Texts in Conversation
In Matthew, Jesus uses a thief to warn disciples to prepare for the Son of Man. In the Gospel of Thomas, the threatened house illustrates watchfulness against the world, changing the danger from an unexpected arrival to an ongoing threat.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 24:43
New Testament
42 “Therefore stay alert because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Gospel of Thomas 1:21
Nag Hammadi
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.” 21 Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples like?” He said, “They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Give our field back to us.’ They take off their clothes in front of them to give it back and return their field to them. For this reason I say, if the owner of a house knows that a thief is coming, he will keep watch before he comes and will not let him break into the house of his kingdom and steal his goods. So you should keep watch against the world; gird your loins with great strength so that the robbers do not find a way to come to you, for the difficulties you expect will arise. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the crop ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.” 22 Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as little ones?” Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same—so that the male will not be male and the female not be female—when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].”
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Notes and References
“... According to the third hypothesis, in tradition-historical terms the application Q 12:40 is secondary to the parable of Q 12:39; then only the parable comes from Jesus. [...] The decision is difficult. The brief parable of the thief is an exegetical tough nut. In my judgment, the parable Q 12:39 is quite old, and it probably goes back to Jesus. What especially speaks for this view is that it has left its traces in numerous New Testament and later texts (1 Thess 5:2, 4; 2 Pet 3:10; [...] 3:3; 16:15; Gos. Thom. 21, 103); thus in an exemplary way it meets the criterion of multiple attestation. [...] Is the application of Q 12:40 secondary? Reasons given for this thesis are: (1) Text-critically Luke 12:40 is not certain, and it may have come from Matt 24:44. [...] (2) Gos. Thom. 21 and 103 do not know the application. [...] (3) 1 Thess 5:2, 4, and 2 Pet 3:10 speak not of the Son of Man but of the "day of the Lord"; thus the reference to the Son of Man could be secondary. ...”
* 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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