An extra-canonical account of Jesus attributed to his disciple Thomas. The earliest known version is thought to have been written around 50 C.E. The text consists mostly of sayings, some of which are similar to those of canonical sayings, such as "Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine." Some of the variants are surprising and challenging in the way that they slightly differ from the canonical version.

A book which is rejected by New Testament scholars, who do not consider the book to be authentic. It is not part of the canon, and is therefore not considered to be divinely inspired, like the books of the Bible.

Although this book does report some aspects of Jesus's teachings and life that are in agreement with the traditional gospels, it features some very unbiblical concepts such as pantheism and misogynism.

Probably in light of the recent media attention given to The Jesus Seminar (they include the gospel of Thomas in their book, The Five Gospels), this book was the subject of a the movie Stigmata.

Also see: What's wrong with the Jesus Seminar?, The Five Gospels

The Gospel of Thomas is part of a collection of books found at a was discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945. The books are 4th-century copies of Gnostic works written between 150 and 300. It is particularly important because it may be a form of a very early work about Jesus.

The most popular theory of Biblical origins holds that Luke and Matthew combined the Gospel of Mark and a second source, now lost (this second source is called Q). Q would have been a collection of the sayings of Jesus, probably without any connecting plot or history.

As you can see, many of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas match--or nearly match--sayings in Luke and Matthew. It seems likely that Thomas represents a third witness to the lost Q source.

Thus, when Thomas differs from Luke and Matthew, it raises the tantalizing possibility that Thomas is a better representative of the original than the canonical gospels. However, Thomas shows strong Gnostic influence and dates about 100 years later than Luke and Matthew, so it's difficult to argue that Thomas is generally more accurate. However, there is at least a decent chance that Thomas records some real words of Jesus that aren't recorded in any other source. As you might guess, Biblical scholars love to argue about these issues...

A paper I wrote for my gnosticism class, that i thought might be helpful here.

The Kingdom in the Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas(Layton, Bentley (Tr.) The Gnostic Scriptures, Doubleday, New York, 1987. Unless otherwise noted.) deals with the kingdom in essentially two different ways: what the Kingdom is (or more usually what this kingdom is like) and how one can get there. The former type of statement is usually in the form of a parable: an allegorical story describing something that the kingdom represents. The second type is usually more straightforward, at least in the sense that it includes descriptions of the types of people and behaviors that enters the kingdom. Unfortunately, these directives are usually hard or impossible to decipher making them little easier to read than the descriptions of the Kingdom. Still, certain themes seem to run through the methods of attaining the Kingdom and through the descriptions of what exactly that Kingdom is and by tracing these we can begin to get a sense of the Thomasine Jesus’ meaning.

Three major themes seem to run through the gospel in general and in specific in through descriptions of attaining the kingdom: something untapped or unnoticed but omnipresent, detachment from the traditional meaningless aspects of life, and the dichotomy between dualisms and singularities. Sayings three and 113 are the most direct examples of the first major theme in passages about finding the kingdom. Saying three talks about the fallacy of looking for the kingdom in space, “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you/ If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you./ But the kingdom is inside of you. And it is outside of you.” Likewise, saying 113 talks similarly about looking for the kingdom in time as well, “ ‘It is not by being waited for that it is going to come. They are not going to say, “Here it is” or “There it is”/ Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out over the earth, and people do not see it.’” The important thing about these two sayings is that the solutions are compatible: in saying three, the kingdom is within and without you and saying 113 takes that a step further saying that the kingdom is spread out over the entire earth but it is not seen.

