FREE THOMAS AND THE GOSPELS: THE MAKING OF AN APOCRYPHAL TEXT PDF

Mark Goodacre | 224 pages | 18 Oct 2012 | SPCK Publishing | 9780281067763 | English | London, United Kingdom Infancy Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia

Scholars speculate that the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture. Scholars have proposed dates of composition as early as AD 60 and as late as AD The Coptic-language text, the second of seven contained in what modern-day scholars have designated as Codex II, is composed of sayings attributed to Jesus. The introduction states: "These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down. The text's authorship by Thomas the Apostle is rejected by modern scholars. Because of its discovery with the Nag Hammadi library, it was widely thought that the document Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text within a school of early Christianspossibly proto-Gnostics. While the Gospel of Thomas does not directly point to Jesus' divinity, it also does not directly contradict it. When asked his identity in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus usually deflects, ambiguously asking the disciples why they do not see what is right in front of them, similar to some passages in the canonical gospels like John and Luke The Gospel of Thomas is very different in tone and structure from other New Testament apocrypha and the four Canonical Gospels. Unlike the canonical Gospels, it is not a narrative account of the life of Jesus; instead, it consists of logia sayings attributed to Jesus, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes embedded in short dialogues or Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text ; 13 of its 16 parables are also found in the Synoptic Gospels. The text contains a possible allusion to the death of Jesus in logion 65 [12] Parable of the Wicked Tenantsparalleled in the Synoptic Gospelsbut does not mention his crucifixionhis resurrectionor the final judgement ; nor does it mention a messianic understanding of Jesus. Bishop Eusebius included it among a group of books that he believed to be not only spurious, but "the fictions of heretics". It was first published in a photographic edition in Robinson edited the first complete collection of English translations of the Nag Hammadi texts. After the Coptic version of the complete text was discovered in at Nag Hammadi, scholars soon realized that three different Greek text fragments previously found at Oxyrhynchus the Oxyrhynchus Papyrialso in Egypt, were part of the Gospel of Thomas. Prior to the Nag Hammadi library discovery, the sayings of Jesus found in Oxyrhynchus were known simply as Logia Iesu. The wording of the Coptic Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text differs markedly from the earlier Greek Oxyrhynchus texts, the extreme case being that the last portion of logion 30 in the Greek is found at the end of logion 77 in the Coptic. This fact, along with the quite different wording Hippolytus uses when apparently quoting it see belowsuggests that the Gospel of Thomas "may have circulated in more than one form and Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text through several stages of redaction. Although it is generally thought that the Gospel of Thomas was first composed in Greek, there is evidence that the Coptic Nag Hammadi text is a translation from Syriac see Syriac origin. The earliest surviving written references to the Gospel of Thomas are found in the writings of Hippolytus of Rome c. They transmit a tradition concerning this in the Gospel entitled "According to Thomas," which states expressly, "The one who seeks me will find me in children of seven years and older, for there, hidden in the fourteenth aeonThomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text am revealed. This appears to be a reference to saying 4 of Thomas, although the wording differs significantly. As translated by Thomas O. Lambdin, saying 4 reads: "Jesus said, 'the man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same'". Origen listed the "Gospel according to Thomas" as being among the heterodox apocryphal gospels known to him Hom. In the 4th and 5th centuries, various Church Fathers wrote that the Gospel of Thomas was highly valued by Mani. Assigning a date to the Gospel of Thomas is very complex because it is difficult to know precisely to what a date is being assigned. Scholars have proposed a date as early as 60 AD or as late as AD, depending upon whether the Gospel of Thomas is identified with the original core of sayings, or with the author's published text, or with the Greek or Coptic texts, or with parallels in other literature. Valantasis and other scholars argue that it is difficult to date Thomas because, as a collection of logia without a narrative framework, individual sayings could have Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text added to it gradually over time. Porter dates the Gospel of Thomas much later, to AD. Robert E. Van Voorst states:. Most interpreters place its writing in the second century, understanding that many of its oral traditions are much older. Scholars generally fall into one of two main camps: an "early camp" favoring a date for the "core" of between the years 50 andbefore or approximately contemporary with the composition of the canonical gospels and a "late camp" favoring a date in the 2nd century, after composition of the canonical gospels. Theissen and Merz argue the genre of a collection of sayings was one of the earliest forms in which material