That is the Coptic.Bernard Muller wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:10 pm to mlinssen and Ben and Greek experts,Strange translation. I would like to know about Ben's take about it (or/and from other Greek experts on this forum).I can't blaim you for reading the wrong translations, there hardly are any others
Thomas is joking about the dumb sabbath which he naturally detests:
ⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ ⲧⲙ̄ ⲉⲓⲣⲉ ⲙ̄ ⲡ ⲥⲁⲙⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ ⲛ̄ ⲥⲁⲃ`ⲃⲁⲧⲟⲛ
you(PL) …not… make-be of the Sabbath the(PL) sABBAth
Do you see the difference between the two occurrences of the same word?
Do you also see the apostrophe? In the second word?
AB'BA
Make of the Sabbath Father's Days. Or else... You won't see the Father
Cordially, Bernard
The Greek is:
Thomas 27.1-2 (papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1, verso, lines 4b-11a): 1 Λέγει Ἰ(ησοῦ)ς· ἐὰν μὴ νηστεύσηται τὸν κόσμον, οὐ μὴ εὕρηται τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θ(εο)ῦ· 2 καὶ ἐὰν μὴ σαββατίσητε τὸ σάββατον οὐκ ὄψεσθε τὸ<ν> π(ατέ)ρα. / [Gathercole:] 1 Jesus says, “Unless you fast with respect to the world, you will not find the kingdom of God. 2 And unless you observe the Sabbath, you will not see the Father.”
The Greek has a cognate accusative (which means that the direct object is from the same root as the main verb): σαββατίσητε τὸ σάββατον. This is not particularly unusual. English does the same thing sometimes (sing a song, tell a tale, do a deed).
The verb, σαββατίζω, means to keep the Sabbath. The noun, σάββατον, means the Sabbath (or, by extension, a week). The cognate accusative construction appears in the LXX:
Leviticus 23.32: 32 “It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbaths [LXX σαββατιεῖτε τὰ σάββατα ὑμῶν].”
Gathercole's translation is quite literal. There is nothing in the Greek grammar itself to suggest one way or another whether keeping the Sabbath is meant literally or not.
Gathercole has an opinion:
Simon Gathercole, The Gospel of Thomas, pages 325-326:
Different solutions have been proposed for the interpretation of this saying. (1) Baarda has considered GTh 27 as best understood in a Gnostic framework, with ‘Sabbath’ being a term for the Gnostic demiurge or his creation, so that the saying refers to the rejection of the demiurge (27.1) and the material world (27.2): the logion is about ‘the total denial of present reality of the Cosmos and its Creator to enable the finding of the true reality of the kingdom and the Father’. A Gnostic conception is certainly not necessary, however, and does not comport with the sense of Thomas elsewhere. (2) By contrast, DeConick sees a traditional Jewish practice here, which connected celibacy and Sabbath observance. This proposal is weakened by the fact that Thomas is elsewhere so critical of Jewish practices (e.g. GTh 14, 52–53...). The best explanation is probably that adopted by the majority of commentators, namely (3) that both Sabbath and fasting have become metaphors for something else.
First, ‘fasting’ and ‘Sabbath observance’ are placed here in parallel as two soteriological conditions. Baarda and King rightly aver there must be some degree of synonymous parallelism here, even if not absolute: ‘fasting’ and ‘sabbatising’ are closely related ideas: namely, abstaining from food and from work respectively. The same is true of the results in the apodoses: ‘The parallelism of structure identifies fasting with observing the Sabbath and identifies finding the kingdom with seeing the father.’
Secondly, there is a reinterpretation of fasting and Sabbath observance, indeed, one might even call this a radicalising extension of them: the true disciple is not merely to fast from certain foods, but from the whole world, and is not to rest from labour on the Sabbath, but from worldly concerns at all times. A total renunciation of anything associated with evil is enjoined. The Epistle of Ptolemy to Flora also juxtaposes reference to fasting and Sabbath, after a similar explanation of circumcision: ‘He wanted us to be circumcised, not in regard to our physical foreskin but in regard to our spiritual heart; to keep the Sabbath, for he wishes us to be idle in regard to evil works; to fast, not in physical fasting but in spiritual, in which there is abstinence from everything evil.’ (Ptolemy, in Epiphanius, Pan. 33.5.11–13.)
Here, Sabbath observance and fasting are metaphors for total rejection of anything unholy. (We will encounter in GTh 53 an interpretation of circumcision similar to that of Ptolemy here.) This parallel adds weight to the probability that in GTh 27, the true disciple is to practice a life of extreme abstinence from evil, and is to avoid the mechanisms of worldly interaction.