Harold Bloom (Bloom, Harold. “‘Whosoever Discovers the Meaning of these Sayings’ … A Reading. from Meyer, Marvin (ed.) The Gospel of Thomas), in his interpretation of the gospel, takes these sayings to mean that in order to find the kingdom, it is, “required … that we bring the axis of vision and the axis of things together again. The stones themselves will then serve us, transparent to our awakened vision.” The second sentence of that phrase alludes to saying nineteen: “Jesus said, ‘Blessed is that which existed before coming into being. If you exist as my disciples and listen to my sayings, these stones will minister unto you.’” The concept of existing before coming into being is an important one to the gospel and, indeed, to gnosticism in general; this concept of the unworldly self, free from the corruption of having actually been brought into being, this inward divine element is present throughout the text. But what does having this uncreated element have to do with the omnipresence of the kingdom? Consider the phrasing that Bloom uses: ‘axis of vision’ and ‘axis of things.’ The world is the axis of things and the axis of vision is what you use to interact with that world of things, the interface between one’s uncreated self and the axis of things. Thus one’s uncreated self and the uncreated universe MUST be independent of the world of time, space, and matter.

The second major theme, as the first, is prevalent throughout the text. The concept of removing oneself from the weight of your earthly obligations in order to gain something else is clearly important in this text. Saying sixty-four, which is a parable about a man who holds a dinner and those who he invites to dinner declining his invitation because of more pressing business, concludes with Jesus saying, “‘Buyers and traders will not enter the place of my father.’” While this seems like a fairly blunt statement, the parable illustrates why traders and such cannot enter the places of his father: they are too preoccupied with their own business, too tied to the world, to be able to answer when they are called. He states the same thing much more plainly in saying twenty-seven: “‘If you do not abstain from the world you will not find the kingdom.’”

Closely related to these is saying forty-nine: “Jesus said, ‘blessed are those who are solitary and superior, for you will find the kingdom;/ for since you come from it you shall return to it.’” Those who are solitary have less connection to that which is around them than those who are not solitary, they are less invested in the world and more able to abstain from it, to walk away from the things.

Saying twenty-two, one of the more enigmatic in the gospel, bridges the gap between this theme of removal from the world and the odd duality/singularity dichotomy that runs through this text. Starting simply enough, Jesus makes the claim that infants, or “little-ones” as the text calls them, nursing resemble those who enter the kingdom. However, when his disciples ask if they should become like little ones Jesus gives a long winded and obfuscated reply:

“When you make the two one and make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and that you might make the male and the female be one and the same, so that the male might not be male nor the female be female, 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 you will enter the.”

Following the trend of detachment being a path to the kingdom, the little ones resemble those who enter the kingdom because they have so few worldly attachments – nothing except the milk that they must have to support themselves. But if this is the reason then why must the disciples perform these seemingly impossible tasks in order to enter the kingdom Look at the tasks that Jesus gives again; most of them have some analog somewhere else in the gospel. Both making the inside like the outside and making the above like the below resemble saying three’s statement that the sea and the sky are equally void of the kingdom and the inside and outside are equally full of it. The eye is referred to in sayings twenty-five and twenty-six, both using the eye as a metaphor for interacting with one’s sibling. Thus, making eyes in place of an eye could well refer to in some way becoming one’s own sibling, something that would sound absurd if not for the prevalence of dualistic personalities and Thomas’ nature as Jesus’ twin; Jesus’ sibling. And note that the word is sibling, not necessarily brother or sister; perhaps becoming one’s own sibling is necessary to make the male and the female one and the same or, more in general, to have two natures simultaneously – to be able to pluck both the mote and the beam from one’s own eyes. Making the hand in place of the hand, if referring to right and left hands (right and left hand dichotomy used in saying sixty-two), in this light once again shows this process of becoming one through becoming two, uniting two opposites into a single whole, balancing but not canceling each other. As to making the image in place of the image, look at saying eighty-four:

“Jesus Said, ‘When you see your resemblance you are happy. But when you see your images that came into existence before you and are neither mortal nor visible, how much you will have to bear!’”

Here there are two different images, one which is visible and is familiar, and another which is neither visible nor even mortal, a visage too perfect, perhaps, to see. Making an image in place of an image could refer to bringing this timeless, invisible visage into the place of one’s own image, allowing one to experience it. Consider this with Bloom’s argument of aligning the axes of vision and the world of things; they’re really more or less the same thing.

