“... It would seem reasonable to conclude that Luke modeled this passage after Iliad 22 primarily and used biblical images for elaboration. If this is the case, the parallel in the Gospel of Thomas does not witness to a tradition independent of Luke but to the text of Luke itself. Already in the first line in Thomas one sees possible evidence of Lucan redaction insofar as it seems to presuppose a narrative context: “A woman from the crowd. . . . ” The parallels between Thomas and Luke 11 are nearly identical, including the reference to the plural construction “blessed are those. . . . ” But the parallels with Luke 23 are a different matter. First, Thomas alters the plural “Blessed are. . . . ” to the singular, “Blessed is. . . . ” In Luke the women are blessed because they would not have to see their children killed in the war. In Thomas the woman is blessed because she, in observing “the word of the Father,” chooses not to have sex. This would explain the absence of Luke’s reference to women who are sterile and the change from “never gave birth” in Luke to “did not conceive” in Thomas. Notice also that Thomas omits entirely any reference to the fall of Jerusalem; it focuses entirely on sexuality. In each of these changes, Thomas seems to be secondary to Luke; indeed, each can be explained as a redaction of Luke as a direct source. There is no reason to think that Thomas knew a pre-Lucan tradition about the blessing of the breasts. ...”