In chapter 1, I have dealt with the “mixed signals” of saying 12. It is worth noting that the text of this saying appears to be problematic. Since the analysis of Gos. Thom. 12 plays an important role in my discussion of the date and compositional history of the Gospel of Thomas, it seems justified to give here a treatment of the problems related to the text of this saying.
The expression ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ, “(the place) where1 you came from,” in Gos. Thom. 12:2 is problematic. Quite remarkably, the Berliner Arbeitskreis offers two different interpretations of this phrase. In the first edition of their translation of the Gospel of Thomas, they suggested that ⲡⲙⲁ renders the Greek expression ὅπου ἐάν, as it does in the Sahidic translation of Matt 8:19. According to their hypothesis, in the Greek Vorlage ὅπου ἐάν was followed by a verb in the aorist subjunctive, which was probably confused with the aorist in the indicative and thus rendered as the Coptic perfect. Assuming that ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ should be understood as ⲉⲙⲁⲩ,2 they suggested the following rendering of ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ: “Wherever you will have come to.” This is essentially a translation not of the Coptic text, but of its Greek retroversion, ὅπου ἐὰν ἔλθητε.3
In the subsequent editions of the translation by the Berliner Arbeitskreis, this hypothesis was revised. According to their second, much more appealing, proposal, ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ in Gos. Thom. 12:2 stands in contrast to ⲃⲱⲕ ϣⲁ, “to go to,” and thus should express the idea of “coming from.” Indeed, there are reasons to suspect that ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ can be used as an equivalent of ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛϩⲏⲧ⸗ or ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ.4 Thus, the definitive English translation of Gos. Thom. 12 prepared by the Berliner Arbeitskreis (and slightly modified by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson) reads as follows:5
12:1 The disciples said to Jesus: “We know that you will depart from us. Who (then) will rule over us?” 12:2 Jesus said to them: “(No matter) where you came from, you should go to James the Just for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”
Yet the text of Gos. Thom. 12:2 remains problematic. In the Sahidic New Testament, ⲡⲙⲁ often renders an adverb of place: ὅπου, οὗ, ὅθεν, etc.6 This is also the case with Gos. Thom. 30:1–2. Unfortunately, the Coptic text of this saying is extremely problematic, the Greek text preserved in P.Oxy. 1.1, ll. 23–27 has suffered serious damage, and the relationship between the two is unclear, since there are several significant differences between the two texts.7 It is clear, however, that ⲡⲙⲁ in Gos. Thom. 30:1 and 30:2 renders Greek ὅπου.
It follows that ⲡⲙⲁ in saying 12 likely corresponds to a Greek adverb of place. If, as the Berliner Arbeitskreis argues, ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ in Gos. Thom. 12:2 is an equivalent of ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ, we might conclude that behind the phrase ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ lies something like ὁπόθεν ἤλθετε, “where you came from.” This phrase, however, hardly makes good sense in the context of saying 12: note the parenthetical words the Berliner Arbeitskreis inserts into their translation in order to make the English text coherent.
It is tempting to suppose that the original Greek text of Gos. Thom. 12:2 meant something along the lines of what the Berliner Arbeitskreis has suggested; in this case we must surmise that ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ is a clumsy translation of a Greek idiom. Which idiom could that be? Retranslating the Gospel of Thomas back into Greek is certainly an ungrateful task, yet in this particular instance, in order to make sense of Gos. Thom. 12:2, it is necessary at least to make an attempt to reconstruct the original Greek text and to propose a scenario that would explain the emergence of ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ.
The second retroversion suggested by the Berliner Arbeitskreis is πόθεν ἔλθητε.8 This retroversion is hardly plausible, since πόθεν is an interrogative adverb. Moreover, the relative clause that employs the subjunctive mood usually requires the particle ἄν.9 I would, therefore, suggest that the Greek text behind ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ is ὁπόθεν ἂν ἔλθητε, “wherever you come from”; cf. ἡνίκα ἂν ἔλθητε (Judg 18:10 LXX), “whenever you go.” If ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ indeed corresponds to ὁπόθεν ἂν ἔλθητε of the Vorlage, then we may surmise that the Coptic translator struggled with the Greek syntax of Gos. Thom. 12:2 and came up with only an approximate translation.
To complete the picture, I suggest an alternative scenario: it is also possible that the Greek text available to the translator was corrupt and indeed read ὁπόθεν ἤλθετε, “where you came from,” instead of ὁπόθεν ἂν ἔλθητε. According to this scenario, at some point ἔλθητε was confused with ἤλθετε, whereas ἄν was omitted due to a homoeoteleuton.
While both of these scenarios start from unverifiable assumptions (i.e., either a somewhat incompetent scribe or a corrupt Greek manuscript), they at least shed some light on what could have brought about the phrasing of Gos. Thom. 12:2. I propose, therefore, that Gos. Thom. 12:2 originally read ὁπόθεν ἂν ἔλθητε, “wherever you come from,” which agrees with the basic premise of the second translation proposed by the Berliner Arbeitskreis. The Coptic text that we have, ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ, “the place where you came from,” is either a clumsy translation of the original reading, or an accurate rendering of a corrupt one, which could have been ὁπόθεν ἤλθετε.
For ⲡⲙⲁ expanded by a relative clause constituting a subordinate “where”-clause, see Layton 2011, 429 (§ 522).
It is worth noting that the substitution of ⲉⲙⲁⲩ with ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ is a rare and late phenomenon; see Crum 1939, 197a.
See Bethge et al. 1996, 522; Plisch 1999, 526.
See Plisch 1998, 77; Bethge 1998, 45.
Bethge et al. 2011, 3; cf. Bethge et al. 2005, 522. This understanding of the Coptic text of Gos. Thom. 12:2 was embraced in Nagel 2014, 113.
See Wilmet 1957–1959, 1:314–324; cf. Crum 1939, 154b.
For an attempt to resolve some of the difficulties pertaining to this saying, see Attridge 1979; see also chapter 2.
See Plisch 2008, 60. Curiously enough, the retroversion of this phrase in Bethge et al. 2005, 522, is identical with that of Bethge et al. 1996, 522 (ὅπου ἐὰν ἔλθητε), which seems to be due to an oversight.
See, e.g., Turner 1963, 107.