Saying 108 — Drinking from the Mouth of Jesus
Thomas Saying 108's image of the disciple who 'drinks from my mouth' and 'becomes as I am' describes the radical transformation in which the teacher and student become identical through the transmission of Gnosis.
Gospel of Thomas Saying 108: 'Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to that person.' This saying describes the highest Gnostic transmission — not the communication of information from teacher to student but a mutual transformation in which the boundaries between teacher and student dissolve. The teacher does not remain separate while imparting knowledge; through the transmission of Gnosis, teacher and student become the same: 'I myself shall become that person.' This is the Gnostic equivalent of Shankara's teaching on Guru-Shishya (teacher-student) transmission — the living Gnosis transmitted from one who has realized it to one who is in the process of recognizing it, with the result that both embody the same recognition. The 'hidden things' revealed are not doctrinal secrets but the experiential recognition of the divine nature that the teaching points toward.
Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed.
Scholar Marvin Meyer (Secret Gospels) notes that Thomas Saying 108 describes a teacher-student relationship closer to the Indian guru-shishya tradition than to orthodox Christian pedagogy — a direct transmission of spiritual recognition rather than the communication of creedal beliefs.
Nag Hammadi Library