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The Babylonian Talmud records rabbis saying the world was created for David, for Moses, or for the Messiah. The Gospel of Thomas, centuries earlier, has Jesus say that heaven and earth came into being for one man, James the Just.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:12
Nag Hammadi
11 Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it alive; when you come into the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?” 12 The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will leave us. Who will be our leader?” Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you should go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.” 13 Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me and tell me whom I am like.” Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous messenger.” Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to him, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say whom you are like.” Jesus said, “I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring I have measured out.” And he took him and withdrew and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you even one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me, and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
Sanhedrin 98b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
Rav says: The world was created only for the sake of David, by virtue of his merit. And Shmuel says: It was created by virtue of the merit of Moses. And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: It was created by virtue of the merit of the Messiah.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Hence Bammel’s conclusion that the creation of the world for Israel is ‘an idea very common in Jewish sources’. Finally, in the Talmud, we have the possibility of the world being created for individuals: ‘Rab said: The world was created only on David’s account. Samuel said: On Moses’ account; R. Johanan said: For the sake of the Messiah’ (b. Sanh. 98b). On the basis of passages such as these, it is plausible to conclude that GTh 12 is a hyperbolic statement following on from James being especially ‘just’ or ‘righteous’. Even against this Jewish background, however, the language in GTh 12 is remarkably strong. [...] Second, it is striking to have the creation spoken about in connection with an individual. The only other individual in earlier literature is Adam, although later on (e.g. in the Talmud) individuals are more prevalent. [...] In Thomas we have hyperbole, though it is hyperbole expressing an extremely exalted status not only in ecclesiastical but probably also in cosmic terms. ...”
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