The Gospel of Thomas (LNV) | Limitless Nexus

Incipit

These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke, and that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ϣⲁϫⲉ ⲉⲑⲏⲡ ethēp — hidden, concealed. Not “secret” in the sense of withheld by an authority, which is how the word usually gets read. The sayings that follow are open on the page; what is hidden is their sense. That distinction is the whole premise of the book, and saying 1 states it outright.

ⲉⲛⲧⲁ ⲓ̄ⲥ̄ ⲉⲧⲟⲛϩ ϫⲟⲟⲩ “the LIVING Jesus” — etonh, living, present participle. Not the risen one and not the remembered one. The frame is a speaker still speaking, which is why the book has no narrative and no crucifixion.

Saying 1

And he said: “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲑⲉⲣⲙⲏⲛⲉⲓⲁ hermēneia — Greek: interpretation, translation, the act of construing. Borrowed rather than said in Coptic. The promise is not attached to believing the sayings or obeying them, but to WORKING THEM OUT. It is the same claim the Liberty Narrative Version rests on, made by the text about itself.

ϥⲛⲁϫⲓ ϯⲡⲉ ⲁⲛ ⲙ̄ⲡⲙⲟⲩ literally “he will not receive taste of death”. The idiom is tasting, not escaping — death is not avoided, it is not tasted. Whether that is the same thing is left open, and English versions that render it “will not experience death” quietly close it.

Saying 2

“Let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. And when he finds, he will be shaken. And when he is shaken, he will marvel — and he will reign over the All.”

2 from the Coptic

ϥⲛⲁϣⲧⲣⲧⲣ̄ … ⲉϥϣⲁⲛϣⲧⲟⲣⲧⲣ̄ shtortr — to be shaken, disturbed, thrown into commotion. Usually softened to “troubled”. It is a physical word, and it is the SECOND step of four, not a warning: seek, be shaken, marvel, reign. Finding is not the end of the sequence and it is not comfortable.

ϥⲛⲁⲣ̄ ⲣ̄ⲣⲟ ⲉϫⲙ̄ ⲡⲧⲏⲣϥ r-rro — to become king, to reign — over ptērf, the All. Not “rule the world” and not an inward consolation. The same word ptērf appears in the Gospel of Mary on this site, where the soul tells the authorities that the All is being loosed apart. One text says the All comes undone; this one says you reign over it.

Saying 3

“If those who draw you onward say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky’ — then the birds of the sky will get there before you. If they say: ‘It is in the sea’ — then the fish will get there before you.

But the kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you.

When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are the children of the living Father. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲛⲉⲧ⳿ⲥⲱⲕ ϩⲏⲧ⳿ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ sōk hēt — literally “those who DRAW you in front of”, who pull you along. Rendered “those who lead you” everywhere, which makes them guides. The Coptic makes them a towing force. The saying then denies that the destination is anywhere they can tow you to.

ⲛⲁⲣ̄ ϣⲟⲣⲡ⳿ ⲉⲣⲱⲧⲛ̄ shorp — to be first, to precede. The structure is competitive, and it works as a reductio you have to finish yourself: if the kingdom has a location, then whatever already lives there has beaten you to it. Birds outrank you in the sky, fish in the sea. Any located kingdom is one you arrive at late.

ⲥⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ϩⲟⲩⲛ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲥⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲃⲁⲗ “it is in your inside and it is in your outside” — two matched prepositional phrases, hoyn and bal. Not “within you and among you”, which splits them into an inner state and a social one. Coptic gives one thing with two sides.

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϣⲁⲛⲥⲟⲩⲱⲛ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ ⲧⲟⲧⲉ ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲥⲟⲩⲱⲛ ⲧⲏⲛⲉ souōn active, then souōn passive: know yourselves, THEN you will be known. The order is the claim. Recognition by others — or by God — is downstream of self-knowledge, not a substitute for it and not a route to it.

Saying 4

“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 will become last, and they will become a single one.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲱⲛϩ topos — Greek: place, location. Saying 3 has just denied the kingdom has any location. Here the old man asks a newborn about the PLACE of life, and the text does not correct him. The tension is deliberate: he asks the right question of the right person in the wrong terms, and lives anyway.

ⲛ̄ⲥⲉϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲟⲩⲁ ⲟⲩⲱⲧ “they will become a single one” — oua ouōt, one single. Not “become one” as reconciliation between parties. The first and the last collapse into a single item, which is what makes the reversal more than a moral about humility.

Saying 5

“Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be uncovered for you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲑⲏⲡ⳿ ⲉⲣⲟⲕ⳿ ethēp again — the same word as the incipit, “these are the HIDDEN sayings”. The book calls itself hidden and then says nothing hidden stays hidden. It is not promising to keep a secret; it is telling you the secret is a temporary condition of your looking.

ⲡⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲡⲙ̄ⲧⲟ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲕϩⲟ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ literally “what is before your face”. The instruction is not to search, meditate or ascend, but to look at what is already in front of you. Set against saying 3, where the kingdom is inside and outside: nothing is being withheld, only unnoticed.

Saying 6

His students questioned him, saying: “Do you want us to fast? And how should we pray? Should we give alms? And what rules of diet should we keep?”

Jesus said: “Do not lie, and do not do what you hate — for all things are uncovered before heaven. There is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest, and nothing covered that will stay without being uncovered.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲛⲏⲥⲧⲉⲩⲉ … ⲉⲗⲉⲏⲙⲟⲥⲩⲛⲏ … ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲧⲏⲣⲉⲓ nēsteuō, eleēmosynē, paratēreō — fasting, almsgiving, dietary observance. All three are Greek loanwords, the technical vocabulary of institutional religious practice, imported into a Coptic sentence. The disciples ask their question in the language of the system. The answer refuses the vocabulary entirely.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲣ̄ϫⲉ ϭⲟⲗ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲡⲉⲧⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲥⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲣ̄ⲁⲁϥ Two prohibitions, both negative, neither requiring an institution to administer: do not lie, do not do what you hate. Four practices asked about, replaced by two things nobody can perform on your behalf or certify that you have done. This is the same move as the Gospel of Mary’s warning against giving statutes — and it is made here by substitution rather than by prohibition.

ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲧⲏⲣⲉⲓ paratēreō — to observe closely, to keep watch over. The para- prefix again, the same one running through the Gospel of Mary: beyond, alongside, in excess of. Dietary law as scrutiny added on top of eating.

ⲙⲛ̄ ⲗⲁⲁⲩ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉϥϩⲏⲡ⳿ ⲉϥⲛⲁⲟⲩⲱⲛϩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲁⲛ the closing line repeats saying 5 word for word. The manuscript makes the pairing explicit: the answer to “what practices should we keep” is the same sentence as “look at what is in front of you”.

Saying 7

“Blessed is the lion that the man eats — and the lion becomes man. And cursed is the man that the lion eats — and the lion will become man.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲩⲱ ⲡⲙⲟⲩⲉⲓ ⲛⲁϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲣ̄ⲣ͞ⲱⲙⲉ THE MANUSCRIPT SAYS THE LION BECOMES MAN BOTH TIMES. Read it: blessed case, “the lion becomes man”; cursed case, “the lion will become man”. Most translations silently repair the second half to “the man will become lion”, because the symmetry looks like a scribal slip. It may be. But it is what the codex has, and it is rendered here as written rather than corrected into the expected shape.

ϥⲃⲏⲧ ⲛ̄ϭⲓ ⲡⲣⲱⲙⲉ bēt — abominable, cursed. Set against makarios, a Greek loanword, in the blessed half. The two halves of the saying do not even draw their vocabulary from the same language, which is one reason to suspect the asymmetry is deliberate.

ⲟⲩⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓⲟⲥ ⲡⲉ ⲡⲙⲟⲩⲉⲓ Taken as it stands, the saying is not about man versus beast but about direction. Whatever you consume becomes you; whatever consumes you also becomes itself, at your expense. The lion ends up human either way — the only variable is which of you did the eating. That reading needs no emendation.

Saying 8

And he said: “The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up out of the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back down into the sea — he chose the large fish without trouble.

Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲱϩⲉ ⲣ̄ⲣⲙⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧ⳿ rmn-hēt — “wise”, but built from rōme (man) and hēt (heart): a man OF HEART. Coptic locates wisdom in the heart, not the head, so the fisherman’s skill is not cleverness. He is not calculating; he recognises.

ⲭⲱⲣⲓⲥ ϩⲓⲥⲉ chōris hise — Greek chōris (without) + Coptic hise (toil, difficulty). He chose “without trouble”. The line is usually attached to the choosing as an aside; it is the point. Once the large fish is seen, no deliberation is required. Compare saying 5: what you are looking for is in front of your face.

ⲁϥⲥⲱⲕ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲥ ⲉϩⲣⲁⲓ̈ sōk again — the same verb as saying 3, where “those who DRAW you” tow you toward a kingdom in the sky. There it is what others do to you; here it is what you do to a net. The book reuses its vocabulary across sayings, which is an argument for reading it as a composition rather than a heap.

Saying 9

Jesus said: “Look — the sower went out, filled his hand, and threw.

Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, and sent no root down into the earth and sent no ear up toward heaven. And others fell among the thorns; they choked the seed, and the worm ate them. And others fell on the good earth, and it gave good fruit up toward heaven: it bore sixty to the measure, and a hundred and twenty to the measure.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲁϥⲉⲓ ⲛ̄ⲥⲉ ⲉⲥⲟⲧⲉ ⲁⲩⲱ ϣⲉϫⲟⲩⲱⲧ⳿ ⲉⲥⲟⲧⲉ sixty, and she-jouōt — hundred-twenty. TWO numbers, and they double. Mark 4 and Matthew 13 give three ascending yields, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold. Thomas has neither the thirty nor the hundred, and 120 appears in no canonical version of this parable. This is checkable and it is the clearest evidence on the page that Thomas is not condensing the synoptics.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲟⲩϫⲉ ⲛⲟⲩⲛⲉ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ⳿ ⲉⲡⲕⲁϩ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲙ̄ⲡⲟⲩⲧⲉⲩⲉ ϩⲙ̄ⲥ͞ ⲉϩⲣⲁⲓ̈ ⲉⲧⲡⲉ

the seed on the rock fails in BOTH directions — no root sent DOWN to the earth, no ear sent UP to heaven, a matched pair the synoptic versions do not have. Note the good earth then gives its fruit “up toward heaven” with the same phrase. Depth and height are one movement here, which is the same structure as saying 3’s inside and outside.

ⲧⲡⲉⲧⲣⲁ … ⲕⲁⲣⲡⲟⲥ petra, karpos — rock and fruit both arrive as Greek loanwords in an otherwise Coptic farming scene, where net, worm, thorn and earth are all native. The imported words cluster on the abstractions.

ⲁⲡϥⲛⲧ̄ ͞ ⲟⲩⲟⲙⲟⲩ fnt — the worm ate them. In Mark the thorns simply choke the seed; here the choking and a devouring worm are two separate fates in the same clause. Nothing is wasted in the telling: every failure has an agent — birds, rock, worm — and only the good earth acts on its own.

Saying 10

“I have cast fire upon the world — and look, I am guarding it until it blazes.”

2 from the Coptic

ϯⲁⲣⲉϩ ⲉⲣⲟϥ⳿ ϣⲁⲛⲧⲉϥϫⲉⲣⲟ areh — to guard, to keep, to watch OVER in the protective sense. Usually softened to “I watch it”, which makes the speaker a bystander waiting to see whether the fire catches. He is not waiting. He is tending it and defending it until it takes hold. The whole saying is eleven words and the load is carried by that one verb.

ⲉϫⲛ̄ ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ kosmos — the ordered world, the arrangement of things. Greek, and the standard Coptic loan for the world-as-system rather than the earth as ground (that is kah, used in sayings 9 and 12). Fire is cast on the ORDER, not on the planet.

Saying 11

“This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die.

In the days when you ate what was dead, you made it living. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you made two. But when you have become two — what will you do?”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛⲁⲣ̄ⲡⲁⲅⲉ … ⲛⲁⲣ̄ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲅⲉ two different verbs one after the other: this heaven will PASS, the one above it will PARA-pass. paragō, Greek, to pass alongside or beyond. The higher heaven does not simply go — it goes past. Third appearance of the para- prefix in this book after paratēreō in saying 6, and the same prefix that runs through the Gospel of Mary on this site.

ⲛⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲟ̄ⲩⲱⲙ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲙⲟⲟⲩⲧ⳿ ⲛⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓⲣⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲛϩ

eating the dead MAKES it living — the digestion argument from saying 7 stated plainly. What you consume is converted into you. The lion is not a metaphor about danger; it is the same claim about assimilation, and the two sayings are four apart.

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲟ ⲛ̄ⲟ̄ⲩⲁ ⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉ̄ⲓⲣⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲛⲁⲩ you WERE one and you MADE two — a completed past, not a fall that happened to you. The division is something the hearer performed. The closing question then has no answer supplied, which is the pattern of the book: it states the position you are in and leaves the move to you. Compare saying 4, where the first and the last “become a single one”.

Saying 12

The students said to Jesus: “We know you are going to leave us. Who is going to be great over us?”

Jesus said to them: “Wherever it is you have come from, you are to go to James the Just — for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛⲓⲙ⳿ ⲡⲉ ⲉⲧⲛⲁⲣ̄ ⲛⲟϭ ⲉϩⲣⲁⲓ̈ ⲉϫⲱⲛ r-noc ehrai ejōn — literally “become BIG UP UPON us”. Not “who will be our leader”, which is how it is usually rendered and which makes it a question about succession. The Coptic is spatial and it is vertical: who will be large on top of us. They are not asking who will guide them. They are asking who will rule them, and they ask it before he has even gone.

ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉ̄ⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ “the place you have come from” — the answer opens by pointing backwards, not upwards. He does not name a successor to the position; he redirects to origin. The office the question assumed goes unfilled.

ⲓⲁ̈ⲕⲱⲃⲟⲥ ⲡⲇⲓⲕⲁⲓⲟⲥ dikaios — Greek: just, righteous. James is identified by a quality, not by a rank, and the warrant given for going to him is cosmic (heaven and earth came into being for his sake) rather than institutional. No appointment is made and no authority is delegated. Compare saying 13, four sayings later, where Jesus refuses even the title of teacher.

Saying 13

Jesus said to his students: “Compare me to something. Tell me what I am like.”

Simon Peter said to him: “You are like a just angel.” Matthew said to him: “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to him: “Teacher, my mouth is wholly unable to say what you are like.”

Jesus said: “I am not your teacher — since you have drunk, you have got drunk from the bubbling spring that I myself measured out.”

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three words to him. Now when Thomas came back to his companions they asked him: “What did Jesus say to you?”

Thomas said to them: “If I tell you one of the words he said to me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me — and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”

5 from the Coptic

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ⲡⲉⲕ⳿ⲥⲁϩ ⲁⲛ “I am not your teacher.” Thomas has just addressed him as psah, teacher, in the previous breath — and the title is refused on the spot. Peter answers with a category, Matthew answers with a category, Thomas admits he has none, and the reward for having no category is that the teaching relationship is dissolved. This is the same refusal as saying 12, where the question “who will be great over us” goes unanswered.

ⲁⲕⲥⲱ ⲁⲕϯϩⲉ ak-sō ak-tihe — “you drank, you got drunk”. A matched pair of two-syllable verbs, the second built to echo the first. English versions reach for “intoxicated”, which is accurate and loses the play entirely. The play collapses the cause into the effect — the drinking and the drunkenness are made one act, which is the claim the saying is making about the spring.

ⲛ̄ⲣ̄ⲙ̄ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧ⳿ Matthew calls him a “wise philosopher” — rmn-hēt, man of heart, the exact epithet given to the fisherman in saying 8, where it was praise and it was right. Here the same word is wrong. The book is not against wisdom; it is against arriving at a description and stopping.

ⲁϥⲁⲛⲁⲭⲱⲣⲉⲓ anachōreō — Greek: to withdraw, to retire apart. The word that later gives the West “anchorite”. The three words are not whispered in the group; the group is left.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉ ⲟⲩⲕⲱϩⲧ⳿ ⲉⲓ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲛ̄ ⲛ̄ⲱⲛⲉ ⲛ̄ⲥⲣⲱϩⲕ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲙⲱⲧⲛ̄ kōht — fire, the SAME word as saying 10, “I have cast fire upon the world.” The stones picked up to execute judgement turn out to be where the fire was kept. Whoever compiled this book put the fire he is guarding three sayings before the fire that comes out of the stones.

Saying 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 harm to your spirits.

And when you go into any land and travel through the regions, if they take you in, eat what they set before you and 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.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲛⲏⲥⲧⲉⲩⲉ … ϣⲗⲏⲗ … ⲉⲗⲉⲏⲙⲟⲥⲩⲛⲏ THIS IS THE ANSWER TO SAYING 6. There the students asked four questions — should we fast, how should we pray, should we give alms, what diet should we keep — and got a general reply about lying. Here all four are answered specifically, in the same order, with the same vocabulary: nēsteuō, shlēl, eleēmosynē, and then the food rule. Eight sayings apart, and the pairing is exact. Whatever this collection is, it is not in random order.

ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϫⲡⲟ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲛⲟⲃⲉ jpo — to beget, to give birth to. Fasting does not merely fail; it FATHERS sin. The piety is productive, and what it produces is the thing it was meant to remove. Note that none of the three is called useless — each is given a specific harm: sin, condemnation, damage to the spirit.

ⲉⲩϣⲁⲣ̄ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲇⲉⲭⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲱⲧⲛ̄ paradechomai — Greek: to receive, to accept. The para- prefix a fourth time. The condition attached to eating is not what the food is but whether you were taken in: hospitality decides the meal, not law. That is the dietary question from saying 6 answered by moving it out of the category of rules entirely.

ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲡⲣⲟ tapro — mouth. The same word Thomas used one saying earlier: “my MOUTH is wholly unable to say what you are like.” There, what could not come out of the mouth was the truth; here, what comes out of the mouth is what defiles. Placed side by side, the restraint in 13 stops looking like failure.