It now seems that this saying offers a fairly clear outline of how to achieve the kingdom: first recognize that the kingdom is everywhere, next recognize that it cannot be sought physically, and then to reach out to one’s own soul, to become both the worldly body and the divine soul separately and equally, and with this mixture to finally seek the kingdom. And thus, infants resemble those who achieve the kingdom because they are the closest to having equally developed ethereal and mortal natures, having few connections to the world and few confusions in their perceptions.

So one can achieve the kingdom by removing oneself from the trappings of one’s life, by developing their unseen preexisting image equal to one’s mortal image, but what is this kingdom that is achieved We know that it is spread across the earth and that it is both inside and outside of everyone but we don’t know what it is. What it isn’t is an afterlife; while many passages in the gospel speak of “not tasting death”, it is fairly clear that the kingdom of Thomas is something that can and should be achieved during life, unlike the kingdom of the canonical gospels which is fairly clearly an afterlife. Unfortunately, most of the descriptions of the kingdom in the gospel are in the form of parables making them harder to decipher. What’s more, most of these parables compare the kingdom to a person who performs certain actions which leads one to ask if the kingdom itself has some sort of spirit of its own. These parables have some common points that can be looked at to give us a better picture of what exactly this kingdom is. Most importantly in many of them there is either a hidden, a lost, or a seemingly insignificant object of great value. In 107 it is the largest sheep who has gone astray, in 109 it is a treasure that is buried and forgotten. In ninety-seven it is meal lost along the road. While with what we know this hidden or secret treasure would be consistent with the kingdom itself only in saying twenty where the kingdom is compared to a sprouting mustard seed is the kingdom described as the obscured object. Rather, in most of them the kingdom is identified with the person who loses or has no knowledge of or makes use of this treasure. This, along with the kingdom being described as over the earth and inside and outside of people, leads to a reading of the kingdom as more a state of being than anything else and these parables are meant to illustrate various states of those within the kingdom. In this reading, the woman in saying ninety-seven has finally achieved the kingdom and in so doing realized that she wasted all of her life and spilled all of the meal, the time, the resources, that she had because she never knew the proper path before.

So the kingdom is a state of being, a state of knowledge that is not necessarily happy, (saying two states that upon finding one will become disturbed), but that is a way to experience things in a more direct manner, by distancing oneself from the false rituals of daily life and brining oneself closer to one’s spiritual nature. It is a sort of objectivity born of unattachment that removes the beams from ones eyes and allows one to see things for what they are. The kingdom of Thomas is merely the world but man cannot see it because his eyes are clouded. Only through a either complete lack of knowledge (as a little one) or true knowledge, the ability to see seemingly contradictory things as similar and valid, can one see the kingdom for what it truly is: truth and therefore, as Keats would argue, beauty.

This is a paper I wrote in a class on the historical study of Jesus of Nazareth. It makes some assumptions of familiarity with the historical study of Jesus, but the rest of the information in the node should be more than adequate. It is a little dry but quite informative.

The Gospel of Thomas
and the Historical Jesus of Nazareth

"Eighty-two percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually spoken by him, according to the Jesus Seminar." (1993 Funk: 5) This startling fact grew out of the distinction between the Christ of faith, and the Jesus of history. Only the liberation of theology from strictly religious circles has allowed the modern historian to view these personages as completely separate. The synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John speak about the Jesus of faith, but one can find the Jesus of history hiding between the lines. It is a comparison of the gospels that brings the pieces of the puzzle together. Such study has led to the precedence of the Gospel of Mark, as well as establishing proof for an even earlier source based upon the oral tradition, Q. In similar fashion, the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas proves to be highly valuable not only as a new source, but also as a new lens through which to study existing material. Its history, the history of its followers, and a direct comparison to the synoptic gospels unearth information about Jesus and his time that is less than a half-century old.

