"One who seeks after the world is one who drinks sea water; the more he drinks, the more his thirst increases until it kills him."
"Whoever is near me is near this fire; whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom."
"Possess nothing on earth."
Marvin Meyer's definitive translation of The Gospel of Thomas disclosed to readers profound and provocative sayings of Jesus that are now considered authentic. In this intriguing new collection, he goes beyond the Gospel of Thomas and the New Testament to cull the most significant sayings of Jesus from other texts of the ancient world-Christian and non-Christian-offering a fresh translation of previously unknown or little known sayings of Jesus.
Stories and traditions about Jesus spread far and wide over the first centuries of Christianity and appear in early Christian, gnostic, Jewish, and Islamic texts. Meyer presents a series of fascinating sayings of Jesus, some of which certainly are early and true to Jesus' teachings. "Doubtless some of these unknown sayings of Jesus reflect what the historical Jesus actually said," Meyer tells us, "and this prospect is exciting indeed."
From the absorbing introduction and annotations that put the sayings into perspective to the compelling selection and original translations, this beautiful book will appeal to all those who love the Gospel of Thomas and the gospels of the New Testament. It makes wonderful reading for anyone interested in the historical Jesus and his many sayings that failed to be included in the four canonical gospels.
Hundreds of sayings were attributed to the sage from Nazareth by ancient admirers. More than fifteen hundred versions of five hundred quotations are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, the Gospel of Thomas, and other gospels found at Nag Hammadi. Marvin Meyer has combed additional Jewish, Muslim, and Christian sources for another two hundred of the most fascinating epigrams and parables ascribed to Jesus. This new resource prepared by a veteran scholar . . . will be invaluable to everyone engaged in the quest to recover the authentic voice of Jesus."-Robert W. Funk, founder of The Jesus Seminar, author of The Acts of Jesus
"First there was the Jesus of history. Then there was the Christ of the gospels. But third there was the echo of Jesus that reverberated throughout the world in the first centuries of Christian history. Marvin Meyer has attempted to capture the echo. By searching Christian, Jewish, and Islamic sources he found Jesus quoted in sometimes familiar and sometimes startling ways, and he lays them out beautifully. The result is a treasure!"
--John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark, author of the bestselling Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism
"Since the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, Marvin Meyer's exciting The Unknown Sayings of Jesus is the major revelation of Yeshua's diverse extracanonical voices--here presented in invisibly deep scholarship and elegantly simple English to give us a spiritual page-turner."
--Willis Barnstone, Institute for Biblical and Literary Studies, Indiana University, editor of The Other Bible
"This is a most valuable and fascinating book indeed. It gives us insight not only into what Jesus-peace be upon him-said or might have said, but also into the ways he was admired in different cultures and times."
--Muzammil H. Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America and adjunct professor of Islamic studies and world religions, California State University, Fullerton
