Date: Sat, 04 Apr 1998 20:40:14 -0600
From: Paul Miller <pmiller@ixlmemphis.com>
To: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: Patterson on stratification

Since Patterson's work on catchwords in GThomas has been used to argue
against stratification, a quote from the man himself might be helpful:

 "Without having to look after the narrative integrity of the text and
its overall aesthetic quality, each new curator of the Thomas
collection--and perhaps many simultaneously--could easily have added new
sayings as he or she came across them, or sloughed away outmoded sayings
as their relevance to new situations in the life of the sage became
questionable. Thus, a collection such as the Gospel of Thomas would
quite naturally have been a cumulative product, whose content no doubt
changed from generation to generation."
                                         
                      The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus
                           Stephen J. Patterson

                        
                          
                                                         Paul Miller