“... (1) First, Jackson argues for multiple backgrounds in the Bible (especially the Psalms), Platonism and Gnosticism, with the result that the lion in GTh 7 symbolises ‘the body’s ravenous appetites which threaten to devour the spiritual man and bury him in the material world’, or again, ‘the roaring, ravenous appetites of the flesh, especially those for its generation, that constantly threaten to devour the spiritual man’. The beatitude in 7.1 refers to the way in which ‘the ferocity of the leontomorphic demiurge can be mollified’ when the passions are brought under control; the curse comes upon man when it is the appetites which take control. Crislip makes two criticisms of this view, namely that Jackson’s position depends on a ‘gnosticising interpretation’ of the saying, which is unnecessary, and also that Jackson’s link with the account of the soul in the Nag Hammadi text of the Republic is unconvincing. [...] Overall, the most likely interpretation is a chastened version of the view of Jackson. Crislip is correct that the saying is not necessarily Gnostic (in the sense employed in this commentary: see Introduction, ‘Appended Note: Is Thomas “Gnostic”?’, above), but his criticism of Jackson’s appeal to the Platonic background is not decisive: Jackson refers to a great number of other sources in addition to Plato. The saying should still be understood as the warning of the threat of passionate appetites: 7.1—it is good when a person controls these appetites, but, 7.2—disastrous when one succumbs to them. ...”