Saying 113 — The Kingdom Spread Upon the Earth
Thomas's final description of the Kingdom — spread upon the earth, invisible to the unseeing — is the ultimate Gnostic statement that liberation is present now, not in a future external event.
Gospel of Thomas Saying 113: 'His disciples said to him: When will the Kingdom come? He said to them: It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying Here it is, or There it is. Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.' This is perhaps Thomas's most definitive statement of the realized eschatology that characterizes the collection: the Kingdom is not a future event but a present reality — 'spread upon the earth' right now, invisible only because of the blindness of ignorance. The Gnostic path is not to wait for the Kingdom's arrival but to open one's eyes to its already-present reality. This teaching has profound practical implications: every moment is the Kingdom, every place is the sacred space, every being is a divine spark — the transformation required is not in external reality but in the quality of awareness with which reality is perceived.
The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.
Theologian John Dominic Crossan's 'The Historical Jesus' argues that the historical Jesus proclaimed a 'brokerless Kingdom' — the immediate, unconditional availability of divine presence to all — consistent with Thomas Saying 113's vision of the Kingdom as already present, requiring only the eyes to see it.
Nag Hammadi Library