This is a long post --- focused entirely on The Parable of the Sower in GThomas --- so here's a table of contents of sorts ---
- 1. Linssen delivered on a solution for why the yield is given as 60 and 120 "to arrow"
2. Linssen made a significant error in his interpretation of the yield return as 3:1.
3. The grain yields in the Synoptic and Thomasine versions in context, and in comparison with modern wheat yields.
4. Why two levels of enlightenment (yield)? An internal solution, along with a possible Valentinian connection.
5. Why the specific numbers 60 and 120?
60 and 120 “To Arrow”
An analysis of the Thomasine version of the Parable of the Sower wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of this odd way to report the yield of grain.
And some others fell upon the good earth, and gave fruit upward to the heaven, and it came to 60 to arrow and 120 to arrow. (Thomas, Logion 9)
I’m not aware of any other example, ancient or modern, of reporting grain yield by “per arrow”. Most modern translators of Thomas punt on the question, and default to the lame and meaningless “per measure”.
The term translated here as “fruit” is a Greek loan-word meaning most any kind of fruit-of-the-earth, crop, harvest, returns, or profit. The crop in the parable is grain as indicated by the failure to produce “ears” or “heads” on the rock.
Every element of the Parable of the Sower in the Synoptics easily makes sense on a literal level. But even on a literal level, I think the author of Thomas expected more from readers. However, reading modern translations puts one at a disadvantage to reading the Thomasine version of the parable in the Coptic.
A literal understanding of the odd “to arrow” might be achieved with a closer look at the Coptic words employed.
… The one who sows (CITE) came forth. He filled his hand and he cast (NOYXE) ... And some others fell upon the good earth, and gave fruit upward to the heaven, coming to 60 to arrow (COTE) and 120 to arrow (COTE). (Thomas, Logion 9)
[note: all Coptic font an approximation]
CITE --- verb; to throw, sow, put, cast-out, vomit
COTE --- noun; arrow or dart
NOYXE --- verb; to throw or cast such as a stone or an arrow; to cast-out, or cast-off, or cast-down something
In US English, one thinks in terms of “shooting” an arrow. But in the Coptic, one can “cast” or “throw” an arrow. In addition, there’s a word-play here with the similarity between the sowing (CITE) and the arrow (COTE).
Linssen described the relationship,
The Yield Was How Much?
With each seed cast representing an arrow, Linssen was oh-so-close here to the most reasonable solution of 60 seeds and 120 seeds returned per seed cast (per arrow). But Linssen embarked on an entirely unnecessary bunny-trail ---
“60 thus signifies one hand(ful), and 120 signifies two – and “60 and 20” thus equate to three handfuls. Now that’s quite some return on investment, when one starts out with one or two empty hand(s), fills them, casts, and when the good earth is hit one gets three handfuls of good Fruit in return.” (p. 122)
https://www.academia.edu/46974146/Compl ... on_content
In response to Linssen’s interpretation of a 1:3 return ratio on the good ground ---
robert j wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 3:07 pm
It would be entirely reasonable to assume the cast handful would hold about the same number of grain kernels as would handfuls in the yield --- so one cast grain kernel would yield 3 grain kernels in return on the good ground.
Even in ancient times, that would be a very poor yield on good ground ...
robert j wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:25 am
I maintain that a 1 to 3 ratio --- of seed sown to seed yield --- represents a very poor yield on good ground. Thus, I question your interpretation of how much grain yield is represented by (using your translation), “sixty to arrow and hundred twenty to arrow”.
A ratio of planted seed to yield of seed kernels of 1 to 3 on the good ground --- as you suggest based on your interpretation ... would represent a very poor yield except perhaps on the most hard-scrabble ground in marginal production areas.
Linssen went on the offensive ---
mlinssen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:03 pm
Everything you do is in a childish manner ... refusing to understand what gets repeatedly explained to you
Apparently unwilling to reconsider his theory on the yield, Linssen posted a wiki article that is problematic for his theory of a 1:3 return on grain on the good ground ---
mlinssen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:43 pm
Let me run it down once more, in baby language:
Great for money, but for grain --- no. In the wiki article that Linssen posted, a 1:3 grain yield is reported as barely enough to sustain human life ---
Few if any would argue that the author of GThomas was only offering starvation wages with the successful crop that gave "fruit upward to the heaven" on the good ground. The most reasonable solution is that each seed represents an arrow, and resulted in 60 seeds and 120 seeds returned per seed cast (per arrow cast) on the good ground.
