www.metalog.org/files/thomas.html

These are the secret° sayings° which the living¹ Yeshua° has spoken, and Didymos Judas Thomas° inscribed them. (¹i.e. resurrected, as in Rev/Ap 1:18; see also Jer 23:18, Mt 13:34, Lk 1:1/8:10/10:21, Jn 21:25; online scan of the papyrus MS; hypertext interlinear of this logion; Gk fragment interlinear of this logion)

1. And he {says¹}: Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings shall not taste death. (Ps 118:17, Isa 25:8, Lk 9:27, Jn 5:24/8:51; Odes of St. Solomon, 26, ‘He who could interpret would be dissolved and would become that which is interpreted’; this is apparently an introductory logion quoting Thomas himself, included [like Jn 21:24] by his own disciples, since it speaks of the following as a collection of sayings; ¹thruout the Greek fragments of Thomas, ‘x says’ is in the present tense—see Henry Barclay Swete [1897]; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

2. Yeshua says: Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds; and when he finds he shall be troubled; and having been troubled he shall marvel, and he shall reign over the totality° {and find repose°}. (Gen 1:26, Dan 7:27, Lk 1:29/22:25-30!, Rev/Ap 1:6/3:21/20:4/22:5; =Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, II.9 & V.14; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

3. Yeshua says: If those who lead you say to you: Behold, the Sovereignty is in the sky°!, then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: It is in the sea!, then the fish {of the sea} will precede you. But the Sovereignty {of God} is within you and it is without you. {Whoever recognizes° himself shall find it; and when you recognize yourselves} you shall know that you are the Sons of the Living Father. Yet if you do not recognize yourselves, then you are impoverished and you are the impoverishment. (Gen 6:2, Dt 30:11-14, Hos 1:10, Zac 12:1, Mal 2:10, Lk 11:41/17:21, Th 89, Plato's Philebus, 48c/63c; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

4. Yeshua says: The person old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child of seven days concerning the place of life—and he shall live. For many who are first shall become last {and the last first}; and they shall become a single unity. (Gen 2:2-3, 17:12, Mt 11:25-26/18:1-6+10-14, Lk 2:21; Mary Anne Evans [‘George Eliot’], Middlemarch: ‘She could but cast herself, with a childlike sense of reclining, in the lap of a divine consciousness which sustained her own’; Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot: ‘Children ... understand everything.... One need only remember one’s own childhood’; Graham Greene, The Third Man: ‘He never grew up; the world grew up around him, that’s all’; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

5. Yeshua says: Recognize Him who is in front of thy face, and what is hidden° from thee shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing concealed° which shall not be manifest, {and nothing buried that shall not be raised¹}. (Ps 16:8, =Mt 10:26; in his scriptural Traditions, the Apostle Matthias [Ac 1:21-26] relates Christ's logion: ‘Wonder at what is in front of you’—quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, II.9; Jalaloddin Rumi [XIII century Afghanistan], ‘The Question’, Spiritual Couplets: ‘God's presence is there in front of me’; ¹anti-Gnostic°; hyperlinear; Greek fragment)

6. His Disciples ask him, saying to him: How do thou want us to fast, and how shall we pray? And how shall we give alms, and what diet shall we maintain? || Yeshua says: Do not lie,¹ and do not practice what you hate²—for everything° is revealed before the face of the sky. For there is nothing concealed that shall not be manifest, and there is nothing covered that shall remain without being exposed.³ (Lev 19:11, Ps 139:1-16, Zac 8:16, Sir 7:13, Th 14; ¹Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, II.2: ‘First and foremost, do not lie!’; ²Tobit 4:15: ‘Do not practice what thou hate’; Confucius, Analects, 8.15: ‘Is there any one word ... which could be adopted as a lifelong rule of conduct?... Is not empathy the word? Do not unto others what you would not like done to yourself’; Alan Turing, ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, Mind, 1950: ‘It is not possible to produce a set of rules purporting to describe what a man should do in every conceivable set of circumstances. One might for instance have a rule that one is to stop when one sees a red traffic light, and to go if one sees a green one; but what if ... both appear together?’; ³the Qur’án 27:75: ‘There is nothing concealed in the heaven and the earth, but it is in a clear book’; hyperlinear; Greek fragment)

7. Yeshua says: Blest° is the lion which the human eats—and the lion shall become human. And defiled° is the human which the lion eats—and the [human] shall become [lion]. (Ps 7:1-2; hyperlinear; Greek fragment)

8. And he says: The [Sovereignty] 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 good fish.¹ That wise fisherman, he threw all the small fish back into the sea,² he chose the large fish without hesitation. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! (=Mt 13:47-48; ¹Coptic tbt [C401b] = Gk ΙΧΘΥΣ; ²asyndeton, or omission of conjunctions, characterizing the Semitic and Hamitic languages, but not Indo-European—thus signaling an original Hebrew or Aramaic text underlying the Greek, from which Coptic Thomas was in turn translated; see P338 and Matthew Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts: ‘Asyndeton is, on the whole, contrary to the spirit of the Greek language ... but is highly characteristic of Aramaic’; hyperlinear)

9. Yeshua says: Behold, the sower came forth—he filled his hand, he threw. Some indeed fell upon the road—the birds came, they gathered them. Others fell on the bedrock—and they did not take root down into the soil, and did not sprout grain skyward. And others fell among the thorns—they choked the seed, and the worm ate them. And others fell upon the good earth—and it produced good fruit up toward the sky, it bore 60-fold and 120-fold. (multiple asyndeta; Mt 13:18-23, =Mk 4:3-9; hyperlinear)

10. Yeshua says: I have cast fire upon the world°—and behold, I guard it until it is ablaze. (Joel 2:3, Mt 3:11, Lk 12:49; hyperlinear)

11. Yeshua says: This sky shall be made to pass away, and the one above it¹ shall be made to pass away.² And the dead are not alive, and the living shall not die.³ In the days when you consumed the dead, you transformed it to life—when you come into the Light, what will you do? On the day when you were united, you became divided—yet when you have become divided, what will you do? (Mt 24:35, Th 61b!, Ph 86!; ¹i.e. the entire observable universe?!—see Th 111; ²I-Ki 8:27!, Isa 65:17, Rev/Ap 21:1, Ph 123; ³Jn 11:25-26; NB the Hebrew term for ‘sky, heaven’, Mym# [shamayim], only occurs in the plural, thus implying there to be more than one; hyperlinear)

12. The Disciples say to Yeshua: We know that thou shall go away from us. Who is it that shall be Rabbi° over us? || Yeshua says to them: In the place that you have come, you shall go to Jacob° the Righteous, for whose sake the sky and earth have come to be. (anti-Gnostic; apparently a post-resurrection dialog; Mk 6:3, Jn 7:5, Ac 1:14/12:17, Jas 1:1; hyperlinear)

13. Yeshua says to his Disciples: Make a comparison to me, and tell me whom I resemble.¹ || Shimon° Kefa says to him: Thou art like a righteous angel. || Matthew° says to him: Thou art like a philosopher° of the heart. || Thomas says to him: Oh Teacher, my mouth will not contain saying whom thou art like! || Yeshua says: I'm not thy teacher, now that thou have drunk,² thou have become inebriated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out. And he takes him,² he withdraws,² he speaks three words to him:

Now when Thomas comes to his comrades, they inquire of him: What did Yeshua say to thee? || Thomas says to them: If I tell you even one of the words which he spoke to me, you will take up stones to cast at me—and fire will come from the stones to consume you. (¹Isa 46:5; ²asyndeton; the Name does not appear in the papyrus, but can be inferred with certainty; Ex 3:14, Lev 24:16, Mk 14:62, Lk 6:40, Jn 4:14/15:1, Th 61b/77, Ph 125; Odes of St. Solomon, 11:6-9, ‘I drank and was inebriated with the living water that does not die’; note also the infinite gematria of Ex 3:14159263...; hyperlinear)

