Editing Parable of the Pearl (section)

==Gospel of Thomas==
A version of the parable appears in the [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] [[Gospel of Thomas]] (Saying 76):<ref name="Lamb translation"/>
{{Blockquote|Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant was prudent; he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself.

So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth comes to eat and no worm destroys."|Gospel of Thomas 76, Patterson/Meyer translation}}

This work's version of the parable of the hidden treasure appears later (Saying 109), rather than immediately preceding, as in Matthew.<ref name="BY">Brad H. Young, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DDEIf4uvx4MC&pg=PA202 The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation]'', Hendrickson Publishers, 2008, {{ISBN|1-59856-303-3}}, pp. 202–206.</ref> However, the mention of a treasure in Saying 76 may reflect a source for the Gospel of Thomas in which the parables were adjacent,<ref name="BY"/> so that the original pair of parables has been "broken apart, placed in separate contexts, and expanded in a manner characteristic of folklore."<ref name="BY"/> In Gnostic thought the pearl may represent Christ or the true self.<ref name="BY"/> In the Gnostic [[Acts of Peter and the Twelve]], found with the Gospel of Thomas in the [[Nag Hammadi library]], the travelling pearl merchant Lithargoel is eventually revealed to be Jesus.<ref>David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=P9sYIRXZZ2MC&pg=PA1041 Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible]'', Eerdmans, 2000, {{ISBN|0-8028-2400-5}}, p. 1041.</ref>