Saying 28: I Found Them All Drunk
I took my place in the middle of the world and appeared in flesh; I found everyone drunk and no one thirsty, and my soul ached for them. When they shake off their wine they will change their minds.
Commentary
The closest thing in Thomas to an incarnation statement, and the closest to compassion. Drunkenness as the ordinary human condition is a stock image in later gnostic texts, which may point to this saying’s afterlife rather than its origin.
Parallels
John 1:14
Sayings on the same themes
- 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 6 Saying 6: On Fasting, Prayer and Almsgiving The disciples ask how to fast, pray, give alms and eat; the answer is to stop lying and to stop doing what…
- Saying 34 Saying 34: The Blind Leading the Blind If a blind person leads a blind person, both of them fall into a pit.
- Saying 110 Saying 110: Finding the World and Renouncing It Whoever has found the world and become rich should renounce the world.
- Saying 61 Saying 61: Salome and the Undivided Two will rest on a couch; one will die, one will live. Salome asks who he is to climb on her couch…
- Saying 50 Saying 50: We Came From the Light If they ask where you are from, say: we came from the light, the place where the light came into being by…