Saint Thomas

Christian Apostle

• Born: c. early first century c.e.
• Birthplace: Galilee, Palestine (now in Israel)
• Died: Second half of the first century
• Place of death: Possibly Mylapore, India

As one of the handpicked followers of Jesus, Thomas played a role in the epoch-making spread of the Christian message in the first century. He continues to be venerated in Christendom.

Early Life

Little specific information is available, but the general conditions of the early life of Thomas are reasonably certain. The signs point to his birth around or slightly after the traditional date of Jesus’ nativity (c. 6 b.c.e.). Also like Jesus, he hailed from the area of Galilee, a district some sixty miles north of Jerusalem. His Jewish heritage furnished him with knowledge of the history of his race, respect for the religious customs of his forefathers, and familiarity with the Hebrew scriptures, perhaps in Aramaic or even Greek form.

A Galilean Jew such as Thomas (also called Didymus in the New Testament, a Greek word meaning “twin”) likely differed somewhat from his countrymen in Jerusalem to the south. There are several reasons for this circumstance. First, Galilee had long been extensively affected by foreign cultural influences and had a large non-Jewish population. Foreign merchants and settlers were encountered everywhere. Second, the Galileans’ dialect was different from that spoken by Jews in Jerusalem (Matt. 26:73). Third, Jews of Galilee were regarded with some disdain by their southern neighbors for their less strict observance of the oral religious tradition, which formed the basis for faith and practice among the Pharisees, the most respected and influential Palestinian Jewish sect of the day. Finally, Galileans would most likely have been bilingual, both Aramaic and Greek being widely used throughout the district. A Jewish male would probably have had some command of Hebrew, the language of most of the Old Testament, as well.

Thomas’s early years, then, would have been marked not only by thorough grounding in Judaism but also by considerable exposure to non-Jewish language and culture. The radical separation of Jew from Gentile practiced by some in Jerusalem would have been most difficult in Galilee. This cultural background helps account for, though it does not totally explain, his apparent willingness to become a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth (a village in south-central Galilee), whose views met forceful opposition from certain more strictly traditional Jewish authorities based in Jerusalem.

Thomas’s early years would also have instilled in him, along with the vast majority of all Jews of his locale and time, a profound distaste for the presence of Roman military and political power, for Galilee was part of the Roman Empire throughout the first century. This loathing, which eventually erupted in the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 c.e.), was coupled in many persons with a distinct religiopolitical expectation, even longing. That is, the Jews hoped that the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures (understood quite literally as God’s very words to his chosen people) were soon to come true in a new and dramatic fashion. God would send his designated deliverer, the Messiah (in Greek, Christos), to liberate the land from foreign domination and mightily bless his ancient covenant people, the Jews. The kingdom of God would one day soon arrive in tangible form.

Thomas was most likely an heir of such a theological and political outlook. His life’s work as a disciple of Jesus was a response to what he understood as God’s fulfillment, as promised in the Scriptures, of his and his nation’s heartfelt longing.

Life’s Work

The scanty available evidence points to Thomas’s achievement in two settings: Galilee and surrounding districts during and after the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and areas to the east of the Roman Empire in the second half of the first century.

In his native Galilee, Thomas came into contact with Jesus, whose influence in the mid- to late 20’s was felt from Roman Syria southward through Galilee and on to Jerusalem. Galilean Jews would have been aware of John the Baptist’s prophetic proclamation; Jesus rode on John’s coattails into the public arena, attracting followers such as Thomas.

Thomas was, according to available evidence, one of only twelve persons selected by Jesus from a much larger group of followers to receive special instruction and responsibilities (Matt. 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15). For a period of some three years, Thomas observed and participated in a religious movement (not without political implications, however) led by Jesus and bent on intensifying, if not ushering in, the earthly reign of Israel’s covenant God, Yahweh (“the kingdom of God”). Thomas was among the twelve sent out to call his countrymen to repentance (Mark 6:7-13), a recognition of personal and corporate need for moral reform in the light of impending divine judgment. In this way, he and his colleagues saw their mission, like that of John the Baptist and Jesus himself, as preparation for a decisive act of God in the near future (Luke 19:11, Acts 1:6).

