Early Christian Writings Gospel of Thomas Saying 17 Previous - Gospel of Thomas Home - Next

You can view this web page along with Grondin's Coptic/English Interlinear in frames.
Nag Hammadi Coptic Text Funk's Parallels
Isa 64:4, Luke 10:23-24,
Matt 13:16-17, 1 Cor 2:9,
1 Clem 34:8, 2 Clem
11:7, Turfan Fragment M
789, Acts of Peter 39,
BLATZ LAYTON DORESSE DialSav 57, The Prayer
of the Apostle Paul 25-
(17) Jesus said: I will give (17) Jesus said, "I shall give 18 [17]. Jesus says: "I will 29.
you what no eye has seen you (plur.) what eyes have give you what eye has never
and what no ear has heard not seen, what ears have not seen, and what ear has
and what no hand has heard, what hands have not never heard, and what hand
touched and what has not touched, what has not come has never touched, and what
entered into the heart of upon the human heart." has never entered into the
man. heart of man."

Visitor Comments Scholarly Quotes

He could have hardly been Funk quotes Turfan Fragment M 789 as follows: "'I will give you what you have not
more clear in claiming that seen with your eyes, nor heard with your ears, nor grasped with your hand.'
he was making revolutionary (Hennecke 1:300)" (New Gospel Parallels, v. 2, p. 119)
statements about God and Marvin Meyer writes: "This saying is also cited in 1 Corinthians 2:9, perhaps as a
Ultimate Reality. wisdom saying in use among the enthusiasts of Corinthians. Compare Isaiah 64:4.
- active-mystic The saying occurs frequently in Jewish and Christian literature, and sometimes it is
Jesus said: I will give you said to come from the Apocalypse of Elijah or the Secrets (or, apocrypha) of Elijah.
what no eye has seen (the At other times it is said to be a saying of Jesus. A variant of the saying is also found
gospel of Jesus, which your in Plutarch, How the Young Person Should Study Poetry 17E: 'And let these (words)
eye has not seen, although it of Empedocles be at hand: "Thus these things are not to be seen by men, nor heard,
is before you) and what no nor comprehended with the mind." . . .' The parallels have been collected by Michael
ear has heard (my special E. Stone and John Strugnell, The Books of Elijah: Parts 1-2, pp. 41-73." (The Gospel
message to you, which you of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 76)
will hear when you know Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "The apostle Paul quotes
that this is my gospel) and something very close to this saying, perhaps from a lost document, in 1 Corinthians
what no hand has touched 2:9: 'As it is written, What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and what has not
(the gospel of the founder of entered into the heart of man, such things God has prepared for those who love him.'
your religion, which your By the end of the second century these words were ascribed to Jesus, as in the
hand will touch when you Martyrdom of Peter (chapter 10) and the Acts of Peter with Simon (chapter 39).
know that this is my gospel) Thomas adds a unique reference to the sense of touch. The joys of the kingdom are
and what has not entered into completely unrelated to sense perception. (We should add that, like other Gnostics,
the heart of man (me-Jesus- he undoubtedly rejected the accounts in the gospels which speak of Jesus's risen body
who is already in your heart, as tangible - Luke 24:39; John 20:27). His phrasing of this saying is the exact reverse
as you will understand when of 1 John 1:1, which speaks of 'What we have heard, what we have seen with our
you know that this is my eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 137)
gospel and use this
R. McL. Wilson writes: "As Jeremias observes, a considerable number of the
knowledge to find and enter Agrapha arise from the erroneous attribution to Jesus of sayings which actually
the Kingdom of God). belong to others. An example, indeed, occurs in the New Testament itself, since the
- Simon Magus words ascribed to John the Baptist in the Gospels (Matt. iii. 11 and par.) are in Acts
Maybe the gift is only (i. 5, xi. 16) attributed to Jesus. For logion 17 the New Testament parallel is 1
something like "meaning" or Corinthians ii. 9, where Paul introduces these words by the formula 'as it is written.'
"direction". Because he is the This has long presented a problem, since the saying is not an exact quotation of any
only one able to provide this, Old Testament text (the nearest is Isa. lxiv. 3-4, but not in LXX). It is not, of course,
it has not been seen, heard, impossible that Paul is quoting a saying of Jesus, but in that case we should have
touched or felt yet by man. expected him to indicate the fact, as in other passages (e.g. 1 Cor. vii. 10, ix. 14, 1
