Saying 97: The Jar of Meal
The kingdom is like a woman carrying a jar of meal. The handle broke on the road and the meal spilled out behind her; she noticed nothing, and found the jar empty when she got home.
Commentary
Found nowhere else, and unlike any canonical kingdom parable. The kingdom is compared to an unnoticed loss — a reading that fits Thomas’s claim that the kingdom is already spread out and unseen (saying 113).
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 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 46 Saying 46: Greater Than John the Baptist From Adam to John the Baptist no one born of women is so far above John that his eyes should not be…
- Saying 49 Saying 49: Blessed Are the Solitary Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, for you will find the kingdom; you came from it, and you will go back…
- Saying 57 Saying 57: The Wheat and the Weeds A man sowed good seed; his enemy sowed weeds among it at night. He would not let his workers pull the weeds…
- Saying 82 Saying 82: Whoever Is Near Me Is Near the Fire Whoever is close to me is close to the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom.
- Saying 40 Saying 40: The Vine Planted Apart A grapevine has been planted away from the Father; it has no strength, and it will be pulled up by the root…