Making Mary Male

(114) Simon Peter said to him, "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."

In order to understand the significance of this saying one must first realize that there has been a concerted movement to have this saying classified as a late addition to the text. A thorough examination of the arguments put forth to support such a contention is required before any in depth consideration be given to the significance of the saying itself.


Stevan Davies' arguments for 114 being a late addition are at the following link:

The Structure of Thomas

I have pasted the core of the argument below:
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2) The final Logion 114 can be seen to have been added to the text of Thomas at a later date. This is not dependent on whether we agree that Thomas had four chapters, for much of the terminology of this saying is absent in the rest of Thomas:

a. The saying begins with a disciple, Simon Peter, addressing the other disciples. This literary device is otherwise never used by Thomas.

b. The idea of one "guided" by Jesus occurs only here.

c. In Thomas D we find the phrase "Kingdom of the Father" appearing in 96, 97, 98, 99, 113. Only in 114 is "Kingdom of Heaven" used.

d. Only in 114 do we hear anything like the idea that a person should "become a living spirit."

e. Finally, this logion is in direct contradiction to 22. There the male should become female, the female become male and neither should be any longer male or female. Here, in 114 the status "male" is positively valued and the status "female" is negatively valued. Indeed, the woman should become male.

Given Thomas' fluidity of terminology and lack of fully systematic ideology, any one of these discrepancies could be overlooked. There are, however, too many unique and anomalous usages in 114 to allow us to consider it part of the original Gospel of Thomas.
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Can any of these arguments be addressed? We will see in the next post.