Gospel of Thomas Saying 17
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Funk's Parallels Isa 64:4, Luke 10:23-24, Matt 13:16-17, 1 Cor 2:9, 1 Clem 34:8, 2 Clem 11:7, Turfan Fragment M 789, Acts of Peter 39, DialSav 57, The Prayer of the Apostle Paul 25-29.
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Visitor Comments He could have hardly been more clear in claiming that he was making revolutionary statements about God and Ultimate Reality. Jesus said: I will give you what no eye has seen (the gospel of Jesus, which your eye has not seen, although it is before you) and what no ear has heard (my special message to you, which you will hear when you know that this is my gospel) and what no hand has touched (the gospel of the founder of your religion, which your hand will touch when you know that this is my gospel) and what has not entered into the heart of man (me-Jesus-who is already in your heart, as you will understand when you know that this is my gospel and use this knowledge to find and enter the Kingdom of God). Maybe the gift is only something like "meaning" or "direction". Because he is the only one able to provide this, it has not been seen, heard, touched or felt yet by man. This also would implicate that it is not something of an "object" but something found through him (if you choose to accept it). A technical injunction. He will give higher knowledge. This cannot be seen by eye, heard by ear, etc, an organ of higher perception has first to be created. It will not be preceived by the heart [or head, mind, intellect] of the unregenerate person. First learn how to learn! What has not been seen by an eye? What has not an ear heard? What has not been touched by a hand? What is not in the heart of man? The true self, which may be experienced but not by the five senses of man and is not confounded to the cardiac muscle. |
Scholarly Quotes Funk quotes Turfan Fragment M 789 as follows: "'I will give you what you have not seen with your eyes, nor heard with your ears, nor grasped with your hand.' (Hennecke 1:300)" (New Gospel Parallels, v. 2, p. 119) Marvin Meyer writes: "This saying is also cited in 1 Corinthians 2:9, perhaps as a wisdom saying in use among the enthusiasts of Corinthians. Compare Isaiah 64:4. The saying occurs frequently in Jewish and Christian literature, and sometimes it is said to come from the Apocalypse of Elijah or the Secrets (or, apocrypha) of Elijah. At other times it is said to be a saying of Jesus. A variant of the saying is also found in Plutarch, How the Young Person Should Study Poetry 17E: 'And let these (words) of Empedocles be at hand: "Thus these things are not to be seen by men, nor heard, nor comprehended with the mind." . . .' The parallels have been collected by Michael E. Stone and John Strugnell, The Books of Elijah: Parts 1-2, pp. 41-73." (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 76) Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "The apostle Paul quotes something very close to this saying, perhaps from a lost document, in 1 Corinthians 2:9: 'As it is written, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man, such things God has prepared for those who love him.' By the end of the second century these words were ascribed to Jesus, as in the Martyrdom of Peter (chapter 10) and the Acts of Peter with Simon (chapter 39). Thomas adds a unique reference to the sense of touch. The joys of the kingdom are completely unrelated to sense perception. (We should add that, like other Gnostics, he undoubtedly rejected the accounts in the gospels which speak of Jesus's risen body as tangible - Luke 24:39; John 20:27). His phrasing of this saying is the exact reverse of 1 John 1:1, which speaks of 'What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 137) R. McL. Wilson writes: "As Jeremias observes, a considerable number of the Agrapha arise from the erroneous attribution to Jesus of sayings which actually belong to others. An example, indeed, occurs in the New Testament itself, since the words ascribed to John the Baptist in the Gospels (Matt. iii. 11 and par.) are in Acts (i. 5, xi. 16) attributed to Jesus. For logion 17 the New Testament parallel is 1 Corinthians ii. 9, where Paul introduces these words by the formula 'as it is written.' This has long presented a problem, since the saying is