14. Yeshua says to them: If you fast,¹ you shall beget transgression° for yourselves.² And if you pray,¹ you shall be condemned. And if you give alms,¹ you shall cause evil to your spirits°. And when you go into any land to travel in the regions, if they receive you then eat what they set before you and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you—but rather what comes out of your mouth, that is what will defile you. (¹openly, publicly; ²Confucius, Analects, 15.31: ‘I once spent all day thinking without taking food and all night thinking without going to bed, but I found that I gained nothing from it; it would have been better for me to have spent the time in learning’; Bhagavad-Gita, 11.48: ‘Not thru sacred lore nor sacrificial ritual nor study nor charity, not by rites nor by terrible penances can I be seen’; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, I: ‘Torturing myself with prayer and fasting’; Isa 58:6-9, Mk 7:14-23!, Mt 6:1-6+16-18, Lk 18:1!, =Lk 10:8-9, Th 6/95/104, Ph 74c; hyperlinear)

15. Yeshua says: When you see him who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves upon your face and worship him—he is your Father. (Josh 5:14, Lk 17:16, Th 46!/101!; hyperlinear)

16. Yeshua says: People perhaps think that I have come to cast peace upon the world, and they do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth—fire, sword, war°.¹ 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 shall stand as solitaries. (=Mic 7:6, =Lk 12:49-53; ¹Isa 66:15-16, Joel 2:30-31, Zeph 3:8, Mal 4:1, Th 10; hyperlinear)

17. Yeshua says: I shall give to 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 mind of mankind. (Isa 64:4; St. John of the Cross, On the Ecstasy of Deep Contemplation, VII: ‘It is of such true excellence, this highest understanding, that no science, no human sense, has it in its grasping’; hyperlinear)

18. The Disciples say to Yeshua: Tell us how our end shall be.¹ || Yeshua says: Have you then discovered the origin°, so that you inquire about the end? For at the place where the origin is, there shall be the end. Blest is he who shall stand at the origin—and he shall know the end, and he shall not taste death. (¹Ps 39:4; Isa 48:12, Lk 20:38, Jn 1:1-2, Th 1/19, Rev/Ap 22:13; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy: ‘To see Thee is the end and the beginning’; T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: Little Gidding: ‘The end is where we start from’; Jack Kerouac, Visions of Cody: ‘What kind of journey is the life of a human being that it has a beginning but not an end?’; hyperlinear)

19. Yeshua says: Blest is he who was before he came into Being. If you become Disciples to me and heed my sayings, these stones shall be made to serve you. For you have five trees° in Paradise, which in summer are unmoved and in winter their leaves do not fall—whoever shall know them shall not taste death. (the five senses?!; Job 5:23, Ps 1:3, Th 1/18, =Ph 61!, Tr 28; hyperlinear)

20. The Disciples say to Yeshua: Tell us what the Sovereignty of the Heavens° is like. || He says to them: It resembles a mustard seed, smaller than all (other) seeds—yet when it falls on the tilled earth, it produces a great plant and becomes shelter for the birds of the sky. (=Mk 4:30-32; hyperlinear)

21. Mariam° says to Yeshua: Whom are thy Disciples like? || He says: They are like little children who are sojourning in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say: Leave our field to us! They take off their clothing in front of them in order to yield it to them and to give back their field to them.¹ Therefore I say, if the householder ascertains that the thief is coming, he will be alert before he arrives and will not allow him to dig thru into the house of his domain to carry away his belongings. Yet you, beware of the origin of the world—gird up your loins with great strength lest the bandits find a way to reach you, for they will find the advantage which you anticipate. Let there be among you a person of awareness—when the fruit ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand,² he reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! (¹Th 37; ²asyndeton; =Mt 24:43-44; hyperlinear)

22. Yeshua saw little children who are being suckled. He says to his Disciples: These little children who are being suckled are like those who enter the Sovereignty. || They say to him: Shall we thus by becoming little children enter the Sovereignty? || Yeshua says to them: When you make the two one, and you make the inside as the outside and the outside as the inside and the above as the below, and if you establish the male with the female as a single unity so that the man will not act masculine and the woman not act feminine, when you establish 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 Sovereignty]. (anti-Gnostic; Mt 18:3; =Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III.13—see Th 37n!; Mary Ann Evans [George Eliot], Middlemarch: ‘The successive events inward and outward were there in one view: though each might be dwelt on in turn, the rest still kept their hold in the consciousness’; Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception: ‘Inside and outside are inseparable; the world is wholly inside, and I am wholly outside, myself’; Odes of St. Solomon, 34:5, ‘The likeness of what is below, is that which is above—for everything is above; what is below is nothing but the delusion of those who are without knowledge’; Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus, ‘Beloved Pan, and whatever other gods be present, grant me to be handsome in inward soul, and that the outside and the inside be one’; hyperlinear)

23. Yeshua says: I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand—and they shall stand, becoming a single unity. (Dt 32:30, Job 33:23, Ecc 7:28; hyperlinear)

24. His Disciples say: Show us thy place, for it is compulsory for us to seek it. || He says to them: Whoever has ears, let him hear! Within a person of light there is light, and he illumines the entire world. When he does not shine, there is darkness. (Mt 5:14-16, Jn 13:36; apparently a post-resurrection dialog; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

25. Yeshua says: Love thy Brother as thy soul, protect him as the pupil of thine eye. (asyndeton; Dt 32:10, I-Sam 18:1, Ps 17:8, Pro 7:2, Jn 13:34-35; Geoffery Chaucer, The Pardoner's Tale, 697-8: ‘Lat ech of us holde up his hand til oother, and ech of us bicomen otheres brother’; Tennessee Williams, Camino Real: ‘The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It's inflammatory.... The people need the word. They're thirsty for it’; and the I Ching, hexagram 63, After Completion: ‘Indifference is the root of all evil’; hyperlinear)

26. Yeshua says: The mote which is in thy Brother's eye thou see, but the plank that is in thine own eye thou see not. When thou cast the plank out of thine own eye, then shall thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy Brother's eye. (=Mt 7:3-5; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

27. (Yeshua says:) Unless you fast from the world, you shall not find the Sovereignty {of God}; unless you keep the (entire) week¹ as Sabbath°,² you shall not behold the Father. (Mk 1:13, Jn 5:19!; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 12 [ca. 160 AD]: ‘The new Law [i.e. the Gospel] requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath’; =Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III.15; ¹here ‘Sabbath’ = ‘week’ as in Lev 23:15-16—see P133 and Paterson Brown, ‘The Sabbath and the Week in Thomas 27’, Novum Testamentum, 1992; ²i.e. attain repose, as in Th 2/50/60/90; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

28. Yeshua says: I stood in the midst of the world, and incarnate° I was manifest to them.¹ I found them all drunk, I found no one among them athirst in his heart. And my soul was grieved for the sons of men, for they are blind in their minds and do not see that empty they have come into the world and that empty they are destined to come forth from the world.² However, now they are drunk—when they shake off their wine, then shall they repent°. (Isa 28:7; ¹anti-Gnostic!, Jn 1:14; ²Job 1:21, Ecc 5:15; this appears to be a post-resurrection saying; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

29. Yeshua says: If the flesh has come to be because of spirit, it is a marvel—yet if spirit because of the body, it would be a marvel among marvels. But I myself marvel at this: how this great wealth has been placed in this poverty (of this world). (anti-Gnostic; Th 2, Ph 23; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