The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codex in Egypt is arguably the single greatest event in the pursuit of early Christian history this century. 1945 marked the year, but it was not until 1957 that the text was translated as is, and even later still until English audiences would read it. (1993 Patterson: 218) Even then, it was dismissed as a later Gnostic interpretation of the synoptic gospels, not a wholly different Christian kerygma. "The realization that Thomas, with its own kerygmatic claims, represents a tradition that is both independent of, and roughly contemporaneous with the canonical gospels would have meant the recognition that early Christian claims about Jesus were quite multiple and diverse.'

THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS

These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote.

1 And he said: "Whoever finds the explanation of these words will not taste death."

2 Jesus said: "Let him who seeks, not cease seeking until he finds, and when he finds, he will be troubled, and when he has been troubled, he will marvel and he will reign over the All."

3 Jesus said: "If those who lead you say to you: 'See, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds of the heaven will precede you. If they say to you: 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. But the kingdom is within you and it is without you. If you (will) know yourselves, then you will be known and you will know that you are the sons of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty and you are poverty."

4 Jesus said: "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child of seven days about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first shall become last and they shall become a single one."

5 Jesus said: "Know what is in your sight, and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not be manifest."

6 His disciples asked him, they said to him: "Would you that we fast, and how should we pray (and) should we give alms, and what diet should we observe?" Jesus said: "Do not lie; and do not do what you hate, for all things are manifest before heaven. For there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed and there is nothing covered that shall remain without being uncovered."

7 Jesus said: "Blessed is the lion which the man eats and the lion will become man; and cursed is the man whom the lion eats and the lion will become man."

8 And he said: "The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea, he drew it up from the sea full of small fish; among them he found a large (and) good fish, that wise fisherman, he threw all the small fish down into the sea, he chose the large fish without regret. Whoever has ears to hear let him hear."

9 Jesus said: "See, the sower went out, he filled his hand, he threw. Some (seeds) fell on the road; the birds came, they gathered them. Others fell on the rock and did not strike root in the earth and did not produce ears. And others fell on the thorns; they choked the seed and the worm ate them. And others fell on the good earth; and it brought forth good fruit; it bore sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure."

10 Jesus said: "I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I guard it until it (the world) is afire."

11 Jesus said: "This heaven shall pass away and the one above it shall pass away, and the dead are not alive and the living shall not die. In the days when you devoured the dead, you made it alive; when you come into light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you have become two, what will you do?"

12 The disciples said to Jesus: "We know that you will go away from us. Who is it who shall be great over us?" Jesus said to them: "Wherever you have come, you will go to James the righteous for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."

13 Jesus said to his disciples: "Make a comparison to me and tell me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him: "You are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to him: "You are like a wise man of understanding." Thomas said to him: "Master, my mouth will not at all be capable of saying whom you are like." Jesus said: "I am not your master, because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling spring which I have measured out." And he took him, he withdrew, he spoke three words to him. Now when Thomas came to his companions, they asked him: "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them: "If I tell you one of the worlds which he said to me, you will take up stones and throw at me; and fire will come from the stones and burn you up."

14 Jesus said to them: "If you fast, you will beget sin for yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give alms, you will do evil to your spirits. And if you go into any land and wander in the regions, if they receive you, eat what they set before you, heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth, that is what will defile you."

15 Jesus said: "When you see him who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves upon your face and adore him; he is your Father."

16 Jesus said: "Men possibly think that I have come to throw peace upon the world and they do not know that I have come to throw division upon the earth, fire, sword, war. For there shall be five in a house; three shall be against two and two against three, the father against the son and the son against the father, and they will stand as solitaries."

17 Jesus said: "I will give you what eye has not seen and what ear has not heard and what hand has not touched and (what) has not arisen in the heart of man."

18 The disciples said to Jesus: "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said: "Have you then discovered the beginning so that you inquire about the end? For where the beginning is, there shall be the end. Blessed is he who shall stand at the beginning, and he shall know the end and he shall not taste death."

19 Jesus said: "Blessed is he who was before he came into being. If you become disciples to me and hear my words, these stones will minister to you. For you have five trees in paradise, which are unmoved in summer (or) in winter and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."

