Saying 102: The Dog in the Manger
Damn the Pharisees: they are like a dog asleep in the cattle trough, who neither eats nor lets the cattle eat.
Commentary
A Greek fable pressed into service as a woe-saying. The complaint is the same as saying 39 — the gatekeepers block a door they will not go through themselves.
Parallels
Matthew 23:13; Luke 11:52; Aesop
Sayings on the same themes
- Saying 91 Saying 91: You Cannot Read This Moment They ask him to say who he is so they can believe; he replies that they examine the face of the sky…
- Saying 12 Saying 12: James the Just Asked who will lead them after he goes, Jesus sends the disciples to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth…
- Saying 68 Saying 68: Blessed Are You When You Are Hated Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted; and no place will be found wherever you have been persecuted.
- Saying 44 Saying 44: Blasphemy Against the Spirit Whoever blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven; whoever blasphemes against the Holy…
- Saying 39 Saying 39: The Keys of Knowledge The Pharisees and scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them; they did not go in themselves and did not…
- Saying 53 Saying 53: Is Circumcision Useful? If circumcision were useful, fathers would produce sons already circumcised; the true circumcision, in spirit, is what profits.