I'll will submit a guess.....to play along.

The woman carring the jar = the Kingdom of heaven
the flour = judgement, Yeshuas return.
the road = mankind

In Mathew 24 it talks about Yeshua's return time being unknown (even to Yeshua). It is likened to the flood, no one will know it's time to come until it has happened. Like the flour released from the jar onto the earth, mankind (road), so to is the judgement of mankind. The handle breaks (start of judgement), flour poured out (Yeshua returns to judge) onto the road (mankind). It is unknown to the woman carring the jar just like Yeshua doesn't know when his time to return will be.

DTL: I think this is hitting close. Anyone else?

I'll take a crack at it...no pun intended. LOL

The jar = our minds/heart that which contains the teachings of Torah

The flour = teachings of the Torah

The journey = our journey of faith

When we do not care for the vessel in which we place the teachings of Torah it can become cracked and slowly the teachings fall out. Once we reach our destination (final redemption) it is too late to regain all that you have lost while walking around with a cracked pot.

DTL: Pretty good. Striking closer to home!

When we begin to walk according to Torah all seems hard and heavy. As we pursue, it becomes easier and lighter, because we enter into a new lifestyle.

DTL: This is a really creative interpretation. Good job, you get points for a novel approach.

flour is ground grain seeds and seed = the word of God. Matthew 13:4, 18-23
Woman = the church (or bride of Yahshua) Ezekiel. 16:15-58; 23:2-21; Hos. 2:5
walking on the road = our travel (what we do in our every day life) Ezekiel 20:11-19
noticed no accident = failure to watch
Vessel or Jar = Person Jeremiah 18:1-4, 2 Corinthians 4:7
handle on jar = control of our life
home = Paradise (Master of the house = Yahshua) Luke 13:23
empty jar = lost word of God

A sad story she had the word and lost it, it is like losing her ticket to Paradise.

DTL: Good summary statement! It is a sad story and meant to be taken as a warning. Great thoughts. By the way, contrary it is "Yeshua" not "Yahshua." The "Yahshua" pronunciation is mistaken.

I think this is like the oil in the lamps. The jar is our hearts and the flour is the holy spirit and the grace of God. We find the Lord and our hearts are filled! As we walk our path we must be mindful of the will of the Father, keeping the flour (oil, talents, figs) and even accumulating more! If we become so preoccupied with our daily struggles and business that we forget WHY we're walking the path in the first place, we might just look around and find that we're right back where we started ... with an empty heart (and maybe even sore feet!) Isn't it wonderful that we can get get more flour EVERYWHERE for FREE!! All we have to do is ask! Let's remember to keep asking the Lord for flour, and share it with as many people we pass on the road as we can!

DTL: I agree about the parallel to the parable of the lamps and the ten virgins. These are definitely similar in nature.

Im going to follow along the lines of Bill;
If we dont pay good attention to the study of Torah and cherish it, we'll be getting in a circle of neglect and eventually forget about it. Then when the Master comes back home we'll find our jars/vessels to be empty.

Btw very nice idea this game:D Last week I listened to your sermon on the Gospel of Judas, is it the same 50-50 as Thomas or more flawed?

Blessings,

Daniel

PS Some people are waiting for the next sermon on the Beth Immanuel site:P

DTL Replies: Shalom Daniel, you are pretty much right on the spot I think. Gospel of Judas is by far less reliable than Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas at least contains some authentic material. The Gosepl of Judas is purely gnostic junk.

Jar - The vessel of our lives
Flour - Our responsibility to rightly handle the Word of God. which is entrusted to us.
The road - The path we choose to take

If I were carrying the jar and focused on my task, the jar getting lighter would bring me concern. The handle is usually towards the top of the jar. How did the flour empty out? Perhaps she was careless in the way she carried the jar?

We must not be blind or careless along life's journey. The Scripture Matthew 13:10-17 came to my mind when I read this parable. In the end, "whoever has, to him more shall be give... whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
It is our responsibility to sit at the feet of the Master and learn and apply what we've learned.

DTL: Great insights. Good stuff.

"Crack Pot" Ha!!! I like that Bill.

Dear Daniel,
Is it true that the Gnostic gospels wee discovered in Egypt almost exactly when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Israel?I have read many of them and found them to be full of spiritual poison mixed with some of what could be authentic material.Is it wise to play with, what some might call counterfeit scripture, leaving readers to try to figure out truth from fact? Isn't it just like the adversary to reveal a counterfeit just at the instant that Israel and the world received a miracle of HaShem's protection of the authenticity of His Word? I don't know but it seems to me that it is a little like reading playboy because of it's ,so called, good articles. When is God's Holy Word going to be realized as all we need to show us Truth. I'm sorry, but I am disappointed. Dave

DTL: Playboy? Really? If I ever read a magazine like that, it won't be for the articles, I can assure you :) !

