“... Then Origen added, “as he says, perhaps one from a thousand, and two from ten thousand [...], among whom the blessed apostles also were.” The source for Origen’s quotation is unlikely to be the Old or New Testaments. The closest passage is Deut 32:30, “How could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to [...]?” [...], but unlike Origen’s quotation, the “one” and the “two” are not [...] as coming from the “thousand” and the “ten thousand,” respectively. Also unlike the quoted material, the context is about routing the enemy, not about identifying the very few, such as the apostles. Indeed, the Old Testament is a rather poor candidate for Origen’s source, because his mention of the “blessed apostles” suggests that the speaker of the saying is Jesus, not the Old Testament. On the other hand, Gos. Thom. 23, [...] Origen’s context for the quoted saying much better: Jesus says, “I will choose you, one from a thousand and two from then thousand. And they will stand as a single one.” Unlike the Deuteronomy passage, the saying in the Gospel of Thomas [...] Origen’s context very well. Origen went on to state that the “blessed apostles” are included among the “very few,” while Gos. Thom. 23 explicitly [...] the “one” and “two” as being those whom Jesus chose. ...”