These are the hidden sayings of the living Jesus. And he wrote them, namely, Judah the Twin. 1. Even he said (to Jesus): “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste of death.”
2. Jesus said (to Thomas): “Let him who seeks (the interpretation of these sayings) not stop seeking until he finds; and when he finds, he will be troubled; and when he is troubled, he will be amazed; and when he is amazed, he will reign as king over all; and when he reigns, he will rest.”
3. Jesus said: “If those who lead you astray say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom, she is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky would enter her before you. If they say to you, ‘‹Look›, she is in the sea beneath the earth,’ then the fish of the sea would enter her before you. Rather, the kingdom, she is inside you and outside you. Whoever knows himself will find this. When you know yourselves, then you will be known (by God), and you will know that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, you will dwell in poverty and you will be that poverty.”
4. Jesus said: “A scholar ancient of days will not hesitate to ask a child seven days old about the place of life, and it will ‹be revealed›. For all who are first will become last, and all who are last will become first, and they will be one, the same.”
5. Jesus said: “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden (from your sight) will be revealed (visibly) to you. For there is nothing which is hidden that will not be made visible, and there is nothing which has been buried that will not be raised.”
6. His disciples asked him and said to him: “How should we fast? And how should we pray? And how should we give alms? And what rules concerning foods shall we observe?” Jesus said: “Do not lie, and do not do anything which you would hate, for all things are revealed in the presence of Heaven. For there is nothing that has been hidden that will not be made manifest. And there is nothing covered that will not be revealed.”
7. Jesus said: “Lucky is the lion that a man will eat, and (in this case) the lion will become a man; but unlucky is the man whom the lion will eat, and the lion will become a man (in this case as well).”
8. He said: “It is the case with ‹the kingdom› as with a wise fisherman who cast his net into the lake; he drew it up full of little fish from the lake. Among them the wise fisherman found a good large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the lake; he chose the large fish without trouble. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9. Jesus said: “Behold, the sower went out, he filled his hands and cast forth. Some, indeed, fell upon the road; the birds came, they gathered them. Others fell upon stones, and did not send roots down into the earth, and did not send forth ears reaching to the sky. And others fell upon thorns; they choked the seed, and worms ate them. And others fell upon good earth, and it produced good fruit (reaching) up to the sky. It brought sixty per measure, and one hundred twenty per measure. ‹When the grain opened, he arrived with haste, his sickle in hand; he reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”›
10. Jesus said: “I have cast a fire upon the world, and behold, I guard it until it burns.”
11. Jesus said: “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will also pass away. And those who have died are not alive, and those who are alive will not die. In the days when you ate what was dead, you made it live. When you eat what is alive, what will you do? On the day you were one, you were made into two, but when you become ‹one›, what will you do?”
12. The disciples said to Jesus: “We know that you will depart and be beyond our reach. Who will (then) be greatest over us?” Jesus said to them: “In whatever place you may be, you will go to James the Righteous, the one because of whom heaven and earth came into being.”
13. Jesus said to his disciples: “Make a comparison and tell me whom/what I am like.” Simon Peter said to him: “You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew said to him: “You are like a man, a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to him: “Master, my mouth will not at all let me say what you are like.” Jesus said: “I am not your master; because you drank you were intoxicated from the bubbling spring I have measured out.” And he took him aside and withdrew and told him three things. But when Thomas approached his friends, they asked him: “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them: “If I were to tell you one of the things he told me, you would gather stones and cast them at me, and fire would come from the stones and burn you.”
14. Jesus said: “If you fast, you will give birth to sin, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give alms, you will harm your own spirits. And in any land you enter, when you walk in the countrysides, if you are received (with a greeting of peace), eat whatever is placed in front of you; heal the sick among them. For what enters your mouth will not cause impurity; rather, what comes out of your mouth is what will make you impure.”
15. Jesus said: “When you look upon him who was not born of woman, bow your face to the ground and worship him, for that one, he is your Father.”
16. Jesus said: “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world, but they do not realize that I have come to cast various divisions upon the world: fire, sword, war. For five will be in a house; three will be against two, and two against three; the father against the son, and the son against the father, and they will stand alone.”
17. Jesus said: “I will give you what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, and what hand has not touched, and what has not entered in the human mind.”
18. The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said: “Have you then explained what the beginning is so that you may ask about the end? For in the place where the beginning is, there will the end come to be. Blessed is he who will stand in the beginning, and he will know the end, and he will not taste of death.”