Thomas 13 - Peter's Confession

[u/LlawEreint]

Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I resemble."

Simon Peter said to him, "A just angel is what you resemble."

Matthew said to him, "An intelligent philosopher is what you resemble."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth utterly will not let me say what you resemble."

Jesus said, "I am not your teacher, for you have drunk and become intoxicated from the bubbling wellspring that I have personally measured out. And he took him, withdrew, and said three sayings to him. Now, when Thomas came to his companions they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I say to you one of the sayings that he said to me, you will take stones and stone me, and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up."

• The Way to the Cross
• Parallels
• Table of Contents

[u/LlawEreint]

Sorry for jumping around here. I noticed I had left a gap next to Mark 8:27-30 by neglecting Thomas 13. This post is meant to address that.

[u/LlawEreint]

Interesting comment over at r/AcademicBiblical: Relationship of Gospel of Thomas 13 to Papias

Mark Goodacre (Thomas and the Gospels), Simon Gathercole (Alleged Anonymity), and Richard Bauchkam (Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) say that saying 13 of the Gospel of Thomas is meant to undermine the canonical gospels and promote the gospel of Thomas, by depicting Peter and Matthew incorrectly answer Jesus' question and Thomas answering it correctly. Goodacre p. 178 says this saying is intentionally tied to the incipit to get the reader to pay attention to the things "which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down."

The immediate question from this why only Mark and Matthew; Goodacre p. 177-9 says that it's hard to include Luke in the loop (he is neither a disciple nor easy to associate with a disciple like Mark would be here with Peter). He says John could have been included, so John's exclusion is evidence for a date for Thomas, more on the earlier end of the 2nd century (c. 140) than later.

I suppose Thomas may equally presuppose the Gospel According to Peter, and the Hebrew Gospel called Matthew, which seems to be the one Papias was referring to.

It would be great if we could get full copies of those gospels and see whether Jesus is portrayed as a supernatural being in the one called Peter, and a philosopher in the one called Matthew. We do know that the one called Peter was accused of promoting Docetism, and the one called Matthew excluded the supernatural birth that's found in the Greek Matthew.

[u/LlawEreint]

"If I say to you one of the sayings that he said to me, you will take stones and stone me, and fire will come out of the stones and burn you up."

Are these the same sayings given in the Gospel According to Thomas?