India and The Apostle Thomas
India and The Apostle Thomas
India and The Apostle Thomas
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India and the Apostle Thomas
Adolphus E. Medlycott
1837
ARTES SCIENTIA
LIBRARY VERITAS OF THE N
MICHIGA
ITY OF
UNIVERS
TUEBOR
APOSTLE THOMAS
SILVER BUST OF THE APOSTLE THOMAS
INDIA AND THE
APOSTLE THOMAS
BY
A. E. MEDLYCOTT
BISHOP OF TRICOMIA
LONDON
2520
T4
M48
to the subject .
32343
372
vi PREFACE
in Germany .
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE APOSTLE THOMAS AND GONDOPHARES THE INDIAN
KING - CONNECTION PROVED FROM COINS AND IN-
SCRIPTION .
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
APPENDIX
SECTION I
PREAMBLE
PAGB
1. CRITERIA 213
2. ARE THE ACTS A ROMANCE ? · 214
3. Two DIFFERENT ANCIENT VIEWS OF THE SAME • 215
4. GNOSTICS AND THE ACTS 216
5. REASONS IN SUPPORT . • • 216
6. CRITERIA APPLICABLE TO THE ACTS 217
SECTION II
PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
SECTION III
INDEX 299
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THOMAS
CHAPTER I
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ Ε[—1
Rev. Nike offering crown. Indian legend-
Gomdapharnasa tratara[sa- -]
오
9
5. [Ai
Ob
BA
6.
GONDOPHARES THE INDIAN KING 7
5. [Abdagases' coin-
Obv. King on horseback (type No. 4) . Greek legend-
' Its last words : sapuyaë, matu pitu puyaë-" for his
own religious merit, and for the religious merit of his
mother and father "-show that it is only a simple re-
cord of the building of a stupa or vihar by some pious
Buddhist.'
We follow up this clear account of the stone and
its inscription by what Professor Dowson has to say
on the subject (see Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
New Series, vol. vii., 1875). His first reading appeared
in Trübner's Record, June 1871 , mentioned above. Of
the six lines he found only the first two legible, con-
taining name of a king and a date, and towards the
12 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
Second line :-
B
CHAPTER II
'(Thus) howled the devil : into what land shall I fly from
the just ?
' I stirred up Death the Apostles to slay, that by their death
I might escape their blows.
' But harder still am I now stricken : the Apostle I slew in
India has overtaken me in Edessa ; here and there he is all
himself.
' There went I, and there was he : here and there to my grief
I find him.
II
' The merchant brought the bones : 1 nay, rather they
brought him. Lo, the mutual gain !
'What profit were they to me, while theirs was the mutual
gain ? Both brought me loss.
'Who will show me the casket of Iscariot, whence courage
I derived ?
' But the casket of Thomas is slaying me, for a hidden power
there residing, tortures me.
III
XI
' Blessed art thou, Thomas, the Twin, in thy deeds ! twin is
thy spiritual power ; nor one thy power, nor one thy name :
' But many and signal are they ; renowned is thy name among
the Apostles.
'From my lowly state thee I haste to sing.
XII
' Blessed art thou, O Light, like the lamp, the sun amidst
darkness hath placed ; the earth darkened with sacrifices' fumes
to illuminate.
' A land of people dark fell to thy lot that these in white
robes thou shouldest clothe and cleanse by baptism : a tainted
land Thomas has purified.
XIII
' Blessed art thou, like unto the solar ray from the great orb ;
thy grateful dawn India's painful darkness doth dispel.
' Thou the great lamp, one among the Twelve, with oil from
the Cross replenished , India's dark night floodest with light.
XIV
'Blessed art thou whom the Great King hath sent, that India
to his One- Begotten thou shouldest espouse ; above snow and
linen white, thou the dark bride didst make fair.
'Blessed art thou, who the unkempt hast adorned, that having
become beautiful and radiant, to her Spouse she might advance.
XV
'Blessed art thou, who hast faith in the bride, whom from
heathenism, from demons' errors, and from enslavement to sacri-
fices thou didst rescue.
