D.W. Kim, «What Shall We Do? The Community Rules of Thomas in the ‘Fifth Gospel’», Vol. 88 (2007) 393-414
This article argues for the diversity of early Christianity in terms of religiocultural communities. Each early Christian group, based on a personal revelation of leadership and the group’s socio-political milieu, maintained its own tradition (oral, written, or both) of Jesus for the continuity and prosperity of the movement. The leaders of early Christianity allowed outsiders to become insiders in the condition where the new comers committed to give up their previous religious attitude and custom and then follow the new community rules. The membership of the Thomasine group is not exceptional in this case. The Logia tradition of P. Oxy. 1, 654.655, and NHC II, 2. 32: 10-51: 28 in the context of community policy will prove the pre-gnostic peculiarity of the creative and independent movement within the Graeco-Roman world.
412 D.W. Kim
It is impossible for a man to mount two horses or to stretch two bows.
And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters; otherwise he
will honour the one and treat the other contemptuously. No man drinks
old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. And new wine is
not put into old wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine put into a
new wineskin, lest it spoil it. An old patch is not sewn into a new
garment, because a tear would result (105).
The man mounting two horses or stretching two bows is
comparable with the servant serving two masters. This Logion of
Jesus, according to Quispel, is proven as not being dependent on Q.
Further, the literary uniqueness of the Logion 47 is argued by Koester,
in that “the version … completely stays within the limits of natural
expansion of a popular proverb†(106). So “this proverb would have had
before it was incorporated into Q†(107), supports Thomas’
independence from the Synoptic Gospels (108). The thoughts of the
wine drinker and new wine are also connected with the proverb of an
old patch. In this regard, the motivation of change, for life in the new
society (109), is in accordance with the social-ethical rules of the
Thomasine movement, even though Grant and Freedman assume that
Thomas, in the sense that “an old patch is not sewn into a new
garmentâ€, applied the new patch and the old garment story from the
Synoptic texts (110). Such a demonstration of implausibility can be
grafted onto the case of the new proselytisers, who were confused
between the new religious life and old religious life (111).
As a result, the various legal sources, declaring the community
rules, legitimise the existence and religio-political strategy of the
(105) Logion 47.
(106) Since the text does not show any sign of the unnecessary duplication
‘hate the one and love the other’ or of the secondary application of the proverb
(“serving God and mammonâ€). KOESTER, Ancient Christian Gospels, 90.
(107) Ibid.
(108) This paper contends that Thomas and Q are independent of the Canonical
Gospels. Q and Thomas are also individuals, even though they have many
common points.
(109) R.M. GRANT – D.N. FREEDMAN, The Secret Sayings of Jesus. According
to the Gospel of Thomas (London – Glasgow 1960) 159.
(110) Luke 5,36, Matt 9,16 and Mark 2,21.
(111) However, the discernment of a wise fisherman, picking up the only ‘fine
large fish’ without difficulty, can conclusively remind the Thomas readers that
when an outsider became an insider of the community. “ … The man is like a wise
fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small
fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the
small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty†(Logion 8).