Saying 101 - We Should Hate Our Family And Love Our True Family

Nag Hammadi Coptic Text

BLATZ (101) <Jesus said:> He who does not hate his father and his mother like me cannot be a [disciple] to me. And he who does [not] love [his father] and his mother like me cannot be a [disciple] to me. For my mother [ . . . ], but [my] true [mother] gave me life.

LAYTON (101) <Jesus said>, "Those who do not hate their [father] and their mother as I do cannot be [disciples] of me. And those who [do not] love their [father and] their mother as I do cannot be [disciples of] me. For my mother [. . .] But my true [mother] gave me life."

DORESSE 105 [101]. "He who has not, like me, detested his father and his mother cannot be my disciple; and he who has loved h[is father a]nd his mother as much as he loves me cannot be my disciple. My mother, indeed, has [. . .] because in truth she gave me life."

 

Funk's Parallels

GThom 55
Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a disciple of me, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters and bear the cross as I do, will not be worthy of me."

GThom 105
Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."

Luke 14:25-33
And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 9:23-27
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Fathers, and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Matt 10:34-39
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a mans foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matt 16:24-28
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Mark 8:34-9:1
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

 

Scholarly Quotes

Marvin Meyer writes:

"'my true [mother]': perhaps the holy spirit, who may be described as the mother of Jesus in such texts as the Secret Book of James, the Gospel of the Hebrews, and the Gospel of Philip. Thus the conundrum presented in the saying (hate parents and love parents) is resolved by positing two orders of family and two mothers of Jesus."

(The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 105)

Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write:

"The substance of this saying has already been provided in Saying 56 [55]. Here, however, Jesus explicitly states that he himself hates his (earthly) father and mother (see Saying 96). The repeated phrase, 'cannot be my disciple,' comes, like most of the saying, from Luke 14:26. What he said about his mother (who gave him life?) cannot be recovered from the broken text. Perhaps he said, as in the Gospel of the Hebrews, that his mother was the Holy Spirit. The statement about loving father and mother may refer to loving the Father and the Holy Spirit. Verbally it is quite close to Matthew 10:37: 'He who loves father or mother more than me cannot be my disciple.' The sense is quite different, however. On 'father and mother' see Saying 102 [105]."

(The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 189-190)

Funk and Hoover write:

"Verse 1 of this saying, by itself, could have been voted pink, as a similar saying was in Luke 14:26. But here the first saying is joined by its opposite (v. 2), which makes it a paradox. One cannot both hate and love parents at the same time. The rest of the saying in Thomas is fragmentary, but enough remains to suggest that Thomas was making a distinction between two different kinds of mothers and fathers. The Fellows had to conclude that Thomas has revised an authentic tradition and developed it in some new but unknown direction."

(The Five Gospels, p. 527)

J. D. Crossan writes:

"In all cases where Thomas has two or more versions of a synoptic aphorism, one is usually more gnostic than the other. So also here. Gos. Thom. 101 'is a doublet of Saying 55. That part of its text which is parallel to the Lukan account of hating is almost identical with Saying 55. Its additional material seems clearly to be a more developed gnostic interpretation of the saying: hat this world, love the spiritual' (Sieber: 121). For my present purpose, it is less important to discuss this gnosticizing tradition of the triple-stich aphoristic compound than to note that, now the cross sayinghas completely disappeared inside the family one, save for the common Coptic term behind 'in My way' (55) and 'as I do' (101). But Gos. Thom. 101 still retained the triple-stich format of the aphoristic compound. He even retained the double-stich parallelism of Aphorism 113 [Mt 10:37 // Lk 14:26], but the second stich is now in antithetical (hate/love) parallelism rather than in the original synonymous parallelism (hate/hate). Gos. Thom. 101 is a gnosticized redaction of Gos. Thom. 55."

(In Fragments, p. 136)

 

Visitor Comments

This makes perfect sense, since to deny the hate and/or love is to deny oneself.
- SLR

I like the reference to the true mother giving birth to Jesus because he acknowledges that God is not only masculine but can also be feminine and give life.
- Five_crowss

As a disciple one hates the self-destructive attitudes learnt from one's parents, but also recognises one's innate love for one's parents. For the innate adult selves of one's parents have supported the growth of one's self.
- Rodney

As a process this works its course & there will come a time when the "patient" will reject everything that previously appeared to him to be good. He will even curse God and curse his teacher. Until he/she has passed through that phase they cannot be said to have overcome their Commanding Self [nafs-i-ammarra] or lower nature. How can you be said to know yourself if you have not witnessed the ugly in you as well as the shining?
- Thief37

Similar hate your parents strictures are recorded. They are not necessarily meant to be taken literally but may well have been used by a teacher as shock treatment almost certainly to only one member of a group of pupils. It is a blunt instrument, a tool of last resort and recognised by modern western psycholgists studying brainwashing in the Korean police action. The victim is open when struck such an emotional blow and better able to absorb/remember the words, the situation, the people, the occasion, etc, as a result. I have seen it used under similar authentic circumstances. But without having a fuller account of the situation of the Thomasian usage we cannot be sure that this technique was being used here. However we should be aware of this instrumental tool.
- Thief37

What happened to 'Honor your father and mother?' Unless your earthly father and mother are to be disowned in preference for your Father in Heaven and Mother of conscious thought?
- bromikl

Like Jack Kilmon suggests for saying 55 the word 'hate' is likely better translated to 'set aside'. Thus this saying most likely speaks of setting aside the will of one's bodily mother and father who naturally wish to protect a child from the world's dangers. Jesus, however, urges us to drop these defenses and to trust in the Lord, our spiritual mother and father, even unto death.
- reader

Our greatest loyalty (love) should not be to our biological parents who gave us their genetic materials (which makes us predisposed to their attitudes) to experience this life, but rather to the mother father priciple that gave birth to the spirit within.
- Roland