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Thomas the Twin: Constructing an Apostolic Personality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2025

Adam Cooper Open the ORCID record for Adam Cooper [Opens in a new window]
Adam Cooper*
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Catholic Theological College, University of Divinity, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Abstract

In the Synoptic Gospels and Acts, Thomas is mentioned only in the four lists of the Apostles (Mk 3:18; Mt 10:3; Lk 6:15; Ac 1:13). Appearing about midway through these lists, he seems to have been regarded as relatively unimportant among the Twelve. By contrast, in John’s Gospel, Thomas is presented as a central character, featuring prominently in four major scenes. In three of those scenes Thomas is given the additional name Didymus (Twin), a name exclusive to him in John’s Gospel and later tradition, especially in connection with Syrian Edessa. By the 4th century, Edessa had become famous for its special veneration of the Apostle Thomas, with sources featuring Thomas as the missionary link between Jesus and the early Christianisation of lands from Syria to India. The Edessan School of Thomas developed an encratic school of devotion to Thomas as the mystical twin of Jesus and prototypical Christian healer, and the Syrian city housed an established shrine for his remains. Scholars rightly contest the historical value of these sources, but analysis of their provenance, content and reception allows us to outline a picture whose lines converge in a coherent and plausible tradition of devotion that, in just a few centuries, reached as far east as India and as far west as Spain, Gaul, and Britain.

Keywords

AbgarApostleEdessaEgeriaEphremIndiaSchool of ThomasSyriaThomastwin
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New Blackfriars , First View , pp. 1 - 17
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers.

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References

1 Iohannes Chrysostomus, In Iohannem homiliae 62, trans. T.A. Goggin, Saint John Chrysostom, in Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist Homilies 48–88 (Washington DC: Fathers of the Church 41, 1959), p. 168.

2 See S. M. Schneiders, Jesus Risen in Our Midst: Essays on the Resurrection of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (Collegeville 2013), pp. 50–53.

3 T. Popp, ‘Thomas: Question Marks and Exclamation Marks’, in Character Studies in the Fourth Gospel: Narrative Approaches to Seventy Figures in John, ed. S. Hunt et al. (Grand Rapids, 2013), p. 528.

4 See A. D. DeConick, ‘Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen’ (John 20:29): Johannine Dramatization of an Early Christian Discourse’, in Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years, ed. J. D. Turner and A. McGuire (Leiden, 1997), pp. 381–98.

5 E. P. Blair, ‘Thomas’, in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 4, ed. G.A. Buttrick et al. (Nashville, 1962), p. 631–2, at p. 632.

6 M. M. Beirne, Women and Men in the Fourth Gospel: A Genuine Discipleship of Equals (London, 2003), p. 206 fn37.

7 G. J. Riley, Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy (Philadelphia, 1995), pp. 110–14.

8 See S. Ashbrook Harvey, ‘Syria and Mesopotamia’, in The Cambridge History of Christianity vol. 1: Origins to Constantine, ed. M. M. Mitchell and F. M. Young (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 351–65, at pp. 354–56; H. J. W. Drijvers, ‘East of Antioch: Forces and Structures in the Development of Early Syriac Theology’, in idem., East of Antioch: Studies in Early Syriac Christianity (London, 1994), pp. 1–27; S. P. Brock, ‘Jewish Traditions in Syriac Sources’, Journal of Jewish Studies, 30/2 (1979), pp. 212–32. Early theological developments were shaped by Marcion (85–160), Tatian (120–180), author of the Diatessaron, and Bardaisan (154–222). This latter was closely connected with the court of King Abgar VIII of Osroene. Attributed to Bardaisan (or his pupil Philip) is the Syriac philosophical dialogue Book of the Laws of the Countries. Bardaisan’s theology was later opposed by Ephrem. See S. P. Brock, A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature (Kerala, 2009), pp. 8–9; also L. van Rompay, ‘The East (3): Syria and Mesopotamia’, in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, ed. S. Ashbrook Harvey and D. G. Hunter (Oxford, 2008), pp. 365–88, at pp. 370–71: ‘It is only around 300 that Syriac Christianity fully emerges on the historical scene’.

