The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 4

St. John, the phrase has the deeper and metaphorical meaning that those who obey Christ’s words and attain to the kingdom, reach a state unaffected by the death of the body. The beginning of line 1 requires some correction, as "the such the words the" original: "οἱ τοῖοι οἱ λόγοι οἱ" is extremely ugly. The corruption of "these" original: "οὗτοι" into "the such" original: "οἱ τοῖοι" is not very likely, though compare Luke 24:44: "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you." But since "such" original: "τοῖος" is found in late prose writers for "such as this" original: "τοιόσδε", the simplest course is to omit the initial "the" original: "οἱ". The iota of this "the" being in a crack is not clear in the photograph, but is quite certain. The restoration of line 2 presents the chief difficulty. "Lord" original: "κ[ύριο]ς" is very doubtful; "and" original: "κ[αί" followed by, for example, "having died" original: "ἀποθανόν", is equally likely, and several of the possible supplements at the end of the line require a longer word than "Lord" to precede. A dative before "and Thomas" is necessary, and three alternatives suggest themselves:—(1) a proper name, in which case "to Philip" original: "Φιλίππῳ" or "to Matthias" original: "Ματθίᾳ" (or "to Matthew" original: "Ματθαίῳ") are most likely in the light of the following words "and Thomas." Apocryphal Gospels assigned to Thomas, Philip, and Matthias are known, and in Pistis Sophia 70–1, Philip, Thomas, and Matthias (so Zahn with much probability in place of Matthew found in the text) are associated as the recipients of a special revelation; cf. Harnack, Altchrist. Litterat. I. p. 14; (2) a phrase such as "to the others" or "to the (twelve) disciples" (so Bartlet, cf. l. 32 and John 20:26: "and... his disciples were within, and Thomas with them"); (3) "to Judas who is also called Thomas," suggested by Prof. Lake, who compares the frequent occurrence of the double name "Judas who is also called Thomas" in the Acts of Thomas. The uncertainty attaching to the restoration is the more unfortunate, since much depends on it. If we adopt the first hypothesis, Thomas has only a secondary place; but on either of the other two he occupies the chief position, and this fact would obviously be of great importance in deciding the origin of the Sayings; cf. pp. 18 sqq. On the question whether the introduction implies a post-resurrectional point of view see pp. 13–4.

There is a considerable resemblance between the scheme of lines 1–3, "The words... which Jesus spake... and said," and the formulae employed in introducing several of the earliest citations of our Lord’s Sayings, especially 1 Clement 13: "Especially remembering the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake, teaching... for thus He said," and Acts 20:35: "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said." Rendel Harris had already (Contemp. Rev. 1897, pp. 346–8) suggested that those formulae were derived from the introduction of a primitive collection of Sayings known to St. Paul, Clement of Rome, and Polycarp, and this theory gains some support from the parallel afforded by the introduction in 654.

First Saying. lines 5–9.

5

Jesus saith:
Let not him who seeks cease until he finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished; and astonished he shall reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom he shall rest.

The conclusion of this Saying is quoted from the Gospel according to the Hebrews by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. ii. 9. 45): "or even in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, 'He who wonders shall reign, and he who reigns shall rest'." In Strom. v. 14. 96 (a passage to which Zahn first called attention, Gesch. d. NT. Kan. ii. p. 657) he quotes the Saying in a fuller and obviously more accurate form which agrees almost exactly with the papyrus, but without stating his source: "He shall not cease who seeks until he finds, and having found he shall be astonished, and having been astonished he shall reign, and having reigned he shall find rest." The word after "seeking" original: "ζη[τῶν" in line 6 is very likely the object of "seeking" ("life"?; "kingdom" is too long), but it may be another participle depending on "cease" or an adverb. This part of the saying is parallel to Matthew 7:7 (= Luke 11:9): "seek, and ye shall find." The supplements in lines 7–8 are already rather long in comparison with the length of lines required in lines 15, 25, and 30, so that it is improbable that "he shall find rest" is to be supplied or that "the" occurred in the papyrus before "astonished" and "reigned" (cf. the first quotation from Clement). "And" original: "δέ" in place of "and" original: "καί" is of course possible in line 7, but since the papyrus has "and" and not "and" original: "δέ" in line 8, "and" is more likely also in line 7. The occurrence of "astonished" original: "θαμβηθείς", not "wondering" original: "θαυμάσας", in lines 7–8, confirms Zahn's acute suggestion that "astonished" was the original word; but we should not accept his ingenious explanation of it as a mistranslation of a Hebrew or Aramaic verb which could also mean "disturbed," and his view that "broken-hearted" (cf. Luke 4:18) would have been the right term. The attractiveness of this kind of conjecture is, as we have recently had occasion to remark (403 introd.), only equalled by its uncertainty. Now that the Saying is known in its completer form, and if we disregard the particular object (to show that the beginning of philosophy is wonder) to which Clement in the first of his two quotations turns it, this description of the successive stages in the attainment of the kingdom of Heaven seems to us decidedly striking, and by no means so far removed from the "views of genuine primitive Christianity" as Resch (Agrapha, pp. 378–9) considers. To the probable reference to it in 2 Clement 5:5 (cf. the next note): "the promise of Christ is great and wonderful and rest of the coming kingdom and eternal life," quoted by Resch, Mr. Badham adds a remarkable one in the Acts of Thomas (ed. Bonnet, p. 243): "they who worthily partake of the goods there, find rest, and finding rest they shall reign."

As Dr. Bartlet aptly remarks, the idea of the necessity for strenuous effort in order to attain to the kingdom has much in common, not only with the 3rd Saying ("A man shall not hesitate," etc.), but with the 5th Logion ("Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me"); cf. pp. 12–3.

Jesus saith: ... who are those
10 that draw us [into the kingdom, if
the kingdom is in Heaven? ...
The fowls of the air and the beasts that are