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Luke has Jesus bring fire on the earth, and Matthew has him bring a sword. In the Gospel of Thomas he brings fire and sword together, joining the fire saying of Luke to the saying about peace and division that both Gospels share.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 10:34
New Testament
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword! 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
Luke 12:49
New Testament
49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth—and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is finished! 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
Gospel of Thomas 1:16
Nag Hammadi
15 Jesus said, “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship him; that one is your Father.” 16 Jesus said, “People perhaps think 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 as solitary ones.” 17 Jesus said, “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 arisen in the human heart.”
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Notes and References
“... In the second half of the saying, one usually wants to choose between [...] (“sword,” Matthew) and [...] (“division,” Luke). However, the text of GThom 16 suggests that Q 12:51b presented both terms. Furthermore, GThom 16 includes among its terms also “fire”; though certainly secondary in that context, it might indicate that its source coupled the two sayings Luke 12:49 (= GThom 10) and 12:51. That would be a strong argument for the inclusion of Luke 12:49 in Q. ...”
Koester, Helmut
"Q and Its Relatives" in Goehring, James E., Charles W. Hedrick, and Jack T. Sanders, with Hans Dieter Betz (eds.) Gospel Origins & Christian Beginnings: In Honor of James M. Robinson
(p. 62) Polebridge Press, 1990
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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