about Jesus was handed down. Stevan L. Davies argues that the apparent independence of the ordering of sayings in Thomas from that of their parallels in the synoptics shows that Thomas was not evidently reliant upon the canonical gospels and probably predated them. Theissen and Merz give sayings 31 and 65 as examples of this. Koester also argues that the absence of narrative materials such as those found in the canonical gospels in Thomas makes it unlikely that the gospel is "an eclectic excerpt from the gospels of the New Testament". Another argument for an early date is what some scholars have suggested is an interplay between the Gospel of John and the logia of Thomas. Parallels between the two have been taken to suggest that Thomas' logia preceded John's work, and that the latter was making a point-by-point riposte to Thomas, either in real or mock conflict. This seeming dialectic has been pointed out by several New Testament scholars, notably Gregory J. Pagels, for example, says that John's gospel makes two references to the inability of the world to recognize the divine light. John's gospel is the only canonical one that gives Thomas the Apostle a dramatic role and spoken part, and Thomas is the only character therein described as being apistos unbelievingdespite the failings of virtually all the Johannine characters to live up to the author's standards of belief. With respect to the famous story of " Doubting Thomas ", [46] it is suggested [43] that John may have been denigrating or ridiculing a rival school of thought. In another apparent contrast, John's text matter-of-factly presents a bodily resurrection as if this is a sine qua non of the faith; in contrast, Thomas' insights about the spirit-and-body are more nuanced. Again, an apparently denigrating portrayal in the "Doubting Thomas" story may either be taken literally, Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text as a kind of mock "comeback" to Thomas' logia: not as an outright censuring of Thomas, but an improving gloss. After all, Thomas' thoughts about the spirit and body are really not so different from those which John has presented elsewhere. Pagels interprets this as signifying one-upmanship by John, who is forcing Thomas to acknowledge Jesus' bodily nature. She writes that " As this scholarly debate continued, theologian Christopher W. Skinner disagreed with Riley, DeConick, and Pagels over any possible John—Thomas interplay, and concluded that in the book of John, Thomas the disciple "is merely one stitch in a wider literary pattern where uncomprehending characters serve as foils for Jesus's words and deeds". Albert Hogeterp argues that the Gospel's saying 12, which attributes leadership of the community to James the Just rather than to Peteragrees with the description of the early Jerusalem church by Paul in Galatians —14 and may reflect a tradition predating AD Moreover, there are some sayings, principally log. In saying 13, Peter and Matthew are depicted as unable to understand the true significance or identity of Jesus. Patterson argues that this can be interpreted as a criticism against the school of Christianity associated with the Gospel Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text Matthew, and that "[t]his sort of rivalry seems more at home in the first century than later", when all the apostles had become revered figures. According to Meyer, Thomas's saying "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and no hand has touched, and what has not come into the human heart", is strikingly similar to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians [36] which was itself an allusion to Isaiah [54]. The late camp dates Thomas some time after AD, generally in the mid-2nd century. Porter dates Thomas much later, to the mid-third century. Several scholars have argued that the sayings in Thomas reflect conflations and harmonisations dependent on the canonical gospels. For example, saying 10 and 16 Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text to contain a redacted harmonisation of Luke—52 and Matthew — In this case it has been suggested that the dependence is best explained by the author of Thomas making use of an earlier harmonised oral tradition based on Matthew and Luke. Evans also subscribes to this view and notes that "Over half of the New Testament writings are quoted, paralleled, or alluded to in Thomas Another argument made for the late dating of Thomas is based upon the fact that Saying 5 in the original Greek Papyrus Oxyrhynchus seems to follow the vocabulary used in the gospel according to Luke Lukeand not the vocabulary used in the gospel according to Mark Mark According to this argument — which presupposes firstly the rectitude of the two-source hypothesis widely held among current New Testament scholars [ citation needed ]in which the author of Luke is seen as having used the pre-existing gospel according to Mark plus a lost Q source to compose his gospel — if the author of Thomas did, as Saying 5 suggests — refer to a pre-existing gospel according to Luke, rather than Mark's vocabulary, then the gospel of Thomas must have been composed after both Mark and Luke the latter of Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text is dated to between 60 AD and 90 AD. Another saying that employs similar vocabulary to that used in Luke rather than Mark is Saying 31 in the original Greek Papyrus Oxyrhynchus Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Textwhere Luke 's term dektos acceptable is employed rather than Mark 's atimos