Saying 11: This Heaven Will Pass Away
This heaven and the one above it will pass away; the dead are not alive and the living will not die. When you were one you became two — so what will you do now that you are two?
Commentary
The saying moves from cosmology to the reader in three steps. The closing question is genuinely open: Thomas poses the problem of division here and answers it in sayings 22 and 106.
Parallels
Mark 13:31; Matthew 24:35
Sayings on the same themes
- Saying 72 Saying 72: Who Made Me a Divider? A man asks Jesus to make his brothers share their inheritance with him; Jesus asks who made him a divider, and turns…
- Saying 112 Saying 112: Woe to the Flesh and the Soul How wretched is the flesh that depends on the soul; how wretched is the soul that depends on the flesh.
- Saying 22 Saying 22: Making the Two Into One Nursing infants are like those who enter the kingdom. When you make the two one, the inside like the outside, the male…
- Saying 19 Saying 19: The Five Trees in Paradise Blessed is the one who came into being before coming into being. There are five trees in Paradise, unchanged in summer and…
- Saying 47 Saying 47: Two Horses, Two Masters, New Wine No one rides two horses or draws two bows; no servant serves two masters. Nobody drinks old wine and immediately wants new;…
- Saying 4 Saying 4: The Old Man and the Infant An old man will not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old infant about the place of life, and will live; many who are…