Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Philip, written after the Gospel of Thomas, has Jesus bless the one who is before he came to be. Philip is probably quoting the blessing that opens this saying in Thomas.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:19
Nag Hammadi
18 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered the beginning, that you are seeking the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be. Blessed is the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.” 19 Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who existed before coming into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will serve you. For you have five trees in paradise which do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death.” 20 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like.” He said to them, “It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds; but when it falls on plowed soil it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.”
Gospel of Philip 7:7
Nag Hammadi
When the light arrives, then he who sees will behold the light, and he who is blind will persist in darkness.” The Lord said: “Blessed is he who is before he came to be,” because he who is has come to be, and he will come to be. The might of man is not seen, but it dwells in what is concealed.
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Notes and References
“... On the fairly well-founded assumption that the Gospel of Philip postdates Thomas, there is a probable reference to GTh 19.1 (Jesus said, ‘Blessed is he who has come into being before he has come into being’) in Gos. Phil. 64,9–12: ‘The Lord said, “Blessed is he who is before he came into being”’. One might compare the parallels in Irenaeus and Lactantius noted above. ...”
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