The Jesus of the bible (dating approx. 40 BCE - 10 BCE) is little more than a somewhat fanciful rendering of the Mithraic creeds which were current in 40 BCE Palestine. The resultant figure was a composite of several myths invented or revised by the political gamesmanship at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. And of the dozens of authors writing and revising the bible over several centuries after the death of Jesus.

Fortunately however some of the words of the real Jesus, uncorrupted by the political aspirations of Constantinian, Nicean, and early and late church and fundamentalists revisionisms have been found in the dead sea scrolls, notably the Gospel of Thomas. From here echoes of the true and deep awakening of the man can be heard:

I am the Light which is over everything.
I am the All. From me that All has gone forth,
and to me the All has returned.

(13) Jesus said
to His disciples Make a comparison to Me and
tell Me who I am like. Simon Peter
said to Him: Thou art like a
righteous angel. Matthew said to Him:
Thou art like a wise man of understanding.
Thomas said to Him:
Master, my mouth will not at all be capable
of saying whom Thou art like. Jesus said:
I am not thy Master, because thou hast drunk, thou hast
from the bubbling spring which I [become drunk
have measured out. And He took him, He withdrew,
He spoke three words to him.
Now when Thomas came to his companions, they asked him:
What did Jesus say to thee? Thomas said to them:
If I tell you one of the words
which He said to me, you will take up stones and
throw at me; and fire will come from
the stones and burn you up.

(14) Jesus said to them: If you fast, you will
beget sin for yourselves, and if you
pray, you will be condemned, and
if you give alms, you will do
evil to your spirits. And if you
go into any land and
wander in the regions, if they receive
you, eat what they set before you,
heal the sick among them.
For what goes into your mouth
will not you, but what
comes out of your mouth, that is what
will defile you.

(15) Jesus said: When
you see Him who was not born
of woman, prostrate yourselves upon
your face and adore Him: He
is your Father.

(16) Jesus said:
Men possibly think that I have come to throw
peace upon the world and
they do not know that I have come to throw
divisions upon the earth, fire, sword,
war. For there shall be five
in a house: three shall be against
two and two against three, the father
against the son and the son against the father,
and they will stand as solitaries.

(17) Jesus said: I will give you what
eye has not seen and what ear
has not heard and what hand has not touched
and (what) has not arisen in the heart
of man.

(18) The disciples said to Jesus: Tell
to us how our end will be.
Jesus said: Have you then discovered
the beginning so that you inquire about
the end? For where the beginning is,
there shall be the end. Blessed is
he who shall stand at the beginning, and
he shall know the end and he shall not taste
death.

(19) Jesus said: Blessed is
he who was before he came into being.
If you become disciples to Me
and hear My words, these stones
will minister to you.
For you have Five trees in Paradise,
which are unmoved in summer (or) in winter
Whoever knows them will not taste death.

(20) The disciples said to Jesus: Tell
us what the Kingdom of Heaven is
like. He said to them: It is like
a mustard-seed, smaller than
all seeds. But when it
falls on the tilled earth, it
produces a large branch and becomes
shelter for the birds of heaven.

(21) Mary said to Jesus: Whom are thy disciples
like? He said: They are like
little children who have installed themselves in a field
which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come,
they will say: “Release to us our field”.
They take off’ their clothes before them
to release it (the field) to them and to give back
their field to them. Therefore I say:
If the lord of the house knows thar the thief is coming,
he will stay awake before he comes and will not
let him dig through into his house of his
kingdom to carry away his goods. You
then must watch for the world, gird
up your loins with great strength
lest the brigands find a way to come
to you, because they will find the advantage
which you expect. Let ther be
among you a man of understanding;
when the gruit ripened, he came quickly
with his sickle in his hand, he reaped it.
Whosoever has ears to hear let him hear.

(22)Jesus saw children who where being suckled. He said to
his disciples: These children who are being suckled
are like those who enter the Kingdom.
They said to Him: Shall we then, being children,
enter the Kingdom? Jesus said to them:
when you make the two one, and
when you make the inner as the outer
and the outer as the inner and the above
as the below, and when
you make the male and the female into a single one,
so that the male will not be male and
the female not be female, when you make
eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand
in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place
of a foot, and an image in the place of an image,
then shal you enter the Kingdom.

(From the Gospel of Thomas - several scrolls found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thomas was a companion of Jesus, and is thought by some to have helped Jesus in his travells throughout Asia.)