not an exact quotation of any Old Testament text (the nearest is Isa. lxiv. 3-4, but not in LXX). It is not, of course, impossible that Paul is quoting a saying of Jesus, but in that case we should have expected him to indicate the fact, as in other passages (e.g. 1 Cor. vii. 10, ix. 14, 1 Thess. iv. 15 ff.); moreover, the introductory formula suggests a written source, and would be quite unusual in a reference to tradition. On the whole, therefore, we should probably see in logion 17 a Pauline saying growing into a word of Jesus. As Puech and others have noted, the saying is attributed to Jesus also in the Acts of Peter (39). P. Prigent has drawn attention to a series of quotations of this text, some of them apparently independent of Paul, in various early Christian sources, and suggests that it may go back ultimately to the liturgy of the synagogue." (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 102-103) F. F. Bruce writes: "This saying has no parallel in the canonical Gospels, but it is very similar to the quotation in 1 Corinthians 2.9 which Paul introduces by 'as itis written' - a clause which normally indicates an Old Testament source. Here, however, we have no Old Testament quotation (the resemblance to Isaiah 64.4 is superficial); according to Origen and others it is a quotation from the Secrets (or Apocalypse) of Elijah. [Origen, Commentary on Matthew 27.9; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 64.4; Ambrosiaster, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.9.] Like the Gospel of Thomas, the second-century work called the Acts of Peter ascribes the saying to Jesus. [Acts of Peter 39.] In its present context it perhaps belongs to a Naassene formula of initiation. Whereas Paul quotes the words with reference to the hidden wisdom which his Corinthian converts are unable to grasp because of their spiritual immaturity and lack of brotherly love, here they are probably intende to recommend that kind of 'knowledge' on which the Corinthians, in Paul's judgment, concentrated too much. It has also been suggested that they were used by Gnostics as a counterblast to the anti-Gnostic claim in 1 John 1.1 to bear witness only to that 'which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands'. (The clause 'what hand never touched', unparalleled in 1 Corinthians 2.9, may echo 1 John 1.1.)" (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 120-121) John S. Kloppenborg, Marvin W. Meyer, Stephen J. Patterson, and Michael G. Steinhauser state: "In view of the fact that Paul in this letter is struggling against the kind of esotericism promoted by this saying, it is not likely that he has quoted it here simply because he liked it. Rather, he must have drawn it from the repertoire of his opponents, only to fill it with new content amenable to his version of the gospel. According to Paul, that which has been revealed is not the knowledge (GNWSIS) that has 'puffed up' the 'wise' in Corinth, but the crucifixion, the 'word of the cross' as Paul himself puts it (1:18). Paul in a sense co-opts the methods of his opponents in order to correct their message." (Q-Thomas Reader, p. 113) Stevan Davies writes: "That which previously was unseen, unheard, untouched, unthought is now available, according to sayings 18 and 19, for it is the end that is the beginning. A person who takes his place in the beginning will know the end and not experience death; thus the beginning is a state of being that can be comprehended in the present. Heretofore hidden, the beginning now is revealed (sayings 5, 6, 108). Thomas's saying 17 refers to the kingdom of God in the physical world, a visible, audible, tangible, experienced reality (sayings 3, 51, 113). When Paul quotes a scripture paralleled in saying 17 (1 Cor 2:7-9), he too understands that what is now revealed has existed from the beginning: 'a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.' Similarly, when 1 John 1:2 alludes to what evidently is saying 17, or Paul's scripture, what has happened in the present is associated with the beginning: 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life....'" (http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/jblprot.htm)
Gospel of Thomas Saying 18 |
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Funk's Parallels POxy 654 1, GThom 1, GThom 85.