I agree with the sentiment behind Dave K.'s cautionary rebuff, but it might be overstated in this case. If we were scouring the Koran for great teachings of Yeshua, the playboy analogy might fit. But I think the Thomas game is an interesting, if not valuable public excercise. I might liken it to teaching and training my pre-adolescent son. I could tell him to stick with Britannica '83 and never do his school research on the internet, for fear of the dangers. Or, as he grows, I could teach and guide alongside him, helping him navigate the pitfals, and learn how to recognize dangers and hidden fallacy. Do the benefits always outweigh the dangers? Hard to say. As long as we keep our Messiah, our benchmarks and 'canon' in view, and as long as we learn in community and transparency, there seems to be some worthy opportunity here to grow in our understanding of Yeshua and to encourage one another in love and good deeds.

Woman=Yeshua

Jar = us

Flour = Sin (yeast)

House = Heaven

Point: The Master Carries us (Jar) to Heaven (House) and through being immersed in him and learning of him and being his disciple, our self ego (flour/yeast) is slowly emptied out of us making us “empty” and ready for nothing but God’s presences to come in when we get to the House.

Or it could mean

Woman = Us

Jar = our spiritual life

House = The Master

Point: Making our way towards The Master the Flour (sin maybe?) is emptied out of us when we come to him.

DTL: Thanks Jeremiah. Those are creative.

I think the thing to remember here is this. We already know that the "gosple" of Thomas, and others like it, are not to be trusted. So the problem would only arise if we were to trust in them. I think this is a valuable teaching lesson. If only to see how closely related they are to other gosples or to see how we need to be extremely careful in what we read and how we read it. This is a way to learn to be carefull in our studies. Shalom. Fear not in what you read just how you read it.

Just a couple of nights ago,christmas eve to be exact,there was a programme on the tv here in Spain called " the other jesus" looking at the newly discovered "gospels". In the programme we saw a dramatised version of the jesus child killing his friend ( by causing him to dry up like a withered tree )then bringing him back to life after angry parents complained to Mary and Joseph about their child´s behaviour.
The enemy knows no bounds as to the defamation of the person of Yeshua and his sinless life .Let´s not do his work for him and give these writings any publicity - let´s be their to pick up the wounded when their faith is so battered by this blasphemy.
An entertaining idea but after a bit of thought I found it a bit sick.

dtl replies: We need to understand this literature because it was very influential on the formation of historical Christianity. I am not suggesting assigning any credibility to apocryphal gospels, but I do not see any advantage to hiding them. The exciting thing about the literature is that it is written by believers who lived far closer to the actual events, and they sometimes might have preserved real material. That is demonstrably true regarding some parts of Thomas. Even more valuable, though, is the snapshot this literature gives us of emerging Christianity.

There are a few analogies in the Mishnah. Jars usually refers to people, more likely, to disciples.

Parables are meant to express only one singular idea.

Jesus once said that the kingdom of heaven is within you (Luke 17:21) so I would venture a guess that the Kingdom is represented by the flour (if the jars analogy to disciples holds true.)

It would seem to be saying the same thing as the parable of the sowers.

Mat 13:20-21 (KJV) But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

dtl: Dead on Steve.

In our household, we try to run everything by the Torah check to see what Hashem says about it. I have really enjoyed this blog. As my boys used to say, when they were little: "Do it again!" :)

"...genuine sayings of the Master, transmitted orally or through lost written sources, are preserved alongside lots of Gnostic nonsense."

If they were transmitted only orally or only found in non-Biblical text, how do you know it is genuinely Yeshua's words?

DTL replies: Because they are also found in the synoptic Gospels, but the precise wording betrays that the author of Thomas was not using the synoptic Gospels as his source.

Thanks for your reply.
You seem to switch between discrediting the material and deciding it´s worth reading because - a.it was written by believers ( can you define what you mean here)and b.there might be some "real" material preserved within it.
I wonder whether the Lord would allow " real " material to be hidden away and mixed in with - as far as I´ve heard - blasphemous writings against our Messiah.
Please write about these new gospels so that we ( lay people ) can be informed and able to show others how they don´t stand up to the genuine articles but to play games with them seems unwise.I´m surprised at the generally positive response - let´s wake up to the reality that the Word of God is under attack and it´s coming in all guises and from all directions.

SOLUTION

OK. Round One of the Thomas Game is complete. You all gave good answers, and even those of you who objected to the concept of the game gave good reasons for your objection.

For what it is worth, here is my interpretation of the parable. The woman with the jar represents a person going through life. The flour in the jar represents reward in the kingdom of heaven. The broken handle and leaking flour represent our ability to go through life oblivious of our obligations to God and fellowman, in other words, by ignoring the Torah we are missing our opportunity to carry reward into the kingdom. The arrival with an empty jar of flour illustrates the shock and surprise that we will have when we stand in judgment.

As some of you noted, this interpretation parallels that of the foolish virgins, the parable of seed planted in the shallow soil and the parable of king in disguise. The dismay and surprise of the foolish virgins who are startled to realize they did not bring enough oil and the surprise of the people who realize that the king was among them as the hungry, sick, naked and imprisoned is paralleled with the woman’s surprise at her empty jar of flour.

If you enjoyed the first round of the Thomas game, get ready for round two where we will examine some riddles.