Saying 29 — The Wonder of Spirit in Flesh
Thomas Saying 29 expresses astonishment at the paradox of spirit dwelling in flesh — recognizing the mystery of incarnation as one of the most extraordinary features of human existence.
Gospel of Thomas Saying 29: 'Jesus said: If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.' This saying expresses wonder — not contempt — at the paradox of incarnation. The 'great wealth' (the divine pneuma, the Pleroma) dwelling in 'poverty' (the material body, the Kenoma) is cause for astonishment, not simply for disgust. The saying also touches on the philosophical puzzle of the relationship between spirit and matter — which came first? — suggesting that the answer is less important than the recognition of the paradox itself. This tone of amazed reverence at the mystery of embodied divine existence distinguishes Thomas from the more world-denying strands of Gnosticism, suggesting that the tradition contains within it the resources for a more positive evaluation of material existence.
I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.
Theologian Karl Rahner's 'anonymous Christianity' — the recognition that divine grace operates even in secular and apparently non-religious contexts — shares the spirit of Thomas Saying 29's amazement at the divine wealth hidden in apparent poverty: the sacred pervades the profane, the infinite inhabits the finite.
Nag Hammadi Library
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Thomas 29 asks which is the greater wonder — flesh existing because of spirit, or spirit because of body — and declines to settle it. What survives is the tone: astonishment that wealth is housed in poverty. It is the least contemptuous sentence about the body anywhere in the Gnostic corpus.