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Gospel of Thomas (Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus)

Evangelium Thomae

Date written: disputed: before about 200; the place is not known. The date is disputed or rests on weak evidence.

It claims a writer who did not write it: Thomas the apostle.

Sayings of Jesus on three papyrus pieces from Egypt; the whole book was found later in Coptic at Nag Hammadi.

Gospel · first written in Greek

The corpus file holds James's English of the Greek fragments only, not the whole Coptic gospel.

Translated by M. R. James (1924). The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924) Public domain. Source and rights

About this text (1 note)

The corpus file holds James's English of the Greek fragments only, not the whole Coptic gospel.

How we know the date and place
Date written not sure
B. Grenfell and A. Hunt (1897, 1904): the papyri are of about 200 to 250; M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (1924); S. Gathercole, The Gospel of Thomas (2014), dates the book 135-200; others put its core as early as 60
The corpus gives no date. Its file name carries the year 100. Scholars do not agree; about 100-140 is a common answer.
Place written not known
Looked in James (1924) and Gathercole (2014)
Syria (Edessa) is the usual proposal. The papyri were found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, which is where they were read, not where the book was written.

1,043 words. 1 section.

Gospel of Thomas (Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus)

§ 1

These are on two papyri found at Oxyrhynchus by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in excavations carried out for the Graeco-Roman branch of the Egypt Exploration Fund.

The first was found in 1897: it is a leaf of a papyrus book, of the third century. It is numbered, apparently, ‘11’. The second was found in 1903: it is a piece of a papyrus roll, also of the third century, but a little later in date than the other. It has a title or prologue.

Both are mutilated. The latest editor, Professor H. G. Evelyn White (The Sayings of Jesus from Oxyrhynchus, Cambridge, 1920), has shown good cause for believing both fragments to belong to the same collection of Sayings. He makes the second precede the first (as I said, it has a title), and believes that the Sayings are extracts from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. I shall follow his order in

translating the Sayings s but I must refrain from quoting all his very ingenious restorations. As a rule I shall only give the practically certain supplements.

Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 654.

Prologue. These are the (...) words which Jesus that liveth and (...) spake to ( . . . ) and to Thomas. And he said: (Whosoever heareth) these words shall not taste (of death).

i. Let not him that seeketh cease (seeking till he) find, and

when he findeth (he shall marvel, and) having marvelled he shall reign, and (having reigned) he shall rest.

(Quoted by Clement of Alexandria as from the Gospel according to the Hebrews : see p. 2.)

ii. ( . . . ) saith (Who are they that) draw us ( . . •

. . . ) the kingdom that is in heaven

(....) the fowls of the heaven whatsoever is under the earth the fish of the sea. (These are they that draw) you; and the kingdom (of heaven) is within you: (and whosoever) knoweth (...) shall find it ( . . . ) know yourselves

( . . . ) ye are ( . . . ) of the

Father ( . . . ) ye shall know yourselves to be in ( . . . ). And ye are

the city (?) (of God (See below for suggested restorations.)

iii. A man shall not hesitate (

having found?) to ask of ( concerning the place of (

for (ye shall find r) that many (first shall be last and) the last first and they shall (

iv. Jesus saith (

before thy face and (that which is hidden)

from thee shall be revealed (to thee: for there is nothing)

hid that shall not be manifested

and buried that (shall not be found or raised up)

v. his disciples) question him (and)

say: How shall we fast (and how shall we ) and how (shall we ) and what shall we observe (

). Jesus saith (

) Do not do (

) of the truth (

) hidden (

) blessed is he (

Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1.

vi. And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote which

is in thy brother’s eye.

GREEK

vii. Jesus saith: If ye fast not from the world ye shall not find

the kingdom of God, and if ye keep not Sabbath for the whole week, ye shall not see the Father.

viii. Jesus saith: I stood in the midst of the world, and in flesh

appeared I unto them: and I found all men drunken, and none did I find thirsting among them and my soul is afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart and see not . . .

(bottom of the column gone)

ix. col. 2. poverty

x. (Jesus saith) Wheresoever there are (two, they are not

without) God: and where there is one alone I say I am with him. Lift up the stone and there shalt thou find me: cleave the wood, and I am there.

xi. Jesus saith: A prophet is not acceptable in his own country,

nor doth a physician do cures upon them that know him.

xii. Jesus saith: A city built upon the top of an high mountain

and established can neither fall nor be hidden.

xiii. Jesus saith: Thou hearest with(in) thy (one) ear (but the

other thou hast closed). ...

It is not practicable to give the numerous attempts at restoration which have been made. For these I refer the reader to Evelyn White’s excellent edition. But by way of a specimen I will give Evelyn White’s and Lagrange’s suggestions for Saying II, which is one of the most puzzling of them all. Lagrange’s appeared in the Revue Biblique, 1922, p. 432.

Evelyn White would restore thus:

Judas) saith: (Who then are they that draw us, (and when shall come the kingdom that is in heaven? (Jesus saith:)

The fowls of the heaven (and of the beasts what -ever is beneath the earth (or upon the earth, and) the fishes of the sea, (these are they that draw you: and the kingdom (of heaven) is within you: (and whosoever) knoweth (himself) shall find (it: and having found it) ye shall know yourselves, (that) ye are (sons and heirs) of the Father the (Almighty, and)

shall know yourselves (that ye are) in (God and God in you). And ye are the (City of God).

Judas the interrogator is ‘not Iscariot’.

Lagrange:

(Judas) saith: (Who then are they that draw us (unto heaven above, if the kingdom (is) in heaven ? (Jesus saith)

The fowls of the heaven, (the beasts and if

5 there be anything beneath the earth (or upon the earth, and the fishes of the sea (are they that) draw you (unto God) and the kingdom (of heaven) is within you (and whosoever) knoweth (God) shall find it: (for if ye know him)

10 ye shall know yourselves (and shall know that) ye are (sons) of the Father that is (perfect: and likewise) ye shall know yourselves (to be citizens in heaven).

And ye are the city (of God) or (that which affrighteth Satan).

He gives an alternative for lines 8-10: is within you (and whosoever) knoweth (himself) shall find it. (Take pains therefore) to know yourselves, &c.