Texts in Conversation
In 2 Baruch, God tells Baruch the world came into being for the righteous, and rabbinic texts such as Sifre Deuteronomy say the same. Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas names James the Just, or righteous, as the one heaven and earth exist for.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Baruch 15:7
Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
Pseudepigrapha
6 But now, because he transgressed knowingly, yes, just on this ground that he knew it, he shall be tormented. 7 And as regards what you did say about the righteous, that on account of them this world has come, so also again shall that, which is to come, come on their account. 8 For this world is to them a strife and a labor with much trouble; and that accordingly which is to come, a crown with great glory.’
Gospel of Thomas 1:12
Nag Hammadi
11 Jesus said, “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 consumed what is dead, you made it alive; when you come into the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?” 12 The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will leave us. Who will be our leader?” Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you should go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.” 13 Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me and tell me whom I am like.” Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous messenger.” Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to him, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say whom you are like.” Jesus said, “I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring I have measured out.” And he took him and withdrew and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you even one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me, and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
Sifre Deuteronomy 47
Halakhic Midrash
Rabbinic
Variantly: "as the days of the heavens upon the earth": They (the righteous) will live and endure for ever and ever. And thus is it written (Isaiah 66:22) "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I will make will remain before Me, says the L-rd, etc." Now does this not follow a fortiori, viz.: If the heavens and the earth, which were created only for the honor of the righteous, will live and endure forever, how much more so, the righteous themselves, for whose sake the world was created!
Date: 200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Let us first approach saying 12 as an isolated text. The disciples ask Jesus who is going to be their leader after his departure [...] “Who will be the greatest over us?” Jesus seems to give a straightforward answer to this question by announcing the name of his successor: “wherever you come from” (i.e., regardless of your native land and the faith of you forefathers) it is James the Just [...] (the Greek Vorlage most certainly read Ἰάκωβος ὁ δίκαιος), to whom you should go. James’ epithet, ὁ δίκαιος (“the just/righteous one”), is well-attested in early Christian sources and is always used as an honorary epithet. It occurs already in Hegesippus, who claims that James has been called ὁ δίκαιος “since the time of the Lord” and that this epithet was given to him “because of his excessive righteousness” (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.23.4 and 2.23.7; trans. R.J. Deferrari). Jesus also says that James the Just is the one “for whose sake [...] heaven and earth came into being.” This expression certainly refers to the exalted status of James and has numerous parallels. According to various early Jewish and early Christian sources, the world was created for the sake of Israel (As. Mos. 1.12; 4 Ezra 6.55, 59; 7.11), for the sake of the righteous (2 Bar. 14.19; 15.7; 21.24), or for the sake of the church (Herm. Vis. 1.1.6 [1:6]; Herm. Vis. 2.4.1 [8:1]). To sum up, if we disregard the context of and read Gos. Thom. 12 as an isolated text, this saying appears to regard James in high esteem. [...] This motif is also attested in the rabbinic sources; see Ginzberg 1909–1928, 5:67–68. ...”
Miroshnikov, Ivan
The Gospel of Thomas and Plato: A Study of the Impact of Platonism on the Fifth Gospel
(p. 32) Brill, 2018
* 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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