30. Yeshua says: Where there are three gods, they are {godless. But where there is only one,¹ I say that} I myself am with him.² {Raise the stone and there you shall find me, cleave the wood and there am I.} (Ac 10:35; ¹Joseph E. Brown, The Sacred Pipe (a prayer of Black Elk): ‘We should understand well that all things are the works of the Great Spirit’; ²الالقرآن الكريم [Qur’án, Baqarah, 2:62]: ‘Verily, those who believe, and those who are Jews and Christians and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does righteous deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord’; cleaving the wood could be seen as a metaphor for the crucifixion, removing the stone for the resurrection; see The Letter of Aristeas, 15-16; cleaving the wood could be seen as a metaphor for the crucifixion, removing the stone for the resurrection; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

31. Yeshua says: No oracle° is accepted in his own village, no physician heals those who know him. (asyndeton; =Mc 6:4, Tr 40; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

32. Yeshua says: A fortified city built upon a high mountain cannot fall nor can it be hidden. (Mt 5:14; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

33. Yeshua says: What thou shall hear in thy ear proclaim to other ears from your rooftops. For no one kindles a lamp and sets it under a basket nor puts it in a hidden place, but rather it is placed upon the lampstand so that everyone who comes in and goes out will see its light. (=Mt 5:15/=10:27, =Mk 4:21; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

34. Yeshua says: If a blind person leads a blind person, both together fall into a pit. (=Mt 15:14; hyperlinear)

35. Yeshua says: It is impossible for anyone to enter the house of the strong person to take it by force, unless he binds his hands—then he will plunder his house. (Isa 49:24-25, =Mk 3:27; hyperlinear)

36. Yeshua says: Be not anxious in the morning about the evening nor in the evening about the morning, {neither for your [food] that you shall eat nor for [your garments] that you shall wear. You are much superior to the [windflowers] which neither comb (wool) nor [spin] (thread). When you are naked, what are [you wearing]? Or who can increase your stature? He Himself shall give to you your garment.} (garment = images?!: see Th 37/84, Ph 26/107, ‘Angel, image and Symbol’, as well as the ancient and delightful ‘Hymn of the Pearl’; =Mt 6:25; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

37. His Disciples say: When will thou appear to us, and when shall we behold thee? || Yeshua says: When you take off your garments without being ashamed, and take your garments and place them under your feet to tread on them as the little children do—then [shall you behold] the Son of the Living-One, and you shall not fear. (Gen 2:25/3:7, Isa 19:2, Th 21; garments = images?!; this appears to be a post-resurrection dialog; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III: ‘Salome° asked when what she was inquiring about would be known. The Lord said, When you trample on the garment of shame, and when the two become one, and the male with the female neither masculine nor feminine’; Th 22 & 61b!; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

38. Yeshua says: Many times have you yearned to hear these sayings which I speak to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me but you shall not find me. (Pro 1:28, S-of-S 5:6, Isa 54:8, Am 8:11-12, Lk 17:22; hyperlinear)

39. Yeshua says: The dogmatists° and the scriptualists° have received the keys of recognition, but they have hidden them. They did not enter, nor did they permit those to enter who wished to. Yet you—become astute as serpents and innocent as doves. (Mt 5:20/23:1-39, =Lk 11:52, =Mt 10:16; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

40. Yeshua says: A vine has been planted without the Father—and (as) it is not vigorous,¹ it shall be pulled up by its roots and destroyed. (¹asyndeton; Mt 15:13; hyperlinear)

41. Yeshua says: Whoever has in his hand, to him shall (more) be given; and whoever does not have, from him shall be taken the little which he has. (=Mt 13:12; hyperlinear)

42. Yeshua says: Become transients°. (or: ‘Be led past’; Gen 14:13 LXX translates Heb ‘Abram the Hebrew’ as ‘Abram the ΠΕΡΑΤΗ [nomad]’; Mt 10:1-23/28:19-20, Jn 16:28; Matsuo Basho, Narrow Road to the Interior: ‘Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home’; Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta): ‘Thank God, I’m a traveling man’; Sylvia Plath, Unabridged Journals: ‘I can only pass on. Something in me wants more.... There is still time to veer, to sally forth, knapsack on back, for unknown hills over which ··· only the wind knows what lies’; hyperlinear)

43. His Disciples say to him: Who art thou, that thou say these things to us? || (Yeshua says to them:) From what I say to you, you do not recognize who I be, but rather you have become as those Judeans¹—for they love the tree but hate its fruit, and they love the fruit but hate the tree. (Mt 12:33, Jn 4:22, Ph 6!/50!/108!; ¹as versus ‘us Galileans’, as in Jn 7:1?; hyperlinear)

44. Yeshua says: Whoever vilifies the Father, it shall be forgiven him; and whoever vilifies the Son, it shall be forgiven him. Yet whoever vilifies the Sacred° Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him—neither on earth nor in Heaven. (=Mk 3:28-29; see ‘The Maternal Spirit’; hyperlinear)

45. Yeshua says: They do not harvest grapes from thorn-trees, nor do they gather figs from a briar-patch—for they give no fruit. A good person brings forth goodness out of his treasure; a bad person brings forth wickedness° out of his evil treasure which is in his heart, and he speaks maliciously—for out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth wickedness. (I-Sam 24:13, =Mt 7:16/=12:34-35, Jas 3:10; hyperlinear)

46. Yeshua says: From Adam° until John° the Baptist there is among those born of women none more exalted than John the Baptist—so that his eyes shall not be broken. Yet I have said that whoever among you becomes childlike shall know the Sovereignty, and he shall be more exalted than John. (Th 15, =Lk 7:28; hyperlinear)

47a. Yeshua says: A person cannot mount two horses nor stretch two bows; and a slave cannot serve two masters°—otherwise he will honor the one and despise the other. (=Lk 16:13; hyperlinear)

47b. (Yeshua says:) No person drinks vintage° wine and immediately desires to drink fresh wine. And they do not put fresh wine into old wineskins lest they burst, and they do not put vintage wine into new wineskins lest it sour. They do not sew an old patch on a new garment, because there would come a split. (Job 32:19, =Lk 5:36-39; hyperlinear)

48. Yeshua says: If two make peace with each other in this one house, they shall say to the mountain: Be moved!—and it shall be moved. (=Mt 17:20/=18:19; hyperlinear)

49. Yeshua says: Blest are the solitary¹ and chosen—for you shall find the Sovereignty. Because you are from it, you shall return there.² (Jn 16:28; ¹Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago: ‘Only the solitary seek the truth and break with anyone who does not love it enough’; ²Plotinus, Enneads, I.6.8: ‘The Fatherland to us is there whence we have come, and there is the Father’; hyperlinear)

50. Yeshua says: If they say to you: From whence have you come?, say to them: We have come from the Light, the place where the Light has come into being from Him alone; He himself [stood] and appeared in their image. If they say to you: Who are you?, say: We are his Sons and we are the chosen of the Living Father. If they ask you: What is the sign of your Father in you?, say to them: It is movement with repose. (Gen 1:3, Isa 28:12/30:15, Lk 16:8, Jn 1:12-14/12:36, Th 27; Bhagavad-Gita, 6.27: ‘When his mind is tranquil, perfect joy comes to the person of discipline; his passion is calmed, he is without sin, being one with the Infinite Spirit’; hyperlinear)

51. His Disciples say to him: When will the repose of the dead occur, and when will the New World come? || He says to them: That which you look for has (already) come, but you do not recognize it. (Th 113; hyperlinear)