without honor. The word dektos in all its cases and genders is clearly typical of Luke, since it is only employed by him in the canonical gospels Luke ; ; Acts Thus, the argument runs, the Greek Thomas has clearly been at least influenced by Luke's characteristic vocabulary. Porter states that, because around half of the sayings in Thomas have parallels in the synoptic gospels, it is "possible that the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas were selected directly from the canonical gospels and were either reproduced more or less exactly or amended to fit the author's distinctive theological outlook. Meier, scholars predominantly conclude that Thomas depends on or harmonizes the Synoptics. Several scholars argue that Thomas is dependent on Syriac writings, including unique versions of the canonical gospels. They contend that many sayings of the Gospel of Thomas are more similar to Syriac translations of the canonical gospels than their record in the original Greek. Craig A. Evans states that saying 54 in Thomaswhich speaks of the poor and the kingdom of heaven, is more similar to the Syriac version of Matthew than the Greek version of that passage or the parallel in Luke Klyne Snodgrass notes that saying 65—66 of Thomas containing the Parable of the Wicked Tenants Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text to be dependent on the early harmonisation of Mark and Luke found in the Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text Syriac gospels. He concludes that, " Thomasrather than representing the earliest form, has been shaped by this harmonizing tendency in Syria. If the Gospel of Thomas were the earliest, we would have to imagine that each of the evangelists or the traditions behind them expanded the parable in different directions and then that in the process of transmission the text was trimmed back to the form it has in the Syriac Gospels. It is much more likely that Thomas, which has a Syrian provenance, is dependent on the tradition of the canonical Gospels that has been abbreviated and harmonized by oral transmission. Nicholas Perrin argues that Thomas is dependent on the Diatessaronwhich was composed shortly after by Tatian in Syria. Williams analyzed Perrin's alleged Syriac catchwords and found them implausible. Shedinger wrote that since Perrin attempts to reconstruct an Old Syriac version of Thomas without first establishing Thomas' reliance on the DiatessaronPerrin's logic seems circular. Bart Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, and that his apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents: Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings. The Gospel of Thomas proclaims that the Kingdom of God is already present for those who understand the secret message of Jesus Sayingand lacks apocalyptic themes. Because of this, Ehrman argues, the Gospel of Thomas was probably composed by a Gnostic some time in the early 2nd century. Wrightformer Anglican bishop and professor of New Testament history, also sees the dating of Thomas in the 2nd or 3rd century. Wright's reasoning for this dating is that the "narrative framework" of 1st-century Judaism and the New Testament is radically different from the Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text expressed in the sayings collected in the Gospel of Thomas. Wright concludes his section on the Gospel of Thomas in his book The New Testament and the People of God in this way: "[Thomas'] implicit story has to do with a figure who imparts a secret, hidden wisdom to those close to him, so that they can perceive a new truth and be saved by it. It is simply the case that, on good historical grounds, it is far more likely that the book represents a radical translation, and indeed subversion, of first-century Christianity into a quite different sort of religion, than that it represents the original of which the longer gospels are distortions Thomas reflects a symbolic universe, and a worldview, which are radically different from those of the early Judaism and Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text. The harsh and widespread reaction to Marcion 's canonthe first New Testament canon known to have been created, may demonstrate that, by AD, it had become widely accepted that other texts formed parts of the records of the life and ministry of Jesus. Tatian's widely used Diatessaron Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text, compiled between and AD, utilized the four gospels without any consideration of others. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote in the late 2nd century that since there are four-quarters of the earth The late 2nd-century Muratorian fragment also recognizes only the three synoptic gospels and John. Bible scholar Bruce Metzger wrote regarding the formation of the New Testament canon, "Although the fringes of the emerging canon remained unsettled for generations, a high degree of unanimity concerning the greater part of the New Testament was attained among the very diverse and scattered congregations of believers not only throughout the Mediterranean world, but also over an area extending from Britain to Mesopotamia. The question also arises as to various sects' usage of other works attributed to Thomas and their relation to this work. The Book of Thomas the Contenderalso from Nag Hammadi, is foremost among these, but the extensive Acts of Thomas provides the mythological connections. The short and comparatively straightforward Apocalypse of Thomas has no immediate connection with the synoptic gospels, while the canonical Jude — if the name can be taken to refer to Judas Thomas Didymus — certainly attests to early intra-Christian conflict. Gospel of Thomas: The Scholar's Translation

