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Q material (Luke 10:21-22/Matt 11:25-27) christologizes the tradition by making Jesus the son who receives the knowledge of all hidden things from God the father. This approach develops the tradition according to conventional wisdom about fathers teaching their sons. The Thomas logion, in contrast, neither builds on the conventional wisdom that fathers teach sons nor christologizes the tradition. Rather, it inverts conventional reasoning about the necessity for old people to teach infants. The age of seven days old appears to be related to the day of circumcision on the eighth day. Prior to the eighth day, a child was not considered a viable living being on earth. If the child made it to the eighth day, it had become a viable earthly being. If an old person asks a seven day old child about the place of life, that person is asking a full-term pre-earthly being who has, from the perspective of Thomasine culture, recently come from the place of life. GTh 4:2 provides a warrant for the inversion between the role of the young with the dictum that "many of the first will be last." GTh 4:3 is an additional result that is appended to the warrant. The result of the old man's asking the seven day old child is that the old person will live and will become a single one. This again is part of Thomasine belief. While on earth a person becomes two (male and female is one of these forms of two). When people return to the place of life, once again they become one. In contrast to enthymemic reasoning that grounds its assertions in conventional reasoning, every step of this reasoning is contrawisdom: (a) many of the first will be last; (b) the old person will become wise through instruction by a seven day old child; and (c) people who know this contrawisdom will live and overcome their duality to become a single one. While GTh 5 has the form of inductive-deductive argumentation, its reasoning will persuade only those who are willing to enter its contrawisdom and reason on its basis. Gospel of Thomas 5:1-2; 6:1-6 The next two logia present a sequence concerning hidden things being revealed: 5 1Jesus said, "Know what is before your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. 2For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed." 6 1 His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?" 2Jesus said, "Do not lie, 3and do not do what you hate, 4because all things are disclosed before heaven. 5For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, 6and there is nothing covered that will remain without being disclosed." GTh 5 presents a deductive line of reasoning that provides a basis for abductive reasoning in the next logion. GTh 5 contains the following argumentation: Contrawisdom Belief (Rule/Major Premise): 5:2 There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. Case/Minor Premise: 5:1a (If you) know what is before your face, Result: 5:1b (then) what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. |