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
- Prologue Prologue: The Hidden Sayings These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.
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- 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…
- Saying 73 Saying 73: The Harvest Is Large The harvest is large but the workers are few; beg the owner to send out more workers.
- Saying 75 Saying 75: Only the Solitary Enter Many are standing at the door, but it is the solitary who will enter the bridal chamber.