Saying 15

Jesus said: “When you see the one who was not begotten of woman, throw yourselves down upon your faces and do him homage. That one is your Father.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲟⲩϫⲡⲟϥ⳿ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ jpo — to beget. The same verb used one saying earlier, where fasting BEGETS sin for you. Within two sayings the book uses begetting for the thing you accidentally father and for the one thing that was never fathered at all.

ⲡⲉϩⲧ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ ⲉϫⲙ̄ ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ϩⲟ peht — to throw down, to fling prostrate; ejm petn-ho, upon your face. This is the one place in the collection that commands worship, and it is reserved for something you would have to see first. Nothing here asks you to do it on report.

Saying 16

“Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world — and they do not know that I have come to cast divisions upon the earth: fire, sword, war.

For there will be five in a house: three will be against two and two against three, the father against the son and the son against the father.

And they will stand on their feet as solitaries.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲉⲩⲟ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲛⲁⲭⲟⲥ monachos — Greek: single, solitary, alone. The word the West later builds “monk” out of, but the sense here is arithmetical, the one who is not part of a count. Read the ending against the middle: the household of five splits three-against-two, then two-against-three, and the numbers do not resolve into a winning faction. What the division produces is not smaller groups. It is people standing individually. That is the whole point of the fire.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲉⲓⲉⲓ ⲉⲛⲟⲩϫⲉ ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲉⲓⲣⲏⲛⲏ ⲉϫⲙ̄ ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ PAIRED WITH SAYING 10, word for word: nouje (cast) + ejm p-kosmos (upon the world). There, “I have cast FIRE upon the world.” Here, what people wrongly assume he cast is PEACE. Same verb, same preposition, same object — one saying states what was thrown, the other names the thing everyone substitutes for it.

ⲟⲩⲕⲱϩⲧ ⲟⲩⲥⲏϥⲉ⳿ ⲟⲩⲡⲟⲗⲉⲙⲟⲥ fire, sword, war — kōht is Coptic, sēfe is Coptic, polemos is Greek. The list climbs from a thing, to a tool, to an institution, and only the institution is a loanword. War is the imported term.

ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ōhe eratou — literally “stand upon their feet”. Not “they will be solitary”, a state, but standing, a posture taken. The same verb returns two sayings later, where the blessed one “stands in the beginning”.

Saying 17

“I will give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has not come up into the heart of man.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϭⲓϫ⳿ ϭⲙ̄ϭⲱⲙϥ̄ FOUR faculties, not three: eye, ear, HAND, heart. The familiar version of this line — what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the heart of man — has three, and no hand. Thomas puts touch in the middle of the list. Whatever is being promised is being denied to the sense that verifies the other two.

ϩⲓ ⲫⲏⲧ⳿ ⲣⲣ̄ ⲱⲙⲉ hēt — heart, the same word inside rmn-hēt, the “man of heart” praised in saying 8 and misapplied in saying 13. Wisdom is seated there, and this is the one thing that has never reached it.

Saying 18

The students said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.”

Jesus said: “Have you uncovered the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be. Blessed is the one who will stand in the beginning — that one will know the end, and will not taste death.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲧⲁⲣⲭⲏ archē — Greek: beginning, origin, and equally FIRST PRINCIPLE, RULE. It is the root inside archon, monarchy, anarchy. The saying does not choose between the senses, and it does not have to: to stand in the archē is to stand at the origin, which is the same place the ruling principle is kept. The students ask about the end and are sent to the only position from which either can be seen.

ⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϭⲱⲗⲡ⳿ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲣⲭⲏ cōlp ebol — to uncover, the verb from sayings 5 and 6, where what is hidden gets uncovered and everything stands uncovered before heaven. The question about the end is answered by pointing back at an uncovering they have not done.

ϥⲛⲁϫⲓ ϯⲡⲉ ⲁⲛ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲩ ji tipe — “receive taste”, the exact idiom of saying 1: whoever finds the interpretation will not TASTE death. Seventeen sayings apart, the same promise, attached the second time to standing in the beginning rather than to interpretation. The book keeps its own vocabulary.

ⲡⲉⲧⲛⲁⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧϥ̄ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲁⲣⲭⲏ ōhe eratf — stands on his feet, the same verb as the solitaries two sayings earlier. There it is where the division leaves you; here it is where the blessing finds you. The posture is identical.

Saying 19

Jesus said: “Blessed is the one who came into being before he came into being.

If you become my students and listen to my words, these stones will serve you. For you have five trees in Paradise that do not stir summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever comes to know them will not taste death.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛⲉⲉⲓⲱⲛⲉ ⲛⲁⲣ̄ⲇ̄ⲓⲁⲕⲟⲛⲉⲓ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ THE STONES FROM SAYING 13, six sayings later. There, ōne were what the companions would pick up to kill Thomas for repeating one word — and fire came out of them. Here the same stones diakonei, serve, from Greek diakoneō, the verb the church builds “deacon” from. The stones go from execution to service without changing anything but who is listening.

ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲁⲣⲁ⳿ⲇⲓⲥⲟⲥ paradeisos — Greek, and originally Persian: a walled garden. The para- prefix a fifth time in this book. Note also the count: five in a house in saying 16, five trees here. The same number, once for what breaks apart and once for what does not move.

ⲉⲥⲉⲕⲓⲙ ⲁⲛ kim — to move, to stir. The trees are defined by what they do not do. Set against the sower in saying 9, where every seed that fails is acted upon by something — birds, rock, worm — these are simply unmoved, in either season.

Saying 20

The students 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 other seeds. But when it falls on worked ground it puts out a great branch, and becomes shelter for the birds of heaven.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲃⲗ̄ⲃⲓⲗⲉ ⲛ̄ϣⲗ̄ⲧⲁⲙ THIS IS THE MUSTARD SEED, and it stands at 20 in the codex. Arrangements that number it 6 have it out of order: the saying that actually stands at 6 is the one about fasting and almsgiving. The numbers on this page are the manuscript’s throughout.

ⲥⲟⲃⲕ̄ ͞ ⲡⲁⲣⲁ ⲛ̄ϭⲣⲟϭ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ para used plainly as “than” in a comparison — smaller THAN all the seeds. The sixth appearance of the prefix, and the one that shows what it is doing in all the others: para marks the thing measured against something else. Alongside, beyond, in excess of, compared to.

ⲡⲕⲁϩ ⲉⲧⲟⲩⲣ̄ ϩⲱⲃ ⲉⲣⲟϥ literally “the earth they WORK”, the ground that has been laboured. Not simply good soil. The seed is the smallest thing there is and it still requires ground somebody has already turned — which is the condition saying 9’s good earth was never given.

ⲛ̄ⲥⲕⲉⲡⲏ ⲛ̄ϩⲁⲗⲁⲧⲉ ⲛ̄ⲧⲡⲉ skepē — Greek: shelter, covering. The birds of heaven again, halate n-tpe, the same phrase as saying 3, where they beat you to a kingdom in the sky, and saying 9, where they eat the seed off the road. Third appearance, and the first time they are given something rather than taking it.

Saying 21

Mariham said to Jesus: “What are your students like?”

He said: “They are like little children who have settled on a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say: ‘Release our field to us.’ They strip themselves naked in front of them to let them have it, and hand their field back.

That is why I say: if the master of a house knows the thief is coming, he will keep watch before he arrives, and will not let him break through into the house of his domain and carry off his goods.

You then — keep watch against the world. Gird yourselves with great power, so the robbers find no road to reach you; for the advantage you are looking out for, they will find.

Let there be a man of understanding among you. When the fruit was ripe he came quickly, sickle in hand, and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲥⲉⲕⲁⲕ ⲁϩⲏⲩ ⲙ̄ⲡⲟⲩⲙ̄ⲧⲟ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲉⲧⲣⲟⲩⲕⲁⲁⲥ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛⲁⲩ kak ahēu — to strip bare. The children are squatting on ground that is not theirs, and when the joeis, the OWNERS, turn up and demand it back, there is no argument and no fight. They undress and walk off it. The claim is not contested and it is not conceded either — it is simply not engaged. Note what they hand over: the field. Note what they take: themselves.

ⲛ̄ϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ ⲛ̄ⲧⲥⲱϣⲉ joeis — lord, master, owner, all one word. The same root that renders “the Lord” elsewhere in Coptic scripture is here just the man who holds the deed. The text does not editorialise; it lets one word carry proprietor and sovereign at once, which is the whole of the observation.

ⲡⲉϥⲏⲉⲓ ⲛ̄ⲧⲉ ⲧⲉϥ⳿ⲙⲛⲧ̄ ⲉⲣⲟ mnt-ero — “his house OF HIS KINGDOM”. mnt- is the abstractive prefix (as in mnt-hēke, the poverty of saying 3) fixed to ero, king: kingship, the state of being ruled by. A householder guarding his goods is described in the vocabulary of a kingdom, and the kingdom is the thing being burgled.

ⲟⲩⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲛ̄ⲉ̄ⲡⲓⲥⲧⲏⲙⲱⲛ epistēmōn — Greek: one who knows, an expert. A third word for the wise man in this book, after rmn-hēt (sayings 8, 13) and the Greek philosophos (13). This one is defined purely by timing: he knows when the fruit is ready and moves fast. Nothing is said about what he understands.

Saying 22

Jesus saw little ones taking milk. He said to his students: “These little ones taking milk are like those who go into the kingdom.”

They said to him: “Then shall we go into the kingdom by being little?”

Jesus said to them: “When you make the two one; and when you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below; and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female 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 go into the kingdom.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛϩⲟⲩⲛ ⲛ̄ⲑ̄ⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛⲃⲟⲗ THIS ANSWERS SAYING 3. There, hoyn and bal: “the kingdom is in your INSIDE and in your OUTSIDE” — a description of where it already is. Here the same two words return as an instruction for getting in: make the inside like the outside. Nineteen sayings apart, the diagnosis and the method, in identical vocabulary.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲓⲟⲩⲁ ⲟⲩⲱⲧ oua ouōt — the single one, the exact phrase from saying 4, where the first and the last “become a single one”. And it answers saying 11’s closing question directly: there, “you were one and you made two — when you have become two, what will you do?” The reply, eleven sayings later, is make the two one.

ⲟⲩϩⲓⲕⲱⲛ⳿ ⲉⲡⲙⲁ ⲛ̄ⲟ̄ⲩϩⲓⲕⲱ[ⲛ] eikōn — Greek: image, likeness; the word the church later fights over as “icon”. The list runs eye, hand, foot, then image, so the last item is the odd one: three body parts and then the thing a body is a copy of. The replacements are not repairs. Each is the same kind of thing put where its own kind was.

Saying 23

Jesus said: “I will choose you, one out of a thousand and two out of ten thousand — and they will stand on their feet, being a single one.”

2 from the Coptic

ϯⲛⲁⲥⲉ[ⲧ]ⲡ ⲧⲏⲛⲉ setp — to choose, select. The same verb as saying 8, where the wise fisherman SOTP the one large fish out of a netful and threw the rest back, chōris hise, without trouble. The parable is the mechanism and this is the statement. Read together, being chosen one in a thousand is not flattery about rarity; it is what the sorting looks like from underneath.

ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ⲉⲩⲟ ⲟⲩⲁ ⲟⲩⲱⲧ⳿ both phrases are already in the book: ōhe eratou, standing on their feet, from the solitaries of saying 16 and the one who stands in the beginning in 18; oua ouōt, a single one, from sayings 4 and 22. One and two are picked out, and what they arrive at is singular, not a pair. The arithmetic refuses to add up on purpose.

Saying 24

His students said: “Show us the place where you are, since we are under necessity to seek it.”

He said to them: “Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light existing inside a man of light, and he gives light to the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲧⲁⲛⲁⲅⲕⲏ ⲉⲣⲟⲛ ⲧⲉ anankē — Greek: necessity, constraint, compulsion. They do not say they want to find it; they say a compulsion is on them to search. That is the third time the students have asked for a location — the kingdom in sky or sea in saying 3, the topos of life in saying 4, and now the topos where he is — and the third time the answer relocates the question into the hearer.

ⲛ̄ⲛⲟⲩⲣⲙ̄ⲟ̄ⲩⲟⲉⲓⲛ rm-ouoein — a MAN OF LIGHT, built exactly like rmn-hēt, the man of heart, from sayings 8 and 13. Coptic makes character by compounding a person with a substance. Asked where he is, he answers with what someone is made of.

ⲉϥⲧⲙ̄ⲣ͞ ⲟⲩⲟⲉⲓⲛ⳿ ⲟⲩⲕⲁⲕⲉ ⲡⲉ not “he is IN darkness” but “he IS darkness”. There is no third state and no dimming. The light either goes out to the whole kosmos or the man is the dark thing itself.

Saying 25

Jesus said: “Love your brother like your own soul. Guard him like the pupil of your eye.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉⲣⲓⲧⲏⲣⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ HERE IS THE PARA- THREAD PAYING OFF. tēreō is Greek: to guard, to keep, to watch over. In saying 6 the students asked whether to keep dietary observance and used the compound — PARA-tēreō, watching scrutinously, over and above — and the whole practice was refused. Here the bare verb is commanded. Same root, one prefix apart. Guarding a brother is asked of you; guarding a rulebook is not. The difference between the thing and its excess is a single syllable, and this book has been marking that syllable since saying 6.

ⲛ̄ⲑⲉ ⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲕ⳿ⲯⲩⲭⲏ psychē — Greek: soul, the standard loanword, and the same term that carries the whole of the Gospel of Mary on this site, where the soul argues its way past the powers. Two sayings of moral instruction in the entire collection, and this is one of them: no procedure, no measure, and nobody to certify it.

Saying 26

Jesus said: “The splinter in your brother’s eye you see — but the beam in your own eye you do not see. When you cast the beam out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother’s eye.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲃⲁⲗ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲕ⳿ⲥⲟⲛ bal and son — eye and brother, the same two nouns as saying 25 one line earlier, where you guard your brother like the pupil of your eye. Consecutive sayings built from an identical pair of words. Guard his eye; clear your own first. Neither is a rule, and both are about the same two people.

ⲉⲕϣⲁⲛⲛⲟⲩϫⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲟⲉⲓ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ nouje — to cast, to throw. The book’s verb for what gets flung: fire on the world in saying 10, peace in 16, the little fish back into the sea in 8. Here what you throw is out of your own head, and it is the precondition for being any use to anyone else.

Saying 27

“If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the sabbath a sabbath, you will not see the Father.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲣ̄ⲛ͞ ⲏⲥⲧⲉⲩⲉ ⲉⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ THE BOOK DOES IT AGAIN. nēsteuō, the fasting word, was rejected outright in saying 14 — “if you fast, you will beget sin for yourselves.” Thirteen sayings later the same verb is required. There is no contradiction: what changes is the object. Fast from the KOSMOS, not from food. This is exactly the move made with tēreō between sayings 6 and 25 — the practice is not abolished, its target is taken off the plate and put on the world.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲁⲙⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ ⲛ̄ⲥⲁⲃ⳿ⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ “make the sabbath a sabbath” — the same loanword twice, and the scribe spells it two different ways in the one clause. Keeping the day is not what is asked; the day is asked to become what it is called. A rest that is actually a rest cannot be legislated, which is why the sentence has to double the word to say anything at all.

Saying 28

Jesus said: “I stood on my feet in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty.

And my soul was pained for the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart and do not see — because they came into the world empty, and they are looking to leave the world empty too.

But for now they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their minds.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲁⲉⲓϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ ⲉⲩⲧⲁϩⲉ tahe — drunk, the same intoxication as saying 13, where the disciple “drank and got drunk from the bubbling spring” and it was the reason he no longer needed a teacher. Here everyone is drunk and it is the diagnosis. The state is identical; only the source differs, spring or wine. A third instance of the book reusing a word it has already loaded the other way.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲓϩⲉ ⲉⲗⲁⲁⲩ ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧⲟⲩ ⲉϥⲟⲃⲉ obe — thirsty. The opposite of drunk here is not sober, it is THIRSTY. Sobriety is not offered as a virtue anywhere in this book; wanting is. What is wrong with the drunk is that they are full.

ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲣ̄ⲙⲉⲧⲁⲛⲟⲉⲓ metanoeō — Greek, literally “to change the mind”, meta + noeō. Standardly rendered “repent”, which imports guilt, penance and someone to confess to. The Coptic keeps only the turn of thought. Nothing here is owed to anybody.

ⲁⲉⲓⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧ⳿ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲙⲏⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ ōhe erat — standing on his feet, the fourth appearance: the solitaries in 16, the one who stands in the beginning in 18, the chosen in 23, and now the speaker himself. Everyone in this book who amounts to anything is described in the same posture.

Saying 29

“If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a wonder. But if spirit because of the body, that is a wonder of wonders.

Yet I marvel at this: how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲧⲉⲉⲓⲛⲟϭ ⲙ̄ⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲟ … ⲧⲉⲉⲓⲙⲛ̄ⲧϩⲏⲕⲉ mnt-rmmao and mnt-hēke — two abstractions built with the same mnt- prefix, wealth and poverty. And mnt-hēke is the exact word saying 3 ends on: if you do not know yourselves, “you dwell in poverty, and you ARE that poverty.” Twenty-six sayings later the great wealth turns out to be living in it. The book does not resolve this; it just puts the same noun in both places.

ⲁⲥⲟⲩⲱϩ ouōh — to dwell, to settle, to take up residence; the ordinary word for making a home somewhere. Not “descended into” and not “was imprisoned in”, which is how a gnostic reading would want it. Something valuable moved in, and the speaker finds that astonishing rather than tragic.

ⲧⲥⲁⲣⲝ⳿ … ⲡⲥⲱⲙⲁ sarx then sōma — flesh, then body: two different Greek loanwords in consecutive clauses where a careless text would repeat one. The wonder is stated twice with the terms swapped, and the second version is called the greater. Whichever way round it runs, it is the arrangement itself that is remarkable.

