Logion 23
| 23. Jesus said, "I shall choose you, one from a thousand, and two from ten thousand, and ye shall stand as a single one." | ||
There are two principles of a mathematical nature that come to mind immediately here. The first is that conversion and growth occur on a logarithmic scale. However, if the entire population is increasing logarithmically, the growth rate would remain constant. A second interpretation concerns the nature of an organization. As one ascends each step in the administrative order, the number of persons affected by the decisions of those chosen to serve increases logarithmically. On this interpretation we seem to be missing the one-out-of-ten and one-out-of-a-hundred, which would seem to make for a tighter organization. We also gloss over the “two” making it “a second one.” Yet, standing as one is a noble goal for the administration of a well functioning organization.
Among other things we have changed a grammatically awkward reference to these chosen ones from “they” to “ye” (a single letter prefix in Aramaic).