Saying 70: Bring Forth What Is Within You
If you bring out what is inside you, what you bring out will save you; if you do not, what you fail to bring out will destroy you.
Commentary
The most quoted line of Thomas outside saying 3, and a favourite of twentieth-century depth psychology. Note the symmetry: the same interior contents either save or kill, depending on whether they are brought to light.
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 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 1 Saying 1: Whoever Finds the Meaning Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death.
- 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.
- 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 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 3 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.…