52. His Disciples say to him: Twenty-four prophets° proclaimed in Israel, and they all spoke within thee. || He says to them: You have ignored the Living-One who is facing you, and you have spoken about the dead. (Th 5; quoted by St Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum, II.4.14; James Joyce, Ulysses, 14.112: ‘You have spoken of the past and its phantoms.... Why think of them?... I ... am lord and giver of their life’; hyperlinear)

53. His Disciples say to him: Is circumcision beneficial to us or not? || He says to them: If it were beneficial, their father would have begotten them circumcised from their mother. But the true spiritual circumcision has become entirely beneficial. (Dt 10:6!; hyperlinear)

54. Yeshua says: Blest are the poor, for the Sovereignty of the Heavens is yours. (Dt 15:11, Jas 2:5-7, =Lk 6:20; Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front: ‘The wisest were just the poor and simple people’; Jack Kerouac, Visions of Cody: ‘Everything belongs to me because I am poor’; note that the Greek of Mt 5:3, ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΙ ΟΙ ΠΤΩΧΟΙ ΤΩ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙ, can be read equally ‘Blest the poor in spirit’ or ‘Blest in spirit the poor’—of which the latter makes more sense, since the parallel at Lk 6:20+24 explicitly concerns economic poverty/wealth rather than spiritual humility/pride; hyperlinear)

55. Yeshua says: Whoever does not hate his father and his mother, shall not be able to become a Disciple to me. And whoever does not hate his brothers and his sisters, and take up his own cross¹ in my way, shall not be made worthy of me. (¹anti-Gnostic; =Lk 14:26-27; hyperlinear)

56. Yeshua says: Whoever has recognized the world has found a corpse¹—and whoever has found a corpse, of him the world is not worthy. (¹or, in a modern metaphor, a machine; Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, II: ‘You will find the body to be only a senseless unsavoury carcass’; Wis 13:10; hyperlinear)

57. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty of the Father is like a person who has [good] seed. His enemy came by night,¹ he sowed a weed among the good seed. The man did not permit (the workers) to uproot the weed; he says to them: ‘Lest perhaps you go forth saying: “We shall uproot the weed”, and you uproot the wheat along with it.’ For on the day of harvest the weeds will appear—they uproot them and burn them. (¹asyndeton; II-Pt 3:15-17?!, =Mt 13:24-30; hyperlinear)

58. Yeshua says: Blest is the person who has suffered—he has found the Life. (asyndeton; Mt 5:10-12, Jas 1:12, I-Pt 3:14; Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 232: ‘Men must learn by suffering’; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables: ‘To have suffered, how good it is!’; Naguib Mahfouz, ‘Zaabalawi’, God’s World: ‘Suffering is part of the cure!’; hyperlinear)

59. Yeshua says: Behold the Living-One while you are alive, lest you die and seek to perceive him and be unable to see. (Ecc 12:1-8; hyperlinear)

60. (They see) a Samaritan° carrying a lamb, entering Judea. Yeshua says to them: (Why is) that-one (carrying) the lamb? || They say to him: So that he may kill it and eat it. || He says to them: While it is alive he will not eat it, but only after he kills it and it becomes a corpse. || They say: Otherwise he will not be able to do it. || He says to them: You yourselves, therefore—seek a place for yourselves in repose, lest you become corpses and be eaten. (Th 1/50; Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain: ‘The spiritual possibility of finding salvation in repose’; hyperlinear)

61a. Yeshua says: Two will rest on a bed°—the one shall die, the other shall live. (asyndeton; =Lk 17:34; hiperlinear)

61b. Salome° says: Who art thou, man? As if (sent) by someone, thou laid upon my bed° and thou ate from my table.¹ || Yeshua says to her: I-Am he who is from equality. To me have been given the things of my Father. || (Salome says:) I’m thy Disciple.² || (Yeshua says to her:) Thus I say that whenever someone equalizes he shall be filled with light, yet whenever he divides³ he shall be filled with darkness. (NB the word for ‘bed°’ here is the same as in 61a; Th 37n!, Ph 65!; ¹S-of-S 1:4; ²see P109n; Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, I: ‘Of love it may be said that it makes all things equal’; Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, VI.4.1: ‘All is to desire to enjoy the Husband more,... to be ardent to mate with such a grand Lord and take him as Husband’; ³Pr 6:19c!; hyperlinear)

62. Yeshua says: I tell my mysteries to those [who are worthy of] my mysteries. What thy right (hand) shall do, let not thy left (hand) ascertain what it does. (Mk 4:10-12, =Mt 6:3; hyperlinear)

63. Yeshua says: There was a wealthy person who possessed much money, and he said: I shall utilize my money so that I may sow and reap and replant, to fill my storehouses with fruit so that I lack nothing. This is what he thought in his heart—and that night he died. Whoever has ears, let him hear! (=Lk 12:16-21; hyperlinear)

64. Yeshua says: A person had guests. And when he had prepared the banquet, he sent his slave to summon the guests. He went to the first, he says to him: ‘My master invites thee.’ He replies: ‘I owe some money to some merchants; they are coming to me towards evening, I shall go to place an order with them—I beg to be excused from the banquet.’ He went to another, he says to him: ‘My master has invited thee.’ He replies to him: ‘I have bought a house and they require me for a day, I shall have no leisure-(time).’ He came to another, he says to him: ‘My master invites thee.’ He replies to him: ‘My friend is to be married and I shall arrange a feast; I shall not be able to come—I beg to be excused from the banquet.’ He went to another, he says to him: ‘My master invites thee.’ He replies to him: ‘I have bought a villa; I go to receive the rent, I shall not be able to come—I beg to be excused.’ The slave came, he said to his master: ‘Those whom thou have invited to the banquet have asked to be excused.’ The master says to his slave: ‘Go out to the roads, bring those whom thou shall find so that they may feast.’ Tradesmen and merchants shall not enter the places of my Father! (multiple asyndeta; Ezek 27-28, Zeph 1:11, Zech 14:21, Mt 21:12-13, =Lk 14:16-23, Rev/Ap 18:11-20; William Wordsworth: ‘The World Is Too Much with Us‘: ‘Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers’; Robert Frost, ‘New Hampshire’: ‘The having anything to sell is what | Is the disgrace in man’; hyperlinear)

65. (Yeshua) says: A kind° person had a vineyard. He gave it out to cultivators, so that they would work it and he would receive its fruit from them. He sent his slave, so that the tenants would give to him the fruit of the vineyard. They seized his slave, they beat him—a little more and they would have killed him. The slave went, he told it to his master. His master said: Perhaps they did not recognize him. He sent another slave—the tenants beat him also. Then the owner sent his son. He said: Perhaps they will obey my son. Since those tenants knew that he was the heir of the vineyard, they seized him, they killed him. Whoever has ears, let him hear! (multiple asyndeta; =Mk 12:1-8; hyperlinear)

66. Yeshua says: Show me the stone which the builders have rejected—it is the cornerstone. (Isa 28:16, =Ps 118:22→Mt 21:42; hyperlinear)

67. Yeshua says: Whoever knows everything but himself, lacks everything. (Ecc 1:13-14, Th 3; hyperlinear)

68. Yeshua says: Blest are you when you are hated and persecuted; and you shall find no place there where you have been persecuted. (Mt 5:10-12; hyperlinear)

69a. Yeshua says: Blest are those who have been persecuted in their heart—they are those who have recognized the Father in truth. (ibid.; hyperlinear)

69b. (Yeshua says:) Blest are the hungry, for the belly of him who desires shall be filled. (Mt 5:6; hyperlinear)

70. Yeshua says: When you bring forth that which is within yourselves, this that you have shall save you. If you do not have that within yourselves, this which you do not have within you will kill you. (Lk 11:41!; hyperlinear)

