The Kabbala of the New Testament

By Thomas Parker Boyd

Scholars have traditionally explained the Kabbala of the Old Testament as an orderly body of secret truth, which was segregated from the main body of the Old Testament Scriptures, unwritten but passed on from one to another orally. It was not until the 13th Century of the Christian Era that any formal statement was made concerning this body of secret truth.

This method of transmitting truth is in line with the practice of all the ancient Oriental teachers of truth, who never gave out their inner knowledge of truth to the multitude, but reserved it for themselves and their especially prepared followers.

The evidence that the New Testament contains such a body of Truth is the fact that all the sayings of Jesus had a hidden meaning, some of which he imparted to his chosen disciples. He said that it was not given the multitudes to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom, but that it was given to his close followers.

“So vital and real was Jesus’ identity with God that he said,
‘He who has seen me has seen the Father also.’ ” – T.P. Boyd

When he sent out his disciples, he warned them not to cast their pearls before swine, lest they turn again and rend them. This warned of the dangerous reaction when we give Truth to those who are not prepared for it. Some teachers have found themselves afflicted after giving out the higher forms of Truth to a mixed class of hearers.

A few of his deeply mystical statements suggest just how difficult grasping them might have been for the objectively-minded:

“I and my Father are One.”
“The Father in me He does the works,”
“I work (in the seen), my Father works hitherto (in the unseen).”
“He who has seen me has seen the Father also.”

The basic idea in these sayings is that of inherent oneness with God. He was God individualized. He was the center of all Divine Life and Power. He lived as God; He thought as God; He acted as God; He exercised authority as God.

When confronted with a problem or condition beyond the human ability to aid, he never prayed for Power. He spoke the word of command, as God would speak, “Come out of him.” “Be opened.” “Take up your bed and walk.”

This could mean but one thing. He was consciously the Son of God and acted as God. When Thomas accepted as final proof the fulfillment of his own test, he cried out, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus did not rebuke or correct him. He accepted it as a recognition of the Truth.

Once he quoted, “Do not the Scriptures say, ye are gods? And if the Scriptures called them gods, to whom the word of God came, why call ye me a blasphemer because I said I am the Son of God?” So vital and real was this nature and identity with God that he said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father also.”

When the great drama of the three temptations was unfolding, Satan said to him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee and they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” His answer was, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

It was not the God of high heaven who was being tempted, for it is written that “He is not tempted, neither tempts He any man.” He declared himself “The Lord thy God.” Jesus the Christ was Jesus the anointed, with spiritual discernment, to behold himself as God.

“After ages of seeking God in the heavens, and in earthly temples,
Jesus taught men to seek God within.” – T.P. Boyd

When the Centurion sent word to him about his sick servant, he said, “I also am a man under authority. I say to one man come and he comes, and to another go, and he goes. Just speak the word and my servant shall live.” Jesus remarked, “I have not found so great faith, no not in all Israel.” The Centurion recognized that he himself spoke as Caesar, while Jesus Christ spoke as God.

To assure them that there was no difference in the nature of his being and theirs, but rather in degree, as one could receive the Truth, he always spoke of himself as the Son of Man. Yet to this human Jesus, the Father delivered all things, and gave all power in heaven and earth. So that there was never a moment’s hesitation.

He spoke and acted as God, directly and immediately. Indicating the scope of his authority, he said, “The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” His assumption of authority to alter Sabbath observance was nothing less than claiming all power over all things earthly.

“The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” It was a matter of common belief among his hearers that God alone can forgive sins. Yet he spoke the word of forgiveness, and attested his power to do so by healing the sinner’s body, so that having power to do one, he also had power to do the other. He acted as God only could act.

The prayer of Jesus was that his disciples might be one with God in consciousness as he was one with Him. In other words, that they might have conscious identity with the Life and Mind of God. He could never have said to them, “Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect,” unless they were of the same nature and essence of the Father.

“He who receives you, receives me and Him who sent me, and he who despises you despises me and Him that sent me,” could have no obligation to obedience except that the very nature of God was in them. To bring out the reality of this unity, he said, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”

“He who sees me sees Him who sent me.” In other words, God in him and as him, sent him. Some peerless declarations of who and what he was are as follows: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This is a designation of the Absolute Being. Out of this Truth grew such perceptions of Truth as, “I AM the way. I AM the truth. I AM the life.”

“So has he given the Son to have life within himself.” In other words, he was consciously all the life there is within himself. Indicating what this meant for him and them he said, “Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, there is no life within you.” That is to say, except the Truth that is made flesh and blood in me be made flesh and blood in you, you have no life within you. All life is the life of God, but our awareness of it conditions its higher powers and uses. Having this, all power in heaven and earth is ours.