The radicalising is seen further in that these are not merely practices for an elite, but soteriological conditions, as is evident from the apodoses in both parts of the saying (‘unless... you will not find the kingdom...; unless... you will not see the Father’).
This saying has featured in discussions of both Thomas’s original language, and its milieu. Several scholars have commented that the phrase ‘fast to the world’ suggests a Syriac original, on the grounds that it woodenly translates the Syriac phrase sʾm lʿlmʾ; this view is not without its difficulties, however. Thomas here clearly reflects a fairly widespread second-century tendency to interpret elements of Jewish law metaphorically. A final possibility (though only that), is that the close connection between fasting and Sabbath observance here may reflect a distance from Judaism: as Schäfer notes, ‘The view of the Sabbath as a fast-day seems to have been widespread among Greek and Latin authors.’
Different solutions have been proposed for the interpretation of this saying. (1) Baarda has considered GTh 27 as best understood in a Gnostic framework, with ‘Sabbath’ being a term for the Gnostic demiurge or his creation, so that the saying refers to the rejection of the demiurge (27.1) and the material world (27.2): the logion is about ‘the total denial of present reality of the Cosmos and its Creator to enable the finding of the true reality of the kingdom and the Father’. A Gnostic conception is certainly not necessary, however, and does not comport with the sense of Thomas elsewhere. (2) By contrast, DeConick sees a traditional Jewish practice here, which connected celibacy and Sabbath observance. This proposal is weakened by the fact that Thomas is elsewhere so critical of Jewish practices (e.g. GTh 14, 52–53...). The best explanation is probably that adopted by the majority of commentators, namely (3) that both Sabbath and fasting have become metaphors for something else.
First, ‘fasting’ and ‘Sabbath observance’ are placed here in parallel as two soteriological conditions. Baarda and King rightly aver there must be some degree of synonymous parallelism here, even if not absolute: ‘fasting’ and ‘sabbatising’ are closely related ideas: namely, abstaining from food and from work respectively. The same is true of the results in the apodoses: ‘The parallelism of structure identifies fasting with observing the Sabbath and identifies finding the kingdom with seeing the father.’
Secondly, there is a reinterpretation of fasting and Sabbath observance, indeed, one might even call this a radicalising extension of them: the true disciple is not merely to fast from certain foods, but from the whole world, and is not to rest from labour on the Sabbath, but from worldly concerns at all times. A total renunciation of anything associated with evil is enjoined. The Epistle of Ptolemy to Flora also juxtaposes reference to fasting and Sabbath, after a similar explanation of circumcision: ‘He wanted us to be circumcised, not in regard to our physical foreskin but in regard to our spiritual heart; to keep the Sabbath, for he wishes us to be idle in regard to evil works; to fast, not in physical fasting but in spiritual, in which there is abstinence from everything evil.’ (Ptolemy, in Epiphanius, Pan. 33.5.11–13.)
Here, Sabbath observance and fasting are metaphors for total rejection of anything unholy. (We will encounter in GTh 53 an interpretation of circumcision similar to that of Ptolemy here.) This parallel adds weight to the probability that in GTh 27, the true disciple is to practice a life of extreme abstinence from evil, and is to avoid the mechanisms of worldly interaction.
The radicalising is seen further in that these are not merely practices for an elite, but soteriological conditions, as is evident from the apodoses in both parts of the saying (‘unless... you will not find the kingdom...; unless... you will not see the Father’).
This saying has featured in discussions of both Thomas’s original language, and its milieu. Several scholars have commented that the phrase ‘fast to the world’ suggests a Syriac original, on the grounds that it woodenly translates the Syriac phrase sʾm lʿlmʾ; this view is not without its difficulties, however. Thomas here clearly reflects a fairly widespread second-century tendency to interpret elements of Jewish law metaphorically. A final possibility (though only that), is that the close connection between fasting and Sabbath observance here may reflect a distance from Judaism: as Schäfer notes, ‘The view of the Sabbath as a fast-day seems to have been widespread among Greek and Latin authors.’
Obviously opinions differ on virtually everything to do with Thomas. I like to consult Peter Kirby's handy summary of views, as well, for such matters: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... mas27.html.
But, to be clear, while I have no firm opinion on the interpretation of this saying, the surface meaning of the Greek is not difficult. The author could have meant something symbolic by it, and could even have chosen to use a cognate accusative for some reason in that direction (which some scholars seem to assume he did), but the Greek by itself does not necessitate such a conclusion. I cannot speak to the Coptic.
