Some fragments from the Gospel of Thomas*, also known as the Hidden Sayings of Jesus:
3 : 1 Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you.
2 If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you.
3 Rather the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.
4 When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father.
5 But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are poverty.”
* * *
6 : 1 His disciples asked him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?”
2 Jesus said, “Do not lie,
3 and do not do what you hate,
4 because all things are disclosed before heaven.
5 For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed,
6 and there is nothing covered that will remain undisclosed.”
* * *
13 : 1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.”
2 Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous messenger.”
3 Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.”
4 Thomas said to him, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like.”
5 Jesus said, “I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you are intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended.”
6 And he took hm, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him.
7 When Thomas came back to his friends, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?”
8 Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and consume you.”
*The Gospel of Thomas is said to be sayings of Jesus recorded by Judas Thomas the Twin. In Syriac Christianity, Judas Thomas was thought to be the twin brother of Jesus. Scholars place a very early date on this gospel, some believing it to be from the 1st century AD.
from The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus
Tr. Marvin Meyer