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Chapter 13

Such are the arguments of Julius Casinos, the originator of deceits. At any rate in his book Concerning Continence and Celibacy he says these words: "And let no one say that because we have these parts, that the female body is shaped this way and the male that way, the one to receive, the other to give seed, sexual intercourse is allowed by God. For if this arrangement had been made by God, to whom we seek to attain, he would not have pronounced eunuchs blessed; nor would the prophet have said that they are 'not an unfruitful tree,' using the tree as an illustration of the man who chooses to emasculate himself of any such notion." And striving still further to support his godless opinion he adds: "Could not one rightly find fault with the Saviour if he was responsible for our formation and then delivered us from error and from this use of the generative organs?" In this respect his teaching is the same as Titian’s. But he departed from the school of Valentine. On this account he says: "When Salome ' asked when she would know the answer to her questions, the Lord said, When you trample on the robe of shame, and when the two shall be one,⁠ and the male with the female, and there is neither male nor female."⁠ In the first place we have not got the saying in the four Gospels that have been handed down to us, but in the Gospel according to the Egyptians. Secondly Cassia seems to me not to know that it refers to wrath in speaking of and to desire in speaking of the female. When these operate, there follow repentance and shame. But when a man gives in neither to wrath nor to desire, both of which increase in consequence of evil habit and upbringing so as to cloud and obscure rational thought, but puts off from him the darkness they cause with penitence and shame, uniting spirit and soul in obedience to the Word, then, as Paul also says, "there is among you neither male nor female." For the soul leaves this physical form in which male and female are distinguished, and being neither the one nor the other changes to unity. But this worthy fellow thinks in Platonic fashion that the soul is of divine origin and, having become female by desire, has come down here from above to birth and corruption. .

Book 4

Texts in conversation

Compare Gospel of Thomas 37 and Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.13.5

Nag Hammadi · Early Christian

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Summary

In the Gospel of Thomas, people must trample their clothes like unashamed children to see Jesus. Clement quotes a similar act from the Gospel of the Egyptians, where it accompanies the end of the division between male and female.

Passages

Gospel of Thomas 37

Nag Hammadi
36 Jesus said, “Do not be anxious from morning to evening and from evening to morning about what you will wear.” 37 His disciples said, “When will you become revealed to us, and when shall we see you?” Jesus said, “When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your garments and place them under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the Son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.” 38 Jesus said, “Many times you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and will not find me.”
135–200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Thomas

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.13.5

Early Christian
But he departed from the school of Valentine. On this account he says: "When Salome ' asked when she would know the answer to her questions, the Lord said, When you trample on the robe of shame, and when the two shall be one, and the male with the female, and there is neither male nor female." In the first place we have not got the saying in the four Gospels that have been handed down to us, but in the Gospel according to the Egyptians. Secondly Cassia seems to me not to know that it refers to wrath in speaking of and to desire in speaking of the female.

References

“... The thirty-seventh Coptic saying is an almost exact reproduction of the Greek text, in so far as the latter is preserved. 'His disciples said, "On what day will you reveal yourself to us and on what day shall we see you?" Jesus said, "When (hotan) you take off your clothes (and) are not ashamed, and take your tunics and lay them under your feet like little children and tread upon them, then (tote) [you will become] sons of the Living One and you will not fear'" (87:27-34; 88:1-2). [...] 'His disciples say to him, "When will you be revealed to us and when shall we see you?" He says, "When you take off your clothes and are not ashamed, and take your tunics and put them under your feet like little children and tread upon them, then you will see the Son of the Living One and you will not fear."' [...] v. patesete: Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 3, 13, 92; GCS 15, 238) has preserved a quotation from the Gospel according to the Egyptians, which has a very similar statement ascribed to Jesus, 'To Salome's question, when the things about which he was speaking will be known, the Lord said, "When you tread upon the garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male (will be) with the female, neither male nor female.'" See the discussion in Resch, Agrapha, pp. 252-4. ...”
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament (Missoula, MT: Scholars, 1971), 409–410.

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Gospel of Thomas 37 and Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.13.5

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