“The Father begot a son, the son did not beget a son. Who has been begotten cannot beget (sons). The son begets brothers, not sons. All those who are begotten in the world are begotten by physical means; the others are begotten by spiritual means. Those who are begotten by Spirit [pneuma] hope for the realization of Humanity; they are nourished by the promise of a higher space [topos]. Those who are nourished by the word which comes to the mouth move toward their own realization. The realized human is fertilized by a kiss, and is born through a kiss. This is why we kiss each other, giving birth to each other through the love [kharis] that is in us.” (The Gospel of Philip vs. 29-31)
Echoing the familiar statement in John 3:16 that says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…”, the author of this Gospel comments on the nature of being “begotten” of the Father, and how we relate to Christ and to one another. His first point is that there is only one who is the “begotten son” of the Father, and that is Christ. The Christ does not beget more sons. This is true in the natural world as well as the spiritual. Jesus did not have any children, and the Christ did not father any offspring either. If so, this would create an unnatural hierarchy where those who were begotten by the son would themselves beget other sons without end.
This author is also speaking of the contrast between the natural world and the spiritual one, as evidenced where he says: “All those who are begotten in the world are begotten by physical means; the others are begotten by spiritual means.”
In the natural world, Fathers beget sons who beget their own sons, ad nauseam. But this is not what this author wants to talk about. He points us to the spiritual realm where the Father (God) begets a Son (Christ), and all who are begotten from Christ are brothers and sisters. We are equal to our brother Christ and not subordinate. We are connected to the Father through the Christ, but we are also made in the image of God.
“Those who are begotten by Spirit [pneuma] hope for the realization of Humanity; they are nourished by the promise of a higher space [topos].”
Once we become the begotten of the Spirit of Christ, our desire is for the rest of Humanity to awaken to the reality of Oneness with God. Our shared Humanity and our shared Divinity compels us to elevate our own consciousness and to nurture the awakening of others around us.
The transformation process begins within us as “Those who are nourished by the word…move toward their own realization,” but it does not end there. As the author of this Gospel explains, once we realize the reality of Divine Oneness, what happens next is about the response this provokes in us:
“The realized human is fertilized by a kiss, and is born through a kiss. This is why we kiss each other, giving birth to each other through the love [kharis] that is in us.”
What begins within us as a personal revelation of our connection to the Divine inevitably expands to include our realization that this Divine connection extends outward to include everyone and everything around us. We are filled with Divine love for everyone. We recognize the face of our beloved Father in everyone we see. We hear the voice of the Spirit echoing in the sound of the ocean waves and the songs of birds. We recognize the image of Christ in everyone we meet, even if that image is faint, or sometimes obscured by darkness. We know that Christ is all and is in all. We accept that we are filled with the fullness of Christ who fills everything in every way, and our perception of separation melts away.
The kiss is what happens when one expression of Christ recognizes another expression of Christ. We smile. We embrace. We welcome one another into the infinite family of Oneness. Each “realized human is fertilized by a kiss and is born through a kiss,” because the inevitable reaction to the reality of begottenness is an unashamed expression of pure love. In this way, we “give birth to each other through the love [and grace] that is in us,” because love is the center of all things, and love is the language of God.
The new book, “The Quantum Gospel of Mary and the Lost Gospel of Truth” is now available on Amazon.
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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has been interviewed on CNN with Anderson Cooper, Coast to Coast Radio with George Noory, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.”
He co-hosts The Heretic Happy Hour Podcast and his solo podcast, Second Cup With Keith which are both available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Podbean or wherever you find great podcasts.
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