20 The disciples said to Jesus: "Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like." He said to them: "It is like a mustard seed, smaller than all seeds. But when it falls on the tilled earth, it produces a large branch and becomes shelter for birds of heaven."

21 Mary said to Jesus: "Whom are your disciples like?" He said: "They are like little children who have installed themselves in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say: 'Release to us our field.' They take off their clothes before them to release it (the field) to them and to give back their field to them. Therefore I say: If the lord of the house knows that the thief is coming, he will stay awake before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his kingdom to carry away his goods. You then must watch for the world, gird up your loins with great strength lest the brigands find (a) way to come to you, because they will find the advantage which you expect. Let there be among you a man of understanding; when the fruit ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand, he reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear let him hear."

22 Jesus saw children who were being suckled. He said to his disciples; "These children who are being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him: "Shall we then, being children, enter the kingdom?" Jesus said to them: "When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female (not) be female, when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter (the kingdom)."

23 Jesus said: "I shall choose you, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and they shall stand as a single one."

24 His disciples said: "Show us the place where you are, for it is necessary for us to seek it." He said to them: "Whoever has ears let him hear. Within a man of light there is light and he lights the whole world. When he does not shine, there is darkness."

25 Jesus said: "Love your brother as your soul, guard him as the apple of your eye."

26 Jesus said: "The mote that is in your brother's eye you see, but the beam that is in your eye, you do not see. When you cast the beam out of your eye, then you will see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye."

27 (Jesus said:) "If you fast not from the world, you will not find the kingdom; if you keep not the sabbath as sabbath, you will not see the Father."

28 Jesus said: "I took my stand in the midst of the world and in flesh I appeared to them; I found them all drunk, I found none among them athirst. And my soul was afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart and do not see that empty they have come into the world (and that) empty they seek to go out of the world again. But now they are drunk. When they have shaken off their wine, then will they repent."

29 Jesus said: "If the flesh has come into existence because of (the) spirit, it is a marvel; but if (the) spirit (has come into existence) because of (the body), it is a marvel of marvels. But I marvel at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty."

30 Jesus said: "Where there are three gods, they are gods; where there are two or one, I am with him."

31 Jesus said: "No prophet is acceptable in his village, no physician heals those who know him."

32 Jesus said: "A city being built on a high mountain (and) fortified cannot fall nor can it (ever) be hidden."

33 Jesus said: "What you shall hear in your ear (and) in the other ear, that preach from your housetops; for no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but he sets it on the lampstand, so that all who come in and go out may see its light."

34 Jesus said: "If a blind man leads a blind man, both of them fall into a pit."

35 Jesus said: "It is not possible for one to enter the house of the strong (man) and take him (or: it) by force unless he bind his hands; then will he ransack his house."

36 Jesus said: "Take no thought from morning until evening and from evening until morning for what you shall put on."

37 His disciples said: "When will you be revealed to us and when will we see you?" Jesus said: "When you take off your clothing without being ashamed, and take your clothes and put them under your feet as the little children and tread on them, then (shall you behold) the Son of the Living (One) and you shall not fear."

38 Jesus said: "Many times have you desired to hear these words which I say to you, and you have no other from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me (and) you will not find me."

39 Jesus said: "The Pharisees and the Scribes have received the keys of knowledge, they have hidden them. They did not enter, and they did not let those enter who wished. But you, become wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

40 Jesus said: "A vine has been planted without the Father and, as it is not established, it will be pulled up by its roots and be destroyed."

41 Jesus said: "Whoever has in his hand, to him shall be given; and whoever does not have, from him shall be taken even the little which he has."

42 Jesus said: "Become passers-by."

43 His disciples said to him: "Who are you that you should say these things to us." (Jesus said to them:) "From what I say to you, you do not know who I am, but you have become as the Jews, for they love the tree, they hate its fruit and they love the fruit, they hate the tree."

44 Jesus said: "Whoever blasphemes against the Father, it shall be forgiven him, and whoever blasphemes against the Son, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either on earth or in heaven."