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Visitor Comments Might not Jesus be referring to the revolutionary idea that we were created from the beginnig and continue to the end (Union with God) and that birth and death are illusions that do not really exist as ordinary people think of them? I think Jesus is refering to the nature of God being like a Mobius strip, no beginning and no end, only one-sided. Or perhaps He is referring to a circle, with neither beginning nor end. It also brings forth the phrase, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Perhaps there is no end and no beginning, just different states of being. �And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive at where we started And know the place for the first time.� - T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding in The Four Quartets Seek the beginning and not the end. For the beginning of life is the end of the dead world and of the worldly illusion of the death of the living. Since we have always existed at least as idea in the mind of God, we shall always exist at least as the same. At the beginning one knows one's innate self. Return to the beginning and one has arrived at one's end. There is no death. At the end of our lives, we review it all back to the beginning. At the beginning of our lives, as our true spiritual selves, we know the end is death of the physical body, but that our spiritual self is eternal. Isn't this a paraphrase of Confucius? Confucius was asked about Death, And He replied "How do you ask about death, when you do not yet understand life?" When you have perceived [been taught] where you came from and why, then that knowledge entails knowing where you are going. And it means that you have polished your imperishable [higher] body. So you shall be [again] immortal and not die even though your planetary body of course dies "You've got to learn how to die, before you want to be alive." -Wilco. Don't concern yourself with death, just accept it and live. Only then will you comprehend beginning and end, exist as one. This seems to parallel Buddhist philosophy. You are already in Nirvana (the kingdom of god is inside and around you). The end as the beginning seems to denote the timeless nature of reality. The idea of self is illusory, if you know this, you will know you were never born and will never die. The End is truly the Beginning. In the beginning, Adam had life everlasting. Jesus brought us back to that state. (Jesus is the last Adam, first of many brothers.) The question is not what you become after death, the question is: What were you before you were born? There is no beginning or end, both past and future have already occured. When we accept that our end has already occured long before our beginning, then we shall not fear death, for the passing of time as we know it is an illusion The question that comes to my mind is this: Did the disciples ask the question "Tell us what our end will be" referring to their own personal end or to the fate of mankind? If they did indeed ask this question in regards to mankind then this saying could be looked at in a different perspective altogether. There are many mentions of the end of the earth and of heaven. And at that time a new kingdom will be established on earth. In essence an end and a new beginning. The quote "Blessed is the man who reaches the beginning; he will know the end, and will not taste death!" could be looked at like this. All who live through this great time of peril, and have chosen Jesus as their savior will come to see Christ establish the new kingdom on earth. These men have reached the beginning/end and will be given the gift of eternal life. Look, and it can't be seen. Listen, and it can't be heard. Reach, and it can't be grasped. Above, it isn't bright. Below, it isn't dark. Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing. Form that includes all forms, image without an image, subtle, beyond all conception. Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can't know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life. Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom. In the relative, the beginning of a thing is known and the end of a thing is not known. To reach understanding of the unknown, start with the known. Know the beginning and you will know the end. There is neither an end nor a beginning. Therefore, if you know of the beginning, you know of the end. Time is irrelevant, and only exists in our minds. For Jesus, who reached ChristConsciousness, he was aware that time was an illusion, that beginning was the end, and vice versa. To attain a higher consciousness, we must also be aware of that. What has started must end. I do not claim to know all things beginning or end, but knowing either is to know both. For they are one. |
Scholarly Quotes F. F. Bruce writes: "This saying is reminiscent of 2 Esdras 7.30 ('the world shall be as it was at the first beginnings'), but perhaps it is to be understood in the sense of Revelation 22.13, where Jesus says: 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'" (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 121) Marvin Meyer writes: "To return to the beginning is to attain the end; compare Gospel of Thomas saying 49. Also compare Manichaean Psalm Book 155,9-12: 'Holy ones, rejoice with me, for I have returned again to my beginning. I [have] received my clean garments, my robes that do not become old. I have rejoiced in their joy, I have been glad in their gladness, [I have rested] in their rest from everlasting to everlasting.' Secret Book of John II 9,5-8 makes a similar point: 'And he spoke, and glorified and praised the invisible spirit, saying, "Because of you everything has come into being, and everything will return to you."'" (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 77) Gerd Ludemann writes: "The beginning and the end correspond (cf. Logion 4). Brought back to the beginning, the Gnostic will not taste death. The latter is meant in a metaphorical sense. The non-Gnostic does not live at all (cf. 11.2)." (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 599) Funk and Hoover write: "Thomas consistently opposes speculation about the end (compare Thomas 3; 51; and 113). The idea that one returns in the end to one's beginning has parallels in gnostic texts: the goal of the gnostic's existence is to escape the created world of evil and return to the state of primordial perfection that existed at the beginning. Aspects of this concept are also reflected in Thomas 49. The final phrase in 18:3 is particularly Thomean (compare Thom 1; 91:4; 85:2; 111:2). All these factors led the Fellows to designate the saying black." (The Five Gospels, p. 483) Stevan Davies writes: "The light that is within people and outside of them exists now. As a result, those who search for the end are told that the end (i.e., the kingdom of God) is present already (Gos. Thom. 51, 113). When asked about the end, Jesus responds in terms of the beginning (Gos. Thom. 18); when asked about the kingdom to come, Jesus responds in terms of the kingdom which is already here (Gos. Thom. 113)." (http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/jblprot.htm)
Gospel of Thomas Saying 19 |
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Funk's Parallels POxy 654 1, GThom 1, GThom 85.
