Saint Thomas the Apostle: New Testament, Apocrypha, and Historical Traditions by Johnson Thomaskutty

Author:Johnson Thomaskutty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

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The Acts of Thomas

Introduction

The apocryphal book that delineates the twelve great acts of Apostle Thomas (cc. 1–107, 114–158), the Hymn of the Pearl (cc. 108–113), and his martyrdom (cc. 159–170) is commonly entitled The Acts of Thomas (ATh) (i.e., Periodei Thoma).1 This noncanonical work is usually considered to be an early third-century (i.e., 200–250 CE) literary composition.2 Reference to the ATh by Epiphanius Salamis shows that it was in circulation in the fourth century.3 According to Charlesworth (1995: 378–9), “The Acts of Thomas is so late that we should expect that it reflects knowledge of all the intra-canonical gospels; perhaps a Diatessaron was quoted . . . The Acts of Thomas must antedate Epiphanius (315–403) who refers to it.”4 The complete versions of the ATh in Syriac5 and in Greek are available.6 In addition, other full and partial versions of the text in Latin, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopic languages are also available.7 But these versions are not as popular as the Syriac and Greek forms.8 Attridge (1992: 6: 531) states, “Like other apocryphal acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work (i.e., ATh) 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.”9 From the above statements of Charlesworth and Attridge, we can infer that the author(s) of the ATh would have incorporated the readily available gospel traditions into the text as well as the “popular legends and religious propaganda” around the historical personality of Apostle Thomas.

Like the other apocryphal Acts, the ATh contains the following: first, the propagation of the Gospel; second, the deeds and words of the Apostle; and third, the martyrdom of the Apostle.10 While the canonical Acts of the Apostles received its written format in the first century itself, the traditions related to Thomas were circulated in their oral form at least until the beginning of the third century.11 While the early church was too obsessed with Peter, John, James, and more extensively with Paul, and the traditions related to all of them, the inquisitive personality of Thomas received only minor or even scant attention. While the Acts of Peter (APet), Acts of Paul (APaul), and Acts of John (AJohn) were composed as complimentary works after the well-acclaimed Petrine, Pauline, and Johannine corpuses of early Christianity, there is no evidence to prove the existence of a widely acknowledged “Thomas corpus” after which the ATh would have emerged (with the exception of the Gospel of Thomas [GTh]).12 In that sense, while APet, APaul, and AJohn emerged as works concerning the “key figures” of the early church, Thomas and the ATh would not have received such popular attention.13 The following sections provide a closer analysis of the ATh.

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