on biblical academic, someone asked the following question

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one response:

In The Five Gospels (Funk/Hoover), the following is thought to be at least close to something the historical Jesus said:

Thomas 98 1-3:

“The Father’s imperial rule is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one.”

They seem to mainly use the criterion of embarrassment in that judgement.

Another one deemed close to something Jesus said:

Thomas 97: 1-4

“The [Father’s] imperial rule is like a woman who was carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she was walking along a distant road, the handle of the jar broke and the meal spilled behind her along the road. She didn’t know it; she hadn’t noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered it was empty.”

There may be others as well. A lot of them are similar to others in the NT, but with different phrasing. These are two examples of sayings unique to Thomas.

Both of the sayings I quoted are in pink lettering in the book. Their color codes are as follows:

Red (likely authentic)

Pink (somewhat likely)

Gray (somewhat unlikely)

Black (unlikely)

question :

in layman terms what is Thomas 98 1-3 saying ? 

thanks