Saying 23: One From a Thousand
I will choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one.
Commentary
Election in Thomas is vanishingly narrow, and the arithmetic is deliberately strange: the chosen do not form a group of three but resolve into one.
Parallels
This saying has no close parallel in the canonical gospels. Roughly half of the Gospel of Thomas is material of this kind, found nowhere else in the early Christian record.
Sayings on the same themes
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- Saying 30 Saying 30: Where There Are Three Where there are three deities they are divine; where there are two or one, I am with that one.
- 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 99 Saying 99: My True Brothers and Mother Told that his brothers and mother are outside, Jesus says that those here who do the will of his Father are his…
- Saying 92 Saying 92: Now I Am Willing to Tell You Seek and you will find. In the past I did not tell you the things you asked about; now I am willing…