APPENDIX II
HANDBOOK TO THE GOSPELS
by miriam berg



APPENDIX II
THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS
(passages with no parallels)



Below are the rest of the sayings of Jesus which were preserved in the Gospel of Thomas but have no parallels in the other gospels.

7. Jesus said, Blessed is the lion whom the man will eat, and the lion will become man; but cursed is the man whom the lion will eat and the lion will become man.

11. Jesus said, This heaven will pass away and that which is above it will pass away and the dead do not live, and the living will not die. In the days that you ate what was dead, it became in you the living.
        When you are in the light, what will you do! On the day you were One, you became the Two; but then being Two, what will you do?

12. The disciples said to Jesus, We know that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader? Jesus said, Wherever you are, you should go to James the Just, because for him heaven and earth came into being.

15. Jesus said, When you see the One who was not born of woman, fall upon your face and worship him; for that one is your Father.

18. The disciples said to him, Tell us how our end will be. Jesus said, Have you found the beginning that you now look for the end? But in the Place where the beginning is, there the end will be.
        Blessed is he who will stand boldly at the beginning; he shall know the end, and shall not taste death.

19. Jesus said, Blessed is he who became before becoming. If you become my disciples, and hear my sayings, these very stones will be your ministers. For you have five trees in Paradise which are unchanged in summer or winter and their leaves shall not fall. Whoever knows them shall never taste death.

21a. Mary said to Jesus, Who do your disciples resemble? He said, They resemble small children dwelling in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come they will say, Return to us our field. They strip off their outward facade before them to return it to them.

22b. Jesus said to them, When you make the two one and you make the inner as the outer, and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, so that you will make the male and the female into a single one, in order that the male is not made male nor the female made 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, and an image in place of an image, then shall you enter the kingdom.

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

27. If you abstain not from the world, you will not find the kingdom; if you do not keep the sabbath as sabbath, you will not behold the Father.

28. Jesus said: I stood boldly in the midst of the world and I manifested to them in the flesh.
        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 they do not see that empty they came into the world and that empty they seek to go out of the world again, except that now they are drunk.
        When they shake off their wine, then they will change their knowing.

29. Jesus said, If the flesh has come into being because of the spirit, it is a marvel; but if the spirit has come into being because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. But I, I marvel at this: about this great wealth stored in this poverty.

37. His disciples said, On which day will you be manifest to us and on which day will we behold you?
        Jesus said, When you strip yourselves of your shame, and take your garments and put them under your feet even as little children, and you trample them; then shall you behold the son of him who is living, and you shall not fear.

42. Jesus said, Become yourselves, passing away. (or, 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, are you not aware of who I am? No, you have become like the Jews; for they love the tree, but dislike its fruit; or they love the fruit, but dislike the tree.

49. Jesus said, Happy are the loners and the chosen for you shall find the kingdom. Because you are from the heart of it, you shall go there again.

50. Jesus said, If they ask you, "Where are you from?" say to them, "We came from the light there, where the light was, by itself. It stood boldly and manifested itself in their image."
        If they ask you, "Who ARE you?" say, "We are his sons and we are the chosen of the living Father."
        If they question you, "What is the sign of your Father in you?" say to them, "It is a movement in repose."

52. His disciples said to him, Twenty-four prophets spoke have spoken in Israel, and they spoke about your nature.
        He said to them, You have ignored him who is living in front of you, and you have just talked about the dead.

53. His disciples said to him, Is circumcision beneficial or not?
        He said to them, If it were beneficial, their father would beget them circumcised from their mother. But the true circumcision, of spirit, gives the ultimate benefit.

56. Jesus said, He who has found the world has found a corpse; and he who has found a corpse, of him the world is not worthy.

58. Jesus said, Happy is the man who has toiled; he has found the Life.

59. Jesus said, Look upon him who is living as long as you live, lest you should die and you should seek to see him, and you would not be able to see.

60. They saw a Samaritan, carrying a lamb, going into Judea. He said to his disciples, Why does this man carry the lamb about? 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 kills it and it becomes a corpse. They said, Otherwise he will not be able to do it. He said to them, You yourselves, seek after a Place for yourselves within Repose, lest you become corpses and be eaten.

67. Jesus said, He who understands the All, but lacking himself, lacks everything.

69a. Jesus said, Happy are they who have been pursued in their heart. It is they who have known the Father in truth.

70. Jesus said, When you bring forth that in yourselves, this which is yours will save you; if you do not have that in yourselves, this which is not yours in you will kill you.

74. He said, Lord, there are many around the well but none in the well.

80. Jesus said, He who has known the world has found the body; but he who has found the body, of him the world is not worthy.

81. Jesus said, He who has become rich, let him become king; and he who has power, let him renounce it!

83. Jesus said, The images are manifest to man, and the light that is amongst them is hidden. In the image of the light of the Father the light will reveal itself and his image is hidden by his light.

84. Jesus said, In the days you see your resemblance, you rejoice. But when you will see your images that in the beginning were in you which neither die nor are manifest oh! how will you bear!

85. Jesus said, Adam came into being from a great power and a great richness, and he was not worthy of you; for if he had been worthy, he would not have tasted death.

87. Jesus said, Wretched is the body that depends on a body and wretched is the soul that depends on these two.

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

97. Jesus said, The kingdom of the Father is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of flour while walking on a long road; the handle of the jar broke and the flour streamed out behind her on the road.
        As she did not know it she could not be troubled by it. When she had reached her house she put the jar on the ground; she found it empty.

98. Jesus said, The kingdom of the Father is like a man wishing to kill a giant. He drew the sword in his house; he struck it through the wall in order to be assured that his hand would be confident. Then he went out and slew the giant.

92. Jesus said, Seek and you will find. But those things that you asked me in those days I did not tell you then; now I desire to tell them but you do not seek after them. (cf.#2)

102. Jesus said, Woe to them, the Pharisees! for they resemble a dog sleeping in the oxen's manger; for neither does he eat nor does he allow the oxen to eat. (Aesop)

103. Jesus said, Happy is the man who knows where and when the robbers will creep in; so that he will arise and gather his strength and prepare for action before they come.

105. Jesus said, He who knows the Father and the Mother, will he be called the son of a harlot?

110. Jesus said, He who has found the world, and become rich, let him deny the world! (cf. #81)

111. Jesus said, The heavens and the earth will roll back before you, and he who is living, from the Life, shall see neither death nor fear, because Jesus said this: He who finds himself, of him the world is not worthy.

112. Jesus said, Unhappy will be the flesh that depends upon the soul! and unhappy will be the soul that depends upon the flesh! (cf. #87)

None of the imagery or aphoristic utterances in any of these passages seems consonant or consistent with the words of Jesus reported in the Synoptic gospels. Some of them are incomprehensible such as, The kingdom of God is like a man wishing to kill a giant and so he pokes the sword through the wall of his house.