Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 27.3.7: 7 I have read elsewhere as if the Savior was speaking — and I question whether it was someone who was a figure for the person of the Savior or if it was appended in his memory or if this may be truly what he said — the Savior there says, “Whoever is near me is near fire; whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom” (= Thomas 82). For just as “whoever is near me is near” salvation, thus he “is near fire.” And whoever hears me and once having heard me has done a transgression, is “a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction” (= Romans 9.22), when “he is near me, he is near fire.” Since “he who is near me, is near fire,” if anyone, being on his guard becomes “far from me” and fears he is “near fire,” let him know that such a person will be “far from the kingdom.” An athlete, who having not enrolled in the competition, neither fears the whips nor waits on the crown. Yet once he has entered his name, if he does not win, he is flogged and rejected, but if he wins, he is crowned. Just so, he who has entered the Church — O catechumen, attend — he who accedes to the word of God, he has enrolled in nothing other than in the contest of religion, and once enrolled if he does not battle with integrity, he is struck with whips with which these others, who have not indeed enrolled in the beginning, are not flogged. If, however, he fights with courage to avoid the lashes and the reproaches, not only will he be freed from the wrongs, but he will receive the “incorruptible crown of glory” (= 1 Corinthians 9.25).
This saying about drawing near to Jesus and being therefore near the fire is extant in the gospel of Thomas:
Yet the gospel of Thomas is numbered among the heretical gospels elsewhere in Origen, if Rufinus' translation is to be given credence:
So does Origen not know that the saying he actually comments on in his Homilies on Jeremiah and on Joshua comes from this heretical gospel? Or does he care about heresy in some contexts or not in others? Or is this same saying found in other gospels (no longer extant, but still extant in Origen's time) besides that of Thomas?
In connection with that last possibility I note that the gospel of Thomas probably has (at least) two layers. For one thing, one of the Greek Oxyrhynchus fragments (papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1) inserts saying 77b of the Coptic version in between sayings 30 and 31. For another, the following pair of sayings is rather intriguing:
12 The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that You will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?” Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
13 Jesus said to His disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell Me whom I am like.” Simon Peter said to Him, “You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew said to Him, “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to Him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom You are like.” Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated by the bubbling spring which I have measured out.” And He took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
Why does James the Just receive such unequaled praise in saying 12 but Thomas receive such unequaled praise in saying 13? One hypothesis is that a collection of sayings originally circulated under the authority of James later came to be circulated under the authority of Thomas instead. Perhaps saying 82, the one which Origen cites and comments on, was part of the original Jacobian collection, thus explaining why Origen did not know it as a saying from the gospel of Thomas.