New Sayings of Jesus and Fragment of a Lost Gospel from Oxyrhynchus

The opening sentence, "Let not him who seeks . . . cease until he finds," is parallel to Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom," and 7:7, "Seek and ye shall find"; compare also the 2nd Logion, "Except ye fast to the world ye shall in no wise find the kingdom of God." The idea of the necessity for strenuous effort in order to attain to the kingdom has also much in common with the 5th Logion ("Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me"). The precise meaning of "astonished" in the second and third sentences, "when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished he shall reach the kingdom," has been a matter of dispute; but, as Professor Harnack has recently shown, the nearest parallel is Matthew 13:44: "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."

Astonishment therefore is to be interpreted as a sign not of fear but of joy; compare the use of "amazement" original: "θάμβος" for joyful astonishment in Luke 5:9, "He (Peter) was amazed, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes." With the clause "astonished he shall reach the kingdom," i.e., reign with the Messiah, compare the promise to the disciples in Matthew 19:28: "Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." For "shall rest" compare Matthew 11:28-29, "I will give you rest . . . ye shall find rest unto your souls." Both the language and thought of this Saying thus have marked parallels in the Gospels, and there are several references to it in early Christian literature, the most notable being in the Second Epistle of Clement 5.5, "The promise of Christ is great and wonderful and rest in the kingdom to come and life eternal," and in the Acts of Thomas (ed. Bonnet, p. 243), "They who worthily partake of the goods of that world have rest, and in rest shall reign." While the picturesque and forcible character of the Saying is undeniable, very different views have been taken concerning the genuineness of it, as is the case with most of the uncanonical Sayings ascribed to our Lord; but the tendency of recent criticism has been to assign it a very high place among the Sayings which do not rest on the authority of the Gospels, and Harnack accepts it as substantially a true Saying of Jesus.