Texts in Conversation
The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of the Hebrews, which Clement of Alexandria quotes twice, share a saying that the seeker will find, wonder, reign and rest. Clement never has the seeker troubled, like the Greek text of Thomas and unlike the Coptic.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:2
Nag Hammadi
1 He said, “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.” 2 Jesus said, “Let the seeker keep seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will be troubled. When he is troubled, he will be astonished, and he will reign over the All. And once he has reigned, he will rest.” 3 Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty.”
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.9.32
Early Christian
The beginning of knowledge is wondering at objects, as Plato says is in his Theoetetus; and Matthew exhorting in the Traditions, says, "Wonder at what is before you;" laying this down first as the foundation of further knowledge. So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is written, "He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest. It is impossible, therefore, for an ignorant man, while he remains ignorant, to philosophize, not having apprehended the idea of wisdom; since philosophy is an effort to grasp that which truly is, and the studies that conduce thereto.
Date: 195 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 5.14.38
Early Christian
In the end of the Timoeus he says: "You must necessarily assimilate that which perceives to that which is perceived, according to its original nature; and it is by so assimilating it that you attain to the end of the highest life proposed by the gods to men, for the present or the future time." For those have equal power with these. He, who seeks, will not stop till he find; and having found, he will wonder; and wondering, he will reign; and reigning, he will rest. And what? Were not also those expressions of Thales derived from these? The fact that God is glorified for ever, and that He is expressly called by us the Searcher of hearts, he interprets.
Date: 195 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... First, while the Greek has the sequence ‘find → be astonished’ in the middle of the saying, the Coptic has in its place ‘find → be troubled → be astonished’. [...] The variation in Clement’s citations of the version is also interesting: his first reference to the version of the saying in the Gospel of the Hebrews has θαυμάζω, the second θαμβέω. [...] Given the parallel with Clement’s second citation of G. Heb., the text of P. Oxy. IV 654 here has a good claim to be the earliest form. [...] There are a number of parallels to this saying, the closest of which are the two references in Clement of Alexandria noted above: one is attributed to the Gospel of the Hebrews. These are usually used to assist in the reconstruction of the lacunose Greek text of Thomas, though this may have the effect of distorting the texts through over-harmonisation. The parallels in the Gospel of the Hebrews suggest that in both the places just discussed, the Greek of Thomas represents the earlier form of the text: it conforms very closely to Clement’s citations of the same formula. ...”
* 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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