Texts in Conversation
First Timothy repeats an old proverb that people bring nothing into the world and take nothing out. Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas uses it for people who arrive empty and leave empty, but they are people he finds drunk and blind, and money never comes up.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Timothy 6:7
New Testament
6 Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. 7 For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. 8 But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that.
Gospel of Thomas 1:28
Nag Hammadi
27 “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath a Sabbath, you will not see the Father.” 28 Jesus said, “I stood in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk; none of them thirsted. My soul was pained for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see. They came into the world empty, and they seek to go out of the world empty. But now they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, they will repent.” 29 Jesus said, “If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Yet I marvel at this: how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.”
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Notes and References
“... 28.3 For they came into the world empty, and they seek still to come out of the world empty. The third image used after drunkenness and blindness is emptiness. This saying is a version of a widely distributed proverb which is both biblical and classical. The ‘emptiness’ in these other proverbs, however, refers to the lack of wealth possessed by the newborn or the dead. In this context in Thomas it is probably more the spiritual deficiency noted in GTh 67: the reference is to emptiness of knowledge. [...] Job 1.21; cf. Ps. 48.18; Eccl. 5.15; Philo, Spec. 1.294–295; 1 Tim. 6.7; Polycarp, Phil. 4.1; cf. Seneca, Ep. 102.25: non licet plus efferre quam intuleris. ...”
* 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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