Texts in Conversation
Exodus sets the penalty of eye for eye, hand for hand and foot for foot. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus runs through the same eye, hand and foot, each in place of another, but as things his disciples must make before they can enter the kingdom.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 21:24
Hebrew Bible
23 But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Gospel of Thomas 1:22
Nag Hammadi
21 Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples like?” He said, “They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Give our field back to us.’ They take off their clothes in front of them to give it back and return their field to them. For this reason I say, if the owner of a house knows that a thief is coming, he will keep watch before he comes and will not let him break into the house of his kingdom and steal his goods. So you should keep watch against the world; gird your loins with great strength so that the robbers do not find a way to come to you, for the difficulties you expect will arise. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the crop ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.” 22 Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as little ones?” Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same—so that the male will not be male and the female not be female—when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].” 23 Jesus said, “I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one.”
Search:
Notes and References
“... 22.6 When you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot. Popkes is right to observe that 22.6 is apparently not about the overcoming of opposites, as was the case in 22.4–5. 22.6 speaks of replacement, rather than ‘making the two one’ as is found elsewhere. There are no less than three potential sources for the language and imagery here. (1) There is a peculiar correspondence here with the lex talionis in Exodus and the Sermon on the Mount, where we find the penalty of ‘an eye “in place of” an eye, a tooth “in place of” a tooth, a hand “in place of” a hand, a foot “in place of” a foot’ (ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ, ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος, χεῖρα ἀντὶ χειρός, πόδα ἀντὶ ποδός, Exod. 21.24). ...”
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,