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 51 Saying 51: The New World Has Already Come Asked when the rest for the dead will come and when the new world will arrive, Jesus answers that what they are…
- Saying 96 Saying 96: The Leaven The Father's kingdom is like a woman who took a little yeast, hid it in dough, and made large loaves of bread.
- Saying 20 Saying 20: The Mustard Seed The kingdom is like a mustard seed: the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on worked ground it puts out…
- Saying 113 Saying 113: The Kingdom Spread Out on the Earth Asked when the kingdom will come, Jesus says it will not come by watching for it; no one will say "look, here"…
- Saying 18 Saying 18: Tell Us How Our End Will Be Asked about the end, Jesus asks whether they have found the beginning: whoever stands at the beginning will know the end and…
- Saying 67 Saying 67: Knowing All but Lacking Oneself Whoever knows everything but is lacking in themselves lacks everything.