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
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- Saying 79 Saying 79: Blessed Is the Womb That Bore You A woman blesses the womb that carried him and the breasts that fed him; he answers that blessed are those who have…
- 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 29 Saying 29: Spirit Dwelling in Poverty If flesh came into being because of spirit that is a marvel; if spirit because of the body, a marvel of marvels.…
- 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 89 Saying 89: Washing the Outside of the Cup Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that whoever made the inside also made the outside?