“... Matthew 13:45-46 [Jesus said,] 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls; 46 and when he had found one pearl of extraordinary value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." Thomas 76 Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a merchant who had a consignment of merchandise and who discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone for himself. You too, seek his unfailing and enduring treasure where no moth comes near to devour and no worm destroys." [...] Within the canonical gospels the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price is found only in the Gospel of Matthew. Like the Parable of the Treasure in the Field, it is very brief and does not have an application appended to it. [...] The version within the Gospel of Thomas is longer and contains an application (the last sentence in the quotation above), as do two other parables in that Gospel (the Burglar, 21; and the Great Supper, 64). Whether it is based on an independent tradition, as some contend, or on Matthew's version is debated. [...] In any case, the version of the parable in the Gospel of Thomas appears to have a gnostic meaning: the pearl is the divine spark within the self, and once it is found, the Gnostic abandons the material world that worms can devour. It is interesting to note that the main figure of the parable, who is likened to a Gnostic, is a merchant, but in logion 64 Jesus says, "Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father." ...”