That is, seed ratios of 1:60 and 1:120 --- or as ancients might have measured --- for each basket of grain sown, the return was 60 baskets of grain for some, and 120 baskets for others. Those yields are extremely impressive for grain in those days, but consistent with the generous yields found in the Synoptic versions of the parable.
mlinssen wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 9:12 pm
You need to unthink the canonicals if you want to read Thomas, as it apparently is blocking your mind and ability to interpret.
If Linssen had better considered the versions of the Sower in the Synoptics, he could have avoided his unfortunate interpretation of a miserly 1:3 return in Thomas as compared to the generous returns offered in all of the Synoptic versions. Leaving Linssen’s work aside for now (until Note 2).
The Yield Results in the Parable of the Sower in Context
The yield results from the sowings in the Synoptics represent simple seed ratios. In Mark, the results are specified as “increasing” (αὐξανόμενα) 30, 60, and 100 (Mark 4:8). In Luke, the result is reported using an extended form of the number 100, specifically a “hundred-fold” (ἑκατονταπλασίονα) (Luke 8:8).
In a common way to view the 60 found in Mark, Matthew, and Thomas --- for each basket of grain sown, the return would be 60 baskets.
For comparison with modern wheat yields, a seed ratio of 1:60 is roughly comparable with a farmer today sowing a bushel of grain per acre and obtaining a yield of 60 bushels per acre in return. Thousands upon thousands of farmers today obtain a reasonably comparable result with non-irrigated winter wheat. And a great many today obtain yields lower than that, and a great many obtain yields significantly higher than that.
In the time period and regions that would be associated with the NT Parable of the Sower, a 60-fold return with wheat would have been a gift from God --- not at all common, perhaps not very realistic, but not out of the realm of possibility either. A 120-fold return as found in Thomas is possible with non-irrigated wheat today; but in the relevant ancient times of the parable such a return would not have been realistic, but not entirely impossible either --- perhaps best viewed as a heavenly result.
Two Levels of Enlightenment
And some others fell upon the good earth, and gave fruit upward to the heaven, coming to 60 to arrow and 120 to arrow. (Thomas, Logion 9)
Perhaps one need look no further than Logion 23 of Thomas, where two select groups are chosen. These select two might be seen as the two with different levels of enlightenment in the Thomasine Parable of the Sower, with one select group even more exclusive than the other ---
I shall chose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they shall stand as a single one. (Thomas, Logion 23).
There is a small lacunae in this verse only partially obscuring the word translated as “chose”. However, “chose” is likely here, and finds support in Logion 50 where those who come from the light are “the chosen of the living Father”.
The concept of two or more becoming one or standing alone is a primary spiritual goal in GThomas --- see especially Logion 4, and also Logia 16, 22, 49, and 75.
Logion 23 of Thomas is derived from Deuteronomy ---
How shall one pursue a thousand, and two rout ten thousand, unless God rendered them, and the Lord delivered them over? (Deuteronomy 32.30, LXX)
The one and the two are indirectly chosen in Deuteronomy here, with their enemies having been delivered over by the Lord. This citation from Deuteronomy is also found in the
Pistis Sophia where the Savior said to Mary,
“They will find one in a thousand and two in ten-thousand for the accomplishment of the mystery of the first mystery” (Pistis Sophia, 134).
And Irenaeus described doctrines of Basilides and related that,
“The multitude, however, cannot understand these matters, but only one out of a thousand, or two out of ten thousand,” (Adv Haer, 1.24.6).
The chosen few, the one and two in logion 23 of Thomas --- as derived from Deuteronomy and as echoed in other subsequent texts as a select few able to understand the mysteries --- might well be enough to account for the selection of the two select groups in the Thomasine Sower that are represented by the generous and abundant yields of 60 and 120.
A Valentinian Connection?
In addition to the internal solution for two levels of enlightenment, at least a comparable example can be seen in the Valentinian concept of the “psychics” (the called), and the “pneumatics” (the spiritual, the elect, the few).
I’m not necessarily claiming at this time that the author of GThomas was a follower of some version of Valentinian thought, which was certainly not a monolithic system. But perhaps the belief system of the author of Thomas came out of a similar wider stew of thought originating from a mélange of diaspora Judaism, Christian beliefs, Hellenist mystery cults, Platonic thought, and Egyptian and Eastern mysticism --- and roughly originating along an Anatolia to Alexandria axis. Well, anyway ---
The text known as
Theodotus and attributed to Clement of Alexandria -- primarily a treatise on Valentinian thought --- may be able to shed some additional light on the concept of the two levels of enlightenment reported in Logion 9 of Thomas.
