A Proposed Rereading of P.Oxy. 654 line 41 (Gos. Thom. 7)

Abstract

The Coptic text of the Gospel of Thomas is paralleled in three sections by Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus. P.Oxy. 655, in the Houghton Library at Harvard, consists of small amounts of text, which correspond to sayings 24 and 36–39. P.Oxy. 1, in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, is a fragment of a codex containing sayings 26–33 (cf. also saying 77). This latter exemplar in particular shows that—with some exceptions—there is a good deal of correspondence between the Greek and Coptic versions, and therefore that it is quite possible that substantial portions of the Coptic version of Thomas go back to a Greek original.