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. We use cookies to make your experience better. To comply with the new e-Privacy directive, we need to ask for your consent to set the cookies. Learn more. Many books have been published on the Gospel of Thomas since its discovery in One of the most recent publications on the issue is Thomas and the Gospels. The author is well known as an opponent of the Q hypothesis. As an opponent of the Q hypothesis, Goodacre consequently opts for the late date of the Gospel of Thomas he dates its final version to AD and its dependence on the Synoptic Gospels. There are two reasons that led the author to formulate the opinion that Thomas is dependent on the Synoptics. Firstly, Goodacre underscored the need for re-establishing the significance of the three extant Greek fragments of Thomas P. Secondly, he pointed out that all the strands of Synoptic writings are present in the Gospel of Thomas. This is important, because only if one indicates the redactional features of the Synoptics in Thomas, can we actually know that Thomas used the Synoptics and not vice versa. Only in the first case the similarity is striking. The phrase in the Thomasine version is as follows:? It has parallels in Matthew and Luke The link between these texts lies both in the verbatim agreement thirteen words in common with the Lukan version, which differs only in the positioning of?? Nevertheless, in other cases the argumentation is not so convincing. Goodacre notes that the verbatim agreement oscillates there from nine to seven words. However, a closer look at the respective verses reveals that he also includes articles and emendations that have been called into question by other scholars. Take Luke as an example. The alleged common phrase is? However, this phrase is heavily damaged in the Gospel Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text Thomas:? Thom 3. Yet, indeed, one can notice a fourword verbatim agreement. Even if this emendation is correct, there are some additional problems, as well. Goodacre quotes opponents who think that similarities in general can come from oral tradition, pre-Evangelist witness, or be a result of later harmonization. The situation is far more complicated in Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text to the texts known only from Coptic textual witnesses, because the comparison is made between the Greek text of the Synoptics and the Coptic translation or retroversions of the text into Greek. Taking that into account the question is whether the presence of these and similar expressions is enough for us to speak about literary dependence between the texts. For Goodacre, the answer is yes. For others, no. While from time to time unwise students plagiarize an entire essay from the Internet, it is far more common for students to plagiarize only parts of essays. When the students in question are accused of plagiarism it is no excuse for them to point to the amount of material that they have not taken over pp. We can ask if this comparison is adequate. If one were to take the stance that ancient culture was far more oral than ours as, for instance, J. Thus everything depends on how somebody sees this period. To sum up, despite not always convincing argumentation connected with the fragmentary evidence available for Thomas, the Thomas and the Gospel by Mark Goodacre is an interesting proposition. The great advantage of this book is that the author acknowledges limits of the research method employed for the study. The author clearly indicates emendations, cites contrary opinions and discusses them. Thanks to this approach a reader can easily follow the scholarly debate in the field of Thomasine studies. Not only the topic, but also the clarity of presentation and vivid language all together provide a stimulus to read the book. Not only has the Gospel of Thomas been a contentious subject within New Testament Studies, it has also captured the imagination of those reading and studying early Christianity at the popular level — sometimes being described as the Fifth Gospel or the earliest witness to the historical Jesus. In this articulate and acutely argued monograph, Goodacre makes a persuasive case that the writer of Thomas was dependent on the Synoptic material as we know it. He begins here with verbatim agreement between Thomas and the Synoptics. This, according to Goodacre, shows a relationship but not necessarily the direction of that relationship p. Goodacre then turns to broader argumentation. This phenomenon appears in multiple types of materials and the awkwardness that this editorial technique produces, Goodacre suggests, may indicate that the author of Thomas was working from memory. Chapter Eight deals with the issues of orality and the role that Thomas has played in that discussion. Chapter Nine establishes a date of roughly for Thomasbased on its apparent allusions to the destruction of the temple Thom. In his final substantive chapter, Goodacre argues that the reason the author of Thomas made such substantial Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text of the Synoptics was to lend authority to his secretive, and divergent Gospel. Goodacre concludes with a plea to study Thomas and other non-canonical sources on their own terms, and not just as they relate to the study of the Synoptic Gospels or the