Saying 114: Simon Peter and Mary
Simon Peter says Mary should leave, because women are not worthy of life. Jesus answers that he will guide her so that she becomes male, since every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Commentary
The most disputed saying in the book, and widely thought to be a late addition — it is absent from the Greek fragments and sits oddly after saying 113’s natural conclusion. Read against saying 22, where male and female are both dissolved into one, “becoming male” may mean entering the undivided state rather than adopting a gender; read plainly, it is straightforwardly androcentric. Both readings are defended in the scholarship, and the Gospel of Mary preserves a very similar clash between Peter and Mary.
Parallels
Gospel of Thomas 22; Gospel of Mary
Sayings on the same themes
- 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 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 108 Saying 108: Whoever Drinks From My Mouth Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me, and I will become that person, and what is hidden will be revealed…
- 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 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 66 Saying 66: The Rejected Stone Show me the stone the builders rejected: that is the cornerstone.