Saying 30

Jesus said: “Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two, or one — I am with him.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲙⲁ ⲉⲩⲛ̄ ϣⲟⲙⲧ ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ ϩⲛ̄ⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲛⲉ the manuscript says three GODS, noute, and the first half is a flat tautology: where there are three gods, they are gods. Editors have long wanted to emend this, and it is left as written. Read as it stands, the arithmetic is the argument — a crowd is only ever itself, and the singular is where the company is. Note the count runs DOWN, three to two to one, and the presence arrives only at the bottom.

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ϯϣⲟⲟⲡ⳿ ⲛⲙ̄ⲙⲁϥ⳿ “I am with HIM” — singular, after a clause that offered two or one. The sentence had the chance to agree with the pair and takes the individual instead. Compare saying 16, where the divided household ends as solitaries, and 23, where one and two are chosen and turn out to be a single one.

Saying 31

Jesus said: “No prophet is accepted in his own village. No physician heals the people who know him.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙⲁⲣⲉ ⲥⲟⲉⲓⲛ ⲣ̄ⲑ̄ⲉⲣⲁⲡⲉⲩⲉ therapeuō — the healing verb from saying 14, where you are told to heal the sick in whatever land takes you in. Put beside this one, the instruction there reads as practical rather than pious: healing works among people who do not already know you, so go elsewhere.

ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲉϥϯⲙⲉ tīme — village, the small settled place where everyone has known you since you were a child. The pairing is not about honour but about familiarity: the prophet and the physician fail for the same reason, and neither failure is anyone’s fault.

Saying 32

Jesus said: “A city built on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall — nor can it be hidden.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲡⲟⲗⲓⲥ polis — Greek: the city as a political body, the unit a citizen belongs to, not just a settlement. The one loanword in an otherwise plain Coptic sentence, and it is the word carrying the whole image.

ⲟⲩⲇⲉ ⲥⲛⲁϣϩⲱⲡ⳿ ⲁⲛ hōp — to hide, the root of ethēp, the “HIDDEN sayings” of the incipit and the thing that gets uncovered in saying 5. Strength and visibility are given as the same fact here: what cannot fall cannot be concealed either. Whatever is being built is not a secret society.

Saying 33

Jesus said: “What you will hear in your ear, proclaim it in the other ear from your rooftops.

For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does he put it in a hidden place; he sets it on the lampstand, so that everyone going in and coming out will see its light.”

3 from the Coptic

ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲕⲉⲙⲁⲁϫⲉ literally “in the OTHER ear” — an odd phrase that translations regularly smooth into “from your rooftops” alone, or repair to “proclaim from the rooftops what you hear whispered.” The codex has two ears and a transfer between them. It is left as written.

ⲟⲩⲇⲉ ⲙⲁϥ ⲕⲁⲁϥ ϩⲙ̄ ⲙⲁ ⲉϥϩⲏⲡ⳿ ma ef-hēp — “a hidden place”, hēp again, one saying after the city that cannot be hidden. Three sayings running now turn on concealment, and every one of them says it does not hold. A book that opens by calling itself hidden spends its middle insisting nothing stays that way.

ⲧⲗⲩⲭⲛⲓⲁ lychnia — Greek: lampstand. Note where the light is put: not raised up, just placed where traffic passes. Its purpose is defined by people going in and coming out, and by nothing else.

Saying 34

Jesus said: “If a blind man draws a blind man along, they both fall down into a pit.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉϥϣⲁⲛ⳿ⲥⲱⲕ⳿ ϩⲏⲧϥ⳿ THIS IS SAYING 3’s VERB. sōk hēt — to draw, to tow along in front of. Saying 3 opens with “those who SŌK HĒT you”, the people who tell you the kingdom is in the sky, and the phrase is rendered “those who lead you” almost everywhere, which turns them into guides. Thirty-one sayings later the identical construction has a blind man doing it and a pit at the end of it. The book supplies its own gloss.

ϣⲁⲩϩⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲥⲛⲁⲩ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ⳿ “they BOTH fall” — pesnau, the two of them. The follower is not the only casualty and the leader is not exempt. Nobody in the arrangement can see, which is why it is a description of a mechanism rather than an accusation against anyone.

Saying 35

Jesus said: “No one can go into the strong man’s house and take it by force unless he binds his hands. Then he will turn his house upside down.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛϥ̄ ⲙⲟⲩⲣ ⲛ̄ⲛⲉϥϭⲓϫ⳿ mour — to bind, to gird. The same verb as saying 21: “MOUR yourselves with great power, so the robbers find no road to reach you.” There it is what you do to yourself to keep a house; here it is what must be done to the owner before a house can be taken. Two sayings on the same subject from opposite ends, fourteen apart, sharing one verb.

ⲙ̄ⲡϫⲱⲱⲣⲉ jōōre — the strong one, the mighty man. His strength is not what protects him and it is not what is attacked; his HANDS are. Power here is entirely a matter of what a person can still do with them.

Saying 36

Jesus said: “Do not be anxious from morning to evening, or from evening to morning, about what you will wear.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙⲛ̄ϥⲓ ⲣⲟⲟⲩϣ fi roouš — literally “carry care”, to bear worry as a load. Worry is a thing picked up and hauled about, which is why the instruction can be to put it down.

ϫⲓ̄ ϩⲧⲟⲟⲩⲉ ϣⲁ ⲣⲟⲩϩⲉ ⲁⲩⲱ ϫⲓⲛ ϩⲓⲣⲟⲩϩⲉ ϣⲁ ϩⲧⲟⲟⲩⲉ this is the WHOLE saying in the codex — morning to evening, evening to morning, about clothing. No lilies, no Solomon, no birds, no “your Father knows what you need.” The familiar version runs to several verses; Thomas gives one sentence and closes the circle of the day twice to make the point that the anxiety never stops on its own.

Saying 37

His students said: “On what day will you appear to us? And on what day will we see you?”

Jesus said: “When you strip yourselves naked without being ashamed, and take your garments and lay them under your feet like little children, and trample on them — then you will see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϣⲁⲕⲉⲕ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ ⲉϩⲏⲩ kak ehēu — to strip bare, THE VERB FROM SAYING 21. There the little children strip naked in front of the owners and hand back the field they were squatting on. Here stripping naked is the answer to “when will we see you”, and the children turn up again in the same sentence. What was a parable about giving up property becomes the instruction, unchanged.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛϣ̄ ⲓⲡⲉ šipe — shame. The condition is not the nakedness but doing it WITHOUT shame. Saying 21’s children were not described as ashamed either; they simply undressed and left. Shame is the thing being asked for, and the clothes are only where it is kept.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϫⲟⲡϫⲡ⳿̄ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲟⲩ jopjp — to trample, to tread down. Not merely removed and set aside: put under the feet and walked on. And note where the feet already are in this book — standing, ōhe erat, in sayings 16, 18, 23 and 28. This is what they are standing on.

ⲉⲡϣⲏⲣⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲛϩ petonh — the LIVING one, the incipit’s word: “the sayings that the living Jesus spoke.” The question was “on what day will we see you”, and the answer names a condition rather than a date. Nothing in this book ever arrives on a day.

Saying 38

Jesus said: “Many times you have longed to hear these words that I am saying to you, and you have no one else to hear them from. There will be days when you will look for me and you will not find me.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲧⲛϣ̄ ⲓⲛⲉ ⲛ̄ⲥ̄ⲱⲉⲓ ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϩⲉ ⲁⲛ⳿ ⲉⲣⲟⲉⲓ⳿ šine — to seek, THE VERB OF SAYING 2: “let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds.” Here the same verb is given a limit — you will seek and you will NOT find. The book’s opening promise is not withdrawn, but it was never a promise about finding a person.

ⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛⲣ̄ ͞ⲉⲡⲓⲑⲩⲙⲉⲓ epithymeō — Greek: to desire, to long for; the verb behind “lust” in most New Testament English. Used here without any negative charge at all, for wanting to hear something. Compare saying 28, where the fault of the drunk was that they were not THIRSTY. Wanting is consistently the healthy condition in this book.

ⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲏⲧⲛ̄ ⲕⲉⲟⲩⲁ ⲉⲥⲟⲧⲙⲟⲩ ⲛ̄ⲧⲟⲟⲧϥ̄ “you have no OTHER ONE to hear them from” — keoua, another person, not another source. The claim is about scarcity of the speaker, which is why the next clause is about him becoming unavailable. Set beside saying 13, where he refuses to be anyone’s teacher.

Saying 39

Jesus said: “The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them. They did not go in themselves, and those who wanted to go in they did not allow.

But you — be shrewd as serpents and unmixed as doves.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ϣⲁϣⲧ⳿ ⲛ̄ⲧⲅⲛⲱⲥⲓⲥ ⲁⲩϩⲟⲡⲟⲩ THE KEYS OF GNŌSIS, AND THEY HID THEM — hōp, the same hiding word as the city that cannot be hidden in saying 32 and the lamp not put in a hidden place in 33. Two sayings insist concealment does not hold; this one names who attempts it anyway. Note the charge is not that they teach error. It is that they hold the keys, do not use them, and stand in the doorway. Compare Luke 11:52 in the Codex here, where the lawyers are told they took away the key of knowledge — the same accusation, with a profession named instead of a sect.

ⲙ̄ⲫ̄ⲁⲣⲓⲥⲁⲓⲟⲥ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲛ̄ⲅ̄ⲣⲁⲙⲙⲁⲧⲉⲩⲥ grammateus — Greek: the scribe, the man whose standing rests on being able to read what others cannot. Both titles arrive as loanwords, which is what they are: imported offices. The keys are Coptic; the officeholders are not.

ⲛ̄ⲁⲕⲉⲣⲁⲓ̈ⲟⲥ akeraios — Greek: literally UNMIXED, unadulterated, with nothing blended in. Usually rendered “innocent”, which suggests ignorance. It means undiluted. Paired with phronimos, shrewd, the instruction is not to be harmless — it is to be sharp and unalloyed at once.

Saying 40

Jesus said: “A grapevine has been planted outside the Father. And since it is not sound, it will be pulled up by its root and destroyed.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲥⲧⲁϫⲣⲏⲩ ⲁⲛ tajrēu — firm, established, fortified. THE EXACT WORD OF SAYING 32, where the city on the mountain IS tajrēu and therefore cannot fall. Eight sayings apart the term returns negated, and what is not firm gets uprooted. The two sayings are one proposition stated from both ends.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛⲃⲟⲗ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲓⲱⲧ⳿ p-sa nbol — the OUTSIDE, the same term as saying 3 (“the kingdom is in your inside and your outside”) and saying 22 (“make the outside like the inside”). A thing planted purely on the outside, with no inside answering to it, is the one arrangement this book says will not survive.

ϩⲁ ⲧⲉⲥⲛⲟⲩⲛⲉ noune — root, the word from saying 9, where the seed on the rock “sent no root down into the earth and no ear up toward heaven”. There the failure was never rooting; here it is being rooted in the wrong place. Both failures are about where, not about how much.

Saying 41

Jesus said: “Whoever has something in his hand will be given more. And whoever has nothing — even the little he has will be taken away from him.”

2 from the Coptic

ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲉϥ⳿ϭⲓϫ “in his HAND” — cij, specified, where the familiar version of this line says only “whoever has”. Thomas puts it in the hand: not what you are owed, not what you are promised, what you are currently holding. And note the hand is the faculty saying 17 said had never touched what is being given.

ⲡⲕⲉϣⲏⲙ ⲉⲧⲟⲩⲛ̄ⲧⲁϥ⳿ the sentence contradicts itself on purpose: whoever has NOTHING will have THE LITTLE HE HAS taken. Having nothing and having a little are set down as the same condition. That is the position saying 3 ends in — dwelling in poverty and being that poverty — described from the outside.

Saying 42

Jesus said: “Come into being as you pass away.”

2 from the Coptic

ϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲣ͞ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲅⲉ THE SHORTEST SAYING IN THE BOOK — three words. And paragō is the verb of saying 11: “this heaven will pass away, and the one above it will PARA-pass.” The word used there for the dissolution of the heavens is here made an instruction addressed to you. The seventh appearance of the para- prefix, and the one that carries the most.

ϣⲱⲡⲉ šōpe — to become, to come into being; the same verb as “blessed is the one who CAME INTO BEING before he came into being” in saying 19. The line is genuinely open: it can be read “become passers-by”, travellers who do not settle, or “come into being in the act of passing away”. Coptic supports both and the codex chooses neither. Rendered here to keep the second without shutting out the first.

Saying 43

His students said to him: “Who are you, that you say these things to us?”

“From what I say to you, you still do not know who I am. But you have become like the Judeans — they love the tree and hate its fruit, and they love the fruit and hate the tree.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲥⲉⲙⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡϣⲏⲛ ⲥⲉⲙⲟⲥⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϥⲕⲁⲣⲡⲟⲥ moste — to hate, THE WORD FROM SAYING 6: “do not do what you hate.” There it was the whole of the ethic, a thing only you can know about yourself. Here it is the diagnosis of an incoherence — wanting the source without what comes off it, then wanting the yield without what produced it. Both halves are stated, so neither direction is the safe one.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓⲙⲉ ⲁⲛ ϫⲉⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ⲛⲓⲙ they ask who he is and are told they cannot get it from what he says — the third refusal of the question. Saying 13 refused their comparisons and rejected the title of teacher; saying 24 refused to name a place; here the words themselves are declared insufficient. The book will not let its speaker be identified, only heard.

ⲙ̄ⲡϣⲏⲛ … ⲡⲕⲁⲣⲡⲟⲥ šēn and karpos — tree and fruit. The five trees of Paradise stand in saying 19 and give nothing; the good earth of saying 9 gives karpos and is not a tree. Here the two are bound together and the fault is in separating them at all.

Saying 44

Jesus said: “Whoever speaks against the Father will be released from it, and whoever speaks against the Son will be released from it. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be released from it — not on earth and not in heaven.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲕⲱ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛⲁϥ⳿ kō ebol — literally “to leave out, to let go, to release”. This is the ordinary Coptic for forgiveness, and what it actually says is that the thing is dropped. No penalty is remitted by anyone and no transaction takes place; the matter is simply put down. Rendered as release rather than pardon because Coptic has no debtor in the sentence.

ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲕⲁϩ ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲡⲉ earth and heaven, kah and tpe — the pair that runs through the whole book: root down and ear up in saying 9, above like below in 22, fruit given up toward heaven in 9 again. Here they mark the total extent of where a thing can be let go, and one thing is outside it.

Saying 45

Jesus said: “Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles — they give no fruit.

A good man brings good out of his storehouse. A bad man brings evil things out of the bad storehouse in his heart, and he speaks evil things: for out of the overflow of the heart he brings out evil things.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩ[ⲙ]̄ ⲡⲉϥⲉϩⲟ eho — a storehouse, a granary, a treasury: the place stock is kept. And the two halves are NOT symmetrical. The good man simply has “his storehouse”, unplaced. The bad man’s is specified — a bad storehouse, and it is IN HIS HEART. Evil is given an address and goodness is not.

ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲅⲁⲣ ϩⲙ̄ ⲫⲟⲩⲟ ⲙ̄ⲫ̄ⲏⲧ⳿ p-houo m-p-hēt — the OVERFLOW of the heart, what spills once the container is past full. Compare saying 28, where the fault of the drunk was being full rather than thirsty. What comes out of a person is here a matter of capacity, not intention.

ϩⲛ̄ ϣⲟⲛⲧⲉ šonte — thorns, the third of the four fates in the sower of saying 9, where they choked the seed. There they destroy a crop; here they are simply the wrong source to go asking. Both sayings are about looking in the right place rather than trying harder.

Saying 46

Jesus said: “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women there is none higher than John the Baptist, so that his eyes should not be broken.

But I have said: whoever among you becomes little will know the kingdom, and will be higher than John.”

3 from the Coptic

ϩⲛ̄ ⲛ̄ϫ̄ⲡⲟ ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ϩ̄ⲓⲟⲙⲉ THE PHRASE FROM SAYING 15, inverted. There: “when you see the one who was NOT begotten of woman, throw yourselves down.” Here: among those who WERE begotten of women, John is the highest there is. The book sets its ceiling and its exception in the same words, thirty-one sayings apart, and then puts a small child above the ceiling anyway.

ⲉϥⲟ ⲛ̄ⲕⲟⲩⲉⲓ kouei — little, small. The children keep arriving: the seven-day-old asked about life in saying 4, the infants at the breast in 22, the little ones squatting on the field in 21, the children whose trampled clothes are the condition of seeing in 37. Becoming little is never once described as becoming innocent. It is a matter of size, and of having no standing to lose.

ϫⲉⲛⲟⲩⲱϭⲡ⳿ ⲛ̄ϭⲓ ⲛⲉϥⲃⲁⲗ ouōcp — to break, to shatter; nef-bal, his eyes. An obscure clause that translations handle very differently, and it is left close to the Coptic here rather than smoothed into “so that his eyes should not be averted” or dropped. The eye is the organ this book keeps returning to — the pupil guarded in 25, the beam in 26, the blind drawing the blind in 34.

Saying 47

Jesus said: “A man cannot mount two horses or draw two bows. And a servant cannot serve two masters — he will honour the one and outrage the other.

No one drinks old wine and immediately wants to drink new wine. New wine is not poured into old skins, or they burst; and old wine is not poured into a new skin, or it spoils it. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear would come of it.”

4 from the Coptic

ϣⲙ̄ϣⲉ ϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ ⲥⲛⲁⲩ joeis — master, lord, owner, all one word, and THE SAME WORD as the owners of the field in saying 21 who demand their land back. The impossibility here is arithmetical rather than moral: not that serving two masters is wrong, but that it cannot be done. Note the list it sits in — two horses, two bows, two masters. Being owned is filed with mounting and shooting, as a question of what a body can physically do.

