Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church

It will be of value to list here the fourteen female Disciples who appear in the
scriptures: (1) the Virgin [Mt 1:18 13:55 28:1, Lk 2:48 {‘thy father’??}, Ac 1:14]; (2)
Mariam the sister of Yeshua [Mc 6:3, Ph 36]; (3) Mariam of Magdala [Lk 8:2, Jn
20:118]; (4) Mariam the wife of Cleopas [Lk 24:18, Jn 19:25]; (5) Mariam the mother
of John Mark [Ac 12:12]; (6,7) Mariam & Martha of Bethany [Lk 10:38-42, Jn 11]; (8)
the sister of the Virgin [Jn 19:25]; (9) Salome [Mk 15:40 16:1, Th 61b]; (10) Susanna
[Lk 8:2]; (11) Johanna wife of Chuza [Lk 8:2 24:10]; (12) the wife of Zebedee [Mt
20:20-23 28:56]; (13) Tabitha [Ac 9:36-43]; and (14) Rhoda [Ac 12:13-17].
(3) Theogenesis
ta.maau `e m-.me a.s.5 na.ei m-.p.wn6! (Th 101)
The canonical Gospels clearly teach that the disciple per se is born of God
rather than of human parents: ‘To all who received him,... he gave power to be
generated children of God; who were born, not of ... the will of a human, but of
I
God’ (Jn 1:12-13); ‘You are all Brothers and Sisters, and [so] call no man your father
on earth, for you have but one Father, the celestial’ (Mt 23:8-9). And hence indeed
the Savior's astonishing assertion in the Thomas Gospel: ‘My mother (the Virgin)
bore me, but my true Mother (the Sacred Spirit) gave me the life’ (Th 101).
Furthermore and most importantly, with reference to the remainder of mankind
(i.e. those who are not yet disciples), the canonical text states: ‘I have other sheep,
which are not of this fold; I must bring them also,... so there shall be one flock, one
shepherd;... to gather into One the children of God who are scattered abroad’ (Jn
10:16 11:52); and ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’ (Mt 28:19).
This most fundamental messianic doctrine may be summarized as follows: The
person instructed by the Logos, who thus comes to know himself (Th 3), thereby
sees that he has in truth all along been an eternally begotten Son of God, born ‘from
above’ (Gk ΑΝΩΘΕΝ, Jn 3:7-8+31). However, the vast multitudes of humankind are
evidently unaware of being Children of the Most High, rather than children of local
couples. Hence confusion and evil, and hence the need for evangelization (see
Paterson Brown, ‘God and the Good’: www.metalog.org/files/tpb/god.g.html).
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