Texts in Conversation
Jesus marvels in the Gospel of Thomas that great wealth has made its home in poverty. The Authentic Logos has the soul sick in an impoverished house, and the Gospel of Philip calls the soul something valuable living in a lowly body.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Gospel of Thomas 1:29
Nag Hammadi
28 Jesus said, “I stood in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk; none of them thirsted. My soul was pained for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see. They came into the world empty, and they seek to go out of the world empty. But now they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, they will repent.” 29 Jesus said, “If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Yet I marvel at this: how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.” 30 Jesus said, “Where there are three gods, they are gods; where there are two or one, I am with him.”
Authentic Logos 6:3
Authoritative Teaching
Nag Hammadi
There is, however, a mighty strength hidden inside us. Our soul is indeed sick because she dwells in an impoverished house, while matter throws punches at her eyes, desiring to blind her. This is why she pursues the Logos, even applying it to her eyes like medicine, ‹opening› them and throwing away [blindness...].
Gospel of Philip 3:22
Nag Hammadi
Often, however, countless sums have been placed inside a container of little worth. This is the way it is regarding the soul: It is something valuable, and it has come to dwell inside a lowly body. Some are afraid that they might be resurrected naked.
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Notes and References
“... What is clear in this saying is that the close relation of soul-spirit and body-flesh is something extremely regrettable, as GTh 112 makes clear: ‘Woe to the flesh which hangs on the soul. Woe to the soul which hangs on the flesh.’ The ‘astonishment’ in GTh 29 is therefore at something shocking, rather than at something wonderful. [...] 29.3 But I do marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty! Plisch remarks that such an expression of ‘wondering bewilderment’ cannot have referred originally to Jesus, but must have been a commentator’s gloss. It is not so unimaginable, however: Jesus can be amazed in the Synoptic tradition as well (Mk 6.6; Matt. 8.10/Lk. 7.9). The woeful situation of the soul within the body is a common-place. [...] Cf. Gos. Phil. 56,20–26; Auth. Teach. 27,25–27: ‘Our soul is indeed ill, because she dwells in a house of poverty’. ...”
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