Early Christian Writings Gospel of Thomas Saying 100 Previous - Gospel of Thomas Home - Next

You can view this web page along with Grondin's Coptic/English Interlinear in frames.
Nag Hammadi Coptic Text Funk's Parallels
Luke 20:20-26, Matt
22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17,
PEger 2 3, Sentences of
Sextus 20.

BLATZ LAYTON DORESSE

(100) They showed Jesus a
gold piece and said to him:
Caesar's men demand
tribute from us. He said to
them: What belongs to
Caesar, give to Caesar; what
belongs to God, give to
God; and what is mine, give
it to me.
(100) They showed Jesus a
gold coin and said to him,
"Caesar's agents are
exacting taxes from us." He
said to them, "Give unto
Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, give unto god the
things that are god's, and
give unto me that which is
mine."
104 [100]. They showed
Jesus a piece of money and
said to him: "The people
who belong to Caesar ask us
for taxes." He said to them:
"Give to Caesar what is
Caesar's, give to God what
is God's, and what is mine
give me!"

Visitor Comments Scholarly Quotes

The emperor, representing
temporal authority, is the
positive learnt attitudes, God
is the innate adult self and
Jesus the innate repair
process.
- Rodney
Jesus taught: the Kingdom of
God is here now, we just
can't see it. That leaves us
with two levels of
consciouness and two points
of focus, the "world"
("Caesar") and the
"Kingdom" ("God").
Between these two stood
Jesus, our needed
intermediary, to bring us
from "the world" into the
Truth that is the Kingdom.
When he said "Give unto..."
he didn't mean material
Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "The complexities of Jesus's
discussion of the tribute money in the gospels (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17;
Luke 20:20-26) are left behind as Thomas relegates what belongs to Caesar and to
God to a place of inferiority, compared with the inner man, who belongs to Jesus.
Note that God seems to be inferior to Jesus; see Saying 31 [30] and Commentary."
(The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 189)
R. McL. Wilson writes: "Grant and Freedman rightly note that Thomas does not
speak of the kingdom of God, and that indeed 'God' is mentioned only once (logion
100), and there evidently as subordinate to Jesus. Their inference that Thomas may
be reserving the name 'God' for use as that of an inferior power is also probably
correct, and serves to confirm the Gnostic character of the book; as already noted, the
God of the Old Testament is in the Gnostic systems degraded to the status of creator
and ruler of this present evil world." (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 27)
F. F. Bruce writes: "This is the incident of the tribute money recorded in Mark 12.13-
17 and parallels, but the historical setting is a thing of the past and the silver denarius
has become a gold coin. What is specially important, however, is the addition of 'give
me what is mine' to the canonical saying. 'God', who is thus placed higher than
Caesar but lower than Jesus, is not the Supreme Being who is always called the
Father in the Gospel of Thomas, but the demiurge, the creator of the material world.
Like Caesar, he must receive his due, but it is more important to give Jesus, the
unique revealer, his due." (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament,
p. 149)
things, he meant focus of Gerd Ludemann writes: "The logion has a parallel in Mark 12.13-17 parr. In contrast
consciousness. Here He asks to the Synoptics, it is the disciples and not the opponents of Jesus who show Jesus a
us to give attention to the coin; this represents a further development. The whole logion has its climax in v. 4,
"needs" of the world which is without parallel in the Synoptics. Evidently 'Jesus' expects of his disciples
("Caesar")[to avoid their own offering, i.e. in the framework of the Gospel of Thomas, that they should
unnecessarily "hurting" be aware of their own sparks of light and thus become one with Jesus, the
ourselves], to keep vigilant personification of light (cf. 77.1-3; 108.1-3)." (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 638)
for the Truth that is God, and Helmut Koester writes: "In this brief chria of the Gospel of Thomas all of the
to give attention to His narrative and discourse sections are missing which tie the Markan parallel to the
teaching...which will bring context of Mark 12 where various people come to Jesus in order to trap him. Thomas
us from the world into the preserves what must have been the basis of the elaborate exchange in Mark's
Kingdom. extended apophthegma. The last phrase in Thomas ('and give me what is mine'), on
- A Brother the other hand, is a later expansion emphasizing the commitment to Jesus." (Ancient
The pursuit of enlightenment Christian Gospels, p. 112)
by means of single minded
spiritual practice does not
mean that we do not also
have worldly duties and
obligations to perform. We
should attend to both
spiritual and worldly matters
with equal dedication. It is,
however, preferable that we
deal with our worldly duties
in a calm and even tempered
manner without becoming
excessively attached or
dependent on worldly
objects. Such attachments or
dependencies include our
relationships and our
possessions, as well as our
thoughts, opinions and
conclusions.
- Lux
A proper pupil of an esoteric
school must render homage
to the needs of social
intercourse, to the state &
society in which he lives,
and to the religiosity of his
milieu. Etc. Otherwise
he/she will be an unbalanced
individual. It is a caution
about obssessive attitudes,
about unbalanced behaviour,
about the dangers of
departing from the needs of a
normal existence.
- Thief37
Jesus is saying in effect,
"What is a gold coin that you
should value it?" He who
seeks material value shall
only find material value.
- Corpus Shtev
100

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Early Christian Writings Gospel of Thomas Saying 100 Previous - Gospel of Thomas Home - Next