Acts of Thomas
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The Acts of Thomas is arguably is one of the New Testament apocrypha describing the life of the Apostle Thomas, whom it portrays as Jesus' twin brother. It survived in several manuscripts in various language, despite its Gnostic depiction of Christ.
The work provides romantic narratives of Thomas' miraculous evangelistic adventures, especially in India, where he traveled after being sold as a slave by the resurrected Jesus. The book ends with Thomas' martyrdom, in which he dies as a result of being pierced with spears because he had earned the ire of the monarch Misdaeus, whose wives and other relatives Thomas converted to an ascetic form of Christianity. Its liturgical elements, narrative, and poetry provide important insights into early Christian traditions, escpecially in Syria, where it was widely circulated and possible written.
Embedded in the Acts of Thomas at different places according to differing manuscript traditions is a Syriac hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl, (or Hymn of the Soul), a poem that gained a great deal of popularity in mainstream Christian circles. The Hymn is probably older than the Acts into which it has been inserted, and is worth appreciating on its own.
Fragments of four other cycles of romances about the figure of the apostle Thomas survive, but this is the only complete one. It should not be confused with the Gospel of Thomas.
Text
References to the work by Epiphanius show that it was still in circulation in the fourth century. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek, and there are many surviving fragments of the text. Some scholars detect from the Greek that its original was written in Syriac, which places author of the Acts of Thomas in Syria.
The surviving Syriac manuscripts, however, have been edited to purge them of the most unorthodox overtly Gnostic passages, so that the Greek versions reflect the earlier tradition. Some scholars argue that the Acts of Thomas were originally composed in Greek and soon translated rendered into Syriac.
Though no less an orthodox saint than Gregory of Tours made a version of the text, mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical, apocryphal, and heretical. The Roman Catholic Church did not officially confirmed the Acts as heresy, however, until the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century.
Content
The text is broken by headings:
- 1 - when he went into India with Abbanes the merchant
- 2 - concerning his coming unto the king Gundaphorus
- 3 - concerning the servant
- 4 - concerning the colt
- 5 - concerning the devil that took up his abode in the woman
- 6 - of the youth that murdered the Woman. A young couple begin to have relationship problems when the woman proves to be too keen on sex, while the male advocates being chaste, honouring the teachings of Thomas. So the male kills his lover. He comes to take the eucharist with others in the presence of Thomas, but his hand withers, and Thomas realises that the male has committed a crime. After being challenged, the male reveals his crime, and the reason for it, so Thomas forgives him, since his motive was good, and goes to find the woman's body. In an inn, Thomas and those with him lay the woman's body on a couch, and, after praying, Thomas has the male hold the woman's hand, whereupon the woman comes back to life.
- The story clearly has the gnostic themes of death and resurrection, death not being a bad thing but a result of the pursuit of gnostic teaching, and the resurrection into greater life (and they lived happily ever after) once gnostic teaching is understood.
- 7 - of the Captain
- 8 - of the wild asses
- 9 - of the Wife of Charisius
- 10 - wherein Mygdonia receiveth baptism
- 11 - concerning the wife of Misdaeus
- 12 - concerning Ouazanes (Iuzanes) the son of Misdaeus
- 13 - wherein Iuzanes receiveth baptism with the rest
- The Martyrdom of Thomas
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Klijn, A.F.J. (2003). The Acts of Thomas: Introduction, Text, and Commentary. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-9004129375.
See also
- Leucius Charinus
External links
- Medlycott India and Apostle Thomas Acts of Thomas
- Early Christian Writings: Acts of Thomas
- Geoff Trowbridge's introduction to Acts of Thomas
- The Gnostic Society Library: From the translation and notes by M. R. James in The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford 1924.
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