9 This is meant to refer to King Abgar V Ukkama of Osroene (9–46 A.D.). The Abgarid dynasty prevailed in Edessa from around 133 B.C. to 250 A.D. In the early 5th century, Syriac version of the story, preserved in the Doctrine of Addai, the tale ends with the ordination of the king’s son Palut by Bishop Serapion of Antioch. This indicates a later date during the reign of King Abgar VIII (177–212). See further T. S. Wardle, ‘Abgarids of Edessa’, in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, ed. S. P. Brock et al. (Piscataway, 2011), pp. 5–7; S. P. Brock, Eusebius and Syriac Christianity, in: Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism, ed. H. W. Attridge and G. Hata (Detroit, 1992), pp. 212–234; A. Luther, Die ersten Könige von Osrhoene, ‘Klio’ 81/2 (1999), pp. 437–454.

10 Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia ecclesiastica 1, 13, trans. A. C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series [=NPNF], ed. P. Schaff, H. Wace, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, 1890), p. 100.

11 See Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia ecclesiastica 2, 1, NPNF 1, p. 104.

12 ‘The Addai story has clear anti-Manichaean tendencies, and as a historical fiction functioned in a situation in which Manicaheism was a real threat’. Drijvers, East of Antioch, p. 18.

13 Itinerarium Egeriae 19, trans. A. McGowan and P. F. Bradshaw, The Pilgrimage of Egeria: A New Translation of the Itinerarium Egeriae with Introduction and Commentary (Collegeville, 2018), pp. 140–141. Her own copy was presumably that of Rufinus’s Latin translation of Eusebius’ account. See below for further discussion on Egeria’s visit to the shrine of Thomas.

14 Also known as The Teaching of Addai, ed. and trans. G. Howard (Chicago 1981).

15 Ed. B. Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: Ancient Wisdom for the New Age (New York, 1987), p. 359.

16 Ed. K. Aland, The Greek New Testament, 3rd edn (New York, 1975), p. 391.

17 A. F. J. Klijn, Introduction, in: idem., The Acts of Thomas: Introduction, Text, and Commentary, Novum Testamentum 108 (Leiden, 2003), p. 3. See also the comment of Drijvers: ‘almost all writings that originate in that area and date back to the first three centuries A.D. are handed down in a Syriac and a Greek version, and it is often very difficult to establish which is the original…. Whoever was literate in that particular time and area usually knew both languages, and it may even be supposed that most texts were written down in two versions from the very outset’. Drijvers, East of Antioch, p. 3.

18 Klijn, The Acts of Thomas, p. 51; cf. chpts. 31 and 39.

19 Klijn, Introduction, in: The Acts of Thomas, 7. See further J. J. Gunther, The Meaning and Origin of the Name Judas Thomas, ‘Le Muséon’ 93 (1980), pp. 113–48. On the interpretation of Thomas as the twin brother of Jesus, see J. Hartenstein, Charakterisierung im Dialog: Maria Magdalena, Petrus, Thomas und die Mutter Jesu im Johannesevangelium (Fribourg, 2007), pp. 230–68, 295–307.

20 See L. D. Hankoff, ‘Why the Healing Gods are Twins’, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 50 (1977), pp. 307–319.

21 Drijvers, East of Antioch, pp. 15–16. Similarly, according to Puech, ‘Thomas serait, en conséquence, conçu comme le “frère mystique” du Christ, un “frère” qui e nest le reflet, l’image, la réplique parfait’. H.-C. Puech, En quête de la Gnose II, Sur l’évangile selon Thomas (Paris, 1978), p. 214.

22 Drijvers, East of Antioch, p. 16.

23 On the roots of extremes in sexual asceticism in early Syriac Christianity, see R. Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (London, 2006), pp. 11–13. Drijvers (East of Antioch, p. 10) makes an important qualification: ‘This encratism is not inspired by pure and simple hate of the body, but is a means of salvation, of restoring Man’s original state’.

24 Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom, p. 14.

25 See R. E. Frykenberg, Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford, 2008), pp. 96–7

26 See the discussion on Ephrem below.

27 Ashbrook Harvey, Syria and Mesopotamia, pp. 357–358.

28 J. F. McGrath, ‘History and Fiction in the Acts of Thomas: The State of the Question’, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 17/4 (2008), pp. 297–311 at p. 297.

29 See H. Koester and T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to The Gospel of Thomas, in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson (New York, 1977), pp. 117–30.

