One
of the pioneering achievements of the scholars of l'Association
Metanoia was to identify that the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas
are made up from short phrases. By following their example it
can be seen that the Gospel is a record of speech, for this is
a characteristic of Semitic speech that Jesus would have used.
It is quite different from the Greek form of language with its
long sentences comprising linked clauses, which we have inherited.
This difference can be seen most clearly by looking at the Lord's
Prayer (it is 6:9 - 13 in Matthew's Gospel) and the Farewell Discourses
presented in John's Gospel ch.14 & 15. This manner of speaking
would have made it easier to commit the sayings to memory.
What
is so surprising is that this characteristic is so strong that it
has survived translation from the original spoken Aramaic or Greek,
through Coptic and into a modern language (if translated faithfully).
However, further consideration shows that Jesus used these phrases
in several different ways in building up his sayings. Sometimes
he arranged them in an hierarchical sequence, with the significance
steadily increasing to the final one. An example is logion 2:
In other sayings he made contrasting pairs, in which the distinctive
feature is that the the second phrase serves to heighten the impact
of the first. This can be seen in the latter part of logion 3:
A
third way in which Jesus used these short phrases was to create
a kind of rhythm. What is important here is to recognize where
the emphasis lies in each of the phrases. This can be sensed specially
in the second half of logion 22:
The
recognition of this phrase structure that Jesus used assists greatly
in discerning the import of the hidden inner meanings of his parables.
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