Gospel of Thomas Quotes

Translated by Mark M. Mattison

Email: info@gospelofthomas.net if you have any comments or questions. This site costs me roughly $8/month. Donations gratefully accepted (not tax-deductible).

These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.

Symbols

[ ] Gap in the text
( ) Editorial insertion
/ \ Editorial correction of a scribal error

A Random Saying

Saying 47: The Parables of Divided Loyalties,
New Wine in Old Wineskins, and New Patch on Old Cloth

Jesus said, "It's not possible for anyone to mount two horses or stretch two bows, and it's not possible for a servant to follow two leaders, because they'll respect one and despise the other.

"No one drinks old wine and immediately wants to drink new wine. And new wine isn't put in old wineskins, because they'd burst. Nor is old wine put in new wineskins, because it'd spoil.

"A new patch of cloth isn't sewn onto an old coat, because it'd tear apart."

Credits

• Text: Gospels.Net and Mark M. Mattison: "The following translation has been committed to the public domain and may be freely copied and used, changed or unchanged, for any purpose. It is based on the Coptic text of Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2." Original site has notes on the translation.
• Background image: Robinson, J.M. et al., eds. The Fascimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices: Codex II. Leiden: Brill, 1974 (via Wikipedia, whose legal position is that this is a public domain image in the United States). Visit The Institute for Antiquity and Christianity for more information.
• Code: Michel Kern's PHP Fortune extensively refactored by myself.

See the gorgeous original background image without opacity reduction.

Visit The Gnosis Archive (a site I founded in 1993, but no longer operate) and, specifically, their Gospel of Thomas Collection for lots more information on the Gospel of Thomas and other Gnostic works.