45 "Jesus said: "They do not harvest grapes from thorns, nor do they gather figs from thistles; for they give no fruit. A good man brings forth good out of his treasure, an evil man brings forth evil things out of his evil treasure, which is in his heart, and speaks evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth evil things."

46 Jesus said: "From Adam until John the Baptist there is among those who are born of women none higher than John the Baptist, so that his eyes will not be broken. But I have said that whoever among you becomes as a child shall know the kingdom, and he shall become higher than John."

47 Jesus said: "It is impossible for a man to mount two horses and to stretch two bows, and it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters, otherwise he will honor the one and offend the other. No man drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine; and they do not put new (wine into old wineskins), lest they burst, and they do not put old wine into a new wineskin, lest it spoil it. They do not sow an old patch on a new garment, because there would come a rent."

48 Jesus said: "If two make peace with each other in this one house, they shall say to the mountain: 'Be moved,' and it shall be moved."

49 Jesus said: "Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you shall find the kingdom; because you come from it, (and) you shall go there again."

50 Jesus said: "If they say to you: 'From where have you originated?" say to them: 'We have come from the light, where the light has originated through itself. It stood and it revealed itself in their image.' If they say to you: '(Who) are you?' say: 'We are his sons and we are the elect of the Living Father.' If they ask you: 'What is the sign of your Father in you?' say to them: 'It is a movement and a rest.'"

51 His disciples said to him: "When will the repose of the dead come about and when will the new world come?" He said to them: "What you expect has come, but you know it not."

52 His disciples said to him: "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and they all spoke about you." He said to them: "You have dismissed the Living (One) who is before you and you have spoken about the dead."

53 His disciples said to him: "Is circumcision profitable or not?" He said to them: "If it were profitable, their father would beget them circumcised from their mother. But the true circumcision in Spirit has become profitable in every way."

54 Jesus said: "Blessed (are the poor,) for yours is the kingdom of heaven."

55 Jesus said: "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother will not be able to be a disciple to me, and (whoever does not) hate his brethren and his sisters and (does not) take up his cross in my way will not be worthy of me."

56 Jesus said: "Whoever has known the world has found a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse, of him the world is not worthy."

57 Jesus said: "The kingdom of the Father is like a man who had (good) seed. His enemy came by night, he sowed a weed among the good seed. The man did not permit them (the workers) to pull up the weed." He said to them: "Lest perhaps you go to pull up the weed and pull up the wheat with it. For on the day of harvest the weeds will appear, they (will) pull them and burn them."

58 Jesus said: "Blessed is the man who has suffered, he has found the life."

59 Jesus said: "Look upon the Living (One) as long as you live, lest you die and seek to see him and be unable to see."

60 (They saw) a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples: "(Why does) this man (carry) the lamb with him?" They said to him: "In order that he may kill it and eat it." He said to them: "As long as it is alive, he will not eat it, but (only) if he has killed it and it has become a corpse." They said: "Otherwise he will not be able to do it." He said to them: "You yourselves, seek a place for yourselves in Repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten."

61 Jesus said: "Two will rest on a bed; the one will die, the one will live." Salome said: "Who are you, man, and whose (son)? You did take your place upon my bench and eat from my table." Jesus said to her: "I am he who is from the Same, to me was given from the things of my Father." (Salome said): "I am your disciple." (Jesus said to her): "Therefore I say, if he is the Same, he will be filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be filled with darkness."

62 Jesus said: "I tell my mysteries to those (who are worthy of my) mysteries. What your right (hand) will do, let not your left (hand) know what it does."

63 Jesus said: "There was a rich man who had much money. He said: 'I will use my money that I may sow and reap and plant and fill my storehouses with fruit, so that I lack nothing.' This was what he thought in his heart. And that night he died. Whoever has ears let him hear."

