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The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip both have Jesus bless the one who existed before coming into being. Philip gives the blessing in nearly the same form as Thomas and adds that the one who is both was and shall be.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:19
Nag Hammadi
18 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered the beginning, that you are seeking the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be. Blessed is the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.” 19 Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who existed before coming into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will serve you. For you have five trees in paradise which do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death.” 20 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like.” He said to them, “It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds; but when it falls on plowed soil it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.”
Gospel of Philip 7:7
Nag Hammadi
When the light arrives, then he who sees will behold the light, and he who is blind will persist in darkness.” The Lord said: “Blessed is he who is before he came to be,” because he who is has come to be, and he will come to be. The might of man is not seen, but it dwells in what is concealed.
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Notes and References
“... The Gnostic is not concerned with temporal pre-existence as such, but only with the nature of man which is expressed in this term; something that is elsewhere couched for preference in spatial categories (above-below; Excerpts from [...] 78:2, “ . . . where we were, whither we have been cast down, whither we hasten”), can also be put in terms of time. This explains the enigmatic logion which is found in the Gospel of Thomas (logion 19): “Jesus said: Blessed is he who was before he came into being”, and in the Gospel of Philip: “The Lord said, Blessed is he who is before he came into being. For he who is, both was and shall be” (logion 57). The subject is true, substantial existence, which is found only in those who are not confined to their present earthly state but participate in spiritual and eternal being; “the merely material man . . . belongs only to this world, and has neither past nor future”. ...”
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