The Gospel of Thomas is a labyrinth of profound, puzzling, and often beautiful sayings attributed to Jesus. Found in the Nag Hammadi library, it offers a radical vision of salvation through gnosis, or secret knowledge. Yet, for all its wisdom, the text concludes with one of the most shocking and controversial verses in all of ancient religious literature: Gospel of Thomas Logion 114.

This final saying appears to be a blunt, misogynistic dismissal of women, specifically Mary (almost universally identified as Mary Magdalene). It is a verse that has troubled scholars, theologians, and spiritual seekers for decades. How could a text that elsewhere seems to value Mary Magdalene so highly, even above the male apostles, end on such a jarring note?

The answer is not simple. This logion is a complex Gnostic riddle. It encapsulates a fierce ancient debate about authority, the nature of the body, and the very definition of “salvation.” To analyze it is to dive into the core of Gnostic belief.

The Full Text of Logion 114

To understand the controversy, we must first read the saying in its entirety. The logion (or saying) is a short dialogue:

Simon Peter said to them, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.”

Jesus said, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The problems are immediately obvious. Peter’s statement is a harsh exclusion. Jesus’s reply, while seemingly a defense of Mary, is wrapped in deeply problematic language. He doesn’t just say “Mary is worthy.” He says he must change her. She must “make herself male” to enter the kingdom.

For a modern reader, this is jarring. However, to understand this saying, we must set aside our modern definitions of gender and enter the symbolic world of 2nd-century Gnostic thought.

The Context: A Radical “Sayings Gospel”

The Gospel of Thomas is not a narrative gospel like Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. It contains no story of Jesus’s birth, miracles, or resurrection. Instead, it is a collection of 114 “secret sayings” that Jesus supposedly taught. The text states that “whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.”

This is the essence of What Is the Gospel of Thomas Saying?: Understanding Its Hidden Spiritual Teachings. It is not about faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection (the core of orthodox belief), but about understanding the divine, hidden spark within oneself.

This context is crucial. Everything in Thomas is a metaphor, a riddle designed to shock the listener out of their conventional, “worldly” understanding. Logion 114 is the final and most challenging of these riddles.

The Central Conflict: Peter vs. Mary

The first clue to interpreting Logion 114 is that it begins with Peter. In many Gnostic and apocryphal texts, Peter and Mary Magdalene are not allies; they are rivals. This theme is a cornerstone of Mary Magdalene and Peter: Analyzing the Conflict in Gnostic Texts.

• Peter often represents the psyche (the “soulful” believer). He is the leader of the mainstream, “orthodox” church. He represents rules, hierarchy, and an understanding based on faith and law.
• Mary Magdalene represents the pneuma (the “spirit”). She is the Gnostic ideal, the disciple who understands Jesus’s secret teachings (the gnosis) directly, without need for hierarchy.

This conflict explodes in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, where Peter openly challenges Mary’s authority after Jesus’s departure, asking, “Did he really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us?”

In Logion 114, Peter’s complaint (“Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life”) is his final attempt to assert his authority. He speaks from a literal, earthly perspective. He sees Mary as a “woman” and, therefore, lesser.

Jesus’s response is a direct, if symbolic, rebuke of Peter’s entire worldview.

Interpreting “Making Her Male”: Four Theories

The phrase “make her male” is the core of the problem. It is not, however, a unique idea in ancient philosophy. Scholars have proposed several layered interpretations that move far beyond literal gender.

Theory 1: The Literal Ascetic View

The most straightforward (and most disturbing) interpretation is that the ancient world held deep-seated misogynistic views. Philosophers from Aristotle to Celsus often described the “female” as passive, material, and “less perfect” than the “male.”

Within some ascetic Christian and Gnostic groups, this translated into a rejection of the physical body, especially female sexuality, which was tied to childbirth and the material world. For these groups, to become “male” was a metaphor for becoming a celibate ascetic—to renounce the “female” functions of the body and live a life of pure spirit. In this view, Jesus is “saving” Mary by helping her renounce her “femaleness.”

Theory 2: “Male” and “Female” as Gnostic Spiritual Symbols

This is the most widely accepted Gnostic interpretation. In many Gnostic systems, the material world was seen as a prison. The core human struggle was to escape the duality of this world (light/dark, good/evil, body/spirit) and return to the singular, unified, divine “One” (the Monad).

In this symbolic language:

• “Female” often represented the material world, division, the body, and the “lower soul.”
• “Male” represented the spiritual world, unity, the intellect, and the “higher spirit.”

This symbolism had little to do with actual men and women. Both men and women were “female” in that they were trapped in material bodies. The goal for everyone was to “become male”—that is, to transcend the body and awaken their inner spirit (pneuma).

Jesus is not insulting Mary; he is explaining the Gnostic path to salvation, a path that requires leaving the material world (symbolized as “female”) behind. This aligns perfectly with Gnostic Beliefs About Salvation.

Theory 3: A Return to Spiritual Androgyny

This interpretation is a deeper layer of Theory 2. The Gospel of Thomas itself provides the key in an earlier saying.

In Logion 22, Jesus says the kingdom will come “when you make the two one… and when you make the male and the female one and the same… so that the male will not be male nor the female be female.”

This is the core concept. The goal is not for “female” to become “male,” but for the division between them to be annihilated. The “fall” of humanity was seen as a fall into duality, symbolized by the separation of Adam into Adam and Eve. Salvation, therefore, is a return to the original, androgynous, “single one.”

When Jesus says he will “make her male,” he means he will help her re-integrate these divided parts into a single, spiritual whole, just as the male disciples must do. He is making her “not-female” just as they must become “not-male.”

Theory 4: A Direct Rejection of Peter’s Misogyny

A final, compelling interpretation is that the entire logion is a piece of Gnostic irony. It’s a polemic against Peter and his literal-minded worldview.

Read in this light, the dialogue becomes:

• Peter: “Mary is just a woman. She can’t be one of us.”
• Jesus: (Turning to Peter, sarcastically) “Oh, you’re right, Peter. Her ‘femaleness’ is a problem. Don’t worry, I will personally guide her to become ‘male’—that is, a spiritual being, something you, with your literal focus on her gender, clearly are not. In fact, any ‘woman’ [like Mary] who makes herself ‘male’ [spiritual] will enter the kingdom… while you [like Peter], who are stuck on the literal, are left behind.”

This reading champions Mary. Jesus is not changing her; he is vindicating her. He is stating that her spiritual gnosis (a “male” trait, symbolically) is what matters, while Peter’s literalism (stuck in the “female” world of division) is the real barrier. This highlights the sharp contrast between the Gnostic Jesus vs Canonical Jesus: How the Secret Gospels Portray Christ.

The Enduring Enigma of Mary Magdalene

While the text only says “Mary,” her role as the target of Peter’s jealousy makes her identity as Mary Magdalene in Gnostic Tradition almost certain. She was the “apostle to the apostles,” the one who received Jesus’s deepest secrets.

Logion 114 is the final, dramatic defense of her legacy. This saying is a paradox, using the very language of misogyny to defeat misogyny. The logion argues that a person’s spiritual worth has nothing to do with their physical gender. This is, perhaps, the most Gnostic saying of all, as authoritative sources like the Early Christian Writings database continue to analyze.

This controversial saying remains a stumbling block for many. But when viewed through the lens of Gnostic symbolism, Gospel of Thomas Logion 114 transforms. It is not a dismissal of the feminine, but a radical call for all people—male and female—to transcend the physical world, overcome duality, and awaken the “living spirit” within.

Check out the author’s books here: The Gospel of Thomas or The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.