71. Yeshua says: I shall destroy [this] house, and no one will be able to [re]build it. (Mk 14:58, Jn 2:19; hyperlinear)

72. [Someone says] to him: Tell my brothers to divide the possessions of my father with me. || He says to him: Oh man, who made me a divider? He turned to his Disciples,¹ he says to them: I'm not a divider, am I? (¹asyndeton; Lk 12:13-14; John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 14: ‘The quality of owning freezes you forever into “I”, and cuts you off forever from the “we”.’; hyperlinear)

73. Yeshua says: The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the workers are few. Beseech therefore the Lord° that he send forth workers to the harvest. (=Mt 9:37-38; hyperlinear)

74. (Yeshua) says: Oh Lord, there are many around the well, yet no one in the well! (Origen, Contra Celsum, 8.16: ‘How is it that many are around the well and no one goes into it?’; hyperlinear)

75. Yeshua says: There are many standing at the door, but the solitary are those who shall enter the Bridal-Chamber°. (Mt 9:15/25:10, Th 16/49; hyperlinear)

76. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty of the Father is like a tradesman having merchandise, who found a pearl. That tradesman was wise; he sold the merchandise, he bought that single pearl for himself. You yourselves, seek for His treasure, which perishes not, which endures—the place where no moth comes near to devour nor worm ravages. (multiple asyndeta; Ps 11:7/17:15, =Mt 6:19-20/=13:44-46, =Lk 12:33; hyperlinear)

77. Yeshua says: I-Am the Light above them all°, I-Am the All. All came forth from me, and all attained to me (again). Cleave wood,¹ I myself am there; lift up the stone and there you shall find me. (¹asyndeton; Jn 8:12, Th 30n; Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching, 16: ‘All things flourish, but each one returns to its root,... the eternal Tao’; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables: ‘All comes from light, and all returns to it’; hyperlinear; Gk fragment)

78. Yeshua says: Why did you come out to the wilderness—to see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a person dressed in plush garments? [Behold, your] rulers and your dignitaries are those who are clad in plush garments, and they shall not be able to recognize the truth. (=Mt 11:7-8; hyperlinear)

79. A woman from the multitude says to him: Blest is the womb which bore thee, and the breasts which nursed thee! || He says to [her]: Blest are those who have heard the Logos° of the Father and have maintained it in truth. For there shall be days when you will say: Blest is this womb which has not conceived and these breasts which have not nursed! (Lk 1:42/=11:27-28/23:29; hyperlinear)

80. Yeshua says: Whoever has recognized the world has found the body; yet whoever has found the body, of him the world is not worthy. (Th 56; hyperlinear)

81. Whoever has been enriched, let him become sovereign; and whoever possesses power, let him renounce (it). (thus sovereign without power: a veritable Zen koan!; Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, I.4: ‘Power is a poison well-known for thousands of years’; hyperlinear)

82. Yeshua says: Whoever is close to me is close to the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the Sovereignty. (quoted by Origen, Homily on Jeremiah, XX.3; hyperlinear)

83. Yeshua says: The images are manifest to mankind, and (yet) the light within them is hidden.¹ He shall be revealed in the image of the Father's light—(but as yet) his light conceals his image. (¹Th 19; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables: ‘God is behind all things, but all things hide God’; Ps 104:2!; hyperlinear)

84. Yeshua says: When you see your reflection, you rejoice. Yet when you perceive your images, which have come into being from your Origin—which neither die¹ nor represent²—to what extent will they depend upon³ you? (¹sense perceptions do not perish but merely become past; ²nor do they manifest something else which lies beyond/below/within themselves; ³Coptic 6a, see P269.1: ‘used after verbs of carrying or bearing when the bearer is thought of as being beneath the burden’; this is the epistemological [and thus ontological] hinge of the entire text; see Ex 14:14, Ps 139:16, Pro 20:24, Jn 5:19, Th 19, and ‘Angel, Image and Symbol’; Anton Chekhov, ‘Anna on the Neck’: ‘When Anna ... in the enormous mirror saw the whole of herself, illumined by countless lights, a feeling of joy awakened in her soul’; Chuang Tsu [4th century BC China], 2: ‘Joy, anger, grief, delight, worry, regret, fickleness, inflexibility, modesty, volition, sincerity, insolence:... without them we would not exist, without us they have nothing to take hold of;... it would seem as though they have some True Master, and yet I find no trace of him; he can act—that is certain; yet I cannot see his form; he has identity but no form’; Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, I.34: ‘Upheld by God, or thee?’; hyperlinear)

85. Yeshua says: 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. (Gen 3:19, Th 1; hyperlinear)

86. Yeshua says: [The foxes have their dens] and the birds have their nests, but the Son of Mankind has no place to lay his head for rest. (Dan 7:13-14, =Mt 8:20; Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, I.6: ‘Homeless, uprooted, and alone, with no door to enter, no place to call his own, in all the vast desolation of the planet’; hyperlinear)

87. Yeshua says: Wretched is the body which depends upon (another) body, and wretched is the soul which depends upon their being together. (II-Sam 13:1-22, Th 112; hyperlinear)

88. Yeshua says: The angels and the prophets (shall) come to you, and they shall bestow upon you what is yours. And you yourselves, give to them what is in your hands, and say among yourselves: On what day are they coming to receive what is theirs? (Rev/Ap 22:8-9!; hyperlinear)

89. Yeshua says: Why do you wash the outside of the chalice? Do you not comprehend that He who creates the inside, is also He who creates the outside? (Lk 11:39-41; hyperlinear)

90. Yeshua says: Come unto me, for my yoga° is natural° and my lordship is gentle—and you shall find repose for yourselves. (=Mt 11:28-30, Th 60; hyperlinear)

91. They say to him: Tell us who thou art, so that we may believe in thee. || He says to them: You scrutinize the face of the sky and of the earth—yet you have not recognized Him who is facing you, and you do not know to inquire of Him at this moment. (Th 5/52/76/84, =Lk 12:56; John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 13: ‘I don’ know what to pray for or who to pray to’; hyperlinear)

92. Yeshua says: Seek and you shall find. But those things which you asked me in those days, I did not tell you then. Now I wish to tell them, and you do not inquire about them. (=Mt 7:7-8; Mencius, 4th century BC China: ‘It is said, Seek and you will find it, neglect and you will lose it’; hyperlinear)

93. (Yeshua says:) Give not what is sacred to the dogs, lest they throw it on the dungheap. Cast not the pearls to the swine, lest they break (them) in pieces. (Pro 23:9, =Mt 7:6; hyperlinear)

94. Yeshua [says:] Whoever seeks shall find. [And whoever knocks,] it shall be opened to him. (=Mt 7:8; hyperlinear)

95. [Yeshua says:] If you have copper-coins,¹ do not lend at interest—but rather give [them] to him who will not repay you. (Lk 6:30-36; ¹here in the bound papyrus codex there is a single sheet puzzlingly blank on both sides; hyperlinear)

96. Yeshua [says:] The Sovereignty of the Father is like [a] woman,¹ she has taken a little leaven,¹ she [has hidden] it in dough,¹ she produced large loaves of it. Whoever has ears, let him hear! (¹asyndeta; =Mt 13:33; hyperlinear)

97. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty of the [Father] is like a woman who is carrying a jar full of grain. (While) she was walking [on a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke, the grain streamed out behind her onto the road. She did not observe (it), she had noticed no accident. (When) she arrived in her house, she set the jar down—she found it empty. (multiple asyndeta; hyperlinear)

98. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty of the Father is like someone who wishes to slay an eminent person. In his house he drew forth the sword,¹ he thrust it into the wall in order to ascertain whether his hand would prevail. Then he slew the eminent person. (¹asyndeton; NB the tongue as ‘the sword in one's mouth’: Isa 49:2, Rev/Ap 1:16; hyperlinear)

99. The Disciples say to him: Thy brothers and thy mother are standing outside. || He says to them: Those here who do the will of my Father—these are my Brothers and my Mother. It is they who shall enter the Sovereignty of my Father. (Th 15, =Mk 3:31-35; hyperlinear)

100. They showed Yeshua a [denarius], and they say to him: The agents of Caesar demand taxes from us. || He says to them: Give the things of Caesar to Caesar, give the things of God to God, and give to me what is mine. (Rev/Ap 13:18←I-Ki 10:14!: a most extraordinary gematria, indicating the notorious 666 as a monetary $ymbol; =Mt 22:16-21; hyperlinear)

101. (Yeshua says:) Whoever does not hate his father and his mother in my way, shall not be able to become a Disciple to me. And whoever does [not] love his [Father] and his Mother in my way, shall not be able to become a [Disciple to] me. For my mother [bore° my body],¹ yet [my] True [Mother] gave me the life. (¹anti-gnostic; Job 33:4!, Jn 2:4, Th 15/79/99, =Lk 14:26; see ‘The Maternal Spirit’ and ‘Theogenesis’; Odes of St. Solomon, 35:6, ‘I was carried like a child by its mother’; Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, The Mustard Seed: ‘Your mother gave birth to your body, not to you’; hyperlinear)

102. Yeshua says: Woe unto them, the dogmatists—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. (Th 39; =The Fables of Aesop°; hyperlinear)

103. Yeshua says: Blest is the person who knows in [which] part the thieves enter, so that he shall arise and collect his [belongings] and gird up his loins before they come in. (=Lk 12:35+39; hyperlinear)

104. They say [to him:] Come, let us pray today and let us fast! || Yeshua says: What then is the transgression which I have committed, or in what have I been vanquished? But when the Bridegroom comes forth from the Bridal-Chamber, then let them fast and let them pray. (Mk 2:19-20, Th 14; hyperlinear)

105. Yeshua says: Whoever shall acknowledge father and mother, shall be called the son of (a) harlot. (Mt 23:8-9, Lk 14:26, Jn 8:41, Th 101; ‘Theogenesis’; hyperlinear)

106. Yeshua says: When you make the two one,¹ you shall become Sons of Mankind²—and when you say to the mountain: ‘Be moved!’, it shall be moved. (¹Th 22, the Tao Te Ching, 1 of Lao Tsu: ‘These two are the same’; ²Dan 7:13-14, Th 86; hyperlinear)

107. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty is like a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One of them went astray, which was the largest. He left the 99, he sought for that one until he found it. Having wearied himself, he says to that sheep: ‘I desire thee more than 99.’ (Ezek 34:15-16, =Lk 15:3-6, Ph 59; hyperlinear)

108. Yeshua says: Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become like me. I myself shall become as he is, and the secrets shall be revealed to him. (Lk 6:40, Jn 4:7-15/7:37; hyperlinear)

109. Yeshua says: The Sovereignty is like a person who had a treasure [hidden] in his field without being aware of it. And [after] his death, he bequeathed it to his [son. The] son was not aware (of it) , he accepted that field, he sold [it]. And he came who purchased it—he plows, [he discovered] the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wishes. (multiple asyndeta; The Fables of Aesop; Mt 13:44; hyperlinear)

110. Yeshua says: Whoever has found the world and become enriched, let him renounce the world. (Th 81; Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard: ‘If thou art given the keys to the household, throw them into the well and walk away, go. Be free like the wind’; hyperlinear)

111. Yeshua says: The sky and the earth shall be rolled up in your presence; and he who lives from within the Living-One shall see neither death [nor fear]. || Therefore Yeshua says: Whoever finds himself, of him the world is not worthy. (Isa 34:4, Lk 21:33, Th 11!!, Rev/Ap 6:14; hyperlinear)

112. Yeshua says: Woe to the flesh which depends upon the soul, woe to the soul which depends upon the flesh! (asyndeton; Th 87; hyperlinear)

113. His Disciples say to him: When will the Sovereignty come? || (Yeshua says:) It shall not come by watching (for it). They will not say ‘Behold here!’ or ‘Behold there!’ But rather the Sovereignty of the Father is spread upon the earth, and humans do not see it. (anti-Gnostic!; Ps 47:7, Lk 17:20-21, Th 51; Henry David Thoreau, Walden: ‘Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads’; hyperlinear)

114. Shimon Kefa says to them: Let Mariam depart from among us, for women are not worthy of the life.¹ || Yeshua says: Behold, I myself shall inspire° her so that I make her male, in order that she also shall become a living spirit like you males.² For every female who becomes male, shall enter the Sovereignty of the Heavens. (¹Pro 31:3, Ecc 7:28!; ²exquisitely ironical, since ‘spirit’ in Aramaic—the original language of the logion—is feminine; Gen 3:16, Ex 18:2, Th 22!; cp. [remarkably] English ‘tom-boy’; The 1001 Nights, I: ‘Rely not on women, trust not to their hearts!’; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, VI.12: ‘Souls are neither male nor female when they no longer marry nor are given in marriage [Lk 20:34-36]; and is not woman transformed into man, when she is become equally unfeminine, and manly, and perfect?’; John Donne, ‘Go, and catch a falling star’, Songs and Sonnets: ‘No where | Lives a woman true, and fair’; Saul Bellow, ‘The Old System’, Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories: ‘She might smell like a woman, but she acted like a man’; hyperlinear)

The Gospel according to Thomas

Notes to Thomas

Coptic was the final, millennial stage of the classical Egyptian language, evolving after the invasion of Alexander the Great (332 BC) and subsequently supplanted by Arabic following the Muslim conquest (640 AD); see Biblio.20. It has always been the liturgical language of the Egyptian Church; moreover, the ancient Coptic versions of the Old and New Testaments are of great importance in textual Biblical studies. Utilizing many Greek loan words, Coptic also adopted the Greek alphabet, adding these letters: 4 (shai), 3 (fai), 6 (hori), ` (janja), 2 (gima), and 5 (ti), as well as ¯ (syllable or abbreviation indicator, here represented by an underline; e.g. 6n); see The Coptic Alphabet and P001. ‘C...’ and ‘P...’ are links to pages/sections in Crum's Dictionary and Plumley's Grammar (Biblio.5+6). English terms which derive from ancient Egyptian via Coptic include ‘pharaoh’ (‘Egyptian per.o [C267a/253a], great house’; F. Brown, S.R. Driver, and C. Briggs, based upon Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew-Aramaic and English Lexicon of the Old Testament; available in Biblio.30.); ‘adobe’ (Coptic twwbe: brick, C398a; via Arabic and Spanish); ‘oasis’ (from Egyptian via Greek; Coptic parallel oua6e, C508b); ‘barge’ (Coptic baare, via Gk βαρις [Liddell & Scott, Biblio.22: ‘a flat-bottomed boat, used in Egypt’], C042a); and ‘manna’ (Coptic moone: to feed, C173a).

Adam (46/85): Hebrew Md) (blood-red, clay)—the original human and/or generic mankind.

Aesop (102/109): crippled Greek slave who flourished in the 6th-century BC and was executed at Delphi for ‘impiety’, whose Fables were well-known thruout the ancient world; the only non-Israelite other than the Delphic Oracle (‘Recognize thyself’: Th 3) whom Christ is known to have quoted, as also in Lk 4:23 (moral from ‘The Quack Frog’), Mt 7:15 (‘The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing’) and various other allusions.

