Acts of Thomas

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Acts of Thomas

The early 3rd century text called Acts of Thomas is arguably the most Gnostic

Gnosticism

Gnosticism refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a Nature created by an imperfect god, the demiurge; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, and is contrasted with a superior entity, ref...
of the New Testament apocrypha

New Testament apocrypha

New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus, accounts of the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives....
, portraying Christ as the "Heavenly Redeemer", independent of and beyond creation, who can free souls from the darkness of the world. References to the work by Epiphanius

Epiphanius

Epiphanius was the name of several early Christianity scholars and ecclesiastics:*Saint Epiphanius of Pavia *Saint Epiphanius of Salamis , bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, author of Panarion...
show that it was in circulation in the 4th century. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek

Greek language

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The early 3rd century text called Acts of Thomas is arguably the most Gnostic

Gnosticism

New Testament apocrypha

Epiphanius

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars detect from the Greek that its original was written in Syriac, which places the Acts of Thomas in Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
. 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.

Fragments of four other cycles of romances round the figure of the apostle Thomas survive, but this is the only complete one. It should not be confused with the early "sayings" Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel According to Thomas , also known as The Gospel of Thomas, is a New Testament-era apocryphon, nearly completely preserved in a Coptic papyrus manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt....
. "Like other apocryphal acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work attempts to entertain and instruct. In addition to narratives of Thomas' adventures, its poetic and liturgical elements provide important evidence for early Syrian Christian traditions," according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

Acts of Thomas is a series of episodic Acts (Latin passio

Passion

The term Passion may refer to:...
) that occurred during the evangelistic

Evangelism

Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity, but is also used to refer to other religions, including Judaism, Islam, and less frequently, Buddhism and Hinduism....
mission of Judas Thomas ("Judas the Twin") to India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. It ends with his "martyrdom" in which he dies pierced with spears because he'd earned the ire of the monarch Misdaeus Vasudeva I

Vasudeva I

Vasudeva I was a Kushan/Bactrian emperor, last of the "Great Kushans." Named inscriptions dating from year 64 to 98 of Kanishka's era suggest his reign extended from at least 191 to 225 CE....
because of his conversion of Misdaeus' wives and a relative, Charisius. He was imprisoned while converting Indian followers won through the performing of miracles.

Embedded in the Acts of Thomas at different places according to differing manuscript traditions is a Syriac hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl
The Hymn of the Pearl

The Hymn of the Pearl is a passage of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. In that work, originally written in Syriac language, the Apostle Thomas sings the hymn while praying for himself and fellow prisoners....
, (or Hymn of the Soul), a poem that gained a great deal of popularity in mainstream Christian circles. The Hymn is older than the Acts into which it has been inserted, and is worth appreciating on its own. The text is interrupted with the poetry of another hymn, the one that begins "Come, thou holy name of the Christ that is above every name" (2.27), a theme that was taken up in Catholic Christianity in the 13th century as the Holy Name.

Though Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
made a version, mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical

Pseudepigraphy

Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." For instance, no Hebrew scholars would ascribe the Book of Enoch to Enoch , a character mentioned in Generations of Adam....
and apocryphal, and the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
finally confirmed the Acts as heretical

Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
at the Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Considered one of the Church's most important councils, it convened in Trento between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods....
. See also Leucius Charinus

Leucius Charinus

Leucius, called Leucius Charinus by the Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople in the ninth century, is the name applied to a cycle of what M....
.

Thomas is often referred to by his name Judas (his full name is Thomas Judas Didymus), since both Thomas and Didymus just mean twin, and several scholars believe that twin is just a description, and not intended as a name. The manuscripts end "The acts of Judas Thomas the apostle are completed, which he did in India, fulfilling the commandment of him that sent him. Unto whom be glory, world without end. Amen.".

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
Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which the Penis enters the Vagina. The two entities may be of opposite sexes or not, or they may be hermaphrodite, as is the case with snails....
, while the male advocates being chaste
Chastity

Chastity is sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the ethics norms and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion.In the western world, the term has become closely associated with sexual abstinence, especially Pre-marital sex....
, 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

External links

Acts of Thomas
Acts of Thomas
From the translation and notes by M. R. James in The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford 1924.