Some considerable time ago I wrote about how I thought that the transcribers, a couple of thousand years ago, jumbled up phrases within the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas. My earlier writing on Sayings 5, 6, and 14 are here, and it explains how I thought the author intended on presenting the material.
This week I was reading through other sayings in that gospel and became unsettled on Saying 21. While each of the sentences and each of the phrases makes sense when they stand alone, they fall flat when taken as a whole. It occurs to me that we have the same problem in Saying 21 as we did in Saying 6. Some material extraneous to 21 has wandered over to it. Here is the saying (Layton translation from the Coptic)
Mary said to Jesus, “What do your disciples resemble?” He said, “What they resemble is children living in a plot of land that is not theirs. When the owners of the land come they will say, ‘Surrender our land to us.’ They, for their part, strip naked in their presence in order to give it back to them, and they give them their land. Thus I say that the owner of an estate, knowing that a bandit is coming, will keep watch before the bandit comes and not let the bandit break into the house of the estate and steal the possessions. You (plur.) , then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great power lest the brigands find a way to get to you; for the trouble that you expect will come. Let an experienced person dwell in your midst! When the crop had matured, that person came in haste, sickle in hand, and harvested it. Whoever has ears to hear should listen!”
When I break it down to ‘bite size chunks’ I get what is below. I think the first paragraph ONLY belongs to Saying 21. The balance belongs somewhere else.
Mary said to Jesus, “What do your disciples resemble?” He said, “What they resemble is children living in a plot of land that is not theirs. When the owners of the land come they will say, ‘Surrender our land to us.’ They, for their part, strip naked in their presence in order to give it back to them, and they give them their land.
(This question and answer are congruent)
Thus I say that the owner of an estate, knowing that a bandit is coming, will keep watch before the bandit comes and not let the bandit break into the house of the estate and steal the possessions.
You (plur.) , then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great power lest the brigands find a way to get to you; for the trouble that you expect will come.
(Incongruent: These two paragraphs are of a different topic that the original Q&A)
Let an experienced person dwell in your midst! When the crop had matured, that person came in haste, sickle in hand, and harvested it. Whoever has ears to hear should listen!”
(Incongruent: The paragraph is a different topic than both previous topics)