Bear (101): interpolated Coptic text (image of the papyri):

Bed (61b, NB as also in 61a): the Coptic text here is:

This last term is the one and only Sahidic Coptic word for ‘bed’. Pace Guillaumont et alia (Biblio.7), it does not mean ‘bench’, which would be poi (C260b); nor does it mean ‘sofa’, for which there are several terms listed in the English index of Crum under ‘couch’, e.g. ma n.nkotk (place of-reclining, C225a)—thus in the Sahidic version of Ac 5:15, glog is used for ΚΛΙΝΑΡΙΟΝ and ma n.nkotk for ΚΡΑΒΒΑΤΟΣ (my thanks to Hany Takla for this reference).

Blest (7/18/19/49/54/58/68/69a/69b/79/103): Greek ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΣ; (see Note 2 in the hyperlinear of logion 7); Mt 5:3 et passim.

Bridal-Chamber (75/104): Coptic ma n.4eleet (place of-bride; C153a, C560b) = Greek ΝΥΜΦΩΝ = Hebrew rdx (kheder); the bedroom where the marriage is consummated (Jud 15:1, Ps 19:5/45:13-15!, S-of-S 1:4, Jn 3:29!, Mt 9:15 [ΟΙ ΥΙΟΙ ΤΟΥ ΝΥΜΦΩΝΟΣ, the Sons of the Bridal-Chamber] 25:1-13)—see Ph 65/71/72/73/82/94/101/108/131/143, Sacrament in Ph Notes.

Defile (7): Copt bht (from bwte, to pollute, be abominable; C045b) see Defilement in Ph Notes.

Dogmatists (39/102): Aramaic My#wrp (perushím, ‘Pharisees’: separated); ubiquitous dogmatic Jewish clerics of that time, the party of Paul of Tarsus; Mt 5:20/23:1-39, Ac 26:5 etc.

Gnostic (5): re the anti-Gnosticism of these texts, see Incarnate, Recognition and ‘Are the Coptic Gospels Gnostic?; ‘Gnosticism’ is by definition metaphysically Platonic, maintaining that the perceptible universe and thus all incarnation are untrustworthy or even illusory; our texts, on the contrary, share the Biblical view that both the universe and our incarnations are divinely created.

Image(s) (22/50/83/84): Greek ΕΙΚΩΝ (similitude) = Hebrew Mlc (tselem, from lc [tsel, shadow]; Gen 1:26); sensory perceptions and/or mental images, the five senses (Th 19!) together with memory and the imagination; see ‘Angel, Image and Symbol’.

Incarnate (28): Coptic 6n sarc (‘in flesh’—utilizing the same Greek term as Jn 1:14, ΣΑΡΞ); thus blatantly anti-Gnostic; see Gnostic.

Inspire (114): Coptic sok (to draw, beguile, gather or impel [not merely lead, but rather attract]: C325b); as in the Sahidic version of Jn 6:44!! (Greek ΕΛΚΩ); in Th 8, this same verb is used to mean ‘to draw a net up out of the sea’.

Jacob the Righteous (12): Hebrew bq(y (yakov: heeler, supplanter; Gen 25:26) = Greek ΙΑΚΩΒΟΣ = English ‘James’; the human brother of Yeshua (Mk 6:3, Jn 7:5, Ac 1:14/12:17, Jas 1:1); subsequently Elder of the Convocation in Jerusalem.

John the Baptist (46/78): John = Hebrew Nnxwy (yokhanan: Yah is gracious); the last Hebrew prophet and the Messianic precursor (Lk 1/3/7); proclaimed the supremely innovative doctrine of forgiveness following repentance (Mk 1:4)—thus pardon cancels karma!; see Oracle, Ph 73/81/133, Baptism in Ph Notes, Logoi in Tr Notes.

Logos/Meaning/Saying (Prolog/1/19/38/79): Greek ΛΟΓΟΣ (‘concept+expression’) = Coptic 4a`e (C612b) = Heb rm) (amr) = Aram )rmym (memra); cf. Heraclitus, the Stoics and Philo of Alexandria; Lk 8:11, Jn 1:14, Rev/Ap 19:13; English ‘meaning’ derives from Anglo-Saxon mænan: ‘to have in mind, mention, conceive+express’—the exact sense of both logos and memra; Jn 1:1 thus reads ‘In (the) Origin was the Meaning.’

Lord/Master (47a/64/65/73/74): Hebrew Nwd) (adón) = Greek ΚΥΡΙΟΣ Coptic `oeis; C787b, owner of a slave; see Ph 2.

Mariam (21/114): Heb Myrm (from Mwrm, mrom: exalted [Strong's 04791]; Ex 2:4/15:20); five females named Mariam appear in the Gospels: the Virgin, Mariam of Magdala, Mariam of Bethany, Mariam of Cleopas, and Mariam the human sister of Yeshua (Mk 6:3, Ph 36); the LXX as well as the oldest and best manuscripts of e.g. Jn 20 (vs.1 [) A], vs.11 [p66c )], vs.16 [) B], vs.18 [p66 ) B]) provide the correct transliteration of this (Semitic) name into Greek letters: ΜΑΡΙΑΜ.

Matthew (13): Hebrew hy-Ntm (mattan-yah: gift of Yah); the Apostle/Evangelist, also named ‘Levi of Alphaeus’ (see Levi in Ph Notes, Mk 2:14), brother of the Apostle Jacob of Alphaeus; Mt 10:3 etc.

Oracle/Prophet (31/52/88): Greek ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗΣ Hebrew )ybn (nabi); a divine spokesperson, not merely predictive; note that there are 24 books in the Hebrew canon of the OT, and also 24 Prophets including John the Baptist (IV-Ezra 14:45, Rev/Ap 4:4).

Origin (18): Greek ΑΡΧΗ; a term from the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, meaning not a temporal beginning but rather the primary element or foundation of reality (thus in Gen 1:1 LXX, Mk 1:1, Jn 1:1).

Philosopher (13): Greek ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΣ (fond of wisdom); this word (coined by the pre-Socratic Pythagoras) has no precise Hebrew/Aramaic equivalent, and thus Matthew himself may have used the Greek word; but see the parallel term at Job 9:4, bbl Mkx (khakam liba), ‘wise in heart’.

Rabbi (12): Hebrew ybr (my great-one) = Coptic no2 (great, C250a); a spiritual authority; Jn 1:38/3:26, Mt 23:7.

Recognition (3/5/39/43/51/56/67/69a/78/80/91/105): Coptic sooun (C369b) Greek ΓΝΩΣΙΣ (gnosis); this important term means direct personal acquaintance rather than mere intellectual knowledge, as in Jn 17:25 and I-Jn 4:7; see Th 5, Ph 116/122/134, Tr 1/4/6 etc., Incarnate and Gnostic; NB Bertrand Russell's justly celebrated Theory of Descriptions, wherein the essential distinction is drawn between Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description—made necessary in English by its use of ‘know’ for both meanings; other languages utilize two separate terms, e.g. Spanish ‘conocer’ (from ΓΝΩΣΙΣ, ‘to be acquainted with’, versus ‘saber’ (from Latin SAPERE, to be wise), ‘to know about’.

Repent (28): Greek ΜΕΤΑΝΟΕΩ (after-mind, reconsider: cognitive) ! Hebrew bw# (shub: turn around, return: behavioral); Ps 7:12/22:27, Mt 3:1-2/4:17, Lk 3:2-14; the initial message of both John the Baptist and Christ, this important term ‘metanoia’ does not signify a mere feeling of remorse, which is ΜΕΤΑΜΕΛΟΣ (with/after-sentiment).