30 J. D. Turner, Introduction to The Book of Thomas the Contender in: The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. Robinson, p. 188

31 Drijvers (East of Antioch, pp. 7–10) contends for the paramount influence of Tatian’s radical ascetic theology in the early formation of the School of Thomas tradition. However see M. R. Crawford, ‘The ‘Problemata’ of Tatian: Recovering the Fragments of a Second-Century Christian Intellectual’, The Journal of Theological Studies NS, 67/2 (2016), pp. 542–575.

32 In R. Doran, Stewards of the Poor: The Man of God, Rabbula, and Hiba in Fifth-Century Edessa, Cistercian Studies Series 208 (Kalamazoo, 2006), p. 146.

33 A. E. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas: An Inquiry, with a Critical Analysis of the Acta Thomae (London, 1905), pp. 21–32; S. Brock, A Brief Guide to the Main Editions and Translations of the Works of St. Ephrem, ‘The Harp’ 3/1–2 (1990) pp. 7–29.

34 Ephraem Syri, Hymni dispersi 7,1, ed. T. J. Lamy, Sancti Ephraem Syri Hymni et Sermones, vol. 4, Mechliniae 1902, col. 706, trans. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, p. 29.

35 Ephraem Syri, Hymni dispersi 5,11, ed. Lamy 4, 700, trans. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, p. 26.

36 Ephraem Syri, Hymni dispersi 5,14, ed. Lamy 4, 702, trans. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, p. 26.

37 Ephraem Syri, Carmina nisibena 42, ed. G. Bickell, S. Ephraemi Syri Carmina Nisibena: Ephrem’s Nisibene Hymns (Leipzig, 1866), trans. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, p. 22.

38 McGowan and Bradshaw, Introduction in The Pilgrimage of Egeria, pp. 22–7.

39 Itinerarium Egeriae 17, trans. McGowan and Bradshaw, p. 133.

40 See B. H. Cowper, Selections from the Syriac. No. 1: The Chronicle of Edessa, ‘Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record NS’ 5/9 (1864), pp. 28–45 at p. 33. The Chronicle of Edessa, an original Syriac work, comprises short stories related to the history of Edessa. See further L. van Rompay, ‘Chronicle of Edessa’, in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, ed. S. P. Brock et al. (Piscataway, 2011), pp. 97–8.

41 Alternatively, the Latin genitive construction – aliquanta ipsius sancti Thomae – may instead indicate something ‘about’ Thomas, rather than something (purportedly) authored by him. See S. F. Johnson, Literary Territories: Geographical Thinking in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2016), p. 86.

42 Johnson, Literary Territories, p. 98.

43 Klijn proposes 30 to 15 B.C., while most scholars date his reign to the period between 21 and 46 A.D. See McGrath, History and Fiction, p. 299.

44 Klijn, The Acts of Thomas, p. 161 (modern south-eastern Turkey).

45 On the provenance of this name, McGrath writes: Mazdai was ‘not only a famous ruler of Cilicia and Syria, but one mentioned in Arrian’s account of Alexander’s “descent” into India…’. McGrath, History and Fiction, p. 299.

46 Gregorius Nazianzenus, Oratio 33, 11, NPNF 7, 332.

47 Ambrosius Mediolanensis, In Psalmum XIV Enarratio, PL 14, 1143AB.

48 Gregorius Turonensis, Miraculorum libri I de gloria beatorum martyrum 31–32, trans. R. Van Dam, Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs, Translated Texts for Historians 4 (Liverpool, 1988), pp. 51–2.

49 W. Baum and D. W. Winckler, The Church of the East: A Concise History (London and New York, 2003), p. 94; C. R. Green, King Alfred and India: An Anglo-Saxon Embassy to southern India in the late ninth century AD, 2019. https://www.caitlingreen.org/2019/04/king-alfred-and-india.html#fn7 [accessed 8 June 2023].

50 Frykenberg, Christianity in India, p. 99.

51 Frykenberg, Christianity in India, p. 100.

52 Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia Ecclesiastica 3, 1, NPNF 1, 132.

53 Eusebius Caesariensis, Historia Ecclesiastica 5, 10, 1, NPNF 1, 224–5.

54 Hieronymus, Ep. 70, 4, NPNF 6, 150.

55 Hieronymus, De viris illustribus 36, NPNF 3, 370.

56 Johnson, Literary Territories, p. 133.

57 Johnson, Literary Territories, pp. 133–4

58 Johnson, Literary Territories, p. 134.