Texts in Conversation
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas speaks of a bubbling spring that Thomas drank from until he was intoxicated. The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth uses very similar Coptic when its speaker sees a fountain bubbling up with life.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:13
Nag Hammadi
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.” 14 Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves; if you pray, you will be condemned; if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and travel about in the countryside, if they receive you, eat what they set before you and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, what comes out of your mouth is what will defile you.”
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth 3:11
Nag Hammadi
I have discovered the summit of the power above every power, the one without a beginning. I see a fountain bubbling up with life. O my son, I have said that I am Mind.
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Notes and References
“... 13.5 When you drank, you became drunk with the bubbling spring which I have dug. The question here is whether this is a commendation or a rebuke of Thomas. Most commentators take it to be a reference to the sobria ebrietas of mystical understanding, but it is notable that this statement by Jesus follows on from the correction of Thomas’s view. Thomas has perhaps gone too far. The saying goes on to make it clear that Thomas certainly is not yet as advanced as he could or ought to be, even though he has drunk from the spring. [...] On the spring as a source of life, see Disc. 8–9 58,13–14, where the language ([...]) is very similar to that of Thomas. The water imagery does not betray any clear relationship to John’s gospel, pace E.W. Saunders, ‘A Trio of Thomas Logia’, 44–48. ...”
* 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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