Saying 105: Whoever Knows the Father and the Mother
Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a prostitute.
Commentary
Deliberately provocative and much argued over. The likeliest reading is that those who know their true, spiritual parentage will be slandered by people who only recognise the physical kind — an insult John records being thrown at Jesus himself.
Parallels
John 8:41
Sayings on the same themes
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- 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.
- Saying 102 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.
- Saying 43 Saying 43: The Tree and Its Fruit Asked who he is to speak this way, Jesus replies that they do not recognise him from what he says: they have…
- Saying 52 Saying 52: Twenty-Four Prophets The disciples say twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel and all of them spoke about him; he replies that they have ignored the…