64 Jesus said: "A man had guest-friends, and when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite the guest-friends. He went to the first, he said to him: 'My master invites you.' He said: 'I have some claims against some merchants; they will come to me in the evening; I will go and give them my orders. I pray to be excused from the dinner.' He went to another, he said to him: 'My master has invited you.' He said to him: 'I have bought a house and they request me for a day. I will have no time.' He came to another, he said to him: 'My master invites you.' He said to him: 'My friend is to be married and I am to arrange a dinner; I shall not be able to come. I pray to be excused from the (dinner).' He went to another, he said to him: 'My master invites you.' He said to him: 'I have bought a farm, I go to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I pray to be excused.' The servant came, he said to his master: 'Those whom you have invited to the dinner have excused themselves.' The (master said to) his servant: 'Go out to the roads, bring those whom you shall find, so that they may dine.' Tradesmen and merchants shall not enter the places of my Father."

65 He said: "A good man had a vineyard. He gave it to husbandmen so that they would work it and that he would receive its fruit from them. He sent his servant so that the husbandmen would give him the fruit of the vineyard. They seized his servant, they beat him; a little longer and they would have killed him. The servant came, he told it to his master. His master said: 'Perhaps he did not know them.' He sent another servant; the husbandmen beat him as well. Then the owner sent his son. He said: 'Perhaps they will respect my son.' Since those husbandmen knew that he was the heir of the vineyard, they seized him, they killed him. Whoever has ears let him hear."

66 Jesus said: "Show me the stone which the builders have rejected; it is the cornerstone."

67 Jesus said: "Whoever knows the All but fails (to know) himself lacks everything."

68 Jesus said: "Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted; and no place will be found there where you have been persecuted."

69 Jesus said: "Blessed are those who have been persecuted in their heart; these are they who have known the Father in truth. Blessed are the hungry, for the belly of him who desires will be filled."

70 Jesus said: "If you bring forth that within yourselves, that which you have will save you. If you do not have that within yourselves, that which you do not have within you will kill you."

71 Jesus said: "I shall destroy thishouse and no one will be able to build it again."

72 (A man said) to him: "Tell my brethren to divide my father's possessions with me." He said to him: "O man, who made me (a) divider?" He turned to his disciples, he said to them: "I am not a divider, am I?"

73 Jesus said: "The harvest is indeed great, but the laborers are few; but beg the Lord to send laborers into the harvest."

74 He said: "Lord, there are many around the cistern, but nobody in the cistern."

75 Jesus said: "Many are standing at the door, but the solitary are the ones who will (enter) the bridal chamber."

76 Jesus said: "The kingdom of the Father is like a man, a merchant, who possessed merchandise (and) found a pearl. That merchant was prudent. He sold the merchandise, he bought the one pearl for himself. Do you also seek for the treasure which fails not, which endures, there where no moth comes near to devour and (where) no worm destroys.

77 Jesus said: "I am the light that is above them all, I am the All, the All came forth from me and the All attained to me. Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will find me there."

78 Jesus said: "Why did you come out into the desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind, and to see a man clothed in soft garments? (See, your) kings and your great ones are those who are clothed in soft garments and they shall not be able to know the truth."

79 A woman from the multitude said to him: "Blessed is the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you." He said to (her): "Blessed are those who have heard the word of the Father (and) have kept it in truth. For there will be days when you will say: 'Blessed is the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not suckled.'"

80 Jesus said: "Whoever has known the world has found the body, and whoever has found the body, of him the world is not worthy."

81 Jesus said: "Let him who has become rich become king, and let him who has power renounce (it)."

82 Jesus said: "Whoever is near to me is near to the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom."

83 Jesus said: "The images are manifest to man and the light which is within them is hidden in the image of the light of the Father. He will manifest himself and
his image is concealed by his light."

84 Jesus said: "When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into existence before you, (which) neither die nor are manifested, how much will you bear!"

85 Jesus said: "Adam came into existence from a great power and a great wealth, and (yet) he did not become worthy of you. For if he had been worthy, he would not have tasted death."

