Saying 43: The Tree and Its Fruit
Asked who he is to speak this way, Jesus replies that they do not recognise him from what he says: they have become like those who love the tree and hate its fruit, or love the fruit and hate the tree.
Commentary
The saying assumes a split audience and a hardening line. Its blunt reference to “the Jews” is one of several places where Thomas reflects a community defining itself against its parent tradition.
Parallels
Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:43–44; John 8:25
Sayings on the same themes
- Saying 71 Saying 71: I Will Destroy This House I will tear down this house, and no one will be able to build it again.
- Saying 89 Saying 89: Washing the Outside of the Cup Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that whoever made the inside also made the outside?
- 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 102 Saying 102: The Dog in the Manger Damn the Pharisees: they are like a dog asleep in the cattle trough, who neither eats nor lets the cattle eat.
- Saying 78 Saying 78: Why Did You Go Out to the Countryside? Why did you come out to the country — to see a reed shaken by the wind, or a man in soft…
- Saying 16 Saying 16: Not Peace but Division People think I have come to bring peace; I have come to bring divisions — fire, sword, war. Five in a house…