Thomas wrote:Jesus saw some infants who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom. They said to him: If we then become children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].
Here's the complete saying for those interested in the tradition. Some experts maintain that you can could see it as three distinct parts. The prime teaching looks a lot like the known gospel versions, then the question and a second longer and distinct teaching which is very much Gnostic sounding and refers to rejecting all earthly desires or distinctions, as was traditional in many (later) Gnostic cults. The expanded teaching does not explain very well why the infant reminded Jesus of this. What had the
suckling to do with being inside out?
The canonical is simply: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." This is about ones approach to wisdom, one is brought and nourished by it, once the other stops blocking you. You don't need to make this into that like an alchemist. It's purely a question of being delivered by grace: to be reborn.