Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Apocryphote of the Day: 6-11-08

Jesus said, "I came to make [what is below] like what is [above and what is] outside like what is [inside. I came to unite] them."

Gospel of Philip 67.30-34

Commentary: Here are more fragments of sayings of Jesus twined together.

1 comment:

lightseeker said...

I see the relation of this verse to GT 72:

72. A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."

He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?"

He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?"

Jesus is one who unites. By uniting heaven and earth, spirit and flesh, this is how the Kingdom is manifested on Earth and in each human being.

What I find fascinating by this study of related verses in different texts is the illustration of multiple attestation - which seems to be a criterion among scholars to test the degree of probability of the authenticity of a saying of Jesus. It was done with the canonical gospels. Is this same criterion of multiple attestation valid with non-canonical texts? Or is this just an example of a saying's popularity among oral traditions? (Which, likewise, could hold true for the canonical gospels.)