Post by Rogier van Vlissingen on Oct 12, 2006 3:16:28 GMT -5
PGoTh:
J said: "The person old in days should not hesitate to ask a little child the meaning of life, and that person will live. For may of the first will be last, and they will become a single one."
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Form:
- The Pursah version drops the "seven days old," one would assume as a somewhat superfluous literary exaggeration.
- "place of life" seems stilted, but may be an appropriate translation of the Coptic, and the apparent original Greek, which does mean "place."
Clearly Pursah may be closer to how it really sounded to a listener in those days.
Content:
In a way I read the opening line in the spirit of the Alpha and Omega, or in Course terms the return to the moment of the decision, so we can make another choice. So if we ask one who is not burdened by the years of ego conditioning, the little child, an allusion perhaps to the growing of the Christ-child within, about the meaning of life, we can learn to make the "other" choice.
The quote about first will be last takes a different form here than in the versions we find in the Synoptics, where its is followed with the "and last shall be first." Seen in the context of coming back to the decision point, the statement seems to carrry the image "first out of the gate" vs last to come home, but the strong reinforcement is given that when we do come back we will remember our oneness. The "first" in this context seems to have the quality of "the ego always speaks first (and is always wrong)."
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Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:19 pm
J said: "The person old in days should not hesitate to ask a little child the meaning of life, and that person will live. For may of the first will be last, and they will become a single one."
-----------------------------------------------------
Form:
- The Pursah version drops the "seven days old," one would assume as a somewhat superfluous literary exaggeration.
- "place of life" seems stilted, but may be an appropriate translation of the Coptic, and the apparent original Greek, which does mean "place."
Clearly Pursah may be closer to how it really sounded to a listener in those days.
Content:
In a way I read the opening line in the spirit of the Alpha and Omega, or in Course terms the return to the moment of the decision, so we can make another choice. So if we ask one who is not burdened by the years of ego conditioning, the little child, an allusion perhaps to the growing of the Christ-child within, about the meaning of life, we can learn to make the "other" choice.
The quote about first will be last takes a different form here than in the versions we find in the Synoptics, where its is followed with the "and last shall be first." Seen in the context of coming back to the decision point, the statement seems to carrry the image "first out of the gate" vs last to come home, but the strong reinforcement is given that when we do come back we will remember our oneness. The "first" in this context seems to have the quality of "the ego always speaks first (and is always wrong)."
--
Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:19 pm