jewish-christian gospels and syriac gospel traditions and two Thomasine applications of the same harmonizing saying.
That fits with the hypothesis according to which harmonizing gospel
traditions would have been further developed in Thomas’ scriptural-oral
culture.
Be that as may, it is clear that theGospel of Thomasdoes not (yet?)
explicitly identify the “true mother” with the Spirit as do the Jewish-
Christian gospel fragments. In theGospel of Thomas,the“livingfather”
overshadows the role of the “true mother” (seeGos. Thom. , , ).
She is referred to in logion but the theme is not developed further in
other logia. This is probably connected to the fact that women appear
in a negative light in theGospel of Thomas;theycanbesavedonly
through becoming male. In logion , Jesus promises to lead Mary “in
order to make her male so that she too may become a ‘living spirit’
resembling you males.”^127 Furthermore, in the Coptic version of the
Gospel of Thomas, the Greek wordτ. πνεμαgets a masculine article
(as do the Greek neuter words in general). Thus, in logion , where the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is declared unforgivable, at least the
Coptic editor/author probably had in mind the male “living spirit” of
the “living father,” which made its home “in this poverty” (, ) and
which one has to find within oneself in order to enter the kingdom of
heaven. The saying that clearly connects the “living spirit” with male
disciples is the last one in the collection. This, too, may indicate that
the problem of female spirits—heavenly and earthly—started to occupy
Thomas’ transmitters only during the composition of the final layers of
the gospel.^128
In any case, the Spirit that is given to men (Jewish-Christian frag-
ments) or is to be found within men (Thomas)issomethingthatmust
not be offended (logion ; Jerome,Comm. Ezech. ,–):
Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, and
whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blas-
phemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in
heaven.” (Gos. Thom. ).
(^127) Marjanen argues that logion does not exclusively refer to the return to prelapsar-
ian androgynous state (thus A.D. DeConick) or to a movement from physical and earthly
to heavenly and spiritual (thus M. Meyer) but also implies a devaluation of the feminine.
See Marjanen b, –, in contrast to DeConick , , and Meyer , .
(^128) Marjanen b, , argues—following S.L. Davies—that logion was added to
the gospel relatively late in the second century. He points to connections that logion
has to third century apocryphal acts and late second century Valentinian and Nasseene
texts.