historical Jesus. The rigorous and responsible research that went into producing this study, along with the enjoyable and engaging prose, makes it well worth purchasing. X We use cookies to make your experience better. Allow Cookies. Menu Search Account. Advanced Search. SPCK Publishing. All profits go to our charitable work. Home Thomas and the Gospels. Thomas and the Gospels. In stock. ISBN grouped. Grouped product items Paperback. Add to Basket. Wish List. About our ebooks. The Gospel of Thomas is the most controversial of the non-canonical gospels and the most important source outside the Gospels for our understanding of the historical Jesus and Christianity's origins. Mark Goodacre makes a detailed and compelling case that the author of The Gospel of Thomas is, after all, familiar with the Synoptic Gospels. He shows that the arguments for independence are inadequate and that the degree of agreement between Thomas and the Synoptics is far too great to be mediated by oral tradition. He suggests that Thomas features tell-tale signs Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text Matthew's and Luke's redactions and that the Gospel should be dated to the early to middle second century, when its author was looking for a means of Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text the voice of his enigmatic Jesus an authoritative, Synopic-sounding legitimacy. About the Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text. Press Reviews. Stay connected. Paperback ISBN: Available in 24 hours. Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty. For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe? After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen! Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do? Who will be our leader? Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you? When you go Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them. After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you. That one is your Father. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone. You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death. For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house their domain and steal their possessions. As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. Let there be among you a person who understands. When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom. There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark. When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's eye. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty. But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways. Yet Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty. Where there are two or one, I am with that one. After all, no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does one put it in a hidden place. Rather, one puts it on a lampstand so that all who come and go will see its light. Then one can loot his house. As for you, when you have no garment, what will you put on? Who might add to your stature? Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text very one will give you your garment. There will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. As for you, be as sly as snakes and as simple as doves. Since it is not strong, it will be pulled up by its root and will perish. Rather, you have become like the Judeans, for they love the tree but hate its fruit, or they love the fruit but hate the tree. Good persons produce good from what they've stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness they've stored up in their hearts, and say evil things. For from the overflow of the heart they produce evil. But I have said that whoever among you becomes a child will recognize the kingdom and will become greater than John. And a slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other. Young wine is not poured into old wineskins, or they might break, and aged wine is not poured into a new wineskin, or it might spoil. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, since it would create a tear. For you have come from it, and you will return there again. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did Thomas and the Gospels: The Making of an Apocryphal Text let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, "No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them. He said to his disciples, "that person You have climbed onto my couch and eaten from my table as if you are from someone. I was granted from the things of my Father. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. He said, "I shall invest my money so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouses with produce, that I may lack nothing. Anyone here with two ears had better listen! When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his slave to invite the guests. The slave went to the first and said to that one, "My master invites you. I have to go and give them instructions. Please excuse me from dinner. I shall have no time. I shall not be able to come. Please excuse me. He sent his slave so the farmers would give him the vineyard's crop. They grabbed him, beat him, and almost killed him, and the slave returned and told his master. His master said, "Perhaps he didn't know them. Then the master sent his son and said, "Perhaps they'll show my son some respect. Congratulations to those who go hungry, so the stomach of the one in want may be filled. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself. So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there.