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Visitor Comments Blessed is the one who realizes that they were in fact in existence before being incarnated in this life. That they existed from the beginnig as a part of God by God's Will, just as Jesus, our Elder Brother. I am also reminded of the passage about stones in Luke 19:40 where Jesus said "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!" Blessed is one who came into eternal being before coming into personal being. If you become my disciples and listen for my words, these dead written sayings of my gospel will serve you. As they come alive they will lead you from a perceived existence in a dead world to eternal life. The self comes into being by reintegrating the innate self and then coming into being. In Islam we have the five pillars of Islam... Technical injunctions continued. Of the seven nafs, the lower two [the commanding and the accusing] are the usual stopping point for the unregenerate. But those who have successfully followed the advices of their teacher overcome the lower two, acquire the next five, and so all becomes possible for them and by them. They are imperishable. The pupil has now been reborn [before death of planetary body] and so now does not taste death for physical death is merely now a transition |
Scholarly Quotes Jean Doresse writes: "Cf. the Gospel of Philip (Coptic text of Codex X of Chenoboskion) where this formula also appears; and St Irenaeus, who quotes it under the form: 'Happy is He who was before becoming man.' And in the New Testament, John VIII, 58: 'Before Abraham was, I am.'" (The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, p. 372) F. F. Bruce writes: "The one who existed before he was born is Jesus himself, who 'came from the Father and entered into the world' (John 16.28). Saying 19a is quoted by other early Christian writers: Irenaeus and Lactantius quote it as a prophetic utterance of Jeremiah. [Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 43; Lactantius, Divine Institutions iv.8. The words may have occurred in an apocryphal work, no longer extant, ascribed to Jeremiah.]" (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 121) Marvin Meyer writes: "Perhaps compare John 8:58. Lactantius, Divine Institutes 4.8 writes, 'For we especially testify that he (that is, Christ) was born twice, first in the spirit and afterwords in the flesh. Whence it is thus said in Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." And also in the same work, "Fortunate is one who existed before being born," which happened to no one else except Christ.' Irenaeus, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 43, offers the following: 'And again he says, "Fortunate is one who existed before becoming human."' Gospel of Thomas saying 19 may not be referring to Christ at all in this beatitude. Rather, the sense of the saying could be that anyone who existed before being born should be declared fortunate. Compare the saying of Jesus in the Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip 64,10-12: 'Fortunate is the one who exists before coming into being. For one who exists has been and will be.'" (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 77) Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "The fourth-century apologist Lactantius treats the first sentence of this saying as a prophecy uttered by Jeremiah (Div. inst., 4, 8); in the Epideixis (43) of Irenaeus, however, it is ascribed to Jesus (cf., J. P. Smith, St. Irenaeus: Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, page 182, note 207). Like Jesus, who 'was' (John 1:1-2) before he 'became' incarnate (John 1:14), his disciples, who hear his words because they themselves are 'of God' (John 8:47), remain in him and have his words remaining in them; therefore whatever they ask will take place for them (John 15:8). Stones can become bread (Matthew 3:3; Luke 3:3), or fire can come out of stones (Saying 13). Thomas probably has in mind the creation of food out of stones (cf. also Matthew 7:9: 'What man of you, if his son asks him for bread - will he give him a stone?'), for he goes on to speak of the five never-failing trees in paradise. These trees, mentioned in Pistis Sophia (chapters 1 and elsewhere) and among the Manichees, are probably trees which give spiritual sustenance to the five spiritual senses. They are the trees of life like the single one mentioned in Revelation 22:2 (cf., the Gospel of Eve[?] in Epiphanius, Pan., 26, 5). They must be spiritual, since Thomas says that 'he who will understand them will not taste death.' To understand them is thus equivalent to 'keeping the word' of Jesus (John 8:52)." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 139) R. McL. Wilson writes: "Grant and Freedman interpret the somewhat cryptic logion 19 by referring to Johannine texts, but while this is certainly illuminating for our understanding of the saying it is doubtful whether we have here genuine allusions or only a similarity of thought. The comparative absence of Johannine elements may indeed be significant, particularly in a Gnostic document. The associations of this saying are, however, with the later Gnostic and Manichaean literature rather than with our Gospels, although part of it was known to Irenaeus." (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 83) Helmut Koester writes: "For the Gnostic understanding it is crucial to know that one's own origin lies before the beginning of earthly existence. John [8:58] consciously avoids this application of divine origin to all believers and restricts it to Jesus as the revealer." (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 118) On p. 108 of The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, MacDonald quotes this passage (Odyssey 7.114-21 [Fagles 132-40]): Marvin Meyer writes: "The five trees in paradise are mentioned frequently in gnostic texts, ordinarily without explanation or elaboration. In Manichaean Psalm Book 161,17-29, it is said that various features of life and faith are put together in groups of five. This section opens with the statement, 'For [five] are the trees that are in paradise [. . .] in summer and winter.' On the trees in paradise according to Genesis, see Genesis 2:9." (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, pp. 77-78) F. F. Bruce writes: "The reference to the stones in Saying 19b is reminiscent of the turning of stones into bread in the temptation narrative (Matthew 4.3; Luke 4.3). The five trees have the property of the unfailing 'tree of life' in Revelation 22.2; they are five in number perhaps because they are envisaged as spiritual counterparts to the five natural senses. [The Gnostic treatise Pistis Sophia makes repeated mention of the 'five trees' in the 'treasurey of the light'.]" (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 122)
Gospel of Thomas Saying 20 |
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Funk's Parallels Ezek 17:22-24, Dan 4:20-22, Matt 13:31-42, Mark 4:30-32, DialSav 88-89.
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Visitor Comments "Kingdom of Heaven" related to a mustard seed refers to the revolutionary quality of the message being taught by Jesus. If it falls on prepared ground and is understood, it grows without bound. Guess that means that, contrary to typical Christian doctrine, Heaven is not an actual place you go to like a carnival or museum. It's a frame of mind, a sphere of consciousness, a sense of something, like compassion, which can be spread or ignored. Based on free will. Plowing this field will prepare the soil. You already have the mustard seed, but you will never find it. The seed is the kernel of one's innate self. Prepare the ground by becoming aware of one's repressed emotions and the innate self will flourish and shelter the lost fragments of onesself. Let the record show, trivially I admit, that the mustard seed is not in fact the smallest of the seeds, but that the seed of the orchid is, botanically speaking, smaller. Isn't it interesting that the mustard seed cannot be contaminated, all mustard seeds are made perfect and cannot be cross breeded. So what does this insight bring to this parable? It may be the smallest of many other seeds, yet it is the purest. We are the seed in essence, and have the potential to create shade for the birds of heaven, our own brothers and sisters. May we all discover our inneer potential. Amen. The Kingdom of Heaven (which is in you, you are the Temple of God) is based on faith (mustard seed) worked in good ground (your knowledge of truth). The Kingdom of "Heaven" is as a small seed of concept that associates itself with all the truths and proofs of the tilled and fertile mind. From the minim of its existence, it spreads throughout the world, and spreads its seeds to others, where, if their minds are open and fertile, the Kingdom of Heaven grows in them as well. The smallest of seed (the insignificant ones) falls on tilled ground (to till land you have to disrupt it, turn it over, upheaval, pain) but when they grow will become a mighty tree indeed. Being a true Christian involves some suffering or tilling in order to become who the Lord would want you to be. |
Scholarly Quotes Joachim Jeremias writes: "The conclusion of the parable of the Mustard Seed in the Gospel of Thomas (20) runs as follows: '. . . it produces a large branch and becomes shelter (sceph) for the birds of heaven'. This is possible a free allusion to Dan. 4.9, 18; Ezek. 17.23; 31.6; 3.9, 18 Th., while in Matthew (13.32) and Luke (13.19) it is a free quotation from Dan. 3.18 Th. The unrealistic description of the mustard-seed as a tree, which only occurs in Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark or the Gospel of Thomas, is also derived from Dan. 3.17." (The Parables of Jesus, p. 31) Joachim Jeremias writes: "In the Gospel of Thomas (20), too, a similar introduction to the parable of the Mustard Seed: 'The disciples said to Jesus: Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like', is secondary by comparison with Mark 4.30, where Jesus himself