Early Christian Writings Gospel of Thomas Saying 55 Previous - Gospel of Thomas Home - Next

You can view this web page along with Grondin's Coptic/English Interlinear in frames.
Nag Hammadi Coptic Text Funk's Parallels
GThom 101, Luke 14:25-
33, Luke 9:23-24, Matt
10:34-39, Matt 16:24-25,
Mark 8:34-35.

BLATZ LAYTON DORESSE

(55) Jesus said: He who
does not hate his father and
his mother cannot be a
disciple to me. And (he who
does not) hate his brothers
and sisters and take up his
cross like me, will not be
worthy of me.
(55) Jesus said, "Those who
do not hate their fathers and
their mothers cannot be
disciples of me, and those
who do not hate their
brothers and their sisters
and take up their cross like
me will not become worthy
of me."
60 [55]. Jesus says: "He
who does not hate his father
and mother cannot be my
disciple; and if he does not
hate his brother and sister
and does not take up his
cross like me, he will not
become worthy of me!"

Visitor Comments Scholarly Quotes

This Q1 saying was first in
Aramaic. The Greek MISEI
in Aramaic is SANA which
is an idiom for "set aside."
The idiom was not
transmitted in the Greek nor
from Greek to Coptic.
Setting aside one's family to
follow Jesus makes much
more sense.
- Jack Kilmon
By this, I think Jesus meant
that we must be capable of
rejecting or sacrificing all
that we love in order to be
truly free. Because in
rejecting all that we love and
care for, we reject all that
bounds us to our current
state of illusion. Sacrificing
one's self for the family
perpetuates an endless cycle
of need and obligation. But
Marvin Meyer quotes Manichaean Psalm Book 175:25-30 as saying: "I have left
father and mother and brother and sister. I have come a stranger for the sake of your
name. I have taken up my cross, and I have followed you. I have left the things of the
body for the sake of the things of the spirit. I have disregarded the glory of the world
for the sake of your glory that does not pass away."
J. D. Crossan writes (In Fragments, p. 136):
Matt. 10:37-38 had retained three stichs, but Luke 14:26 had reduced
the former double-stich saying into one. Gos. Thom. 55 also reduces
the three stichs to two, but he does so by incorporating the cross
saying within the second stich of the family saying:
Whoever does not hate his father and mother
cannot become a disciple to Me,
And whoever does not hate his brothers and sisters
[cannot become a disciple to Me,]
And [whoever does not] take up his cross in My way
will not be worthy of Me.
Those lines in parentheses and italicized have dropped from Thomas's
version in a different mode of amalgamation from either Matthew's or
Luke's.
Gerd Ludemann writes: "The logion is a mixed quotation made up of Matt. 10.37(-
38) and Luke 14.26(-27). Thomas has woven the saying about taking up the cross (cf.
Mark 8.34 parr.) into the parallelism." (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 617)
only in sacrificing the family
for the self would you be
able to break that cycle and
transcend as Jesus did.
- AnyMe
According to Strongs
Exhaustive Concordance, the
word hate was derived from
the greek word misos, which
means by extension to love
less. This makes more sense
seeing that Jesus instructs us
to "love our neighbors as we
love ourselves." Hatred is
not a Christian quality.
- Don Perkins
Jesus talks about the old
fashioned stagnated thoughts
that are part of our
upbringing and beliefs, that
all come from those that are
older than and born before
us. Rather, love the
inquisitivness and freshness
of youth that seeks and finds
and moves on with
technology and
understandings, ever
changing the world for the
future generations to inherit
and change themselves.
- anonymous
One has to reject the
destructive attitudes of ones
parents, kith and kin.
- Rodney
Jesus states that you should
hate your family. This is
supremely Buddhist where
you are supposed to forget
your name and all your
wordly possesions, for what
is your family if not a wordly
possesion
- Diggy
The meaning (with the
Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "This saying is a combination of
Luke 14:26-27 (hating father and mother, brothers and sisters, carrying cross,
becoming disciple) with Matthew 10:37-38 (being worthy of me). From Luke,
Thomas omits mention of wife and children, perhaps because the Gnostic will have
neither; he adds to carrying the cross 'as I do' (or 'like me,' Doresse, page 177),
