Texts in Conversation
In Mark, Jesus says those who have will receive more and those who lack will lose what they have. In the Gospel of Thomas, what matters is having something within, and the outcome is survival or death rather than gain or loss.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Mark 4:25
New Testament
24 And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, and more will be added to you. 25 For whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
Gospel of Thomas 70
Nag Hammadi
69 Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted in their heart; they have truly come to know the Father. Blessed are the hungry, for the belly of the one who desires will be filled.” 70 Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will kill you.” 71 Jesus said, “I will destroy this house, and no one will be able to rebuild it.”
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Notes and References
“... This is a loose reworking of the saying preserved in the Synoptics (Mk 4.25; Matt. 13.12; Matt. 25.29; Lk. 8.18) and GTh 41: ‘Whoever has in his hand, to him it will be given. And whoever does not have, even the little which he has will be taken from him’ (see above on this saying). GTh 70 is much more specific. The possession in question clearly distinguishes the saved from the condemned; i.e. it probably represents the ‘light within the luminous person’, as GTh 24 puts it, or the light within the outward physical image of the person in GTh 83, or the true image in contrast to that physical image in GTh 84. ...”
* 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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