Gospel of Thomas, 1-10

The Coptic version of The Gospel of Thomas as it corresponds to the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 654

Here are the secret words which Jesus the Living spoke, and which Didymus [twin] Jude Thomas wrote down.
And he said: “Whoever penetrates the meaning of these words will not taste death!”

1. Jesus says: “Let him who seeks cease not to seek until he finds: when he finds he will be astonished; and when he is astonished he will wonder, and will reign over the universe!”

2. Jesus says: “If those who seek to attract you say to you: ‘See, the Kingdom is in heaven!’ then the birds of heaven will be there before you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea!’ then the fish will be there before you. But the kingdom is within you and it is outside of you!”

3. “When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will know that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you will be in a state of poverty, and it is you the poverty!”

4. Jesus says : “Let the old man heavy with days hesitate not to ask the little child of seven days about the Place of Life, and he will live! For it will be seen that many of the first will be the last, and they will become a ”

5. Jesus says : “Know what is before your face, and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For nothing hidden will fail to be revealed!”

6. His disciples asked and said to him: “Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray, how shall we give alms, what rules concerning eating shall we follow?” Jesus says : “Tell no lie, and whatever you hate, do not do: for all these things are manifest to the face of heaven; nothing hidden will fail to be revealed, and nothing disguised will fail before long to be made public!”

7. Jesus says : “Blessed is the lion which a man eats so that the lion becomes a man. But cursed is the man whom a lion eats so that the man becomes a lion!”

8. Then he says: “A man is like a skilled fisherman who casts his net into the sea. He brought it up out of the sea full of little fishes, and among them the skilled fisherman found one that was big and excellent. He threw all the little fishes back into the sea; without hesitating he chose the big fish. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

9. Jesus says : “See, the sower went out. He filled his hand and scattered . Some fell on the path : birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rocky ground: they found no means of taking root in the soil and did not send up ears of corn. Others fell among thorns; stifled the grain, and the worm at the . Others fell on good soil, and this produced an excellent crop: it gave as much as sixty- fold, and a hundred and twenty-fold!”

10. Jesus says : “I have cast a fire onto the world, and see, I watch over it until it blazes up!”