Throughout the Gos. Thom., this is the relation of the speech of Jesus to word strings in the OT text and other variations in the apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Qumran, etc. In no instance does either the narrator or Jesus refer to any word string as "written" somewhere, and comparison of the wording in the Gos. Thom. shows a free, orally constituted relation to that wording. Another text closely related to written scripture in wording is Gos. Thom. 21:9: "When the crop ripened, that one came quickly with sickle in hand (and) he harvested it." Mark 4:29 has this in a variant form: "But when the crop ripens, quickly he puts in the sickle, because the harvest is ready." Joel 3:13 (LXX: 4:13) reads "Put in the sickle, because the harvest is ready." The Markan text has a close relation to the Joel text. Both are argumentative in nature, with a rationale that supports the reasoning at the beginning of the statement. The Markan version embellishes the Joel version to emphasize the quickness with which the man who planted the grain harvests it. The Thomas text is an oral variant of the Markan text that lacks the argumentative quality of a statement supported by a rationale. The Thomas version correlates the ripening and harvesting with the quick action with the sickle. Transmission of the topic of quickness, then, stands at the center of the Thomas version, rather than transmission of the rationale which stands at the center of the Joel version. The Thomas version, then, is a rhetorical variant of Mark 4:29 with no scribal investment either in the Joel or the Markan version. The Markan version is a scribal variant of the Thomas version, replicating verbatim wording from Joel concerning "putting in the sickle, because the harvest is ready."

No other wording in the Gos. Thom. comes as close to verbatim recitation of OT text as sayings Gos. Thom. 66 and 21:9, and in both instances there is no scribal influence on the Gos. Thom. version that exceeds or even equals a version in a synoptic gospel. Herein we see one of the remarkable differences between the inner texture of the Gos. Thom. and the canonical gospels. Each of the canonical gospels shows a scribal relationship at many points to OT text. This relationship may be "mediated," in the sense that the wording may be coming from some kind of Christian "pesher" or "testimonia" tradition. But in each instance there is an argumentative interest in ancient written testimony, and this interest manifests itself in "scribal" influence from OT text on wording in the text. There is no interest like this in the Gos. Thom. There is, to be sure, knowledge of the prophets, but all the emphasis is on "the speaking of the prophets" and never on "what is written." Thus Gos. Thom. 52:

52 1 His disciples said to him, "Twenty four prophets have spoken in Israel, and they all spoke of you." 2 He said to them, "You have disregarded the living one who is in your presence, and have spoken of the dead."

The twenty four prophets undoubtedly would include Moses and David, from whom come the law and the psalms, but Jesus speaks of them as dead. In contrast, the synoptic gospels speak of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as living (Mark 12:27 par.). In a context where the disciples in the Gos. Thom. show an awareness of the prophets, they emphasize what the prophets have spoken rather than what anyone has written. Jesus' response, in turn,