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The Gospel of Philip takes Matthew's axe at the tree's root as a call to uncover evil within oneself. Cutting away visible faults would let them grow back; removing the root makes John's warning a demand for lasting change rather than outward correction.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 3:10
New Testament
5 Then people from Jerusalem, as well as all Judea and all the region around the Jordan, were going out to him, 6 and he was baptizing them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance, 9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 10 Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Gospel of Philip 11:93
Nag Hammadi
It is this way with every offspring in the world, not only the visible, but also the concealed, because as long as the root of evil is concealed, it remains strong. If, however, one is made aware of it, it will die, and if it is made visible, it will be destroyed. Consequently, the Logos says: “Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” It will not cut. What is cut will sprout again. Instead, the axe digs down inside until it severs the root. Jesus ripped out the root entirely, but others (only) partly. Regarding us, may each one of us dig down to the root of evil that is inside him, and pull it out from its root inside his heart, and it will be uprooted if we are aware of it.
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Notes and References
“... Within the larger discussion of how the freedom of the knowledge of the truth relates to moral purity, the author appears to quote Matt 3:10 in 83.11–13 (‘That is why the word says, “Already the axe is laid at the root of the tree”’) to show the importance of exposing the root of evil so that it will no longer produce its fruit, and so the fruits of truth will be found within us. The correlation of Matt 3:10 with ‘knowledge of the truth’ and the production of good fruit is also found in a fragment of Irenaeus: ‘“The axe unto the root,” he says, urging us to the knowledge of the truth, and purifying us by means of fear, as well as preparing [us] to bring forth fruit in due season.’30 Similar to Irenaeus, the Gos. Phil. makes the same progression from a quotation of Matt 3:10 to an ethical exhortation based on ‘knowledge of the truth,’ but a parallel with John 8:32 in the Irenaeus’ fragment is not explicit. ...”
Zelyck, Lorne R.
John among the Other Gospels: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Extra-Canonical Gospels
(p. 112) Mohr Siebeck, 2013
* 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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