ϥⲛⲁⲣ̄ϩ̄ⲩⲃⲣⲓⲍⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ⳿ hybrizō — Greek: to outrage, to insult, to treat with violence; the verb of HUBRIS. Standardly softened to “despise”. It is much stronger than that: the second master is not merely thought less of, he is affronted. Serving two owners does not divide your loyalty evenly, it manufactures an injury.

ⲛ̄ϥ⳿ⲉⲡⲓⲑⲩⲙⲉⲓ ⲁⲥⲱ ⲏⲣⲡ⳿ ⲃ̄ⲃ̄ⲣⲣⲉ epithymeō again, the longing of saying 38 — and here nobody who has drunk the old wine wants the new. The saying is usually read as a defence of the old, but placed after 46 it cuts the other way: the man who has had the old is precisely the one who cannot want what is new, and that is stated as a limitation of his, not a virtue.

ⲧⲉⲗⲟ ⲁϩⲧⲟ ⲥⲛⲁⲩ ⲛ̄ϥϫⲱⲗⲕ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲓⲧⲉ ⲥⲛ̄ⲧⲉ two horses and two bows are in Thomas and in no canonical version of the two-masters saying, which begins at the servant. Another place where this text carries material the synoptics do not have rather than trimming material they do.

Saying 48

Jesus said: “If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain ‘move away’ — and it will move.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲣϣⲁⲥⲛⲁⲩ ⲣ̄ ⲉⲓⲣⲏⲛⲏ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲛⲟⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲉⲓⲏⲉⲓ ⲟⲩⲱⲧ⳿

A FOURTH REJECT-AND-REPURPOSE, and the clearest. eirēnē, peace, was thrown out in saying 16: “perhaps people think I came to cast PEACE upon the KOSMOS — they do not know I came to cast division… five in a house, three against two.” Here peace returns, and every term of saying 16 is still in place — the same Greek word, the same house, the same count of two. Only the scale has changed. Peace between two people in one house moves mountains; peace declared over the world was the thing worth denying. The book does this with tēreō, with fasting, with drunkenness, and now with peace.

ϥⲛⲁⲡⲱⲱⲛⲉ pōōne — to move, to shift, to overturn. The verb of saying 35, where the strong man’s house gets turned upside down once his hands are bound. Robbery and mountain-moving are the same word; what differs is that here nobody is tied up first.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲧⲁⲩ tau — mountain, the same feature saying 32 builds its unfallable city on. What could not be shaken there is told to move here, and it goes. Two people agreeing outrank the fortification.

Saying 49

Jesus said: “Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, for you will find the kingdom. Because you came out of it, you will go there again.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲙⲟⲛⲁⲭⲟⲥ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲉⲧⲥⲟⲧⲡ⳿ BOTH THREADS TIED IN ONE LINE. monachos is saying 16’s word, where the household divides and what is left standing are solitaries. sōtp is saying 8’s and 23’s, where the fisherman CHOSE the one large fish without trouble and one is chosen out of a thousand. Forty sayings of separate development, and here the solitary and the chosen turn out to be the same person, blessed in a single breath.

ϫⲉⲛ̄ⲧⲱⲧⲛ̄ ϩⲛ̄ⲉ̄ⲃⲟⲗ ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧⲥ̄ ⲡⲁⲗⲓⲛ ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁⲃⲱⲕ⳿ ⲉⲙⲁⲩ

palin — Greek: again, back. The kingdom is not a destination and not a reward; it is where you are FROM. That makes the whole book a matter of return rather than attainment, and it is why saying 18 sends the question about the end back to the beginning.

Saying 50

Jesus said: “If they say to you ‘Where have you come from?’ — say to them: We came from the light, the place where the light came into being of its own accord. It stood on its feet, and it appeared in their image.

If they say to you ‘Is it you?’ — say: We are its children, 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 a movement, and a rest.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲉⲩϣⲁⲛϫⲟⲟⲥ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ … ϫⲟⲟⲥ ⲛⲁⲩ THIS IS A SET OF ANSWERS FOR AN INTERROGATION — three challenges, three replies, given in advance. And “THEY” is never identified. Compare the Gospel of Mary on this site, where the soul ascends and is stopped by each power in turn and has a prepared answer for every one. Two texts, two languages of transmission, the same structure: what to say when something with authority demands to know who you are and where you are from.

ⲟⲩⲕⲓⲙ ⲡⲉ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲟⲩⲁⲛⲁⲡⲁⲩⲥⲓⲥ kim, movement, and anapausis, Greek for rest or repose — offered together as ONE sign, not two. And kim is exactly the verb of saying 19: the five trees in Paradise that do not STIR, summer or winter. The rest half of the sign has already been shown; this is where the other half arrives. The answer to what marks you is not a doctrine and not a rite. It is a pair of opposites held at once.

ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲓⲧⲟⲟⲧϥ⳿ ⲟⲩⲁⲁⲧϥ⳿ ⲁϥⲱ[ϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧϥ] the light came into being OF ITSELF, ouaatf, by its own hand — and then ōhe eratf, stood on its feet. The fifth appearance of that posture, after the solitaries in 16, the one in the beginning in 18, the chosen in 23 and the speaker in 28. The light does what everyone worth anything in this book does.

ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲟⲩϩⲓⲕⲱⲛ eikōn — image, the word from saying 22, where entering the kingdom requires putting “an image in place of an image”. Here the light appears in THEIR image, the interrogators’ own. Whatever confronts you is wearing a face it got from you.

Saying 51

His students said to him: “On what day will the rest of the dead come about? And on what day does the new world come?”

He said to them: “That which you are watching for has already come — but you do not know it.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲧⲏ ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϭ̄ⲱϣⲧ⳿ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲏⲧⲥ̄ ⲁⲥⲉⲓ cōšt ebol hēts — to watch out for, to look for expectantly; the same phrase as saying 21, “the advantage you are looking out for, they will find.” Here what is being watched for has arrived already, unnoticed. Set beside saying 5: know what is IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

ⲁϣ ⲛ̄ϩ̄ⲟⲟⲩ THE THIRD REFUSAL OF A WHEN OR WHERE. Saying 3 denied the kingdom a location; saying 18 sent the question about the end back to the beginning; saying 24 was asked to show the place where he is and answered with what a person is made of. Every request for a date or an address in this book is returned unopened.

ⲉⲧⲁⲛⲁⲡⲁⲩⲥⲓⲥ ⲛ̄ⲛⲉⲧⲙⲟⲟⲩⲧ⳿ anapausis, the rest of saying 50, asked about one saying later — they have just been handed it as half the sign of the Father in them, and they immediately ask what day it is due. The placement is the argument: the answer is put in their hands and they ask when it is due.

Saying 52

His students said to him: “Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you.”

He said to them: “You have left out the living one who is in front of you, and you have spoken about the dead.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲙ̄ⲧⲟ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ THE PHRASE FROM SAYING 5: “know what is IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE, and what is hidden from you will be uncovered.” Forty-seven sayings later they are doing precisely what that warned against — looking past the thing in front of them at twenty-four authorities behind them. The rebuke is not that the prophets were wrong. It is that they are being cited instead of noticed.

ⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛⲕ̄ ⲱ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲛϩ petonh — the LIVING one, the incipit’s own word for the speaker of this book. kō is to leave, to set aside, the same verb that means release in saying 44. They have let go of the living and taken up the dead, and the whole exchange is about which of those a tradition consists of.

ϫⲟⲩⲧⲁϥⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲏⲥ twenty-four — the count of books in the Hebrew canon as it was reckoned. The students are not citing individuals; they are citing a LIBRARY, and offering it as a compliment. That is what gets refused.

Saying 53

His students said to him: “Is circumcision useful, or not?”

He said to them: “If it were useful, their father would beget them from their mother already circumcised. But the true circumcision in spirit has found the whole profit.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲡⲥⲃ̄ⲃⲉ ⲣ̄ⲱⲫⲉⲗⲉⲓ ⲏ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲛ ōpheleō — Greek: to be useful, to profit. Note the question they actually ask. Not whether it is commanded, or holy, or required — whether it WORKS. And the answer accepts that as the right test and then applies it: if the thing were useful you would arrive with it. An argument from how people are born, used against a rite, with no appeal to any authority on either side.

ⲛⲉⲡⲟⲩⲉⲓⲱⲧ⳿ ⲛⲁϫⲡⲟⲟⲩ jpo — to beget, the book’s recurring verb: fasting BEGETS sin in saying 14, the Father was never begotten of woman in 15, John is the highest of those begotten of women in 46. Here it settles the question by itself. Whatever has to be added after birth was not necessary to being born.

ⲁϥϭⲛ̄ ϩⲏⲩ ⲧⲏⲣϥ⳿ hēu — profit, gain, the Coptic answer to the Greek ōpheleō in the question. The reply does not abandon the language of usefulness; it keeps the ledger and moves the entry. Same structure as fasting in saying 27 and peace in 48 — the term stands, the object changes.

Saying 54

Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor — for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲕⲉ THIS SAYING STANDS AT 54 in the codex, though it is commonly met as 7. hēke, poor, is the same root as mnt-hēke, the poverty of saying 3 (“you dwell in poverty, and you ARE that poverty”) and of saying 29 (“this great wealth has made its home in this poverty”). Three appearances and they do not agree in tone: poverty as the condition of not knowing yourself, as the lodging of something valuable, and here as a blessing. The book leaves the disagreement standing.

ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲣⲟ ⲛ̄ⲙ̄ⲡⲏⲩⲉ mnt-ero — kingship, built with the same mnt- prefix as mnt-hēke in the first half of the line. Poverty-ness and kingship-ness, two abstractions of the same shape, set against each other in eleven words. The wordplay is only visible in Coptic.

Saying 55

Jesus said: “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother will not be able to become a student to me. And whoever does not hate his brothers and his sisters, and take up his cross as I do, will not become worthy of me.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ϥⲙⲉⲥⲧⲉ ⲛⲉϥ⳿ⲥⲛⲏⲩ⳿ THIS CONTRADICTS SAYING 25 AND IT IS LEFT CONTRADICTING IT. There: “love your BROTHER like your own soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye.” Here: hate your BROTHERS — snēu, the plural of the same word son. Thirty sayings apart, the same noun, opposite instructions. No harmonising is attempted on this page. The likeliest reading is that 25 means the one beside you and 55 means the household you were born into, but the codex does not say so, and a version that smooths this over is hiding something a reader is entitled to see.

ⲙⲉⲥⲧⲉ moste — to hate, the word from saying 6 (“do not do what you hate”) and saying 43 (they love the tree and hate its fruit). In 6 hatred is the private compass you steer by; in 43 it is an incoherence; here it is required. As with fasting and peace, the term is kept and its object moved.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϥⲥⳁⲟⲥ stauros — cross, and in the manuscript it is written with the STAUROGRAM, the ⳁ ligature, rather than spelled out. One of very few places this book mentions the cross at all: there is no passion narrative here, no trial, no crucifixion. It appears only as something a follower carries.

Saying 56

Jesus said: “Whoever has come to know the world has found a corpse. And whoever has found the corpse — of that one the world is not worthy.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁϥ⳿ϩⲉ ⲉⲩⲡⲧⲱⲙⲁ A PUN THAT ONLY WORKS IN THIS LANGUAGE PAIR. Coptic he means both TO FIND and TO FALL. ptōma is Greek for a corpse, and it is built from piptō, to fall — literally “a fallen thing”. So the clause reads at once “he found a corpse” and “he fell upon a fallen thing”. The man who investigates the kosmos and the thing he investigates go down together.

ⲙ̄ⲡϣⲁ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ ⲁⲛ mpša — worthy, the Coptic word, one saying after axios, the Greek word for worthy, in 55. Two languages for the same idea in consecutive sayings, and the direction reverses: there you must become worthy of him; here the world fails to be worthy of you.

ⲡⲉⲧⲁϩⲥⲟⲩⲱⲛ ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ souōn — to know, the verb of saying 3’s “when you come to know YOURSELVES”. Knowing yourself makes you a child of the living Father; knowing the kosmos gets you a body. The book keeps one verb and lets the object decide the outcome.

Saying 57

Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a man who had good seed. His enemy came by night and sowed a weed among the good seed.

The man did not let them pull up the weed. He said to them: ‘In case you go to pull up the weed and pull up the wheat along with it. For on the day of the harvest the weeds will show themselves — and they will be pulled and burned.’”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲍⲓⲍⲁⲛⲓⲟⲛ ⲛⲁⲟⲩⲱⲛϩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ⳿ ouōnh ebol — TO BE MADE MANIFEST, the exact phrase of sayings 5 and 6: “there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest.” The sorting in this parable is not performed by anybody. Nobody inspects, nobody judges, nobody is authorised to pull anything early — the weeds identify themselves by what they turn out to be at harvest. The book’s whole epistemology, applied to the one situation where an authority would normally be needed. Note what the owner actually forbids: enforcement.

ⲙ̄ⲡⲉ ⲡⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲕⲟⲟⲩ ⲉϩⲱⲗⲉ “the man did NOT LET THEM” pull it up — the refusal is his, against his own workers, and the reason given is purely practical: you cannot tell the two apart yet, so you will take the wheat with it. Not mercy toward the weed. An admission that early sorting is beyond anyone’s competence.

ⲁⲡⲉϥϫⲁϫⲉ ⲉⲓ ⲛ̄ⲧⲟⲩϣⲏ⳿ jaje — enemy. He is named once and never appears again: no motive, no punishment, no confrontation. The parable is not interested in him. The entire weight falls on what the owner does next, which is nothing.

Saying 58

Jesus said: “Blessed is the man who has toiled — he has found life.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲧⲁϩϩⲓⲥⲉ hise — toil, hardship, the labour that costs you. THE WORD FROM SAYING 8, where the wise fisherman chose the one great fish chōris hise, WITHOUT toil. Fifty sayings apart, and the blessing here goes to the man who did the toiling. Recognition is effortless; getting to where you can recognise anything is not.

ⲁϥϩⲉ ⲁⲡⲱⲛϩ he — to find, and equally TO FALL, the pun exploited two sayings earlier: “whoever has come to know the world has FOUND a corpse”, he found and he fell at once. Here the same verb takes the opposite object. Fall on the kosmos and you get a body; fall on life and you get life. One verb, two sayings apart, and the whole difference is what you land on.

Saying 59

Jesus said: “Look at the living one while you are alive — so that you do not die and then seek to see him, and be unable to see.”

2 from the Coptic

ϭⲱϣⲧ ⲛ̄ⲥ̄ⲁ ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲛϩ THIS IS SAYING 52’s REBUKE TURNED INTO ADVICE. There: “you have left out THE LIVING ONE who is in front of you, and you have spoken about the dead.” Here, seven sayings later: look at the living one while you are still living. petonh is the incipit’s word for the speaker of this book, and cōšt is the watching verb of saying 51, where what you were watching for had already arrived unnoticed.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ϣⲓⲛⲉ ⲉⲛⲁⲩ ⲉⲣⲟϥ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϣϭⲙ̄ ϭⲟⲙ ⲁⲛ šine — to seek, the verb of saying 2 (“let the one who seeks not stop seeking”) and of saying 38 (“you will seek me and you will not find me”). Here the failure gets its cause: not that he becomes unavailable, but that you do. The window closes from your side.

Saying 60

A Samaritan, carrying a lamb, going into Judea.

He said to his students: “That man is circling the lamb.” They said to him: “So that he can kill it and eat it.” He said to them: “While it is alive he will not eat it — only if he kills it and it becomes a corpse.” They said: “Otherwise he cannot do it.”

He said to them: “You yourselves — look for a place for yourselves within rest, so that you do not become a corpse and get eaten.”

3 from the Coptic

ϣⲓⲛⲉ ⲛ̄ⲥⲁ ⲟⲩⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ ⲉϩⲟⲩⲛ ⲉⲩⲁⲛⲁⲡⲁⲩⲥⲓⲥ A TOPOS IS FINALLY GRANTED — and it is not a location. Twice the students have asked for a place and been refused: saying 3 denies the kingdom sky or sea, saying 24 asks to be shown “the place where you are” and gets an answer about what a person is made of. Here they are told to seek a topos, but the place is INSIDE anapausis, the rest that saying 50 called half the sign of the Father in you. Same word, object moved off the map and into a condition — the sixth time this book keeps a term and changes what it points at.

ⲛ̄ϥϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲛ̄ⲟ̄ⲩⲡⲧⲱⲙⲁ ptōma — corpse, the word from saying 56, where knowing the world means finding one. The logic is saying 7’s lion exactly: eating and being eaten are the same transaction seen from either end, and the only thing that decides which end you are on is whether you are still alive when it happens.

ⲡⲏ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲱⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϩⲓⲉⲓⲃ⳿ kōte — around, about, circling. The opening is a scene rather than a saying: a man walking, and a question about what he is doing near an animal. The students answer correctly every time and still have to be told what it is about them. Note that nobody in the exchange thinks the Samaritan is doing anything wrong.

Saying 61

Jesus said: “Two will rest on a couch. The one will die; the one will live.”

Salome said: “Who are you, man? As though from someone, you have got up on my couch and eaten from my table.”

Jesus said to her: “I am the one who exists from the undivided. I was given some of the things of my Father.”

“I am your student.”

“Therefore I say: when one becomes undivided, he will be filled with light. But when he becomes divided, he will be filled with darkness.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲉϥϣⲏϥ⳿ … ⲉϥⲡⲏϣ šēf and pēš — undivided and divided, a pair that differs by a single letter in Coptic. One fills you with light and one fills you with darkness, and only the initial consonant separates them on the page. The same opposition runs the book from saying 11 (“you were one and you made two”) through 22 (“make the two one”) to 49, and here it is compressed into two words that almost look like each other.

