07_Biblica_AN_Kim_Layout 1 16/12/13 12:29 Pagina 588 588 DAVID W. KIM fisherman makes in keeping the one fish he liked. The beginning phrase of eprwme t_ntwn (“the man is like …”) is analogous to the form of the Kingdom statement (“the Kingdom … is like …”). Yet there is no certain evidence that Logion 8 is a Kingdom tradition. Rather, the attitude of the fisherman as described later was certainly challengeable to listeners of the parable: the fisherman discovered ounoG _nt_b_t enanouf` (“a fine large fish”), and then threw the rest of the (small) fish back into the sea. He did not personally regret his actions but was satisfied, having caught the noG _nt_b_t enanouf` (“fine large fish”) 13. Along these lines, Matthew has a similar parable: “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away” (Matt 13,47-48). Is this parabolic Logion of Thomas related to the Matthean tradition? Although the literary contexts of Thomas and Matthew seem to be in the same stream of a Jesus tradition, the object of both traditions is different: Thomas has a wise fisherman (… is like a fisherman); Matthew has a net (… is like a net). Thomas has a single fisherman, but Matthew has fishermen plural (an unknown number). The Matthean number of the men does not seem to indicate a particular group of people, but rather a general case. The standard set (noG [large] and kouei [small]) by the Thomasine fisherman for choosing the fish is also different from the canonical tradition which has two rough categories of “good and bad”. Baarda analysed the verbs “chose” in Thomas and “collected” in Matthew, and then inferred that the version in Thomas is not closer to the original than the one in Matthew 14. Likewise, Blomberg supposes that the style of Logion 8 simply “represent[s] assimilation to the stereotypic parable form” 15. The post-gnostic view of Thomas was based on the “comparison of the Kingdom of heaven with a dragnet to that of a man with a wise fisherman” 16. The picture of the “fish and net” also has parallels in Auth. Teach. 29:3–30:25 17. Blomberg interprets such a view of assimilation in the sense that “the gnostic envisaged both 13 The last statement of “whoever has ears to hear, let him hear” shows that the parable was spoken in the context of an admonition. This is a common tradition in Thomas, as in Logia 21, 24, 63, 65, and 94. 14 T. BAARDA, ““Chose” and “Collected”: Concerning an Aramaism in Logion 8 of the Gospel of Thomas and the Question of Independence”, HTR 84 (1991) 373-389. 15 BLOMBERG, “Tradition and Redaction”, 191. 16 BLOMBERG, “Tradition and Redaction”, 192. 17 See J.M. ROBINSON, “Authoritative Teaching (VI, 3)”, The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Leiden – New York – Köln) 304-310.