puts the question, since such questions from the disciples are characteristic of the Gospel of Thomas." (The Parables of Jesus, p. 98) Helmut Koester writes: "The emphasis upon the contrast of the small seed and the large plant is missing in the Q form of this parable (Luke 13:18-19), which differs from the Markan version also in other respects: it speaks of the 'garden' into which the seed is thrown, and it says that it becomes a 'tree' (dendron) and that 'the birds are nesting in its branches.' Mark and Thomas use the appropriate term 'vegetable' (laxanon), and they correctly describe birds as nesting under the branches. One could also argue that the contrast 'small seed / large plant' is a structural element of the original parable that is lost in Q/Luke's version. In any case, Thomas's parallels with Mark do not require the assumption of a literary dependence; what both have in common are original features of the parable." (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 109) Funk and Hoover write: "The Fellows judged the version in Thomas to be the closest to the original. It was therefore given a red designation. The three synoptic versions have been accommodated to a greater or lesser degree to the apocalyptic tree theme and so were designated pink. This parable is a good example of how the original Jesus tradition, perhaps shocking in its modesty or poorly understood, is revised to accomodate living and powerful mythical images drawn from the Hebrew scriptures." (The Five Gospels, p. 485) J. D. Crossan quotes Pliny's Natural History 19.170-171 as saying: "Mustard . . . with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once." J. D. Crossan comments: "There is, on other words, a distinction between the wild mustard and its domesticated counterpart, but even when one deliberately cultivates the latter for its medicinal or culinary properties, there is an ever-present danger that it will destroy the garden. And, apart from those domesticated types, such as brassica nigra or sinapis alba, there is, as Douglas Oakman emphasizes, the wild mustard, charlock, or sinapis arvensis, whose 'plants have from time immemorial been found as weeds in grain fields' (1986:124). The mustard plant, therefore, is, as domesticated in the garden, dangerous and, as wild in the grain fields, deadly. The point is not just that it starts small and ends big but that its bigness is not exactly a horticultural or agricultural desideratum." (The Historical Jesus, p. 278) J. D. Crossan concludes: "The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three or four feet, or even higher, it is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to get out of control, and that it tends to attract birds within cultivated areas where they are not particularly desired. And that, said Jesus, was what the Kingdom was like: not like the mighty cedar of Lebanon and not quite like a common weed, like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. Something you would want in only small and carefully controlled doses - if you could control it." (The Historical Jesus, pp. 279-279)
Gospel of Thomas Saying 21 |
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Funk's Parallels POxy 655 37, GThom 37, GThom 35, GThom 103, Joel 3:12, Luke 12:39-40, Luke 11:21-22, Matt 24:37-44, Matt 12:29, Mark 3:27, Mark 4:26-29, Rev 16:15, 1 Thess 5:2, 2 Pet 3:10, Rev 3:3.
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Visitor Comments Let it be read thus: Mary asked Jesus "Whom are your disciples like?" He said: "They are like children who find themselves in a field that is not theirs. The masters of the field only say 'Get out of our field!' Thus the children shed their clothing, and leave the field. Thus it is that my disciples shed their mortality, and go beyond the fields of life and death." Know what is yours and know what is of the world. You live and the world is a dead product of the intellect. The dead cannot touch the living. The little children are the conscious mind. The owners are the innate self. The conscious mind divests itself of self-destructive learnt attitudes and returns to itself. The thief is the self-destructive attitude, against which we must guard. Technical --- adhere to the teachings of your teacher, allow time to pass for ripeness to develop, guard yourself well for your acquired understanind may be stolen from you by the world, and when you are fully ripe, your teacher will know and will come quickly "sickle in hand" ready to harvest, to bring to you The Knowledge of all that you were, are, and can become. The becoming ready may take 30 years yet the transition which he alone can bring, at the right time, may be dispensed by him in 30 minutes. The exhortation of those who have ears to hear, let them hear, is always a code phrase indicating that this understanding can only be acquired by those ready to receive it. The shedding of clothes represents the dying of their "old man" (before they were saved). They are obedient. The house is your heart. Guard it well, or else the thief (Satan) will come and steal knowledge and understanding from you. When you learn something (ripened fruit) be sure to harvest it and guard it, or else someone will steal it (Satan again), and you will lose it. Let's remember the context and the many references to seeds, fields, and clothes. Jesus seems to be saying that the disciples are "wannabes". The truly enlightened own and work the fields and would be well-advised to arm themselves, harvest promptly, and deal with the troublemakers. |
