Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle also known as Didymus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Thomas is commonly known as "doubting Thomas" because he initially doubted the resurrection of Jesus when he was told of it ; he later confessed his faith on seeing the places where the wounds appeared still fresh on the holy body of Jesus after the Crucifixion of Jesus.
According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, Thomas travelled outside the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel, travelling through southern India in the modern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and eventually reached Muziris in 52 AD. He started the Church of the East in the region around the Van Province, Edessa, and Hakkari regions of Upper Mesopotamia, presumably sometime between mid-late 30s and 45, and spent many years evangelizing both Jews and pagans in the area before heading further east in the late 40s. In 1258, some of the relics were brought to Ortona, in Abruzzo, Italy, where they have been held in the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle. He is regarded as the patron saint of India among its Christian adherents, and the Feast of Saint Thomas on July 3 is celebrated as Indian Christians' Day. The name Thomas remains quite popular among the Saint Thomas Christians of the Indian subcontinent.
Many churches in the Middle East and southern Asia, besides India, also mention Apostle Thomas in their historical traditions as being the first evangelist to establish those churches, the Church of the East, as well as the early church of Sri Lanka.
Gospel of John
Thomas first speaks in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has recently died, and the apostles do not wish to go back to Judea, Thomas says: "Let us also go, that we may die with him."Thomas speaks again in John 14:5. There, Jesus had just explained that he was going away to prepare a heavenly home for his followers, and that one day they would join him there. Thomas reacted by saying, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?"
John 20:24–29 tells how doubting Thomas was skeptical at first when he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other apostles, saying, "Except I shall see on his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." But when Jesus appeared later and invited Thomas to touch his wounds and behold him, Thomas showed his belief by saying, "My Lord and my God". Jesus then said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
Names and etymologies
The name Thomas given for the apostle in the New Testament is derived from the Aramaic תְּאוֹמָא Tʾōmā, meaning "the twin" and cognate to Hebrew תְּאוֹם tʾóm. The equivalent term for twin in Greek, which is also used in the New Testament, is Δίδυμος Didymos.Other names
The Nag Hammadi copy of the Gospel of Thomas begins: "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymus, Judas Thomas, recorded." Early Syrian traditions also relate the apostle's full name as Judas Thomas. Some have seen in the Acts of Thomas an identification of Thomas with the apostle Judas, Son of James. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas and the apostle Judas son of James. Others, such as James Tabor, identify him as Jude, brother of Jesus mentioned by Mark. In the Book of Thomas the Contender, part of the Nag Hammadi library, he is alleged to be a twin to Jesus: "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself…"A "doubting Thomas" is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Gospel of John's depiction of the Apostle Thomas, who, in John's account, refused to believe the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles until he could see and feel Jesus' crucifixion wounds.
Feast days
When the feast of Saint Thomas was inserted in the Roman calendar in the 9th century, it was assigned to 21 December. The Martyrology of St. Jerome mentioned the apostle on 3 July, the date to which the Roman celebration was transferred in 1969, so that it would no longer interfere with the major ferial days of Advent. Traditionalist Roman Catholics, the Lutheran Church, and many Anglicans, still celebrate his feast day on 21 December. However, most modern liturgical calendars prefer 3 July, Thomas is remembered in the Church of England with a Festival.The Eastern Orthodox venerates Thomas on the following days:
- June 20 – Commemoration of the Translation of the Relics of the Apostles Andrew, Thomas, and Luke; the Prophet Elisha; and the Martyr Lazarus.
- June 30 – The Twelve Apostles.
- October 6 – Primary feast day.
- The First Sunday after Easter – The Sunday of Thomas, which commemorate when Thomas' doubts regarding the risen Christ were removed by Christ displaying the wounds in his hands and side.
The Malankara Orthodox Church celebrates his feast on three days, 3 July, 18 December, and 21 December.