Apart from traditional ecclesiastical teaching about his sonship, based upon other premises, Jesus clearly claimed to be as God and proved it by doing the works of God. It is also plain that he included in this privilege all who could receive it. After ages of seeking God in the heavens, and in earthly temples, he taught them to seek God within themselves.

In a moment of high inspiration, Paul wrote: “That which may be known of God is seen in us, for God has revealed it in us.” From all this it is evident that the God whom Jesus knew and declared was also named Jesus Christ.

It was the purpose of all his hidden teaching to bring them to see and accept the Truth that the only God that Simon Peter could know was named Simon Peter. And the name of the God of John was John Zebedee. And John Henry Jones can never truly know God until he discovers that for himself, the name of God is John Henry Jones.

Having unfolded to them the Mysteries of Being in himself, and in themselves, he told them, “I have many things yet to tell you, but you are not able to bear them. And henceforth he told them very little.”

After his coming back again after death, he unfolded unto them the Gospel of the Spirit. This is the real Kabbala of the New Testament. He was with them for forty days, teaching them of things pertaining to the Kingdom.

“The Gospel of the Spirit is the real Kabbala of the New Testament.” – T.P. Boyd

Of that inspired instruction only one fragment is written. They passed on the rest of it from mouth to ear. The one phrase that we have preserved in written form is “Because I live, you shall live also.” No details of the process, just the assurance that if he could pass through death and preserve his identity, they also could do it, but each must do it for himself.

Not a word about those tremendous subjects upon which he had discoursed in his human life. Not a word about the nature and activities of the spiritual world. We are left to infer what this forty-day instruction was by what they did after his ascension out of their sight.

They did just exactly nothing but meet together and pray and wait. For ten days they prayed, got the earthliness out of their consciousness, and got tuned in on the spiritual world. When they were all attuned to the high vibration of Spirit, things began to happen.

“There came from heaven the sound as of a mighty rushing wind that filled the whole room. And cloven tongues as of fire sat on the heads of each of them,” the whole 120, from the greatest to the least. “And they all spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, and men of every language and dialect heard the gospel in the language in which they were born, and there were three thousand added to their number that day.”

The disciples had ceased to be a band of children at play and had become an army of righteousness on the march. Several cardinal facts appear from a study of their work. One was that the Autonomy of the Individual was as marked as it had been before their illumination. Stephen, the ecstatic seer, beheld Jesus standing in heaven as an angry crowd was about to stone him, a vision of the interest of the Christ in the first martyr to die for his cause.

“The disciples had ceased to be a band of children at play and had become an army of righteousness on the march.” – T.P. Boyd

Philip the peerless exegete, interpreting the scriptures to the Ethiopian eunuch, and converting him to the faith of Christ. Aquila and Priscilla became the illumined teachers of the mysteries of God.

Evidently, their illumination did not disturb their personal characteristics. Peter was the same impulsive and aggressive leader. True, he got off the main track a bit at times, but mostly he ran true to form.

Paul, the intellectual of the early church, had an ideal initiation, in that he saw and talked with the Christ personally. He never lost his vision nor his devotion, but he never got over a few personality complexes, which were always with him.

He was concerned about what people thought of him, which led to some unseemly boasting. Another was his repression about women having any active public part in the work of the church. Yet despite these limitations, he kept the faith unto the end.

Pretty soon they formed an organization, they created offices, positions and salaries, and as they grew, the Power of the Spirit waned, and the Gospel of the Spirit was a lost Gospel.

Through the centuries, here and there, a group or an individual has found the Kabbala, the hidden teaching, passed it on, and kept the real faith of Christ alive among men.

Today, after adventuring into all fields of knowledge, and using all human devices for betterment, we are returning to the guidance of the Spirit, so that it may lead us into all truth.

This is but a hint of the Christian Kabbala, but it is all that we may write. We can give the heart of the mysteries only from mouth to ear, to the duly and truly prepared, the worthy and well qualified.

A tradition about the lost name of God says that if it is known and spoken correctly, it will set in motion vibrations of such power as to change every surrounding condition. Tradition has mentioned more than one of these names, but they do not seem to work as they should.

If you have read this with understanding, you will have discovered what the lost name really is. When you find it, you will have the new name in a white stone, unapproachable by another.

We have written to inspire the reader to seek this mighty truth for himself, as no other can seek it for him, nor attain it for him. It may take you months and years to see it, and other years to be able to receive it. Yet if you will seek truth for yourself, and trust in the guidance of the Spirit of all Wisdom, you will be led into all truth. Amen.