Saying 77

English

Jesus said, ‘I am the light which is above all things. I am everything. From me, everything came forth, and up to me, everything reached.’

[‘Split the wood. I am there. Lift the stone and you will find me there.’]

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Interpretation

The final additions to the book emphasize the divine origin of Jesus. While this belief in Jesus as a divine being is found in the earliest Christian literature, it was evidently not a part of the oral traditions which derived from things Jesus himself taught.

The second part is found in both Greek and Coptic, but the order and location differs. In Greek (stone, wood) it is found with Saying 30, but in Coptic (wood, stone) it is found with Saying 77. It seems to reflect a panentheistic theology regarding Jesus.

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Parallels

1 Corinthians

8.6 Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Romans

11.36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.

Colossians

1.15–17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created—things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Ephesians

4.4–6 There is one body and one spirit—just as you were called to the one hope of your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Hebrews

2.10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

John

1.1–3 In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and god was the Logos. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

Lucian of Samosata

Hermotimus 81 And he tells us God is not in heaven, but goes about in everything: wood and stone and animals, even the most ordinary of them.