Celia, The Gospel of Thomas, and the Rich Man

Celia Green has made some remarks about the Gospel of Thomas. She notices the meaning of the word 'rich' can be a bit different depending on where one looks:

In Thomas, the word ‘rich’ appears to refer to emotional richness, freedom from conflict, hence freedom from belief in society. ‘Let he who is rich become a king.’

In the Synoptics, ‘richness’ is usually associated with something negative.


Celia ends up arriving at a similar conclusion that Kenneth Bailey did, except for the fact that he did it through the canonical gospels and research into Middle Eastern culture. Celia notices a rich man with a social position in a society cannot do anything against the will of that society. Bailey goes even further, noting how that rich man would have been responsible for the livelihoods of many through the property he owns. Most modern readers totally miss this and simply think the rich man just likes being rich, but in fact it comes back to an extended family and 'sacred' social obligations.