This also would implicate Thess. iv. 15 ff.); moreover, the introductory formula suggests a written source, and
that it is not something of an would be quite unusual in a reference to tradition. On the whole, therefore, we should
"object" but something found probably see in logion 17 a Pauline saying growing into a word of Jesus. As Puech
through him (if you choose and others have noted, the saying is attributed to Jesus also in the Acts of Peter (39).
to accept it). P. Prigent has drawn attention to a series of quotations of this text, some of them
- ajee apparently independent of Paul, in various early Christian sources, and suggests that
it may go back ultimately to the liturgy of the synagogue." (Studies in the Gospel of
A technical injunction. He Thomas, pp. 102-103)
will give higher knowledge.
This cannot be seen by eye, F. F. Bruce writes: "This saying has no parallel in the canonical Gospels, but it is very
heard by ear, etc, an organ of similar to the quotation in 1 Corinthians 2.9 which Paul introduces by 'as itis written'
higher perception has first to - a clause which normally indicates an Old Testament source. Here, however, we
be created. It will not be have no Old Testament quotation (the resemblance to Isaiah 64.4 is superficial);
preceived by the heart [or according to Origen and others it is a quotation from the Secrets (or Apocalypse) of
head, mind, intellect] of the Elijah. [Origen, Commentary on Matthew 27.9; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 64.4;
unregenerate person. First Ambrosiaster, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.9.] Like the Gospel of Thomas, the
learn how to learn! second-century work called the Acts of Peter ascribes the saying to Jesus. [Acts of
- Thief37 Peter 39.] In its present context it perhaps belongs to a Naassene formula of
initiation. Whereas Paul quotes the words with reference to the hidden wisdom which
What has not been seen by his Corinthian converts are unable to grasp because of their spiritual immaturity and
an eye? What has not an ear lack of brotherly love, here they are probably intende to recommend that kind of
heard? What has not been 'knowledge' on which the Corinthians, in Paul's judgment, concentrated too much. It
touched by a hand? What is has also been suggested that they were used by Gnostics as a counterblast to the anti-
not in the heart of man? The Gnostic claim in 1 John 1.1 to bear witness only to that 'which we have heard, which
true self, which may be we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our
experienced but not by the hands'. (The clause 'what hand never touched', unparalleled in 1 Corinthians 2.9, may
five senses of man and is not echo 1 John 1.1.)" (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 120-
confounded to the cardiac 121)
muscle.
- Maitreya John S. Kloppenborg, Marvin W. Meyer, Stephen J. Patterson, and Michael G.
Steinhauser state: "In view of the fact that Paul in this letter is struggling against the
17
kind of esotericism promoted by this saying, it is not likely that he has quoted it here
simply because he liked it. Rather, he must have drawn it from the repertoire of his
opponents, only to fill it with new content amenable to his version of the gospel.
Alias: According to Paul, that which has been revealed is not the knowledge (GNWSIS)
that has 'puffed up' the 'wise' in Corinth, but the crucifixion, the 'word of the cross' as
Paul himself puts it (1:18). Paul in a sense co-opts the methods of his opponents in
order to correct their message." (Q-Thomas Reader, p. 113)
Stevan Davies writes: "That which previously was unseen, unheard, untouched,
unthought is now available, according to sayings 18 and 19, for it is the end that is
 the beginning. A person who takes his place in the beginning will know the end and
not experience death; thus the beginning is a state of being that can be comprehended
in the present. Heretofore hidden, the beginning now is revealed (sayings 5, 6, 108).
Thomas's saying 17 refers to the kingdom of God in the physical world, a visible,
audible, tangible, experienced reality (sayings 3, 51, 113). When Paul quotes a
scripture paralleled in saying 17 (1 Cor 2:7-9), he too understands that what is now
revealed has existed from the beginning: 'a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which
God decreed before the ages for our glorification.' Similarly, when 1 John 1:2 alludes
Post the Note to what evidently is saying 17, or Paul's scripture, what has happened in the present
is associated with the beginning: 'That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched
Discuss it now at AMC with our hands, concerning the word of life....'"
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