perhaps because as in John 19:17, Jesus bears his own cross (Simon of Cyrene carries
it in the synoptic gospels)." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, pp. 163-164)
J. P. Meier writes: "A mixed text resulting from the conflation of Matt 10:37-38 and
Luke 14:26-27 is found in the Coptic Gos. Thom. saying 55: 'Whoever will not hate
his father and his mother cannot become a disciple to me; and whoever will not hate
his brothers and his sisters and will not carry his cross as I have will not be worthy of
me.' Here we have a parade example of how the Gospel of Thomas melds various
phrases from various Synoptic Gospels to create its own form of a Gospel saying. On
the whole, the saying is closer to Luke than to Matthew. The phrases 'will not hate'
[as opposed to Matthew's 'love'], 'his father and his mother' [with possessive
pronouns, reflecting Luke's heautou, which is not in Matthew], 'brothers and sisters'
[Matthew has 'son or daughter'], and 'cannot become a disciple to me' comes from
Luke. Yet at the end of the saying we see a clear trace of the redactional tendency of
Matthew or his M tradition: 'will not be worthy of me.' The key words mathetes
(disciple), stauros (cross), and axios (worthy) appear in Greek in the Coptic text. The
theme of imitating Jesus carrying his cross, which is implicit in the passages of the
Synoptic Gospels, is made explicit by the addition in the Gospel of Thomas: '.. . carry
his cross as I have.' On the whole saying, see Fieger, Das Thomasevangelium, 165-
67. A similar saying, with a similar conflation of Matt 10:37 and Luke 14:26 and a
similar addition of 'as I,' is found in Gos. Thom. saying 101. The text, however, is
fragmentary, and there is no mention of carrying one's cross; see Fieger, ibid., 256-
57. Fieger's analysis of the parallels in Gos. Thom. to Mark 8:34-35 parr. shows that
it is highly unlikely that Thomas' versions of these sayings are independent of the
Synoptics." (A Marginal Jew, v. 3, pp. 105-106 n. 75)
R. McL. Wilson writes: "The wording is certainly nearer to Luke, who alone speaks
of 'hate.' The differences lie in the omission of any reference to wife and children,
and in the substitution of 'in My way' (or 'like Me') for 'and come after Me.' Matthew
and Luke evidently give variant translations of the same original saying, and it is
therefore possible that what seems at first sight to be a conflation is, in fact, another
rendering. If this be so, the substitution noted is not difficult to explain. Moreover, as
Creed has observed, Luke has added 'and his own soul' from the sequel in his source.
It is therefore possible that the references to wife and children do not derive from the
source, but are due to the intensification of the Evangelists; it should be noted that
they differ on this point. According to Bartsch the differences compel the assumption
of a special tradition independent of the Synoptics, a statement the more remarkable
in that he is critical of some of Quispel's other examples." (Studies in the Gospel of
Thomas, p. 57)
correction of the first note
above by Jack Kilman) is
literal. If you know and
understand who and what I
am, then you must abandon
all and follow me. Literally.
If you see the Son of God
before you, offering you the
knowledge of heaven and
earth, what more do you
need? Drop everything and
follow him.
- active mystic
Poetic. Everything is to be
assigned to its place. Not to
be taken literally and
arguments about
mistranslation are irrelevant
- Thief37
"Take up the cross"? I
thought the Gospel of
Thomas never referenced the
resurrection. How then are
we to understand the notion
of "taking up the cross"?
- Indy Al
You might have to change
programmed beliefs you
were raised into and the ones
you acquire later in life. And
cherish your own beliefs as
Christ would YOUR CROSS
(I am not implying to die for
them).
- King
Jesus means exactly what he
says here. To love someone
is to be one with them. How
can we be one with somone
if we are still calling them
"Mother" or "Father"? A true
relationship of love implies
oneness. Jesus tells us to hate
our mother so we are forced
to think about what love
really does--it makes two
individuals into one person.
Once we are one, any
separation into "mother" and
"son" would be a horrible
and hateful thing.
- The Monist
55

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