Scholarly Quotes Marvin quotes Hippolytus in Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.44 as a relevant passage: "For this, he says, is 'the gate of heaven,' and this is '<the> house of God,' where the good God dwells alone, into which no one will enter, he says, who is unclean, physical, or carnal, but it is reserved for the spiritual alone, where it is necessary for them, when they have come there, to cast off their clothing and all become bridegrooms, having been made male through the virgin spirit." (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 78) Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "Here Mariham (the Mariamme of the Naassenes - Hippolytus, Ref., 5, 7, 1 - also mentioned in Saying 112), asks a question and is told tha the disciples are 'like little children' (Matthew 18:3; cf., 1 Corinthians 14:20). The children live in an alien field, which must be the world, as in Matthew 13:38. 'Leave our field to us!' recalls the command of the farmer in Matthew 13:30: 'Leave both to grow up together until the harvest.' Moreover, in Matthew 24:40-42 there are mysterious references to 'two in a field,' to one's being left, and to the coming of a master. Whatever synoptic reminiscences there may be, these have been subordinated to the notion of being naked (see Saying 38). The true Gnostic wants to strip off the body (contrast 2 Corinthians 5:4: 'not to be stripped but to be clad upon') and leave the world." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 141) Jack Finegan writes: "Here the little children who live in the field are presumably the disciples who live in the world. When they give back the field to its owners they 'take off their clothes before them' which, in the present context, must mean that they strip themselves of their bodies in death, an end, to the Gnostic, eminently desirable (cf. §§236, 357)." (Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus, p. 254) Gerd Ludemann writes: "These verses are unique among the Jesus traditions and are hard to understand. If we begin with the evident recognition that the children symbolize the Gnostics, it is manifestly being said that they are staying in a strange field, namely the evil world, and that they are asking the owners for their own field. To this end, the exchange of fields, they bare themselves, which probably refers to baptism." (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 601) Funk and Hoover write: "The conclusion in v. 4 is a metaphor with several possible interpretations: (1) It may be an allusion to Christian baptism, which would reflect the concerns of the emerging Christian community. (2) It may refer to gnostic and other early Christian notions that upon death the soul sheds the body (clothing) and proceeds to the heavenly realm from whence it has come (compare Thomsa 29; 87; 112). (3) Or it may symbolize the return to a primordial state of sexual non-differentiation, to an androgynous state (compare Thomas 37). At all events, the parable in its present form reflects theological concerns that did not originate with Jesus." (The Five Gospels, p. 485) Robert Price writes: "This passage in Thomas is in turn derived from a vague memory quotation of two canonical gospel texts. The first is the parable of the wicked tenants in Mark 12:1-9 ('A man planted a vineyard . . . and lent it out to tenants, and went away into another country. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard . . .'). The second is the parable of the unfaithful steward toward the end of the Markan Apocalypse, 13:34-37, which ends with the exhortation, 'Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house will come . . ., lest he comes suddenly and find you asleep.' Thomas' version makes the tenants into the disciples rather than the enemies of Jesus and bids them acknowledge the claim of the field's/vineyard's true owner (perhaps Satan or the Gnostic Demiurge). Likewise, the owner of the house has become, not the one whose coming is awaited, but rather the one who awaits the coming of another - a thief. Again, the allegorical counterparts have shifted roles. One awaits not God but the devil (cf. Mark 4:15)." (Deconstructing Jesus, pp. 131-132) Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "From the same context in Luke (as in Saying 100) comes the counsel, 'Gird your loins!' Thomas explans that this means to gird yourself with 'a great power' (the power of the kingdom) so that no robber may come to you (Luke 12:33). You will be given what you need (Luke 12:22-32). An 'understanding man' is mentioned in Luke 12:42. Because of such parallels, it is hard to believe that Thomas is doing anything but creating a mosaic of sayings chiefly derived from Luke." