Serpents and Doves

The Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying "...be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves." Robert Funk, Roy Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, in The Five Gospels, refer to this saying as "...a paradox: it advises one to be both a dove and a snake at the same time, which is a combination of two incompatible things."

But might we not find a way to reconcile these seeming opposites, to transcend the duality which our earthly lives present? Let's consider some of the symbolism in this admonition.

In Gnostic mythology, the serpent often represents wisdom and knowledge. In fact, the Gnostics turn the story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden on its head. The traditional Christian version of the creation myth portrays the serpent as the evil one who leads Eve, and then Adam, into sin. But in the Gnostic version of the same story, the serpent, whose constantly-shedding skin represents renewal and unceasing growth, acts as one who reminds Adam and Eve of their true divine origins. Only a jealous demiurge, represented by Jehovah, prevents Adam and Eve from ascending to their true knowledge of self. The serpent in the Gnostic version, as in many cultures, represents wisdom.

But what do we make of "innocent as doves?" Other translations of this statement, which also appears in Matthew 10:16, render the original Greek as "harmless" or "simple." And Philip K. Dick, a science fiction writer with strong gnostic affinities, writes in The Man in the High Castle of a character who seeks transcendent wisdom by searching like a "...child, he told himself. Imitate the innocence and faith."

If we reflect upon the pairing, then, of wisdom and innocence, might we find a balance of reason and faith? Can we combine the mature power of thought, with the harmless, simple and innocent faith of a child? Can we reconcile the illusion of opposites? Remember what Jesus taught in The Gospel of Thomas: "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same...then will you enter the kingdom."