86 Jesus said: "The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head and to rest."

87 Jesus said: "Wretched is the body which depends upon a body and wretched is the soul which depends upon these two."

88 Jesus said: "The angels and the prophets will come to you and they will give you what is yours. And you, too, give to them what is in your hands, and say to yourselves: 'On which day will they come and receive what is theirs?'"

89 Jesus said: "Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that he who made the inside is also he who made the outside?"

90 Jesus said: "Come to me, for easy is my yoke and my lordship is gentle, and you shall find repose for yourselves."

91 They said to him: "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you." He said to them: "You test the face of the sky and of the earth, and him who is before your face you have not known, and you do not know to test this moment."

92 Jesus said: "Seek and you will find, but those things which you asked me in those days, I did not tell you then; now I desire to tell them, but you do not inquire after them."

93 (Jesus said:) "Give not what is holy to the dogs, lest they cast it on the dung-heap. Throw not the pearls to the swine, lest they make it (????)."

94 Jesus (said): "Whoever seeks will find and whoever knocks, it will be opened to him."

95 (Jesus said): "If you have money, do not lend at interest, but give them to him from whom you will not receive them (back)."

96 Jesus (said): "The kingdom of the Father is like a woman, (who) has taken a little leaven (and) has hidden it in dough (and) has made large loaves of it. Whoever has ears let him hear."

97 Jesus said: "The kingdom of the Father is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on a distant road, the handle of the jar broke. The meal streamed out behind her on the road. She did not know (it), she had notice no accident. After she came into her house, she put the jar down, she found it empty."

98 Jesus said: "The kingdom of the Father is like a man who wishes to kill a powerful man. He drew the sword in his house, he stuck it into the wall, in order to know whether his hand would carry through; then he slew the powerful (man)."

99 The disciples said to him: "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." He said them: "Those here who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother; these are they who shall enter the kingdom of my Father."

100 They showed Jesus a gold (coin) and said to him: "Caesar's men ask taxes from us." He said to them: "Give the things of Caesar to Caesar, give the things of God to God and give me what is mine."

101 (Jesus said:) "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother in my way will not be able to be a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother in my way will not be able to be a (disciple) to me, for my mother, but (my) true (mother) gave me the life."

102 Jesus said: "Woe to them, the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he allow the oxen to eat."

103 Jesus said: "Blessed is the man who knows in which part (of the night) the robbers will come in, so that he will rise and collect his (?????) and gird up his loins before they come in."

104 They said (to him): "Come and let us pray today and let us fast." Jesus said: "Which then is the sin that I have committed, or in what have I been vanquished? But when the bridegroom comes out of the bridal chamber, then let them fast and let them pray."

105 Jesus said: "Whoever knows father and mother shall be called the son of a harlot."

106 Jesus said: "When you make the two one, you shall become sons of man, and when you say: 'Mountain, be moved,' it will be moved."

107 Jesus said: "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray, which was the largest. He left behind ninety-nine, he sought for the one until he found it. Having tired himself out, he said to the sheep: 'I love you more than ninety-nine.'"

108 Jesus said: "Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become as I am and I myself will become he, and the hidden things shall be revealed to him."

109 Jesus said: "The kingdom is like a man who had a treasure hidden in his field, without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know (about it), he accepted that field, he sold it. And he who bought it, he went, while he was plowing he found the treasure. He began to lend money to whomever he wished.

110 Jesus said: "Whoever has found the world and become rich, let him deny the world and become rich, let him deny the world."

111 Jesus said: "The heavens will be rolled up and the earth in your presence, and he who lives on the Living (One) shall see neither death nor fear, because Jesus says: 'Whoever finds himself, of him the world is not worthy.'"

112 Jesus said: "Woe to the flesh which depends upon the soul; woe to the soul which depends upon the flesh.

113 His disciples said to him: "When will the kingdom come?" (Jesus said:) "It will not come by expectation; they will not say: 'See, here,' or 'See, there.' But the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it."

114 Simon Peter said to them: "Let Mary go out from among us, because women are not worthy of the life." Jesus said: "See, I shall lead her, so that I will make her male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."

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