Saying 42: Be Passers-By
Be passers-by.
Commentary
The shortest saying in the book and among the most discussed. It has been read as a call to itinerancy, to detachment from the world, and — via a possible Semitic idiom — as “be transients”, people who do not settle anywhere.
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
- Saying 21 Saying 21: Children in a Field Not Theirs Mary asks what the disciples are like; they are like children living in a field that is not theirs, who give it…
- Saying 14 Saying 14: Fasting Brings Sin Fasting brings sin, prayer brings condemnation, almsgiving harms the spirit; go into any land, eat what is put before you, heal the…
- Saying 55 Saying 55: Hating Father and Mother Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be my disciple; whoever does not hate brothers and sisters and carry the cross…
- 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.
- 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 80 Saying 80: Whoever Has Found the Body Whoever has come to know the world has found the body, and whoever has found the body is worth more than the…