomas. Those familiar with the New Testament gospels will recognize some parables and other quotations from Jesus. Here the kingdom of God is described as being present in the midst of life. There are no end-of-the-world sayings. The disciples are portrayed as ignorant of Jesus's basic message. Yet in the Gospel of Thomas, human beings are able, in the words of Davies, "to discover hidden truth without any direct help or intervention" from God. An emphasis upon moral action comes through loud and clear in passages like this one: "Jesus said: Love your brother as your own soul. Protect him as you protect the pupil of your eye."

In his enthusiastic foreword, the series editor, Andrew Harvey, states: "The Gospel of Thomas really is, I believe, the clearest guide we have to the vision of the world's supreme mystical revolutionary, the teacher known as Jesus. To those who learn to unpack its sometimes cryptic sayings, the Gospel of Thomas offers a naked and dazzlingly subversive representation of Jesus' defining and most radical discovery: that the kingdom of God burns in us and surrounds us in the glory at all moments, and the vast and passionate love-consciousness-what you might call Kingdom-consciousness-can help birth it into reality. This discovery is the spiritual equivalent of Albert Einstein's and J. Robert Oppenheimer's uncovering of the potential of nuclear fission; it makes available to all humanity a wholly new level of sacred power." Certainly we need no more reason to explore this ancient text than these words!