The Greek Vorlage of Gos. Thom. 12:2

In chapter 1, I have dealt with the “mixed signals” of saying 12. It is worth noting that the text of this saying appears to be problematic. Since the analysis of Gos. Thom. 12 plays an important role in my discussion of the date and compositional history of the Gospel of Thomas, it seems justified to give here a treatment of the problems related to the text of this saying. The expression ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ, “(the place) where1 you came from,” in Gos. Thom. 12:2 is problematic. Quite remarkably, the Berliner Arbeitskreis offers two different interpretations of this phrase. In the first edition of their translation of the Gospel of Thomas, they suggested thatⲡⲙⲁ renders theGreek expression ὅπου ἐάν, as it does in the Sahidic translation of Matt 8:19. According to their hypothesis, in the GreekVorlage ὅπου ἐάνwas followed by a verb in the aorist subjunctive, whichwas probably confused with the aorist in the indicative and thus rendered as the Coptic perfect. Assuming that ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ should be understood as ⲉⲙⲁⲩ,2 they suggested the following rendering of ⲡⲙⲁ ⲛⲧⲁⲧⲉⲧⲛ̄ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ: “Wherever you will have come to.” This is essentially a translation not of the Coptic text, but of its Greek retroversion, ὅπου ἐὰν ἔλθητε.3 In the subsequent editions of the translation by the Berliner Arbeitskreis, this hypothesis was revised. According to their second, much more appealing, proposal, ⲉⲓ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ in Gos. Thom. 12:2 stands in contrast to ⲃⲱⲕ ϣⲁ, “to go to,” and thus should express the idea of “coming from.” Indeed, there are reasons to suspect that ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ can be used as an equivalent of ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲛϩⲏⲧ⸗ or ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲙ̄ⲙⲁⲩ.4 Thus, the definitive English translation of Gos. Thom. 12 prepared by the Berliner Arbeitskreis (and slightly modified by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson) reads as follows:5