Texts in Conversation
In Galatians, Paul says that in Jesus there is no male and female, where all are equal heirs to God's Kingdom. The Gospel of Thomas uses similar language, promising the kingdom to those who make the male and female the same.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Galatians 3:28
New Testament
26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.
Gospel of Thomas 1:22
Early Christian
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.”
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Notes and References
“... The transcendance of all divisions, even of a division as seemingly irremovable as that between male and female, was the surest sign that the redemption offered by Christ had come to the believer: They said to Him: ‘Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?’ Jesus said to them: ‘When you make the two one . . . and when you make the male and the female into one and the same, so that the male shall not be male nor the female female . . . then you will enter the Kingdom.’ Hence the importance of his doctrine of the syzygies for Valentinus’ notion of the redemption of the individual person. ...”
Brown, Peter
The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity
(pp. 114-115) Columbia University Press, 1988
* 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.
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