Saying 71 - Destruction Of "this Building"

Nag Hammadi Coptic Text

BLATZ (71) I will des[troy this] house, and none shall be able to build it [again].

LAYTON (71) Jesus said, "I shall throw down [this] building, and no one will be able to build it [...]."

DORESSE 75 [71]. Jesus says: "I will [...] and no one will be able [...]

 

Funk's Parallels

Matt 26:59-68
Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?

Matt 27:39-40
And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

John 2:13-22
And the Jews passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Fathers house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

Mark 14:55-65
And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

Mark 15:29-30
And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, Save thyself, and come down from the cross.

Mark 13:1-4
And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

Acts 6:12-14
And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

 

Scholarly Quotes

R. McL. Wilson writes:

"If this is independent, it must confirm the synoptic version ('I will destroy') against John (imperative). If, however, it is dependent we may ask if it is intended as deliberate opposition to John ii. 21: 'He spake of the temple of His body.' It is at any rate notable that no reference is made to the resurrection; on the contrary, the possibility of restoration is emphatically denied. This must indicate either a rejection of the doctrine of the resurrectino or perhaps a period after the final destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, when no hope remained of its rebuilding."

(Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 115)

Gerd Ludemann writes:

"The saying is reminiscent of John 2.19, where a similar saying is spoken by Jesus, and Mark 14.58, according to which a saying of Jesus to this effect has been wrongly put on the lips of Jesus. However, in the New Testament parallels there is always a reference to a rebuilding, whereas there is none in Thomas. Hence Logion 71 might be about the destruction of the world or matter in a metaphorical sense. There is no eschatological perspective at work here. Thomas presupposes the New Testament texts and on that basis formulates an ascetic-dualistic saying of Jesus about the temple."

(Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 626)

Funk and Hoover write:

"The Fellows conceded that Jesus could have predicted the destruction of the temple and its replacement by another 'not made with hands.' And they agreed that some such saying must have circulated as an independent remark during the oral period, since it appears in three independent sources. Yet they were hesitant to identify its original form. The saying in Thomas, unfortunately, is fragmentary."

(The Five Gospels, p. 513)

Gerd Theissen writes:

"Gospel of Thomas 71 knows the prophecy in the first person: 'Jesus said: I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it (again).' Here the positive part of the prophecy is directly denied. It had not been fulfilled and had become a problem."

(The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide, p. 433)

Stephen Patterson writes:

"it structural similarity [to other sayings about the Temple] permits the assumption that it is indeed a version of the so-called 'temple word'. . . . Whether the lack of any referenec to the temple in 71 is a secondary feature, or a primitive touch is difficult to decide. I would suspect, however, that Thomas' ending: 'and no one will be able to rebuild it' is secondary over against references to rebuilding the Temple in the various other versions. The fact that the Temple was never rebuilt would eventually prove awkward for such predictions. One way to ease off the problem would be to allegorize it, as does John, in terms of the resurrection (2:21); another way would be to ease off the prediction itself (so Thomas)"

(The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus, pp. 109-110)

J. D. Crossan writes:

"I agree with the first two points of that analysis [by Patterson] but not with its third one. Despite its ambiguities, 'house' is best seen as referring originally to the Temple at Jerusalem, even if the Gospel of Thomas may now understand it in some other way. Next, the structural balance of destroying/rebuilding is common to all three sources in the complex and must be taken very seriously. But I reverse the sequence presumed by Patterson's analysis. I take Gospel of Thomas 71 as the most original version we have, and it simply states emphatically: I will destroy this house so utterly that rebuilding will be impossible. The rebuilding does not, initially, reflect any spiritual substitution but is merely an emphatic way of stating utterly, completely, totally, and forever. It is not this version that has eased off the rebuilding, taken negatively, but the other versions that have developed the rebuilding, taken positively. It is most significant, therefore, that the Gospel of Thomas, which has no interest in the passion of Jesus, still retains this saying. But that cuts both ways. It may mean that it is very good historical Jesus tradition but also that the connection with the passion was not at all on the same level."

(The Historical Jesus, p. 356)

 

Visitor Comments

I alone can destroy your world and none will be able to build it again.
- seeker of truth

Commentary on the transitory nature of a true esoteric school. The teaching is perennial --- but it must be adapted afresh to the needs of every new community, tailored to the locale and its inhabitants. the teacher has this skill and a concommitant of that ability is the capabolity to close it down deliberately so as to prevent it being re-used for another generation. Nobody can rebuild it. cf the story of Humpty Dumpty, HD being the school and not even the greatest authority in the land [the king] can put back into working order what the teacher has decreed shall be dismantled. [Don't try and put new wine --- the next projection --- into old bottles --- the past projection's apparatus]
- Thief37

The house is ego which Jesus will destroy and never build again. The devil, desire, is the architect of this house.
- Anonymous

"The mind once expanded can never return to its original position."
- T Moran