Thomas was as disillusioned as his comrades were when Jesus’ activity culminated in his arrest and execution by local and Imperial authorities in Jerusalem. Like the other disciples, he fled the scene (Matt. 26:56), presumably to avoid being incriminated himself because of association with an alleged criminal. Were this the last hint of Thomas’s activity, his name would long ago have been forgotten. Ancient sources, however, afford three specific glimpses into his life and thought that have for centuries enshrined him in the memories of those whose own personal religious experience resonates with that of Thomas. These traditions, all in the Gospel of John, merit specific mention as a result of their continuing religious relevance as well as their probable historical significance.

At the crucial point in Jesus’ life, when his sense of destiny beckoned him from Perea (where he was fairly safe from arrest) to Jerusalem (where he was not), it was Thomas who rallied his comrades with the declaration, “Let us go with him so that we may die with him.” Scholars debate whether this evinces a fatalistic or a courageous spirit. In either case, Thomas helped to galvanize the other disciples into accompanying Jesus, against their own better judgment (Mark 10:32), to the eventual site of his death. He models a stoic, or perhaps selfless, response to perceived duty.

Some days later, according to John’s gospel, Jesus sought to console his disciples on the eve of his imminent betrayal. Again Thomas focused the collective spirit of his fellows. This time, however, his words betrayed not courage but curiosity, if not incredulity. Jesus spoke enigmatically of departing in order to make ready a place for his followers: Thomas observed: “We do not know where you are going; how can we know how to get there?” Thomas demonstrates here a searching if not critical temperament that articulates the heartfelt inquisitiveness, or even frustration, of many religious persons in the first century, and others since that time.

Thomas is most remembered, however, for the independent yet ultimately pliant spirit he exhibited during the days when, according to sources preserved in the New Testament, Jesus appeared to his disciples alive following his death by crucifixion (John 20:24-31). Thomas refused to give credence to hearsay evidence, saying that unless and until he had personal, tangible proof that Jesus had indeed somehow risen from the dead—which, one surmises, Thomas doubted he would receive—he refused to set any store by his friends’ astonishing claims.

One week later, Thomas’s skepticism was forced to contend with the corporeal presence of the person whose existence he had so roundly questioned: Jesus. Thomas was invited to satisfy his doubt and then draw the appropriate conclusions. In John’s account, Thomas becomes the first person to affirm, in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection, unqualified recognition of Jesus as master and deity.

Apart from his activity in Galilee, Thomas is also connected in ancient sources with missionary activity east of the Roman Empire. The Acts of Thomas, dating from about the third century, speaks of Thomas’s presence in India. (The second century Gospel of Thomas gives little if any information on Thomas and was in any case not written by him.) Much of the material in this apocryphal book may be safely regarded as fiction. There seems, however, to be a historical core that supports the view, held by several communities of Indian Christians to this day, that the Gospel was first brought to their ancestors by Thomas in the first century. According to traditions preserved in these communities, Thomas was fatally stabbed on July 3, 72, for refusing to worship Kali, a Hindu goddess.

Other ancient sources speak somewhat vaguely of Thomas’s labors in Parthia, an ancient nation southeast of the Caspian Sea. Scholars theorize that these reports reflect not an actual visit by Thomas to Parthia but written communication between Thomas and Christians in the Parthian city of Edessa. In any case, the Parthian tradition corroborates the assertion that in the early years of Christianity’s expansion Thomas was instrumental in bearing the Gospel message to lands far to the east of his native Galilee.

Significance

Saint Thomas was hardly a pivotal figure in the history of early Christianity. It cannot even be said that he occupies a prominent place in the Gospel records where he receives direct mention. During Jesus’ life, he was overshadowed by Peter, James, and John, while his activity in the first decades of early church expansion is now nearly hidden.

However, there is good evidence that he played a more integral role in the spread of Christianity to India—where thousands have revered his memory for centuries—and perhaps even farther eastward than Western Christendom and historians generally acknowledge. Thomas in his milieu may perhaps be compared to someone such as Martin Bucer in the Reformation: Both men played significant roles, but in historical perspective both are eclipsed by more dominant personages and events in which they had only tangential involvement. Still, the careful student of ancient Christianity will be as loath to overlook Thomas’s place as will the student of the Reformation to overlook Bucer.