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 142) Joachim Jeremias writes: "But the application of the parable to the return of the Son of Man is strange; for if the subject of discourse is a nocturnal burglary, it refers to a disastrous and alarming event, whereas the Parousia, at least for the disciples of Jesus, is the great day of joy. In fact the christological application is missing from the Gospel of Thomas. Here the parable of the night-burglar has been preserved in two versions. The one contained in logion 21b resembles the Matthaean version, while the one which appears as logion 103 seems to be a very free repetition in the form of beatitude and exhibits some affinity with Luke 12.35 ff. Both versions agree in the fact that neither of them compares the breaking in of the burglar to the return of the Son of Man." (The Parables of Jesus, p. 49) R. McL. Wilson writes: "On this Bartsch comments that not only is the text, and therefore the translation, at some points uncertain, the whole passage seems to resist a uniform interpretation. The Synoptic parallels are first Luke xii. 39, with a change of tense and the addition of 'of his kingdom'; then Mark iii. 27 (the specific reference to vessels (SKEUH) here and in Matthew xii. 29 has no parallel in Luke); the call to watchfulness, of course, can be readily paralleled from our Gospels, but the warning to beware of the world is not Synoptic. Bartsch thinks this, and the addition of 'with great strength' after Luke xii. 35 in the next line may be due to Gnostic influence; so also he explains the following words, which have no Synoptic parallel. Finally the reference to the sickle is an adaptation of Mark iv. 29; since this passage is peculiar to Mark this would seem to add the final proof that if Thomas used our Gospels he employed all three Synoptics, and not merely Matthew and Luke. Luke xii. 40, it may be added, is an exhortation to readiness, but has been replaced by words from another context (e.g. Matt. xxiv. 42) before xxi. 35 is used. If this is a mosaic based on our Gospels, the author has ranged very widely. Bartsch, however, sees in this logion and in logion 8 (the parable of the Fisherman) a version of the Synoptic parables which over against the tradition hitherto known is thoroughly independent." (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 73-74) Helmut Koester writes: "The Q version has shortened the parable, leaving out the purpose of the coming of the thief, i.e., to steal the goods of the owner of the house. That Q's parable presupposed such a continuation of the parable and was not simply an expansion of the metaphor of the 'day of the Lord coming like the thief in the night' (1 Thess 5:2; Rev 3:3), is evident in the phrase 'to be dug into.' Thomas's version suggests that the parable was cut short in Q in order to add the reference to the coming of the Son of man." (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 98) J. D. Crossan writes: "The metaphor is clear enough and similar to that in Q/Matt. 24:43 = Luke 12:39. The awkward phrase, 'his house of his domain' (Lambdin: 120) or 'his house of his kingdom' (Guillaumont, 1959:14-15; Wilson, 1973:513) is probably a Coptic mistranslation for an original 'the house of his domain/kingdom' (Quecke; Menard, 1975:112)." (In Fragments, pp. 61-62) J. D. Crossan writes: "The application is more difficult since its translation is not too certain (Bartsch, 1959-1960:260). It is clear, however, that it warns about the world rather than the parousia. And therein lies the difficulty: The image actually works better for the unexpected and momentary irruption of the end than for the expected and permanent onslaught of the world. Hence the concluding sentence's translation could be: 'for the diffculty which you expect will (surely) materialize' (Lambdin: 120) or 'because they will find the advantage which you expect' (Guillaumont, 1959:16-17) or 'since the advantage for which you look they will find' (Menard, 1975:60)." (In Fragments, p. 62) Funk and Hoover write: "This saying [Sickle & harvest] is an allusion to Joel 3:13. In Mark 4:29 it is attached to the parable of the seed and harvest. Its appearance in two different contexts suggests that it circulated independently at one time. Both Mark and Thomas have given it an arbitrary location. The image is usually associated with the last judgment, which is what prompted some of the Fellows to vote black. However, it may also refer to the bountiful harvest that Jesus anticipates as a result of the providence of God who causes grain to grow (this is one way to read Mark's parable of the seed and harvest, 4:26-29). This possibility induced other Fellows to vote pink or gray." (The Five Gospels, p. 486) It at least has some connection to Christianity unlike the nonsense you people are posting and claiming to be representative of Buddhism. |