Saying 3: The Kingdom Within and Without
If your leaders say the kingdom is in the sky the birds will get there first; if in the sea, the fish. The kingdom is inside you and outside you; know yourselves, and you will be known.
Commentary
The most quoted saying in the collection, and the sharpest attack on religious authority in it. Self-knowledge replaces cosmology: those who do not know themselves “dwell in poverty” and *are* that poverty. Compare the Delphic “know thyself”, which the saying almost certainly echoes.
Parallels
Luke 17:20–21
Sayings on the same themes
- Saying 45 Saying 45: Grapes Are Not Picked From Thorns Grapes are not gathered from thorns, nor figs from thistles. Good people produce good from their store, bad people produce evil from…
- Saying 105 Saying 105: Whoever Knows the Father and the Mother Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a prostitute.
- 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…
- Saying 24 Saying 24: The Light Within a Person of Light Asked to show them where he is, Jesus answers that there is light inside a person of light, and it lights the…
- Saying 4 Saying 4: The Old Man and the Infant An old man will not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old infant about the place of life, and will live; many who are…
- Saying 15 Saying 15: The One Not Born of Woman When you see the one who was not born of woman, fall on your face and worship: that one is your Father.