Intertextuality between the alchemical precepts of Maria Prophetissa and sayings in the Gospel of Thomas

The lifetime of the Egyptian alchemist Maria Prophetissa (Mary the Jewess) was approximately contemporaneous with the composition of the Gospel of Thomas, which survives solely in a Coptic manuscript and three Greek fragments found in Egypt. Interestingly, some of the precepts attributed to Maria are similar in theme and expression to some of the sayings attributed to Jesus by the author of the gospel.