Saying 18

English

The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us, how will our end come?’

Jesus said, ‘Have you uncovered the beginning, that you seek the end? Because where the beginning is, the end will also be. Whoever stands in the beginning is favored. He will know the end and will not taste death.’

---

Interpretation

This is one of a handful of examples which suggest a direct familiarity with one of the New Testament gospels. Matt 24.3 changes the question posed by the disciples in Mark 13.3–4 to explicitly reference ‘the end’. Saying 18 does the same. Later additions to the book show a preference for framing Jesus’ teachings in the form of a dialogue: the disciples ask a question, and Jesus responds. The question here likely reflects a growing worry over the failed expectations of an imminent eschaton, which several passages in the later stages of the book seek to explain by reorienting the reader’s thinking from an apocalyptic kingdom toward a spiritual one. The mention of the ‘end’ and the ‘beginning’ seems to be an opaque allusion to how salvation (the end) will be accomplished by living in a state like the primordial first man (the beginning).

---

Parallels

Mark

13.3–4 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’

Matthew

24.3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’

Luke

21.7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’