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 - Thomas goes to India
The apostles gather in Jerusalem, where each of them is assigned as an evangelist to a different regions of the world. Thomas is assigned to India, but refuses to go, pleading weakness of health, and also that, as a Jew, he cannot live among Gentiles. Despite a vision from Jesus that night, encouraging him to make the journey, but Thomas still refuses, saying: "Whither thou wouldest send me, send me, but elsewhere, for unto the Indians I will not go." Jesus then sells Thomas, who, like Jesus, is a carpenter, as a slave to merchant named Abbanes, the agent of King Gundaphorus of India. Sailing to the royal city of Andrapolis, Thomas attends the wedding feast of the king's daughter with his master. He declines food and drink, and refuses to gaze at a lovely flute-girl who dances for him. For his rudeness, he is struck by a royal cup-bearer. Thomas responds by bursting into a hymn of praise to the dancer and God, in which he prophesies in Hebrew: "I shall now see the hand that hath smitten me dragged by dogs." The cup-bearer is soon killed by a lion at the local well, after which he is eaten by dogs. The flute-girl immediately breaks her flute and becomes Thomas' disciple.
The king hears of the miracle and asks Thomas to pray for his daughter, who is an only child, and her marriage. At the bridal chamber, Thomas prays to Jesus as "the ambassador that wast sent from the height... who didst open the doors and bring up thence them that for many ages were shut up in the treasury of darkness, and showedst them the way that leadeth up unto the height." He blesses the couple, asking that God will show them what "will expedient and profitable" for them. However, when the groom enters the chamber, he sees a vision of Jesus, "bearing the likeness of Thomas" and speaking with the bride. Jesus declares "if ye abstain from this foul intercourse, ye become holy temples," and argues against procreation, since "children become useless, oppressed of devils... for they will be caught either in adultery or murder or theft or fornication, and by all these will ye be afflicted." The couple immediate convert, committing themselves to "abstain from foul desire." In the morning, the tells her parents: "I am yoked unto a true husband," and her groom gives thanks to Thomas/Jesus "who hast removed me far from corruption." The king is understandably upset and commands that Thomas, "the sorcerer," be apprehended.
2 - King Gundaphorus and his brother
Thomas meets King Gundaphorus, who learns of his carpentry skills and commands him to build a new royal palace, leaving him with a substantial sum of money to complete the task. Thomas, however, gives the money away to the poor and the sick as an example of God's love for them. The king imprisons both Thomas and his master, declaring that they will be punished with death. The king's brother, Gad, then takes sick and dies, leaving the king his house and all his possessions. The angels carry him to heaven and show him a gorgeous house, which they explain was built there for the king by Thomas. Gad asks for permission to return to earth, where he attempts to buy the king's heavenly palace from him. The king releases Thomas from prison and both he and his brother humble themselves before him and ask forgiveness that they may be made worthy to dwell in the heavenly palace. Gundaphorus and Gad become Thomas' disciples, devoting themselves to the care of the poor. Thomas seals their commitment with a sacrament of holy oil, reciting a liturgical psalm, invoking the orthodox Trinity, but apparently referring to the Holy Spirit as "Compassion Mother, communion of the male, she that revealeth the hidden mysteries, Mother of the seven houses."
Thomas continues his preaching, teaching all to "abstain from fornication and covetousness and the service of the belly."
3 - Thomas and the Great Serpent
Thomas encounters the dead body of a handsome youth. A huge black dragon emerges from a nearby hole and declares that he has killed the youth out of jealousy over the youth's sexual intercourse with a beautfiul young woman with whom the dragon was in love. The dragon knows that Thomas is Christ's twin brother and identifies himself as "the son to him that sitteth on a throne over all the earth" and also as he who "spake with Eve the things which my father bade me speak unto her." He also takes credit for inspiring Cain to kill Abel, and casting down the fallen angels and binding them in lust toward human women, in order children might be born who would do the dragon's will. He also takes credit for hardening Pharaoh's heart, causing the Israelites to sin in the wilderness, and moving Judas Iscariot deliver up the Christ.
Unafraid, Thomas commands the beast to suck out the venom by which he has slain the youth. The young man revives, and the dragon swells up, bursts, and dies. The youth proclaims that he is now free of the lust that caused him to sin with the young woman. He then accompanies Thomas toward the city, and a great multitude of believers join the true faith.
4 - Thomas and the talking colt
A young donkey then approach Thomas and miraculously speaks, addressing Thomas as "Thou Twin of Christ." The colt then invites Thomas to mount him and ride into the city. Thomas asks the colt about his origins, and he answer that he descends from the very ass who spoke to the prophet Balaam, and also from the donkey on whom Jesus rode when he entered Jerusalem. Thomas, feeling humbled, declines the colt's offer, but the donkey insists, and Thomas finally consents to mount him. The huge throne of onlookers follows Thomas into the city. Thomas dismounts him and dismisses him at the city gate, whereupon the poor colt promptly falls down dead. The crowd implores Thomas to raise the colt from the dead, but he refuses, not because he is unable, but because the colt had already fulfilled his miraculous purpose by speaking and testifying to the work of God. The people then bury the colt by the side of the road at Thomas' command.
5 - 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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