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ⲧⲉⲕ⳿ ⲙⲁⲑⲏⲧⲏⲥ THE MANUSCRIPT GIVES NO SPEAKER FOR THIS LINE. “I am your student” sits between two of his sentences with no pejaf or pejas to say who says it. It is taken as Salome’s here, which is the usual reading and the one the exchange makes sense with — she challenges him, he answers, she declares herself. But a reader should know the Coptic does not mark it, and that read straight on it would be Jesus calling himself HER student. Nothing on the page rules that out.

ϥⲛⲁⲙⲟⲩϩ ⲟⲩⲟⲉⲓⲛ mouh — to fill. Compare saying 24: “there is light existing inside a man of light… if he does not shine, he IS darkness.” There the two states are shining and being dark; here they are two ways of being FULL. And in saying 28 being full was itself the fault, against thirstiness. This book will not let fullness settle as either good or bad.

ⲁⲕⲧⲉⲗⲟ ⲉϫⲙ̄ ⲡⲁϭⲗⲟϭ telo — to mount, to get up onto; the verb of saying 47, “a man cannot MOUNT two horses.” Salome’s complaint is about a man who has climbed onto her furniture and eaten at her table as if entitled to. She is the second woman named in this book, after Mariham in saying 21, and both of them get a straight answer.

Saying 62

Jesus said: “I tell my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries.

What your right hand is doing — do not let your left hand know what it is doing.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲛⲁⲙⲩⲥⲧⲏⲣⲓⲟⲛ ⲛ̄ⲛ[ⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲡϣⲁ] THIS SITS AWKWARDLY AGAINST SAYING 39 AND IT IS WORTH SAYING SO. There, the Pharisees and scribes are condemned for taking the keys of gnōsis and HIDING them. Here he keeps his mystēria for the worthy. The difference the text supports is who does the selecting: in 39 the officeholders block a doorway, while mpša, worthy, is the word saying 56 uses for a man the WORLD is not worthy of — a standing you arrive at rather than one anybody confers. But that is a reading, not something the codex spells out, and the tension is real.

ⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲉⲧⲉⲕϩⲃⲟⲩⲣ⳿ ⲉⲓⲙⲉ the second half is usually filed under almsgiving — give in secret. But saying 14 threw almsgiving out entirely, so it cannot be that here. Read against the first half it is the same instruction twice: what is done does not require an audience, not even the rest of yourself. Compare saying 47, where a man cannot serve two masters. A hand that needs the other hand watching is already divided, which is exactly what saying 61 has just called being filled with darkness.

Saying 63

Jesus said: “There was a rich man who had a great deal of money. He said: ‘I will put my money to use, so that I may sow and reap and plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, so that I lack nothing.’

That is what he was thinking in his heart. And that night he died.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.”

3 from the Coptic

ϣⲓⲛⲁ ϫⲉⲛⲓⲣ̄ ϭⲣⲱϩ ⲗ̄ⲗⲁⲁⲩ crōh — to lack, to be in want. The whole plan has ONE stated purpose: to reach a condition of needing nothing. And saying 28 has already named that as the disease — “I found them all drunk, I found NONE OF THEM THIRSTY.” The rich man is not condemned for greed, which is never mentioned. He is building himself a state of no wanting, and this book treats wanting as the sign of life.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲙⲟⲩϩ ⲛ̄ⲛⲁⲉϩⲱⲣ mouh — to FILL, the verb from saying 61 one line earlier, where a man is filled with light or with darkness. There the filling is what you become; here it is what you stack in a barn. And ehōr, storehouse, is the eho of saying 45, out of which a good man brings good and a bad man brings evil. He is filling the container that saying 45 says will one day be emptied by what is in it.

ⲛⲉϥⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲉϥϩⲏⲧ⳿ “these were the things he was THINKING IN HIS HEART” — hēt, the heart, seat of wisdom in this book (rmn-hēt, the man of heart, sayings 8 and 13) and of the overflow that comes out of a person in saying 45. The parable gives him no speech and no audience. The entire action happens inside the one organ the book cares about, and then he dies.

Saying 64

Jesus said: “A man had strangers staying with him. When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite them.

He went to the first and said: ‘My master invites you.’ He said: ‘I have money owed me by some merchants. They are coming to me this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I ask to be excused from the dinner.’

He went to another and said: ‘My master has invited you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a house, and they are asking for me for a day. I will not have time.’

He went to another and said: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘My friend is getting married and I am the one making the dinner. I cannot come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.’

He went to another and said: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a village and I am going to collect the rent. I cannot come. I ask to be excused.’

The servant came back and said to his master: ‘The ones you invited to the dinner have excused themselves.’

The master said to his servant: ‘Go out to the roads. Whoever you find, bring them in to dine.’

Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my Father.”

5 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲣⲉϥⲧⲟⲟⲩ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲛⲉϣⲟ[ⲧⲉ] [ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲃⲱ]ⲕ ⲁⲛ⳿ ⲉϩⲟⲩⲛ⳿ ⲉⲛⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲁⲓ̈ⲱⲧ⳿

THIS LINE CUTS AGAINST THIS SITE AND IT IS RENDERED AS IT STANDS. reftoou, buyers, and ešote, traders — flatly barred. An agorist codex would prefer this sentence not to be there, and the honest thing is to print it rather than translate around it. What can be said without straining: look at what the four refusals actually consist of. Money out with merchants, a house just bought, a wedding to cater, a village bought to collect RENT from. Every one of them answers the invitation with a variant of “I am not free” — and the fourth man is a landlord, not a trader. The saying is about people whose holdings have first claim on them. Whether the closing line means commerce as such, or means the men in the story, the Coptic does not settle.

ϯⲣ̄ⲡⲁⲣⲁⲓⲧⲉⲓ paraiteomai — Greek: to beg off, to excuse oneself, to decline. It occurs FOUR TIMES in this one saying, once in nearly every mouth, which takes the para- prefix from seven appearances in the book to eleven. Every refusal is spoken in the same imported word, as though excusing yourself were a formula people had. Nobody in the story says no. They all say they would love to, but.

ϯⲛⲁϣⲓ ⲁⲛ “I will not have time”, literally I will not be free — and it is the second man’s whole answer, given without any excuse formula at all. Set beside saying 47, where a servant cannot serve two masters: these men have all taken on a second one. The dinner does not lose out to hostility. It loses out to prior appointments.

ϩⲛ̄ϣⲙ̄ⲙ̄ⲟ šmmo — STRANGERS, foreigners, not “guests”. The man begins with strangers in his house, invites them, and ends up sending for whoever is standing in the road. The parable never introduces anyone who belongs there. Compare saying 42: come into being as you pass away.

ⲉⲛⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲁⲓ̈ⲱⲧ⳿ topos again, and PLURAL — the placeS of my Father. The word the students were refused in sayings 3 and 24 and finally granted in 60, where the place turned out to be inside anapausis, rest. Here it is what the men with appointments cannot get into. Their problem is not location. It is that none of them could stop.

Saying 65

He said: “A decent man had a vineyard. He gave it to tenants so that they would work it and he would receive its produce from them.

He sent his servant so the tenants would give him the produce of the vineyard. They seized his servant and beat him — a little more and they would have killed him. The servant went back and told his master. His master said: ‘Perhaps he did not know them.’

He sent another servant. The tenants beat that one too. Then the master sent his son. He said: ‘Perhaps they will show some shame before my son.’

Since those tenants knew he was the heir of the vineyard, they seized him and killed him.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲕⲗⲏⲣⲟⲛⲟⲙⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛ̄ⲉⲗⲟⲟⲗⲉ klēronomos — Greek: heir. And note the causal word, epei, SINCE: they kill him BECAUSE they know he is the heir. Inheritance is not incidental to the murder, it is the motive. A vineyard that would have passed to a man by birth is taken by the men who actually work it, and the parable does not tell you what to think about that.

ⲙⲉϣⲁⲕ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϥ⳿ⲥⲟⲩⲱⲛⲟⲩ … ⲙⲉϣⲁⲕ⳿ ⲥⲉⲛⲁϣⲓⲡⲉ ϩⲏⲧϥ⳿ THE OWNER GUESSES TWICE AND IS WRONG BOTH TIMES. First “perhaps he did not KNOW them” — souōn, the book’s knowing verb. Then “perhaps they will feel SHAME before my son” — šipe, the word from saying 37, where you strip naked WITHOUT shame. He assumes ignorance, then assumes shame, and neither is what is operating. He never once considers that they want the vineyard.

ⲡⲉⲧⲉⲩⲙ̄ ⲙⲁⲁϫⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ⳿ ⲙⲁⲣⲉϥ⳿ⲥⲱⲧⲙ̄ AND THAT IS THE END OF IT. No retribution, no “he will come and destroy those tenants”, which is how the canonical versions close. The son is killed and the saying stops on “whoever has ears”. Same shape as saying 57, where the owner forbids his workers to pull the weeds: this book keeps declining to supply the enforcement its parables seem to be building toward.

Saying 66

Jesus said: “Show me the stone that the builders rejected — that one is the cornerstone.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉⲡⲱⲛⲉ ōne — stone, its third appearance and each time it changes hands. In saying 13 the stones are what the companions would pick up to kill Thomas, and fire comes out of them. In saying 19 the same stones will SERVE you. Here a stone thrown out by professionals turns out to be the one holding the corner. The material never changes; only who is handling it and what they think it is for.

ⲛⲉⲧ⳿ⲕⲱⲧ⳿ netkōt — the builders, literally “those who build”, and kōt is the verb of saying 32: “a city BUILT on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall.” The people whose trade is putting things up are the ones who got this wrong. Following 65, where the tenants know exactly what they are doing and the owner does not, that is two sayings running in which the professionals misjudge their own material.

Saying 67

Jesus said: “Whoever knows the All, but is himself lacking, lacks the whole of it.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲥⲟⲟⲩⲛ ⲙ̄ⲡⲧⲏⲣϥ⳿ ⲉϥⲣ̄ ϭⲣⲱϩ ⲟⲩⲁⲁϥ TWO OF THE BOOK’S OLDEST THREADS IN ONE SENTENCE. ptērf, the ALL, is what saying 2 promises you will REIGN OVER at the end of the four steps — and it is the word the Gospel of Mary uses on this site when the soul is told the All is being loosed apart. crōh, to lack, is the rich man’s word four sayings ago: “so that I LACK NOTHING.” Total knowledge held by someone who is himself short is total shortfall — which makes saying 2’s promise conditional and saying 63’s project impossible at once. ON OUAAF: it is tempting to read this as “lacks HIMSELF”, taking ouaaf as the thing lacked, but the grammar does not support it. The second clause marks its object with ⲙ̄ (r-crōh M-p-ma tērf); the first has no ⲙ̄ before ouaaf at all. So ouaaf is the intensive pronoun sitting on the subject — he HIMSELF is lacking, deficient in himself — not an object. Translations that give “fails to know himself” are supplying a verb the Coptic does not have.

ⲣ̄ϭⲣⲱϩ ⲙ̄ⲡⲙⲁ ⲧⲏⲣϥ⳿ p-ma tērf — literally “the whole place”, set against p-tērf, the All, in the first half. The line turns on two words that sound almost the same and mean the everything you knew and the everything you are short of. In Coptic it is nearly a rhyme.

Saying 68

Jesus said: “Blessed are you when they hate you and hunt you down. And they will find no place, in the very place where they hunted you.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲥⲉⲛⲁϩⲉ ⲁⲛ ⲉⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲙⲁ ⲉⲛⲧⲁⲩⲇⲓⲱⲕⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲱⲧⲛ̄ topos, and it is DENIED — to the persecutors, in the exact spot where the persecution happened. Track this word across the book: refused to the students in sayings 3 and 24, granted in 60 but only inside anapausis, shut against the men with prior appointments in 64, and now taken from the ones doing the hunting. Nobody in this text gets a place by holding ground. The only place anyone is given is a condition.

ⲉⲩϣⲁⲛⲙⲉⲥⲧⲉ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ moste — hate, the fourth appearance: your own private compass in saying 6, an incoherence in 43, a requirement toward your family in 55, and here something done to you. The book never treats it as simply wicked. It treats it as a force that tells you where you are standing.

Saying 69

Jesus said: “Blessed are those who have been hunted down within their own heart — those are the ones who have truly come to know the Father.

Blessed are the hungry, so that the belly of the one who wants may be filled.”

3 from the Coptic

ϩⲣⲁⲓ̈ ϩⲙ̄ ⲡⲟⲩϩⲏⲧ⳿ the persecution of saying 68 relocated INSIDE — hēt, the heart. Same verb diōkō, and the previous saying has just described being hunted by other people. Placed together, the harder version is the one with no persecutor in it.

ⲛⲉⲧϩⲕⲁⲉⲓⲧ⳿ … ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲩⲱϣ THE BOOK’S POSITION ON WANTING, STATED OUTRIGHT. Blessed are the hungry — and the belly to be filled is that of pet-ouōš, THE ONE WHO WANTS. Set the sequence out: the drunk in saying 28 are condemned for being full and not thirsty; the longing to hear in 38 is praised with a Greek word usually reserved for lust; the rich man in 63 dies pursuing a state of lacking nothing; 67 says lacking yourself is lacking everything. Appetite is not the problem in this text. Satisfaction is.

ϩⲛ̄ ⲟⲩⲙⲉ hn oume — in truth, truly. Attached to knowing the Father, and the qualifier is doing work: there is a knowing of the Father that is not in truth, and what separates them is not doctrine but having been hunted in your own heart.

Saying 70

Jesus said: “When you bring forth what is in you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that in you, what you do not have in you will kill you.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛϣ̄ ⲁϫⲡⲉ ⲡⲏ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲏⲩⲧⲛ̄ jpe — TO BEGET, the same verb as jpo running through the book: fasting BEGETS sin in saying 14, the Father was never begotten of woman in 15, John is the highest of the woman-begotten in 46, and circumcision would arrive at birth if it were any use in 53. Here what you beget is what is already inside you, and it is the only thing that saves. Fifth appearance, and the first time you are the one doing it.

ⲡⲁⲉⲓ ⲉⲧⲉ ⲙⲛ̄ⲧ̄ⲏⲧⲛ̄ϥ͞ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲏⲛⲉ [ϥⲛⲁⲙ]ⲟⲩⲧ⳿ ⲧⲏⲛⲉ THIS SAYING STANDS AT 70 in the codex, though it is commonly met as 21. Note also the strangeness the Coptic keeps: what you do NOT have in you is what kills you. Not an absence that leaves you unguarded, but a positive agent. English versions that soften it to “will destroy you” lose the fact that the killer is a nothing.

Saying 71

Jesus said: “I will tear down this house, and no one will be able to build it again.”

2 from the Coptic

ϯⲛⲁϣⲟⲣ[ϣⲣ̄ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲉⲓⲏ]ⲉⲓ … ⲛⲁϣⲕⲟⲧϥ [ⲁⲛ ⲛ̄ⲕⲉⲥⲟⲡ] HEAVILY RECONSTRUCTED — the square brackets in the transcription mark letters that are not on the papyrus. “this house” and “again” are both editorial restorations, and the sense of the saying depends on them. Flagged rather than presented as certain. What IS on the page: shoršr, to tear down, and the refusal of any rebuilding.

ⲛⲁϣⲕⲟⲧϥ kōt — to build, third appearance: the city built on a mountain that cannot fall (32), the builders who rejected the stone (66), and now a demolition no builder can undo. Read in order, the trade of building gets steadily worse press.

Saying 72

A man said to him: “Tell my brothers to divide my father’s possessions with me.”

He said to him: “Man — who made me a divider?”

He turned to his students and said to them: “Am I a divider?”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛⲓⲙ ⲡⲉ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁϩⲁⲁⲧ⳿ ⲛ̄ⲣⲉϥⲡⲱϣⲉ HE IS ASKED TO ADJUDICATE AN INHERITANCE AND REFUSES THE OFFICE OUTRIGHT. ref-pōše, literally “a doer of dividing”, a divider — the Coptic builds an agent-noun for the role, and he declines to be it. Then he does something no other saying does: he turns to the students and asks whether he even IS such a thing. The judicial function is not merely declined in a particular case; its existence is put as an open question.

ⲡⲱϣⲉ pōše, to divide — the same root as pēš in saying 61, where becoming DIVIDED fills a man with darkness while becoming undivided fills him with light. The petitioner is asking him to perform, on a family estate, the exact operation the book has just called filling yourself with dark. Eleven sayings apart, one root.

ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲁⲥⲛⲏⲩ snēu — brothers, the word love is commanded toward in saying 25 and hatred required toward in 55. Here they are simply the other claimants on an estate, and the property is what has made them a problem.

Saying 73

Jesus said: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Beg the master, then, to send workers out to the harvest.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲉⲣⲅⲁⲧⲏⲥ ⲇⲉ ⲥⲟⲃⲕ⳿ ergatēs — Greek: worker, labourer. sobk, few, is the word saying 20 uses for the mustard seed, “SMALLER than all the seeds”, which then becomes the great branch. Scarcity is where things start in this book rather than what defeats them.

ⲡⲱϩⲥ pōhs — harvest, the same word as saying 57, where on the day of the harvest the weeds show themselves and nobody sorts anything early. Here workers are needed for it. The two sayings agree: harvest is the moment things become what they are, and the labour is in gathering, not in judging.

Saying 74

He said: “Master, there are many around the well — but nobody down in it.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲱⲧⲉ ⲛ̄ⲧϫⲱⲧⲉ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲗⲁⲁⲩ ⲇⲉ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧϣⲱⲛⲉ⳿ THE MANUSCRIPT USES TWO DIFFERENT NOUNS and it is not certain they mean the same thing. jōte is a well or cistern; šōne in the second half is obscure here — elsewhere in Coptic it commonly means sickness, and translators variously give “cistern”, “drinking trough”, or emend. Rendered here as one well seen from outside and inside, which is the reading the sentence-shape supports, but a reader should know the second word is unsettled. Nobody who translates this line is certain.

