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Excursus 4: Structural Markers Indicating the Use of Sources in Thomas Like the Gospel of Mark,the Gospel of Thomas contains structural evidence for its use of sources.In Thomas,this structural evidence is part of the basic method of the author, and may be found both in the programmatic introduction to Thomas and in individual units.To date,however,no satisfactory account of the structure of Thomas has been given. Most readers have not discovered any structure in the Gospel of Thomas.1 Contributing to an impression of lack of structure is the lack of a larger narrative.Thomas, unlike Mark, does not build a narrative around the sayings, nor does he situate these sayings within Jesus’s life. Furthermore , the author does not use the order of sayings to develop themes or topics in a systematic way.Certain themes tend to recur,but they are advanced and dropped quite abruptly from one saying to the next.For some,this lack of structure indicates that the author was a collector, who transmitted such sayings as he found memorable, regardless of source.2 There have been some efforts to provide a structure for Thomas. Ménard,for example,has provided a detailed outline.3 His outline,however, which is based on his understanding of the Gospel of Thomas as a secondary Gnostic work,is not a structure of Thomas as a collection of sayings,but a structure of the secret interpretation which he believes underlies it.Thus it is not visible to a naive reader who does not know Ménard’s interpretation .Like some of the interpretations in his commentary,Ménard’s account of the structure sometimes goes against specific indications in the text. While Th.3 has been modified,apparently by Thomas,to say that the kingdom is outside as well as inside, the saying is, according to Ménard, about 193 a “mystique par introversion.”4 Similarly, according to Ménard, Th. 33 and 34 advise disseminating esoteric teaching “de manière discrète.”5 Th. 33, however,following a theme found also in Th.32,is built from sayings ascribed to Jesus which recommend proclaiming what one hears from the rooftops and placing lamps where everyone can see them, while Th. 34, concerning a blind person who leads a blind person, has, at least on the surface,6 no bearing on the dissemination of teachings, whether this is done discretely or not. Stephen Patterson has suggested that the Gospel of Thomas uses catchwords as an organising principle.7 The use of catchwords suggests to Patterson that the sayings of Thomas were transmitted orally, and that they are tied together artificially by repeated words to prevent inadvertent omissions during recitation. His observations about the use of catchwords can be defended only if one takes the view that the basic structural unit in Thomas is the “saying” in the sense of originally discrete units as understood by form critics.It will be shown,however,that sayings as presented by the author of Thomas often include one or more earlier units,as well as text likely to have been composed by the author.Many of the catchwords which Patterson proposes are within units apparently composed by the author of Thomas,for example Th.11:2–11:3 and 11:3–11:4. In such cases the repetition of words is a literary device, “anaphora”rather than “catchwords.”Even the use of rwme,“human,”spanning three units in Thomas’s structure,Th. 63 through 65, could have been used deliberately to bind three illustrative stories, each of which present wealth as a snare. If we look for catchwords between sayings as presented by the author, we find that they are not used consistently. It is true that two adjacent sayings in Thomas often have one or more words in common. The introduction (Th. 0 and 1) could be said to be linked to Th. 2 by the verb Á'?)7, “find,” even though in the Coptic translation two separate verbs are used. Conversely, although Patterson does not do so, Sorp, “first,” could be said to link 3 and 4, at least in Coptic, although it probably represents two different Greek words,perhaps a form of 197,“to be before”in 3,and %'Æ-#+, “first”in 4.The last word in 7,rwme,“human,”is also the first word in 8,while mouH, “fill,” is shared by 8 and 9 and dikaios, “just,” by 12 and 13. Catchwords , to be...

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