Later history and traditions
The Passing of Mary, adjudged heretical by Pope Gelasius I in 494, was attributed to Joseph of Arimathea. The document states that Thomas was the only witness of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. The other apostles were miraculously transported to Jerusalem to witness her assumption. Thomas was left in India, but after her first burial, he was transported to her tomb, where he witnessed her bodily assumption into heaven, from which she dropped her girdle. In an inversion of the story of Thomas' doubts, the other apostles are skeptical of Thomas' story until they see the empty tomb and the girdle. Thomas' receipt of the girdle is commonly depicted in medieval and pre-Council of Trent Renaissance art.Mission in India
According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of India, the Apostle Thomas landed in Muziris in present day Kerala in 52 CE, and was martyred in Mylapore, near Madras in 72 CE. But the visit of St. Thomas is still a matter of dispute among historians. He is believed by the Saint Thomas Christian tradition to have established seven churches in Kerala at Kodungallur, Palayoor, Kottakkavu, Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Nilackal, Kollam, and Thiruvithamcode. Thomas baptized several families. Many families claim to have origins almost as far back as these, and the religious historian Robert Eric Frykenberg notes that: "Whatever dubious historicity may be attached to such local traditions, there can be little doubt as to their great antiquity or to their great appeal in the popular imagination."Ephrem the Syrian, a doctor of Syriac Christianity, writes in the forty-second of his "Carmina Nisibina" that the Apostle was put to death in India, and that his remains were subsequently buried in Edessa, brought there by an unnamed merchant.
According to Eusebius' record, Thomas and Bartholomew were assigned to Parthia and northwest India. The Didascalia states, "India and all countries condering it, even to the farthest seas... received the apostolic ordinances from Judas Thomas, who was a guide and ruler in the church which he built."
According to traditional accounts, Thomas is believed to have left northwest India when threatened by an attack and traveled by vessel to the Malabar Coast, possibly visiting southeast Arabia and Socotra en route, and landing at the former flourishing port of Muziris in the company of a Jewish merchant Abbanes/Habban. From there, he is said to have preached the gospel throughout the Malabar coast. The various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies.
Alleged visit to China
Thomas's alleged visit to China is mentioned in the books and church traditions of Saint Thomas Christians in India, some of whom claim descent from the early Christians evangelized by Thomas the Apostle in 52. For example, it is found in the Malayalam ballad Thoma Ramban Pattu, with the earliest manuscript being from the 17th century. The sources write about Thomas coming to India, then to China, and back to India, where he died.In other attested sources, the tradition of making Thomas the apostle of China is found in the "Law of Christianity", a compilation of juridical literature by Ibn al-Ṭayyib. Later, in the Nomocanon of Abdisho bar Berika and the breviary of the Chaldean Church it is written:
In its nascent form, this tradition is found at the earliest in the Zuqnin Chronicle and may have originated in the late Sasanian period. Perhaps it originated as a 3rd-century pseudepigraphon where Thomas would have converted the Magi to Christianity as they dwelled in the land of Shir. Additionally, the testimony of Arnobius of Sicca, active shortly after 300, maintains that the Christian message had arrived in India and among the Persians, Medians, and Parthians.
Possible travel into Indonesia
According to Kurt E. Koch, Thomas the Apostle possibly traveled into Indonesia via India with Indian traders.Paraguayan legend
Ancient oral tradition retained by the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay claims that the Apostle Thomas was in Paraguay and preached to them under the name of Pa'í Sumé or Avaré Sumé.Almost 150 years prior to Dobrizhoffer's arrival in Paraguay, another Jesuit Missionary, F. J. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, recollected the same oral traditions from the Paraguayan tribes. He wrote:
The sole recorded research conducted on the subject was during José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia's reign after the Independence of Paraguay. This is mentioned by Franz Wisner von Morgenstern, an Austro-Hungarian engineer who served in the Paraguayan armies prior and during the Paraguayan War. According to Wisner, some Paraguayan miners while working nearby some hills at the Caaguazú Department found some stones with ancient letters carved in them. Dictator Francia sent his finest experts to inspect those stones, and they concluded that the letters carved in those stones were Hebrew-like symbols, but they couldn't translate them nor figure out the exact date when those letters were carved. No further recorded investigations exist, and according to Wisner, people believed that the letters were made by Thomas the Apostle, following the tradition.