Wherever the New Testament has been read through the centuries, which is virtually everywhere in the West, Thomas has served as an example, both good and bad, for Christian faith. Commentators such as John Calvin, stressing his incredulity, have criticized his obduracy and contributed to a view of him epitomized in the expression “doubting Thomas.” Augustine sees in Jesus’ words to Thomas (“Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believe,” John 20:28) a commendation of those who in coming centuries and God’s predestinating plan place personal trust in God through Jesus. Origen refutes the claims of Augustine’s adversary Aulus Cornelius Celsus by adducing Thomas’s testimony as proof of the corporeality of Jesus’ resurrected body.

In these and many other cases, Thomas takes his place as a continuing witness to both the objective reality and the subjective impact of the person of Jesus in the experience of one who examines his claims. Thomas himself would perhaps affirm an assessment of his contribution to religion, and even history, which would stress not his own achievement but the merit of the one whose reality convinced his questioning mind and, as a result, his heart.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Master’s Men. New York: Abingdon Press, 1959. Popular level but learned discussion. A renowned New Testament scholar devotes a chapter to an insightful, if slightly overimaginative, character sketch that attempts to assess all significant historical references to Thomas. Also discusses Thomas traditions in works by ancient historians as well as in The Acts of Thomas.

Barker, Kenneth, ed. The New International Study Bible. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 2002. Makes available, in modern English translation, all extant first century references to Thomas (indexed in a concordance). Includes explanatory comments on Thomas’s remarks in the Gospel of John and other Gospel references to him. Maps aid in picturing the geographical dimensions of the world in which Thomas lived.

Bonney, William. Caused to Believe: The Doubting Thomas Story as the Climax of John’s Christological Narrative. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. A literary study of John’s gospel and the doubting Thomas story. Shows how the story reveals Jesus’ nature in relationship to God and humanity.

Bremmer, Jan N., ed. The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2001. Based on a conference held at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in 1998 and part of the Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha series. Provides criticism and interpretation and includes bibliographical references.

Finegan, J. Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus. Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1969. The extended subtitle reads “An Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha and to Some of the Areas Through Which They Were Transmitted, Namely, Jewish, Egyptian, and Gnostic Christianity, Together with the Earlier Gospel-Type Records in the Apocrypha, in Greek and Latin Texts—Translations and Explanations.” Contains a valuable discussion of the Gospel of Thomas with extensive bibliography. Cites portions in the original languages, then gives translation and analysis. Concludes with the verdict that alleged sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas generally have little chance of being authentic. Implies that Jesus’ disciple Thomas is not the author.

Freyne, Seán. Galilee from Alexander the Great to Hadrian, 323 B.C.E. to 135 C.E.: A Study of Second Temple Judaism. Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, 1980. The standard history of Galilee in the days of Thomas. Useful for general background on living conditions and social environment. Discusses the languages spoken in Galilee, the religious views of Galileans, and the political currents of the time. Useful maps and full bibliography.

The Gospel According to John. 2 vols. Introduction, translation, and notes by Raymond Brown. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1966-1970. The most significant primary source for information on Thomas is the New Testament, especially John’s gospel. This critically acclaimed entry in the Anchor Bible series is among the most competent and thorough investigations of John, and therefore of the Thomas traditions as they occur in the New Testament.

Medlycott, A. E. India and the Apostle Thomas: An Inquiry, with a Critical Analysis of the “Acta Thomae.” London: David Nutt, 1905. The seminal study in English of the ancient extra-New Testament Thomas traditions in the light of modern historical and archaeological findings. Medlycott is among the first to furnish, and at times deny, solid historical footing for certain ancient ecclesiastical traditions concerning Thomas. His observations and arguments are foundational to subsequent discussion.

Mundadan, A. M. From the Beginning up to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century (up to 1542). Vol. 1 in History of Christianity in India. Bangalore, India: Theological Publications in India, 1982. Chapter 1 of this critical history focuses primarily on the traditions that link Thomas to India. Mundadan’s evaluation of both primary and secondary evidence in some respects supersedes all previous discussion in its breadth and depth of treatment. He concludes that the Indian community’s ancient traditions of Saint Thomas are rooted in the historical fact of Thomas’s first-century labors there. Exhaustive bibliography.

Perumalil, A. C. The Apostles in India. 2d enl. ed. Patna, India: Xavier Teachers’ Training Institute, 1971. Elaborates on ancient traditions concerning both Thomas and Bartholomew. Not always sufficiently analytical and critical in dealing with historical evidence, but this is more than compensated for by the complete listing of all references to India in both Greek and Latin sources from the second to the thirteenth century.