jewish-christian gospels and syriac gospel traditions It is often noted that the second, more complete, quotation agrees bet-
ter with the Greek P.Oxy. version of the saying than with the Coptic Nag
Hammadi version. The sequence in the Coptic version is: seeking, find-
ing, being troubled, being astonished, ruling over the all, while the Greek
Jewish-Christian/P.Oxy. version has: seeking, finding, being astonished,
ruling, resting. Thus, the Coptic version has one more step in the mid-
dle of the sequence: being troubled^66 and at the end, it refers to “rul-
ing over the all” while the Greek version refers to rest. Rest and reign-
ing often appear as parallel expressions in Wisdom traditions describing
the last stage(s) in the process of “salvation” (Acts Thom. c. ;Thom.
Cont. ,–;Apoc. Jas. .–.).^67 Although the theme of resting
is prominent in the CopticGospel of Thomaselsewhere (, , ),
it is omitted in logion . These changes are obviously linked together:
“rest” has been removed, “trouble” added and at the end, it is empha-
sized that the persistent seeker will “rule over the all.” The changes
suggest that the Coptic version of the saying—or a Greek “nd edi-
tion” preceding it—was written in a more polemical context than the
Greek Jewish-Christian/P.Oxy. version. The troubles the author has in
mind could be connected to the fight against one’s “corpse” (, ), i.e.,(^66) The addition is correctly noted by Fieger , –. However, Attridge ,
—followed by Fallon and Cameron (Fallon & Cameron , ) and Klijn (,
)—note that in contrast to the Coptic text, the Greek P.Oxy. version of logion does not
havetheexpression“hewillbeastonished,and”(fnaR šphre auw). This remark implies
that the verbαμ ωin the Greek fragment would correspond toštortRof the Coptic
text. If this is correct, then the Coptic text did not add the expression “being troubled”
but “being astonished.” However, althoughαμ ωmay sometimes include an element
of being “astounded” or “shocked” in amazement, it is not so clearly connected to the
idea of being “disturbed,” “upset” or “troubled” as the CopticštortR,andifonehasto
choose which one of the Coptic expressions (štortRorRšphre)istheonethatstands
forαμ ω,Ršphrewould seem to be a more natural choice. See Liddell & Scott ,
αμ ωand Crum , , –,šphre,štortr.Notably,Attridgealsotranslates
the Greekαμ ωin logion “being amazed,” and in the same edition, T.O. Lambdin
translates the CopticštortR“become troubled.” For the use ofRšphreelsewhere in
Gos. Thom, see logion . Unfortunately, due to a misprint in Klijn’s book (there is the
same translation forThomasand P.Oxy. version; Klijn , –) it is impossible to say
for sure which translation he follows.
(^67) For instance, Fieger , , thinks that the P.Oxy. version, which contains both
“rest and reigning,” corresponds better with Gnostic theology and must therefore be
original. In Fieger’s view, the Coptic translator may have misreadν& π%νταin the
place ofναπα8σεται. This conjecture is unlikely to be correct because in that case,
the translator should also have skippedκα, ασιλε$σας.Below,itwillbearguedthat
the differences between the Coptic and Greek versions probably resulted from conscious
reediting.