ⲟⲩⲛ̄ ϩⲁϩ hah — many, and it opens the next saying too: “MANY are standing at the door.” Two consecutive sayings about a crowd gathered at the edge of something and not going in. Compare 73 one line earlier, where the workers are few. The book counts carefully and the numbers never favour the crowd.

Saying 75

Jesus said: “Many are standing at the door — but it is the solitaries who will go into the bridal chamber.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲛⲁⲭⲟⲥ monachos, the third and last appearance: the household divided into solitaries in saying 16, the solitary blessed alongside the chosen in 49, and here the only ones who get in. Across sixty sayings the word never softens into “monk” or “celibate”. It stays arithmetical — the one who is not part of a count.

ⲟⲩⲛ ϩⲁϩ ⲁϩⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ϩⲓⲣⲙ̄ ⲡⲣⲟ ahe ratou — STANDING, the posture that has meant everything good in this book: the solitaries in 16, the one who stands in the beginning in 18, the chosen in 23, the speaker in 28, the light itself in 50. Here many are standing and it gets them as far as the doorway. The posture on its own turns out not to be sufficient, which is the first time the book has qualified it.

Saying 76

Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a merchant who had a consignment of goods and found a pearl. That merchant was shrewd — he sold the consignment and bought the single pearl for himself.

You too — look for his treasure, the one that does not give out, that stays: the place where no moth comes near to eat and no worm destroys.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲁⲩⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲛ̄ⲉ̄ϣⲱⲱⲧ⳿ … ⲡⲉϣⲱⲧ⳿ ⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ ⲟⲩⲥⲁⲃⲉ ⲡⲉ THIS SETTLES SAYING 64. Twelve sayings ago the banquet closed with “BUYERS AND MERCHANTS will not enter the places of my Father” — ešote, from the root šōt, to trade. Here the kingdom of the Father IS LIKE a merchant, ešōōt, the same root, and he is called sabe, SHREWD, with no reproach anywhere in the sentence. The book cannot mean that trade as such is barred, because it uses a trader as the image of the thing itself. What separates them is plain once both are on the page: the four men in 64 could not come because their holdings had first claim on them; this one sells the entire consignment the moment he sees something better. He is not excluded by owning goods. He is the kingdom because he could let them go.

ⲟⲩⲙⲁⲣⲅⲁⲣⲓⲧⲏⲥ margaritēs — Greek: pearl. And the verb for finding it is he, the find-and-fall pun of sayings 56 and 58: knowing the world means falling on a corpse, the man who toiled fell on life. Here a working trader falls on a pearl in the middle of ordinary business. Nothing is said about him seeking it.

ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲫⲟⲣⲧⲓⲟⲛ phortion — Greek: a load, a cargo, a burden. The word carries both the stock he trades in and the weight of carrying it, which is why selling it is not presented as a sacrifice. He puts down a load and picks up one small thing.

ⲡⲉϥⲉϩⲟ ⲉⲙⲁϥⲱϫⲛ̄ … ⲟⲩⲇⲉ ⲙⲁⲣⲉϥϥⲛ̄ⲧ ⲧⲁⲕⲟ eho — TREASURE, and it is the STOREHOUSE of saying 45, out of which a good man brings good and a bad man brings evil, and the ehōr the rich man of saying 63 was filling when he died that night. Three sayings about the same container. Here the instruction is not to stop storing but to find the store that does not give out. And fnt, the worm, is the one that ate the seed among the thorns in saying 9 — the book’s standing image for what quietly consumes a yield you thought you had.

Saying 77

Jesus said: “I am the light that is over them all. I am the All. The All came out from me, and the All reached as far as me.

Split a piece of wood — I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲧⲁ ⲡⲧⲏⲣϥ⳿ ⲡⲱϩ ϣⲁⲣⲟⲉⲓ ⲡⲱϩ ⲛ̄ⲛⲟⲩϣⲉ THE SAME WORD TWICE, IN TWO SENSES, IN ADJACENT CLAUSES. pōh means to reach, to arrive at — “the All REACHED as far as me” — and it also means to split, to break open: “SPLIT a piece of wood.” The manuscript sets them side by side. Reaching him and cracking something open are, in Coptic, the identical act.

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ⲡⲉ ⲡⲧⲏⲣϥ⳿ ptērf FOUR TIMES IN ONE SAYING, and this is where the thread lands. Saying 2 promised that the one who seeks and is shaken “will REIGN OVER the All”. Saying 67 warned that knowing the All while being yourself deficient is total shortfall. Here: I AM the All. The thing you were promised rule over turns out to be the speaker — which is also the word the Gospel of Mary uses on this site when the soul is told the All is being loosed apart.

ϥⲓ ⲙ̄ⲡⲱⲛⲉ ⲉϩⲣⲁⲓ̈ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ ōne — stone, the fourth and last appearance, and the arc completes. In saying 13 the stones are picked up to kill Thomas and fire comes out of them; in 19 they serve you; in 66 the builders throw one away and it holds the corner; here you lift one and find him under it. And he, to FIND, is the find-and-fall verb of 56, 58 and 76. The saying stands at 77 in the codex, though it is commonly met as 24.

Saying 78

Jesus said: “Why did you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a man wearing soft clothes, like your kings and your great men?

These are the ones wearing soft clothes — and they will not be able to know the truth.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲣ̄ⲣⲱⲟⲩ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲛⲉⲧⲙ̄ⲙⲉⲅⲓⲥⲧⲁⲛⲟⲥ … ⲥⲉ[ⲛⲁ]ϣⲥ̄ⲥⲟⲩⲛ ⲧⲙⲉ ⲁⲛ

megistanos — Greek: a magnate, a grandee, one of the great men around a throne. Set beside rrōou, kings. And what is said about them is not that they are cruel or that they will be judged: they WILL NOT BE ABLE to know the truth. An incapacity, not a crime. The soft clothing is the whole explanation offered.

ⲉⲩⲕⲁϣ ⲉϥⲕⲓⲙ [ⲉⲃⲟⲗ] ϩⲓⲧⲙ̄ ⲡⲧⲏⲩ kim — to move, stir. Track it: the five trees of Paradise in saying 19 do NOT stir; the sign of the Father in you in saying 50 is “a movement and a rest”. Here a reed is moved BY THE WIND. The book distinguishes moving from being moved, and only one of them is a sign of anything.

Saying 79

A woman in the crowd said to him: “Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the breasts that fed 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 that has not conceived, and the breasts that have given no milk.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲩⲁⲣⲉϩ ⲉⲣⲟϥ ϩⲛ̄ ⲟⲩⲙⲉ areh — to guard, to keep. THE VERB OF SAYING 10: “I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I am GUARDING it until it blazes.” What he does to the fire is what you are to do to the word. And note that hearing alone earns nothing here; the blessing attaches to the keeping.

ⲁⲡⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲓⲱⲧ logos — Greek: word, account, reason. Its only appearance in this book, in a text otherwise built entirely of šaje, the ordinary Coptic word for a saying (as in the incipit, “these are the hidden SAYINGS”). The imported term arrives exactly where a woman is being redirected from a body to a teaching.

ⲛ̄ⲑ̄ϩⲏ ⲧⲁⲉⲓ ⲉⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲱ hē — womb, and also belly, the same word as saying 69: “blessed are the hungry, so that the BELLY of the one who wants may be filled.” Ten sayings apart, one noun, and the blessing reverses — there on the belly that will be filled, here on the womb that stays empty. The third woman to speak in this book, after Mariham in 21 and Salome in 61, and like both of them she gets a straight answer rather than a rebuke.

Saying 80

Jesus said: “Whoever has come to know the world has found the body. But whoever has found the body — of that one the world is not worthy.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲁϥϩⲉ ⲉⲡⲥⲱⲙⲁ THIS IS SAYING 56 A SECOND TIME, WITH ONE WORD CHANGED. Set them together: 56 has “whoever has come to know the world has found a PTŌMA”, a corpse; 80 has the identical sentence with SŌMA, a body. Two Greek loanwords one letter apart, twenty-four sayings apart, in a clause otherwise word for word the same. Whether that is a scribe’s slip or the compiler’s doing, the codex carries both, and printing only one of them — or quietly harmonising them — would hide a fact about the manuscript. The pair also recalls saying 29, where sarx and sōma are swapped across two clauses to make the same wonder twice.

ⲙ̄ⲡϣⲁ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ⳿ ⲁⲛ⳿ mpša, worthy — and with sōma instead of ptōma the second half changes weight entirely. Finding a corpse and finding a body are not the same discovery, but both of them make the world beneath you.

Saying 81

Jesus said: “Let whoever has grown rich be king. And let whoever has power renounce it.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲉⲩⲛ̄ⲧ̄ⲁϥ⳿ ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲇⲩⲛⲁⲙⲓⲥ ⲙⲁⲣⲉϥⲁⲣⲛⲁ arna, from Greek arneomai — to deny, to renounce, to disown. And dynamis is the very thing saying 21 told you to put on: “gird yourselves with GREAT POWER, so the robbers find no road to reach you.” Twelve words here reverse it. Held as defence, power is armour; held as a possession, it is the one thing you are told to disown. Nothing in this book is closer to a plain instruction about rule.

ⲙⲁⲣⲉϥⲣ̄ ⲣⲣⲟ r-rro — to become king, to reign, the exact phrase of saying 2, where the one who seeks and is shaken and marvels “will REIGN over the All”. Here it is handed to the man who got rich, and the line is genuinely strange: the rich are told to rule and the powerful to renounce. Read as two orders it is incoherent. Read as one, it says the same thing twice — whatever you have accumulated, hand it the crown and be rid of it, because saying 63 has already shown where accumulation ends.

Saying 82

Jesus said: “Whoever is near me is near the fire. And whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉϥϩⲏⲛ ⲉⲧⲥⲁⲧⲉ sate — fire, and it is NOT the word used elsewhere. The fire cast on the world in saying 10, the fire out of the stones in 13 and the fire of the divisions in 16 are all kōht. This is a different noun, appearing once. The book has two fires and only this one is somewhere you can stand near.

ϥⲟⲩⲏⲩ ⲛ̄ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲉⲣⲟ the two halves do not match on purpose: near ME is near THE FIRE, far from ME is far from THE KINGDOM. Fire and kingdom are put in the same slot. Saying 10 has him guarding a fire until it blazes; this says the blaze and the kingdom are the same address.

Saying 83

Jesus said: “The images are visible to a person, and the light inside them is hidden within the image of the Father’s light. He will be uncovered — and his image is hidden by his light.”

2 from the Coptic

ϥϩⲏⲡ⳿ … ϥⲛⲁϭⲱⲗⲡ⳿ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ … ϩⲏⲡ⳿ hēp and cōlp ebol — HIDDEN and UNCOVERED, the book’s founding pair, from the incipit (“these are the HIDDEN sayings”) and saying 5 (“what is hidden from you will be UNCOVERED”). Both appear here twice over, and the saying ends by hiding something again: his image is concealed BY his own light. Concealment by brightness rather than by darkness, which is why nothing in this book is ever secret in the ordinary sense.

ⲛ̄ϩⲓⲕⲱⲛ eikōn — image, third appearance: “an image in place of an image” as the price of entry in saying 22, the light appearing in THEIR image before the interrogators in 50, and here images that are visible while what is in them is not. The word is always about a surface that is genuinely there and genuinely not the thing.

Saying 84

Jesus said: “On the days when you see your own likeness, you are glad. But when you see your images — the ones that came into being before you, which neither die nor become visible — how much will you have to carry?”

3 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲙⲁⲩⲙⲟⲩ ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲙⲁⲩⲟⲩⲱⲛϩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ THE ONE EXCEPTION TO THIS BOOK’S OWN RULE. ouōnh ebol, to become manifest, is the promise underwriting sayings 5, 6 and 57: there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest, and the weeds identify themselves at harvest without anyone sorting them. Here are things that NEVER become manifest — and they are yours, and they were there before you. The single place the text exempts something from disclosure, and what it exempts is what you already are.

ⲉⲡⲉⲧⲛⲉ̄ ⲓⲛⲉ eine — likeness, the noun behind saying 13’s question, “compare me, tell me what I am LIKE.” There the disciples produce likenesses and every one is wrong. Here you meet your own and are pleased with it, which the saying treats as the shallow half of the encounter.

ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϥⲓ ϩⲁ ⲟⲩⲏⲣ⳿ fi — to lift, to bear, to carry; the verb of saying 55, “take up his cross”. The saying ends on a question with no answer supplied, and the question is about load rather than about joy. Seeing what you are is not offered here as a consolation.

Saying 85

Jesus said: “Adam came into being out of a great power and a great wealth — and he did not become worthy of you. For if he had been worthy, he would not have tasted death.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲛ̄ ⲛⲟⲩⲛⲟϭ ⲛ̄ⲇ̄ⲩⲛⲁⲙⲓⲥ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲟⲩⲛⲟϭ ⲙ̄ⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲟ

GREAT POWER AND GREAT WEALTH — dynamis and mnt-rmmao, and these are exactly the two things saying 81 has just disposed of four sayings earlier: let the rich man be king, let the man with power RENOUNCE it. Adam is the case study. He originates in both and the verdict is that he was not worthy. In a book with no fall, no serpent and no garden, the first man’s problem is stated purely as an inventory of what he started with.

ⲙ̄ⲡ̄ⲉϥϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲉ[ϥⲙ̄ⲡ]ϣⲁ ⲙ̄ⲙⲱⲧⲛ̄ “he did not become worthy OF YOU” — the reader outranks Adam, and it is said without argument. Compare saying 46, where whoever among you becomes little is greater than John the Baptist. The book keeps setting its listener above the tradition’s biggest names, and never once on the basis of merit earned.

[ⲛⲉϥⲛⲁϫⲓ ϯⲡⲉ] ⲁⲛ ⲙ̄ⲡⲙⲟⲩ ji tipe m-pmou — to TASTE DEATH, the exact idiom of saying 1, the book’s opening promise: whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death. It returns in 18 and 19 as well. Adam is the one who did. Note the clause is partly restored in the transcription, marked here by the brackets.

Saying 86

Jesus said: “The foxes have their dens and the birds have their nests — but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head and rest.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ϩⲁⲗⲁⲧⲉ ⲟⲩⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲩ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ ⲙ̄[ⲡⲉ]ⲩⲙⲁϩ halate — the birds of the sky, fourth appearance and they always have the advantage. In saying 3 they reach a kingdom in the sky before you; in 9 they eat the seed off the road; in 20 the mustard branch becomes their shelter. Here they have nests and he does not. Every time the birds appear in this book, they are already housed.

ⲛ̄ϥ⳿ⲙ̄ⲧⲟⲛ⳿ ⲙ̄[ⲙⲟ]ϥ⳿ mton — to rest, the verb of saying 61 (“two will REST on a couch”) and cousin to anapausis, the rest that saying 50 calls half the sign of the Father in you and 60 makes the place you should look for. He has no ma, no place, for it. The one who tells you to find a place within rest is described as having nowhere to put his head.

[ⲛ̄ⲃ̄ⲁϣⲟⲣ ⲟⲩⲛ̄ⲧⲁ]ⲩ ⲛ[ⲟⲩⲃⲏⲃ] the foxes and their dens are almost entirely editorial restoration — the brackets mark letters absent from the papyrus. The birds’ half is on the page; the foxes’ half is reconstructed from the parallel. Flagged rather than presented as read.

Saying 87

Jesus said: “Wretched is the body that hangs on a body. And wretched is the soul that hangs on these two.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲧⲁϣⲉ ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲥⲱⲙⲁ⳿ aše — to hang, to be suspended from, to depend on. Not “is dependent” as an abstraction: the image is one thing dangling off another. The saying builds a chain of three and calls each link wretched, which is a judgement on the hanging rather than on any of the three.

ⲟⲩⲧⲁⲗⲁⲓⲡⲱⲣⲟⲛ⳿ … ⲟⲩⲧ[ⲁ]ⲗⲁⲓⲡⲱⲣⲟⲥ talaipōros — Greek: wretched, miserable, worn down by hardship. Spelled with a neuter ending for the body and a masculine one for the soul in the same sentence, the loanword inflecting to agree with each. Whoever wrote this was comfortable in Greek.

ⲙ̄[ⲡ]ⲥⲛⲁⲩ p-snau — THE TWO, the book’s running number: you were one and made two (11), make the two one (22), two on a couch (61), two making peace in one house (48), the divider refused (72). Here the soul’s error is hanging on a pair rather than resolving it.

Saying 88

Jesus said: “The angels and the prophets will come to you, and they will give you what is already yours. And you too — give them what is in your hands, and say to yourselves: on what day will they come and take what is theirs?”

2 from the Coptic

ⲥⲉⲛⲁϯ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ ⲛ̄ⲛⲉⲧⲉⲩⲛ̄ⲧ̄ⲏⲧⲛ̄ⲥⲉ “they will give you WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE.” Nothing is conferred. The angels and prophets — the two classes of intermediary a tradition runs on, and the same angelos Peter reached for in saying 13 and the prophētēs of 31 and 52 — arrive as couriers of your own property. Set beside saying 49: you came out of the kingdom, so you will go there again. Nobody in this book ever hands you anything new.

ⲁϣ ⲛ̄ϩ̄ⲟⲟⲩ ⲡⲉⲧⲟⲩⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲏⲩ aš n-hoou — “on what day”, the students’ formula: how will our end be (18), what day will you appear (37), what day does the new world come (51). Every time they ask it they are refused. Here he tells them to ask it OF THEMSELVES, about a debt they owe, and it is the one form of the question the book lets stand.

Saying 89

Jesus said: “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that the one who made the inside is the same one who made the outside?”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲛⲧⲁϩⲧⲁⲙⲓⲟ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛϩⲟⲩⲛ ⲛ̄ⲧⲟϥ ⲟⲛ ⲡⲉⲛⲧⲁϥⲧⲁⲙⲓⲟ ⲙ̄ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛⲃⲟⲗ⳿

THIS IS WHY SAYING 22 IS POSSIBLE. p-sa nhoun and p-sa nbol, inside and outside, are the book’s oldest pair: the kingdom is in your inside and your outside (3), make the inside like the outside (22), a vine planted outside the Father does not hold (40). Saying 22 gives the instruction; this gives the ground for it. You can make one like the other because ONE HAND MADE BOTH. Cleaning only the outer face is not hypocrisy here, it is a category error about who manufactured the cup.

ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲣ̄ⲛⲟⲉⲓ ⲁⲛ noeō — Greek: to perceive, to understand, to grasp with the mind. The root inside metanoeō, the “change of mind” of saying 28 that gets flattened into “repent” everywhere else. The failure being named is not wickedness. It is not having thought it through.

Saying 90

Jesus said: “Come to me — for my yoke sits easy and my mastery is gentle. And you will find rest for yourselves.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲧⲁⲙⲛ̄ⲧ̄ϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ ⲟⲩⲣⲙ̄ⲣⲁϣ ⲧⲉ mnt-joeis — LORDSHIP, mastery, built with the abstractive mnt- prefix on joeis, the word that means lord, master and owner all at once: the men who demand their field back in saying 21, the two masters no servant can serve in 47, the master of the vineyard in 65. And here he claims one of his own. The book that refuses the title of teacher in 13, refuses to be a divider in 72, and tells whoever holds power to renounce it in 81, does not refuse this — it qualifies it. rmraš, gentle, mild, light to bear. Worth noticing rather than smoothing over: the one mastery this text allows is the one described as weighing nothing.

ⲟⲩⲭⲣⲏⲥⲧⲟⲥ ⲡⲉ ⲡⲁⲛⲁϩⲃ⳿ chrēstos — Greek: kind, serviceable, good to use. The same adjective given to the vineyard owner in saying 65, and famously one letter from christos, anointed. Applied to a yoke it keeps its workaday sense: this one is well made and does not chafe.

ⲁⲩⲁⲛⲁⲩⲡⲁⲥⲓⲥ ⲛⲏⲧⲛ̄ anapausis — rest, and the scribe has metathesised it, writing anaupasis. This is what saying 60 tells you to look for a place inside, and half the sign of the Father in you in saying 50. Here it is not sought but FOUND, he — the find-and-fall verb of 56, 58, 76 and 77.

Saying 91

They said to him: “Tell us who you are, so that we may believe in you.”

He said to them: “You examine the face of the sky and the earth — and the one in front of you, you have not recognised. And this moment, you do not know how to examine.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛⲙ̄ ̄ⲧⲟ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛⲥ̄ ⲟⲩⲱⲛϥ⳿ THE THIRD TIME THIS PHRASE LANDS. Saying 5: know what is in front of your face. Saying 52: you have left out the living one IN FRONT OF YOU and spoken about the dead. Now: the one in front of you, you have not known — souōn, the same knowing verb as “when you come to know YOURSELVES” in saying 3. Eighty-six sayings and the complaint has never changed.

ϣⲓⲛⲁ ⲉⲛⲁⲣ̄ⲡ̄ⲓⲥⲧⲉⲩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟⲕ⳿ pisteuō — TO BELIEVE, and this is effectively its only appearance in the book. It is in the students’ mouth, as a request, and it is refused. Thomas has almost no faith-vocabulary anywhere: no creed, nothing to assent to, no one to trust on report. What it asks for instead is finding an interpretation (1), knowing yourself (3), and looking at what is in front of you.

ⲡⲉⲉⲓⲕⲁⲓⲣⲟⲥ … ⲛ̄ⲣ̄ⲡⲓⲣⲁⲍⲉ kairos, the opportune moment, not chronos, clock-time; and peirazō, to test, examine, put to the proof. They have a working method for reading the weather and none at all for the present. The charge is not that they lack faith. It is that they apply their existing competence everywhere except here.

Saying 92

Jesus said: “Seek, and you will find.

But the things you asked me about in those days, I did not tell you then. Now I am willing to tell them — and you are not looking for them.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲧⲉⲛⲟⲩ ⲉϩⲛⲁⲓ̈ ⲉϫⲟⲟⲩ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲧⲉⲧⲛϣ̄ ⲓⲛⲉ ⲁⲛ⳿ ⲛ̄ⲥⲱⲟⲩ THE EXACT INVERSE OF SAYING 38. There: “there will be days when you will SEEK me and you will not find me” — the loss was his availability. Here he is willing and they have stopped asking. šine, to seek, is saying 2’s founding verb, and across the book it fails in both directions: too late in 38, too early in 92. The one thing never blamed is the seeking itself.

ϣⲓⲛⲉ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲧⲉⲧⲛⲁϭⲓⲛⲉ šine / cine — seek and find, and the second is a different verb from he, the find-and-fall word of 56, 58 and 90. This is plain finding, what you get by looking. The saying restates saying 2’s promise in four words and then spends the rest of itself explaining why it is not being collected.

Saying 93

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs, or they may throw it on the dung heap. Do not throw the pearls to the swine, in case they turn it to muck.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲣⲅⲁⲣⲓⲧⲏ[ⲥ] margaritēs — THE PEARL OF SAYING 76, seventeen sayings on. There a merchant sold an entire consignment to get one, and he was called shrewd for it. Here the same object can be spoiled by who receives it. The book does not treat value as intrinsic and safe: the thing worth a whole cargo is also the thing a wrong audience turns into muck.

ⲉⲧⲕⲟⲡⲣⲓⲁ … [ⲛ]ⲗⲁ[ⲕⲙⲉ] kopria — Greek: a dung heap. The final word is largely restored in the transcription, marked by the brackets, and the sense turns on it; “muck” here is a reading rather than a certainty. Note also nouje, to throw — the book’s casting verb, used of fire on the world (10), peace (16) and the beam out of your own eye (26).

Saying 94

Jesus said: “Whoever seeks will find. And whoever knocks from inside, it will be opened to him.”

2 from the Coptic

[ⲡⲉⲧⲧⲱϩⲙ̄⳿ ⲉ]ϩⲟⲩⲛ ⲥⲉⲛⲁⲟⲩⲱⲛ tōhm — to knock, and equally TO INVITE, TO SUMMON. It is the servant’s verb throughout saying 64: “my master TŌHM you” to the dinner, four times over. So knocking and inviting are one word, and the knocker here is on the INSIDE, ehoun. The bracketed portion is editorial restoration; what stands unrestored is the finding and the opening.

ⲡⲉⲧϣⲓⲛⲉ ϥⲛⲁϭⲓⲛⲉ the promise of saying 92 stated a third time, two sayings later, with no complaint attached. The book keeps returning to this one guarantee and never qualifies it — only the timing around it ever goes wrong.

Saying 95

Jesus said: “If you have money, do not lend it at interest. Give it instead to someone from whom you will not get it back.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙ̄ⲡⲣ̄ϯ ⲉⲧⲙⲏⲥⲉ mēse — interest, usury, the increase on a loan. THE MOST DIRECT ECONOMIC INSTRUCTION IN THE BOOK, and note precisely what it targets. Not trade: saying 76 makes a merchant the image of the kingdom and calls him shrewd. Not money: you are assumed to have some. What is forbidden is the arrangement that makes the money come back larger and keeps a claim on someone in the meantime. Set against saying 64, where four men miss the dinner because their holdings have first claim on them — lending at interest is how you become the claim.

ⲟⲩⲛ̄ⲧⲏⲧⲛ̄ ϩⲟⲙⲧ⳿ homt — money, copper. THE FIRST MAN IN SAYING 64 USES THIS EXACT WORD: “I have HOMT owed me by some merchants, they are coming to me this evening” — and that is his reason for missing the dinner. Thirty-one sayings later the book says what to do with homt so that it does not do that to you. Give it where no return can be expected, and no evening appointment can be made of it.

Saying 96

Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a woman who took a little leaven, hid it in dough, and made it into large loaves.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.”

3 from the Coptic

[ⲁⲥϩⲟ]ⲡϥ⳿ ϩⲛ̄ ⲟⲩϣⲱⲧⲉ SHE HID IT — hōp, the concealment verb, and this is its rehabilitation. In saying 39 the Pharisees and scribes take the keys of knowledge and HIDE them, and are condemned for it; in 32 a city cannot be hidden and in 33 a lamp is not put in a hidden place. Here hiding is the whole mechanism: leaven does nothing on a table, it has to go INTO the dough and out of sight to work at all. A seventh case of this book keeping a word and changing what it is done to.

ⲁⲩⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ a WOMAN is the image of the kingdom, and she is the fourth woman in this book after Mariham in 21, Salome in 61 and the woman in the crowd in 79 — with another following immediately in 97. None of them is rebuked and none is a lesson in humility. Here one of them simply is what the kingdom is like.

ⲛ̄ϩⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲟ[ϭ ⲛ̄]ⲛⲟⲉⲓⲕ⳿ LARGE loaves, out of a LITTLE leaven — the proportion is the point, and it is the mustard seed of saying 20 again: smallest of all seeds, then a great branch. Both parables put the whole result in something you would overlook.

Saying 97

Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a woman carrying a jar full of meal, walking a long road. The ear of the jar broke, and the meal poured out behind her along the road.

She did not know it. She had felt no trouble. When she got home she set the jar down and found it empty.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲡⲙⲁⲁϫⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡϭⲗ̄ⲙ[ⲉⲉ]ⲓ ⲟⲩⲱϭⲡ⳿ maaje — THE HANDLE OF THE JAR, and the ordinary Coptic word for an EAR. It is the same word standing in the formula this book uses to close its parables: “whoever has MAAJE, let him hear.” In the one parable about failing to notice anything, what breaks is the ear. Rendered literally here to keep the pun that every smooth English version loses.

ⲛⲉⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲥⲉⲓⲙⲉ ⲉϩⲓⲥⲉ hise — TROUBLE, TOIL, the labour that costs you; “she had noticed no hise.” Track it: in saying 8 the wise fisherman picks the great fish chōris hise, WITHOUT trouble, and that is praise. In saying 58 the man who has TOILED is blessed and has found life. Here the absence of trouble is the catastrophe — nothing felt wrong the entire way home. Effortlessness is a sign of two opposite things in this book, and the difference is whether anything was ever in your hands.

ⲁⲥϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟϥ ⲉϥ⳿ϣⲟⲩⲉⲓⲧ⳿ she FOUND it empty — he, the find-and-fall verb of sayings 56, 58, 76, 77 and 90, and šoueit, EMPTY, the word of saying 28: “they came into the world empty, and they are looking to leave the world empty too.” The parable makes that abstract diagnosis into a domestic accident. Note what the kingdom of the Father is being likened to here: a loss nobody noticed happening.

Saying 98

Jesus said: “The kingdom of the Father is like a man who wanted to kill a great man. He drew the sword in his own house and drove it into the wall, so that he would know whether his hand would go through. Then he killed the great man.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲉⲅⲓⲥⲧⲁⲛⲟⲥ THIS IS A HARD SAYING AND IT IS PRINTED AS IT STANDS. megistanos — a magnate, a grandee, THE EXACT WORD OF SAYING 78: “your kings and your GREAT MEN… they will not be able to know the truth.” Twenty sayings later the kingdom of the Father is likened to a man who rehearses and then kills one. This site is agorist, which is a counter-economic position and not an insurrectionary one, so the parable does not flatter the reader here any more than saying 64 did. It is not smoothed over.

ϫⲉⲕⲁⲁⲥ ⲉϥⲛⲁⲉⲓⲙⲉ ϫⲉⲧⲉϥϭⲓϫ⳿ ⲛⲁⲧⲱⲕ⳿ ⲉϩⲟⲩⲛ WHERE THE COPTIC PUTS ITS WEIGHT. The killing gets four words; the rehearsal gets the whole middle of the sentence. And the reason given for it is eime, TO KNOW — he drives the blade into his own wall so that he will KNOW whether his hand goes through. Every other verb in this book about knowing is turned on yourself: know yourselves (3), know what is in front of your face (5), you do not know how to examine this moment (91). What the kingdom is being compared to is a man who tests his own capacity, at home, before he acts on anything. That is an observation about where the sentence spends its words, not a way of making the ending mean something else.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲥⲏϥⲉ sēfe — sword, and its only other appearance is saying 16: “I came to cast divisions upon the earth: fire, SWORD, war.” The book said at the start that this is what it brought.

Saying 99

The students said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.”

He said to them: “The ones here, who do what my Father wants — these are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will go into the kingdom of my Father.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛⲁⲉⲓ ⲛⲉ ⲛⲁⲥⲛⲏⲩ ⲙⲛ̄ ⲧⲁⲙⲁⲁⲩ THIS SETTLES THE CONTRADICTION AT SAYING 55. There you are told to HATE your brothers and sisters, while saying 25 tells you to love your brother like your own soul — the same noun, snēu, thirty sayings apart, and this page said plainly that the codex did not resolve it and that the likely reading was one household being swapped for another. Here it says so outright: the brothers standing outside are not attacked, argued with or condemned. The word is simply reassigned to whoever is in the room doing the work. Nothing is hated; a term changes hands.

ⲥⲉⲁϩⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ϩⲓ ⲡⲥⲁ ⲛⲃⲟⲗ ahe ratou — STANDING, the posture that carries every good thing in this book (16, 18, 23, 28, 50), and p-sa nbol, OUTSIDE. Compare saying 75: “MANY ARE STANDING at the door, but it is the solitaries who go into the bridal chamber.” Twice now people are found standing in exactly the right attitude, on the wrong side of a threshold.

Saying 100

They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar’s men demand tribute from us.”

He said to them: “Give Caesar’s things to Caesar. Give God’s things to God. And what is mine, give to me.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲩⲱ ⲡⲉⲧⲉ ⲡⲱⲉⲓ ⲡⲉ ⲙⲁⲧⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲁⲉⲓϥ THOMAS HAS A THIRD CLAUSE. The familiar version of this line has two terms, Caesar and God, and that neat binary is what it has been used to license for eighteen centuries: a settled division of the world between the state and the sanctuary, with you distributed between them. Here a third claimant speaks and takes something back out — “and what is MINE, give to me.” The Coptic is unambiguous and it is not a variant reading. Whatever else this does, it means the two-term division is not exhaustive, and the thing left over is claimed by someone who is neither the ruler nor the temple.

ⲥⲉϣⲓⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲛ ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ϣⲱⲙ⳿ šōm — tribute, tax, rent. THE SAME WORD AS SAYING 64, where the fourth man misses the dinner because “I have bought a village and I am going to collect the ŠŌM.” The landlord gathering rent and Caesar’s men demanding tribute are performing one operation, and the codex uses one noun for both. Note also that the students frame it as a demand made ON them, not as a duty.

ⲁⲩⲧⲥⲉⲃⲉ ⲓⲥ͞ ⲁⲩⲛⲟⲩⲃ they show him GOLD, noub — not the denarius of the familiar account, and no one asks whose image is on it. The whole exchange about the likeness and the inscription is absent. Without that question the answer cannot rest on the coin bearing Caesar’s face, which is the argument the canonical version turns on.

Saying 101

“Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a student to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a student to me.

For my mother bore my body — but my true mother gave me life.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲁⲙⲉⲥⲧⲉ … ⲁⲩⲱ ⲡⲉⲧⲁⲙⲣ̄ⲣⲉ HATE AND LOVE, THE SAME PARENTS, ONE SAYING. moste and mrre, in two clauses built to identical shape, both required of anyone who wants to follow him. This is where the thread that runs from saying 25 (love your brother like your own soul) through 55 (hate your brothers and sisters) and 99 (the brothers outside are simply reassigned) finally states itself. The book does not resolve the tension by dropping one half — it holds both and then gives the reason.

ⲧⲁⲙⲁⲁⲩ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁ[ⲥⲙⲓⲥⲉ ⲡⲁⲥⲱⲙⲁ ⲉⲃ]ⲟⲗ [ⲧⲁⲙⲁⲁⲩ] ⲇⲉ ⲙ̄ⲙⲉ

TWO MOTHERS — the one who bore the sōma, and t-maau MME, the TRUE mother. That is the whole answer: hatred and love are not aimed at the same object, because the word “mother” covers two different things. Note that the clause is heavily restored in the transcription; the brackets mark letters absent from the papyrus. The sense is secure from “my true mother gave me life”, which is on the page.

Saying 102

Jesus said: “Woe to them, the Pharisees — they are like a dog asleep in the cattle manger. He neither eats, nor does he let the cattle eat.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ϥⲟⲩⲱⲙ ⲁⲛ ⲟⲩⲧⲉ ϥ[ⲕⲱ ⲁ]ⲛ ⲛ̄ⲛⲉϩⲟⲟⲩ ⲉⲟⲩⲱⲙ THE EXACT CHARGE OF SAYING 39, sixty-three sayings later, put as a farmyard image. There: “the Pharisees and the scribes took the keys of knowledge and hid them — they did not go in themselves, and those who wanted to go in they did not allow.” Here: he does not eat and he does not let the cattle eat. The complaint against gatekeepers is the only one this book makes twice in the same shape, and it is never that they teach error.

ⲛ̄ⲛ̄ⲟⲩⲟⲩϩⲟⲣ ouhor — a dog, and saying 93 nine lines earlier says “do not give what is holy to the DOGS, or they may throw it on the dung heap.” The Pharisees are not being compared to something new; they are being placed in a category the book has just defined.

Saying 103

Jesus said: “Blessed is the man who knows which quarter the robbers are coming in from — so that he can get up and gather his own domain and gird himself at the loins before they get inside.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲛϥ̄ ⲙⲟⲩⲣ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟϥ⳿ ⲉϫⲛ̄ ⲧⲉϥ⳿ϯⲡⲉ … ⲉⲛⲗⲏⲥⲧⲏⲥ THIS IS SAYING 21 SAID AGAIN, EIGHTY-TWO SAYINGS LATER, IN THE SAME WORDS. There: “keep watch against the world; MOUR yourselves upon your LOINS with great power, so that the LĒSTĒS find no road to reach you.” Here: mour, tipe, lēstēs, all three, plus the same house being approached from outside. Nothing else in this book is repeated at that level of verbal detail.