The text of
Theodotus can be found here --
https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ ... erpts.html
The opening of
Theodotus reflects the concept of seed in a spiritual context --- along with an elite spiritual class --- and the spiritual seed is associated with being deposited in “thy hands” ---
"Father," he says, "I deposit into thy hands my spirit." Wisdom, he says, put forth a receptacle of flesh for the Logos, the spiritual seed … he deposits the whole spiritual seed, that is, the elect. (Theodotus, 1)
The one who sows came forth. He filled his hand and he cast. (Thomas, Logion 9)
Two levels representing the potential for enlightenment are clearly described here ---
Therefore our father Adam is "the first man of the earth, earthy" and if he had sown from psychic and spiritual as well as from material substance, all would have become equal and righteous and the Teaching would have been in all. Therefore many are material, but not many are psychic, and few are spiritual. Now the spiritual is saved by nature, but the psychic has free-will, and has the capacity for both faith and incorruptibility, as well as for unbelief and corruption according to its own choice; but the material perishes by nature … (Theodotus, 56)
The many material persons perish “by nature” --- can be seen as represented in the parable by the failures on the road, on the rock, and among the thorns. But the two levels of enlightenment on the good earth in Thomas can be seen as representing, as in
Theodotus, the psychics (the called) and the spiritual (the pneumatic, the elect). The lower yield of 60 represents the “not many” that are “psychic” and who gain the capacity to achieve. And the 120, twice the gain, is granted to those “saved by nature”, the “few” that are “spiritual”.
Another logion in Thomas can be seen as having a parallel in
Theodotus. Male-female comparisons from various texts have been suggested as relevant for Logion 114 in Thomas, including from
Theodotus. The excerpt from
Theodotus below can clearly be seen as relevant ---
Simon Peter said to them, let Mariam go forth from our hearts, women be not worthy of life. Jesus/IS said, Lo, behold, I myself will draw her forth in order that she become male so that she will become also a living spirit to resemble the male. So that woman in every case will become male and will enter the kingdom of the heavens. (Thomas, Logion 114)
The Valentinians say that the finest emanation of Wisdom is spoken of in "He created them in the image of God, male and female created he them." Now the males from this emanation are the "election," but the females are the "calling" and they call the male beings angelic, and the females themselves, the superior seed. .. but the females, becoming men, are united to the angels and pass into the Pleroma. Therefore the woman is said to be changed into a man, and the church here on earth into angels and pass into the Pleroma. Therefore the woman is said to be changed into a man, and the church here on earth into angels. (Theodotus, 21)
This excerpt from
Theodotus might also be seen as providing another way of viewing the two levels of enlightenment in the parable in Logion 9 --- one level for females representing “the called”, and another level for males representing the “elect”.
In summary of the two levels of grain yield, and hence, two levels of enlightenment ---
I think the two chosen groups in Logion 23 provides an internal solution that fits well with the two levels of enlightenment on the good ground in the parable in Logion 9. In addition, I think the Valentinian concept of the pneumatics (the elect) and the psychics (the called) might also serve as an additional context, at least as food for thought. Those solutions are not mutually exclusive, and might represent different ways of expressing the same or similar wider concepts.
But Why the Numbers 60 and 120?
In all 3 versions of the Sower in the Synoptics, a 100-fold return is the highest, and was apparently derived from Genesis 26:12 where a 100-fold return on grain is a blessing from the Lord. Was the author of Thomas one-upping the Synoptics, purposely offering a superior result? I think that is certainly a possibility.
I think the numbers 60 and 120 being primary intervals on the Babylonian sexagesimal (base-60) number system is clearly significant.
That 60 is central to such an ancient numbering system, that 60 is also a result in the versions of the Sower in Mark and Matthew, and that a 60-fold return on grain at the time would have been exceptional --- might be enough to account for the result of 60 in Thomas.
But what about the 120? Well, 120 is twice the 60, and with the two chosen groups in Logion 23, the two is twice the one. That might be enough to account for the 120.
robert j
Note 1: In the
Stromata (Book 6, chapter 11), Clement of Alexandria elaborates in some detail on the mathematical significance of the number 120, but relevance to the yield of 120 in Thomas 9 does not seem readily apparent.
Note 2: Of the commentaries on GThomas provided by Linssen, I have only reviewed in any detail the commentary on Logion 9, the Parable of the Sower. For Logion 9, I think Linssen provided the most likely perspective on the interpretation of the “per arrow”.
But in addition to the error on the 1:3 yield, I found another point of interpretation that is clearly in error. Linssen made a similar claim that Paul did by attempting to make unwarranted significance of the term "seed" being in the singular form.
https://www.academia.edu/46974146/Compl ... on_content (page 119)
Paul's Silly Seeds ---
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9411
In addition, on points that fall more into the realm of opinion, I found at least one of Linssen’s important interpretations in Logion 9 (p. 120) as being weak compared to a more obvious solution.
GThomas 9 --- That Darn Worm ---
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9426