Repose (2/50/51/60/90): Greek ΑΝΑΠΑΥΣΙΣ (up-ceasing); Ex 23:12, Isa 28:12, Mt 11:28; see also Th 27.

Sabbath (27): Hebrew tb# (shabat: repose); the (7th) day of rest; Ex 21:8-11, Lk 6:1-11, Tr 7/33—see the pericope Lk 6:5D (05) [Bezae]: ‘That same day, he saw someone working on the Sabbath,* he said to him: Man, if indeed you understand what you are doing, you are blest; if indeed you do not understand, you are accursed and a transgressor of the Torah’; Nestle-Aland, Biblio.23, textual notes (*asyndeton).

Sacred Spirit (44): Hebrew #dqh xwr (ruakh ha-qodesh, Spirit the-Holy; feminine gender) ≠ Greek ΠΝΕΥΜΑ ΤΟ ΑΓΙΟΝ (neuter gender) ≠ Coptic p.pneuma et.ouaab (P080, masculine gender, as also Latin SPIRITUS SANCTUS); see Spirit and ‘The Maternal Spirit’.

Salome (37n/61b): Hebrew tymwl# (shlomit: peaceful); an early female Disciple (Mk 15:40-41/16:1-8); Ph 59!/79!

Samaritan (60): those Northern Kingdom Israelites not deported to Babylon and hence lacking the later OT scriptures (I-Ki 16:24, II-Ki 17), therefore in post-Exilic times considered heretics (as in Lk 10:25-37, Jn 4:1-42).

Scriptualist (39): Greek ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΕΥΣ (scribe); Mt 23:1-39 etc.

Secret/Hidden/Concealed (Prolog/5/6/32/33/39/83/96/108/109): Coptic 6wp (C695a); this is the term used e.g. in Sahidic Mt 13:35.

Shimon Kefa (13/114): Hebrew Nw(m# (shimón: hearing, Gen 29:33); Aramaic )pyk (kefa) = Greek ΠΕΤΡΟΣ (bedrock)—the chief Apostle, Simon Peter (Mt 10:2/16:15-19).

Sky/Heaven (3/6/9/11/12/20/44/54/91/111/114): Coptic pe (C259a) Greek ΟΥΡΑΝΟΣ = Hebrew Mym# (shamayim; plural); note that ‘sky’ = ‘heaven’ in all three languages.

Spirit (14/29/44/53/114): Hebrew xwr (rúakh: feminine gender!) = Aramaic )xwr (rúkha) ¹ Greek ΠΝΕΥΜΑ (neuter gender!) ¹ Latin SPIRITUS (masculine gender!); in all these languages the word for ‘spirit’ derives from ‘breath’ or ‘wind’ (Gen 2:7, Isa 57:16, Jn 3:5-8); see Sacred Spirit and Comm.2.

Thomas (Prolog/13/Colophon): Aramaic Mw)t (taom) = Greek ΔΙΔΥΜΟΣ (duplicate, twin); the Apostle Didymos Judas Thomas, author of this text (Jn 11:16/20:24-29/21:2); ‘Judas’ Hebrew hdwhy (yehúda): ‘praised’ = Arabic ‘hammad’ as in ‘Nag Hammadi’ (village of-praise) and ‘Mohammed’ (great-praise), the Ishmaelite prophet: Gen 16-17/21:1-21/25:12-18, Zech 9:6-7!, as well as not only the Arabic Qur’án but also the absolutely essential Hadith.

Totality/Everything/the All (2/6/67/77): Coptic thr.3 (all of-him/it, C424a).

Transgression (14/104): Coptic nobe (C222a) = Greek ΑΜΑΡΤΙΑ = Hebrew t)+x (khatat): moral error, sin = violation of the Torah (the term ‘sin’ has no other meaning, either in Biblical times or thereafter); see Perfect, Torah and Defilement in Ph Notes.

Transient (42): Greek ΠΑΡΑΓΕΙΝ (by-led); someone led past, passer-by, itinerant—see Hebrew in Ph Notes.

Trees (19): the ‘five trees’ may well refer to the five senses (NB that all emotions are presumably symbolic feelings, thus ‘sentiments’); see Tr 28 and ‘Angel, Image and Symbol’; it is noteworthy that the olive tree in particular does not shed its leaves annually.

Vintage/Kind/Natural (47b/65/90): Greek ΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ (useful, vintage, benevolent, mild, easy); Ph 126; the ancients often confused this common term with the rare ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (anointed, as were Gk athletes), with reference to the Hebrew Messiah.

War (16): Greek ΠΟΛΕΜΟΣ; nowadays, one may well interpret ‘the stars falling from the sky’ (Isa 34:4, Mk 13:25, Rev/Ap 6:13/8:6-12 ff.) as a nuclear war, since hydrogen bombs are literally small man-made stars; ‘within this generation’ in Lk 21:24-32 is explicitly to be counted from the reconquest of Jerusalem (i.e. June 1967) and therefore not from the founding of the modern State of Israel (May 1948); a OT Israelite generation could range from forty years (Num 14:33, Dt 2:14) to one hundred years (Gen 15:13-16). The impending military/ecological apocalypse is evidently not a parable!

Wickedness (45): Greek ΠΟΝΕΡΟΣ; this term has a root meaning of hard work or laborious drudgery, thus oppressive or exploitative; Christ's specific listing of 12 evils, at Mk 7:22-23: (1) ΠΟΡΝΕΙΑ: prostitution (commercial or cultic), any sexuality explicitly forbidden by the Torah; (2) ΚΛΟΠΗ: theft; (3) ΦΟΝΟΣ: homicide; (4) ΜΟΙΧΕΙΑ: adultery; (5) ΠΛΕΟΝΕΞΙΑ: selfishness; (6) ΠΟΝΗΡΙΑ: malice; (7) ΔΟΛΟΣ: deceit; (8) ΑΣΕΛΓΕΙΑ: lechery [literally: un-moon-leading!]; (9) ΟΦΘΑΛΜΟΣ ΠΟΝΗΡΟΣ: envious/jealous/selfish eye [Dt 15:9, Mt 20:15]; (10) ΒΛΑΣΦΗΜΙΑ: derision; (11) ΥΠΕΡΗΦΑΝΙΑ: pride; (12) ΑΦΡΟΣΥΝΗ: divided mind, ambivalence, schizophrenia; Rev/Ap 3:15-16!].

World (10/16/21/24/27/28/51/56/80/110/111): Greek ΚΟΣΜΟΣ (arrangement, order, system); originally the pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras had used this term to designate the entire natural universe, as in ‘cosmos’; but in the Gospel koinê (later common Greek) it had also come to signify the conventionality or artificiality of the human social system, as in ‘cosmetic’; see Lk 2:1/4:5-6/12:30-31; in the OT, the Universe ws designated ‘the heavens and the earth’, as in Gen 1:1.

Yeshua (Prologue et passim): Aramaic (w#y (Yeshúa) = Hebrew (w#why (Yehóshua); from (#y-hwhy (YHWH ysha: He-Is Savior); Josh 1:1, Ezra 5:2 (Aramaic), Mt 1:21, Ph 20a; this name could not be accurately transcribed in Greek, which lacks the SH sound; in the Greek and Coptic uncial manuscripts it was generally abbreviated is or ihs; see also the second commandment as written on tablets of the Decalogue (image1, image2): hyhy, ‘He Is’ (qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular of hyh, ‘to be’).

Yoga (90): Coptic na6b (yoke, C726); here, as in the canonical Gospels, meaning one's spiritual discipline (the cognate Sanskrit term ‘yoga’ conveys this sense quite well); see Ph 79.