ⲛ̄ϥⲥⲱⲟⲩϩ ⲛ̄ⲧⲉϥ⳿ⲙⲛ̄ⲧ[ⲉⲣⲟ] sōouh — to GATHER, to collect together, and what he gathers is tef-mnt-ero, HIS OWN kingdom. Not the kingdom of the Father, which is what every parable in this book is about. Yours, and it is something you assemble and stand guard over. Compare saying 21, where the householder’s goods sit in “the house of his kingdom”. The domain a person holds is described in exactly the vocabulary used for the Father’s, and the only thing asked of you about it is that you know which side the robbers come from.

Saying 104

They said to Jesus: “Come, let us pray today, and let us fast.”

Jesus said: “What sin is it that I have committed? Or in what have I been beaten? But when the bridegroom comes out of the bridal chamber — then let them fast, and let them pray.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲛ̄ⲧⲛ̄ϣⲗⲏⲗ⳿ … ⲛ̄ⲧⲛ̄ⲣ̄ ̄ⲛⲏⲥⲧⲉⲩⲉ THE FOURTH PASS AT THE SAME QUESTION, and each one answers differently. Saying 6: they ask whether to fast and pray, and get “do not lie, do not do what you hate.” Saying 14: “if you FAST you will beget sin for yourselves.” Saying 27: “unless you FAST FROM THE WORLD you will not find the kingdom.” Here: fasting is what you do when something has gone wrong, and nothing has. No other subject in this book is returned to four times.

ⲟⲩ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲡⲉ ⲡⲛⲟⲃⲉ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲉⲓⲁⲁϥ⳿ ⲏ ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲩϫⲣⲟ ⲉⲣⲟⲉⲓ ϩⲛ̄ ⲟⲩ

nobe, SIN — the same noun saying 14 says fasting BEGETS. And jro, to overcome, to be beaten. The reply treats fasting as a response to a defeat: name the loss, and then we can talk about the practice. Two rhetorical questions, no answer expected, and the whole institution of penitential observance hangs on there being an answer.

ⲡⲛⲩⲙⲫⲓⲟⲥ … ⲡⲛⲩⲙⲫⲱⲛ nymphios and nymphōn — bridegroom and bridal chamber, both Greek. The chamber is the one the solitaries alone enter in saying 75, while many stand at the door. Fasting is scheduled for the moment the bridegroom leaves it, which is to say: not now, and not by rule.

Saying 105

Jesus said: “Whoever comes to know the father and the mother will be called the son of a whore.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲡϣⲏⲣⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡⲟⲣⲛⲏ pornē — Greek: a prostitute. Placed four sayings after 101, where a man has two mothers, the one who bore his body and the true one who gave him life, this is the social consequence of that arithmetic. Know your actual parentage and the world will attack you on precisely that ground. The insult is not about morals; it is about legitimacy, and it is the standard charge against anyone whose descent cannot be filed.

ⲡⲉⲧⲛⲁⲥⲟⲩⲱⲛ souōn — the knowing verb of “when you come to know YOURSELVES” in saying 3. Every use of it in this book points inward or backward, at yourself and where you came from. It never once means knowing a doctrine.

Saying 106

Jesus said: “When you make the two one, you will become sons of man. And when you say ‘mountain, move away’ — it will move.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲉⲧⲉⲧⲛϣ̄ ⲁⲣ̄ ⲡⲥⲛⲁⲩ ⲟⲩⲁ p-snau oua — THE TWO, ONE. Saying 11 poses it as a question: “you were one and you made two; when you have become two, what will you do?” Saying 22 answers: make the two one. This is the third statement, and it attaches a consequence.

ⲡⲧⲟⲟⲩ ⲡⲱⲱⲛⲉ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ⳿ ϥⲛⲁⲡⲱⲱⲛⲉ TWO ROUTES TO THE SAME POWER. Saying 48 gives the mountain-moving to two people making peace in one house; this gives it to one person who has made the two one. Same mountain, same verb pōōne, same result. Externally reconciled or internally undivided — the book treats them as equivalent, which is what saying 89 would predict: the one who made the inside made the outside.

Saying 107

Jesus said: “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray — the biggest one. He left the ninety-nine and searched for that one until he found it.

When he had worn himself out, he said to the sheep: I love you more than the ninety-nine.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲟⲩⲁ ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧⲟⲩ ⲥⲱⲣⲙ⳿ ⲉⲡⲛⲟϭ ⲡⲉ THE LOST SHEEP IS THE BIGGEST ONE, and the codex says so outright — p-noc, the great one. The familiar version has no such detail, and without it the parable is about not abandoning the least. With it, the shepherd goes after the most valuable animal he owns. Compare saying 8, where the wise fisherman keeps THE LARGE FISH and throws all the little ones back into the sea. Same arithmetic, same preference, ninety-nine sayings apart. This book consistently declines to be sentimental about smallness.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲁⲣⲉϥϩⲓⲥⲉ hise — TOIL, and this completes its arc. Saying 8: the fisherman chooses chōris hise, WITHOUT toil. Saying 58: blessed is the man who has TOILED, he has found life. Saying 97: the woman felt no hise the whole way home and arrived with an empty jar. Here the shepherd toils, and only then speaks. Effort is never the price of recognition in this book, but it is always the price of recovery.

ϯⲟⲩⲟϣⲕ⳿ ⲡⲁⲣⲁ ⲡⲥⲧⲉⲯⲓⲧ⳿ para used comparatively — “I love you MORE THAN the ninety-nine”, exactly as in saying 20, “smaller THAN all the seeds”. Twelfth appearance of the prefix. And the sentence is addressed TO THE SHEEP, which no other version does: he does not report the preference to anyone, he tells the animal.

Saying 108

Jesus said: “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me. I myself will become him — and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁⲩⲱ ⲛⲉⲑⲏⲡ⳿ ⲛⲁⲟⲩⲱⲛϩ ⲉⲣⲟϥ⳿ ethēp — THE INCIPIT’S WORD, and the circle closes here. The book opens “these are the HIDDEN sayings that the living Jesus spoke”; saying 5 promises that what is hidden will be uncovered; saying 84 names the one exception. Now, seven sayings from the end, the hidden things are revealed — and the condition is not study, obedience or belief. It is drinking from his mouth.

ⲡⲉⲧⲁⲥⲱ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲛ̄ ⲧⲁⲧⲁⲡⲣⲟ sō, to drink, and tapro, MOUTH — both from saying 13, where the disciple “DRANK and got drunk from the bubbling spring” and Thomas’s MOUTH is wholly unable to say what he is like. And in saying 14, what comes OUT of your mouth is what defiles you. Here the mouth is a source you drink from. Third and last appearance of the word, and the only time anything good comes out of one.

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ ϩⲱ ϯⲛⲁϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲉⲛⲧⲟϥ ⲡⲉ the exchange runs BOTH WAYS and the second half is the strange one: he will become the drinker. Not the disciple raised toward the master — a mutual substitution. Compare saying 13, where he refuses to be anyone’s teacher precisely at the moment Thomas stops being able to describe him.

Saying 109

Jesus said: “The kingdom is like a man who had a treasure hidden in his field and did not know about it. And after he died he left it to his son. The son did not know either — he took that field and sold it.

And the man who had bought it came ploughing, found the treasure, and began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲁϥⲁⲣⲭⲉⲓ ⲛ̄ϯ ϩⲟⲙⲧ⳿ ⲉⲧⲙⲏⲥⲉ HE ENDS UP DOING THE ONE THING SAYING 95 FORBIDS. mēse, interest, and homt, money — both the exact words of “if you have HOMT, do not lend it at MĒSE; give it to someone from whom you will not get it back.” Fourteen sayings later a man finds a buried treasure and immediately starts lending at interest to whoever he likes. Read on its own this looks like a success story, and it is usually presented as one. Read with 95 on the page, the finder is the third man in a row to fail to understand what he is holding — the first two did not know it was there, and he knows and turns it into a rent stream.

ⲛ̄ⲛⲟⲩⲉϩⲟ ⲉϥϩ[ⲏⲡ] eho, TREASURE — the storehouse of saying 45 that a man brings good or evil out of, the barn the rich man was filling when he died in 63, and the treasure “that does not give out” you are told to look for in 76. And hēp, HIDDEN, the book’s founding word. This one stays hidden through two owners and gets found by the wrong person.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲉϥ⳿ⲥⲱϣⲉ sōše — field, the same ground the little children are squatting on in saying 21 when the owners come to demand it back. There the children hand it over and keep themselves. Here three men in succession hold the deed and none of them knows what is under it.

Saying 110

Jesus said: “Whoever has found the world and become rich — let him renounce the world.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲙⲁⲣⲉϥⲁⲣⲛⲁ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ arna, from Greek arneomai, to renounce or disown — THE VERB OF SAYING 81: “let whoever has power RENOUNCE it.” There the object is dynamis; here it is the kosmos itself. Both times the instruction lands on the person who has just succeeded. Nothing is said to the poor in either saying.

ⲡⲉⲛⲧⲁϩϭⲓⲛⲉ [ⲙ̄]ⲡⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ cine — to find, the plain finding verb of “seek and you will FIND” in sayings 92 and 94. Set against saying 56: whoever comes to know the kosmos has found a corpse. Finding the world and getting rich off it are stated here as one event.

Saying 111

Jesus said: “The heavens and the earth will roll up in front of you. And whoever lives from the living one will not see death.”

Does not Jesus say: “Whoever finds himself — of him the world is not worthy”?

3 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲧⲁϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲟϥ⳿ ⲟⲩⲁⲁϥ OUAAF AGAIN, AND HERE IT CONFIRMS THE READING TAKEN AT 67. There, no ⲉ-marker before ouaaf, so it is the intensive pronoun on the subject — he HIMSELF is lacking. Look at this line. The object IS marked, erof, and ouaaf sits beside it as the intensifier: “whoever finds HIM-self.” Exactly the construction 67 does not have. The two sayings together show the difference on the page.

ⲡⲕⲁϩ ⲙ̄ⲡⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲙ̄ⲧⲟ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ⳿ IN FRONT OF YOU, for the fourth and last time — saying 5 (know what is in front of your face), 52 (you left out the living one in front of you), 91 (the one in front of you, you have not known). Here what is in front of you is the sky and the earth rolling up. The phrase that has meant “look down at the obvious” all book ends by putting the end of the world there.

ⲟⲩⲭ ϩⲟⲧⲓ ⲉⲓⲥ͞ ϫⲱ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲥ THE TEXT REFERS TO JESUS IN THE THIRD PERSON, inside a saying attributed to him — “does not Jesus say…”, with the Greek particle ouch hoti. Either a compiler’s aside has been absorbed into the saying, or the speaker is quoting himself as a known authority. Rendered as it stands, with the shift visible, rather than smoothed into first person.

Saying 112

Jesus said: “Woe to the flesh that hangs upon the soul. Woe to the soul that hangs upon the flesh.”

2 from the Coptic

ⲧⲁⲉⲓ ⲉⲧⲟϣⲉ oše — to hang, to depend, the same image as aše in saying 87: “wretched is the body that HANGS on a body, and wretched is the soul that hangs on these two.” Here the pair is mutual and closed — each hangs on the other and both get the woe. Neither term is the villain; the suspension is.

ⲛ̄ⲧⲥⲁⲣⲝ⳿ … ⲛ̄ⲧⲯⲩⲭⲏ sarx and psychē, both Greek. Compare saying 29, where flesh coming into being because of spirit is a wonder and spirit because of body a greater one — there the dependence is a marvel, here it is a curse. What changed is direction: 29 is about origin, 112 about what you are currently leaning your weight on.

Saying 113

His students said to him: “On what day is the kingdom coming?”

“It is not coming by being watched for. They will not say ‘Look, here’ or ‘Look, there.’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out across the earth — and people do not see it.”

3 from the Coptic

ⲉⲥⲡⲟⲣϣ⳿ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲓϫⲙ̄ ⲡⲕⲁϩ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲣ̄ⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲛⲁⲩ ⲁⲛ ⲉⲣⲟⲥ THE BOOK CLOSES ITS OLDEST QUESTION HERE. Saying 3 opens with the same two demonstratives being refused — “if those who draw you say LOOK, the kingdom is in the sky… LOOK, it is in the sea” — and answers that it is inside you and outside you. This is that answer given a second time, at the end, in flat geography: porš ebol, SPREAD OUT, laid across the ground already, and unseen. Not hidden, not distant, not late. Spread out and walked over.

ⲉⲥⲛ̄ⲛⲏⲩ ⲁⲛ ϩⲛ̄ ⲟⲩϭⲱϣⲧ⳿ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ⳿ cōšt ebol — to watch out for, look for expectantly; the phrase of saying 21 (“the advantage you are looking out for”) and 51 (“what you are watching for has already come, and you do not know it”). Watching is named here as the thing that prevents arrival. The posture of expectation is itself the obstacle.

ⲛ̄ⲁϣ ⲛ̄ϩⲟⲟⲩ aš n-hoou — “ON WHAT DAY”, the students’ formula, for the fifth and last time: how will our end be (18), on what day will you appear (37), what day does the new world come (51), and in 88 he tells them to ask it of themselves. Every single time it is refused. The last thing the students do in this book is ask for a date.

Saying 114

Simon Peter said to them: “Let Mariham leave us — for women are not worthy of life.”

Jesus said: “Look, I will draw her, so that I make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

4 from the Coptic

ⲁⲛⲟⲕ⳿ ϯⲛⲁⲥⲱⲕ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲙⲟⲥ HE USES THE BOOK’S WORD FOR BEING MISLED. sōk — to draw, to tow along — is the verb of saying 3, “those who DRAW you” toward a kingdom in the sky, and of saying 34, where a blind man DRAWS a blind man and they both go into the pit. It is also saying 8’s net being hauled up out of the sea. Every previous appearance is either a false leading or a catch being landed. Whatever else is happening in this last saying, it is stated in vocabulary this collection has spent 111 sayings making suspect. That is on the page, and it is not a defence of the line.

ϫⲉⲛ̄ⲥϩⲓⲟⲙⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡϣⲁ ⲁⲛ⳿ ⲙ̄ⲡⲱⲛϩ PETER PRONOUNCES ON WHO IS WORTHY, and mpša is the word this book uses in exactly two other places — saying 56 and saying 80 — where the WORLD is not worthy of a person. It has never once been used for one human ruling on another. Set beside saying 39, where the Pharisees hold the keys and stand in the doorway, and saying 102, where they are the dog in the manger: Peter is doing here what the book condemns wherever else it appears.

ⲛ̄ϩⲟⲟⲩⲧ⳿ … ⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ THE INTERNAL CONTROL IS SAYING 22, and it should be read beside this. There, entering the kingdom requires that you “make the male and the female into A SINGLE ONE, so that the male will not be male nor the female female.” If hooyt here meant simply being a man, 22 would flatly contradict 114, and the term the book has built for the undivided one — monachos, the solitary, sayings 16, 49 and 75 — is not gendered at all. So there is a reading on which “male” is the collection’s shorthand for the single, undivided state, and it is drawn from the text rather than imported to rescue it. It still does not make the sentence say something other than what it says.

ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲙⲁⲣⲓϩⲁⲙ ⲉⲓ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛ̄ϩⲏⲧⲛ̄ MARIHAM IS THE WOMAN OF SAYING 21, who asked what the students are like and got a straight answer with no reproach. Count the women in this book before this line: Mariham questions him (21); Salome challenges him about her own couch and is answered (61); a woman in the crowd is corrected but not dismissed (79); a woman hiding leaven IS what the kingdom is like (96); a woman carrying a jar IS what the kingdom is like (97). A collection that twice makes a woman the image of the kingdom ends with Peter asking for one to be removed. The tension is real, it is the last thing in the book, and it is printed here rather than quietly dropped — as the Gospel of Mary on this site is printed with Peter making the same complaint about the same woman.

Colophon

The Gospel According to Thomas

2 from the Coptic

ⲡⲉⲩⲁⲅⲅⲉⲗⲓⲟⲛ ⲡⲕⲁⲧⲁ ⲑⲱⲙⲁⲥ THE COLOPHON, written at the foot of the tractate by the scribe. euangelion kata Thōmas — and it is the only place in the entire manuscript where the word GOSPEL appears. The incipit calls the contents nšaje ethēp, HIDDEN SAYINGS, not a gospel; the title was added at the end, by the copyist, to file the thing. Everything between the two labels is sayings.

ⲑⲱⲙⲁⲥ And this line is where the Coptic transcription this rendering was made from begins its second, properly joined copy of the text — the marker used to locate the readable pass through the extraction. The last words of the book are also, in the working file, the first.

How this is made

Incipit

Saying 1

Saying 2

Saying 3

Saying 4

Saying 5

Saying 6

Saying 7

Saying 8

Saying 9

Saying 10

Saying 11

Saying 12

Saying 13

Saying 14

Saying 15

Saying 16

Saying 17

Saying 18

Saying 19

Saying 20

Saying 21

Saying 22

Saying 23

Saying 24

Saying 25

Saying 26

Saying 27

Saying 28

Saying 29

Saying 30

Saying 31

Saying 32

Saying 33

Saying 34

Saying 35

Saying 36

Saying 37

Saying 38

Saying 39

Saying 40

Saying 41

Saying 42

Saying 43

Saying 44

Saying 45

Saying 46

Saying 47

Saying 48

Saying 49

Saying 50

Saying 51

Saying 52

Saying 53

Saying 54

Saying 55

Saying 56

Saying 57

Saying 58

Saying 59

Saying 60

Saying 61

Saying 62

Saying 63

Saying 64

Saying 65

Saying 66

Saying 67

Saying 68

Saying 69

Saying 70

Saying 71

Saying 72

Saying 73

Saying 74

Saying 75

Saying 76

Saying 77

Saying 78