Two Lists: GTh sayings in the Markan and Q traditions

So here are the results of our research on the Gospel of Thomas.  We have two groups of sayings: one was incorporated together into the Markan tradition, by the author of Secret Mark (and hence became triple synoptic tradition), and the other was incorporated together into the Q gospel (which itself derived from Secret Mark, hence already included some of the triple tradition material).

Canonical Mark was then derived from Secret Mark, and was combined with the Q gospel (i.e. the Gospel of Peter) to create the Gospel of Matthew and Marcion's gospel.  (Marcion's gospel would eventually morph into the Gospel of Luke, largely based on Marcion's work.)

Here is the group of logia incorporated directly from GTh into Secret Mark--parentheses indicate questionable parallels, a tilde ("~") indicates a similarity to a stronger parallel, and the square brackets indicate an alternate versification.

4:2  (5~)6:5-6  9  (14:4?)  (14:5?)  20  (21:9[10]?)  22:1-2(~46:2)  31  33  35  (40?)  41  46b  47  48(~106)  62:1  65  66  71  99  100  104  113

And here is the (much larger) group of logia incorporated directly from GTh into Q:

2  3:1-2  4  8  10  14:4  16  21:5  24:3  26  30  32  33:1  34  36  39:1-2  43:3  45  46a  47:2  54  55  57  58  61:1  61:3  62:2  63  64  68  69  72  73  75  76:1-2?  76:3  78  79  86  89  90  91:2  92:1  93  94  95  96:1-2  101  103  107  109  113

A couple of things to notice right off the bat:

GTh: Moving Mountains

A bit more about the saying “On Faith” (i.e. moving mountains/uprooting trees)

Adding GTh: Cleaning Up, pt. 3

Just a couple more to discuss: logia 75 and 21:9.

75

Schenk thinks Mt 22:14 is a parallel to logion 75.  De Conick notes that Schuermann connects it with Lk 13:25, only to dismiss this claim.  I disagree with De Conick, however, but I would also expand the parallel to include Lk 13:24-25.  This has its own parallel in GMt, Mt 7:13-14, and is a Q saying.  Mt 22:14, meanwhile, is probably just an echo of this same saying.  I doubt logion 75 is the original version of the saying, but whatever it was, it should probably be added to the list of Thomasine parallels in the Q-gospel.

21:9

This saying merits a brief discussion.  Earlier I suggested it could just be ignored; maybe it was a chance resemblance between GMk and GTh, or else for one reason or another both Matthew and Marcion/Luke happened to leave it alone.  It could be that it was ignored by Q, and then consequently by Matthew and Luke.  That's still not unlikely, but the possibility that it's a chance resemblance between GMk and GTh, due perhaps to oral tradition, is even more likely than I previously suggested, because as De Conick shows, this saying has a parallel in Revelation 14:15-16.  In the HSH, Revelation likely predates all the canonical gospels (and I am not the first to suggest an early date), so this logion may have simply been commonly used in early Christian circles.  It therefore could easily have found its way independently into both GTh and canonical GMk.  I move it to the list of parallels in Secret Mark, but only with strong reservations.  At any rate, even if it wasn't added by Secret Mark, but rather by canonical Mark, that is no evidence whatsoever that canonical Mark used GTh; he could well have been familiar with the logion via a separate tradition.


And that basically completes our investigation.  However, we have a couple more cases to discuss in detail: the "On Faith" pericope, and the "Beelzebub/Unforgivable Sin" pericope.  That will launch us into our next subject: the Didache.  And before that, we'll be able to provide a complete list of GTh logia used by Secret Mark, and then those used by Q.

Adding GTh: Cleaning Up, pt. 2

We have three sayings to discuss: In the uniquely-Matthean tradition, there are a couple of logia I didn't notice the first time around: 40 and 75.  Then, in the uniquely-Markan tradition, I have a few more words to say about logion 21:9, which I had formerly moved to the triple-tradition list of sayings used by Secret Mark; I assumed Q, while copying Secret Mark, just happened to ignore this saying, hence Matthew and Marcion/Luke happened to ignore it, too.  I may modify that position a bit.

But first, logion 40.

Logion 40 at first seems unique to Matthew among the synoptics.  However, there is evidence that not only Luke may have known it, but Mark as well. 

One of the keywords in this logion is "root" (Coptic NOUNE): "it will be pulled up by its root".  The word "root" (Greek RIZAN) appears in the triple tradition twice, both in the Parable of the Sower, first in the parable itself, then in the explanation:

Adding GTh, Cleaning Up: pt. 1.

We're basically done investigating GTh as a source for the gospels, but there are some odds and ends to tidy up.  Let's try to get a finalized list of sayings that were added at each step: by Secret Mark on the one hand, and then later by the Q-gospel author.

One resource I've used to help firm up this list is the commentary by Craig Schenk at the Internet Sacred Text Archive:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/thomas.htm

Schenk doesn't find every parallel and makes a few mistakes, but has been very helpful in showing that Miller et al's analysis is incomplete as well.  (I'll also be checking April De Conick's list in the appendix to The Original Gospel of Thomas In Translation just to make sure I've caught everything.)

Adding GTh, pt. 8

In closing, we'll examine the last two uniquely Lukan logia on our list: logia 3:3a and 113.  We'll be looking to see if we can explain how parallels to these two logia found their way into the Marcionic/Lukan tradition, but not into the Matthean.