'Her with saving bath thou cleansest, the sunburnt thou hast
made fair, the Cross of Light her darkened shades effacing.
THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF INDIA 27
XVI
' Blessed art thou, O merchant, a treasure who broughtest
where so greatly it was needed ; thou the wise man, who to
secure the great pearl, of thy riches all else thou givest ;
'The finder it enriches and ennobles : indeed thou art the
merchant who the world endowest !
XVII
' Blessed art thou, O Thrice- Blessed City ! that hast acquired
this pearl, none greater doth India yield ;
'Blessed art thou, worthy to possess the priceless gem ! Praise
to thee, O Gracious Son, Who thus Thy adorers dost enrich ! '
I
'Thomas, whence thy lineage,
That so illustrious thou shouldst become ?
A merchant thy bones conveys ;
A Pontiff assigns thee a feast ; ¹
A King a shrine erects.2
II
III
VI
VII
Wonders during life thou performest,
These, after death, thou still continuest :
Under great bodily fatigue
In one region only didst thou heal.
Now, everywhere, without labour thou dost cure.
VIII
As thou wast taught [by the Lord],
With the sign of the Cross and oil thou didst heal ;
But now, without speech, demons thou expellest ;
Without speech human ills thou curest ;
Without prayer the dead do arise.'
I
'The One- Begotten his Apostles chose,
Among them Thomas, whom he sent
To baptize peoples perverse, in darkness steeped.
A dark night then India's land enveloped,
Like the sun's ray Thomas did dart forth ;
There he dawned , and her illumined.
II
What dweller on earth was ever seen,
But Thomas, the Lord's Apostle,
On earth designing and a dwelling in Heaven erecting ? ¹
Or on earth who so wise was found
Here of his genius essaying
What in Heaven a crowning secures ?
V
The client of Thomas needs not men his praises to sing :
Great is the crowd of his martyred followers.
had erected by his preachings and good works in India. See Wright's
translation of the Syriac Acts, p. 162 ; and pp. 141-142 of Max
Bonnet's Acta. In the Acts the building to be erected is called a
palace, while Ephraem speaks of a dwelling ; the reader will keep in
mind that while Thomas saw a palace in heaven in a dream, he was
asked by the king to build him a mansion for his dwelling.
It is hardly probable that stone houses existed in Southern India
in those days. There seem, however, to have been stone temples,
and possibly there may have been some of these even in Malabar.
Buildings of burnt brick are of comparatively recent date. Prior
to the arrival of the Portuguese on the Malabar coast the houses
of a superior class were built of teak-wood, and used to last
upwards of 400 years when kept well tarred on the outside, in
spite of the very heavy annual rainfall ( 120 inches) in that part
of India. In support of our statement we may quote two authori-
ties-Jarric (Indicarum Rerum, tom. iii. lib. ii. cap. v. pp. 50-51 )
gives part of a letter by James Fenicio, a Jesuit missionary in
the Zamorin's territory. This letter is our earliest authority ;
as quoted above it has no date, but evidently belongs to the
period between 1600 and 1607. The missionary had obtained per-
mission to erect four churches in the Zamorin's territory : ' I devoted
all the remaining available time to the erection of these churches,
and to the Christian inhabitants of this village [ Palur]. I used to give
them instructions as I chanced to meet them. As the church of
Palur dedicated to Saint Cyriac [ Syr. Quriaqus ], which was the oldest
(primus) among all the churches in Malabar, and renowned for
favours and graces obtained, and for this reason much frequented,
I devoted myself more especially to it. The stone church which I
began two years ago [enclosing, apparently, within it the primitive
building ] had risen to the height of the windows. At this stage no
one would dare to pull down the old wooden building, fearing to be
struck down by sudden death : it stood surrounded by the walls of
the new erection, but after I had prayed and removed their timidity,
the old structure was pulled down, and the new building stood out in
such fine proportions that the Hindus, the Mahomedans, and the Jews
flocked to see it.' This is one of the Seven churches traditionally
assigned to the time when Saint Thomas preached in Malabar. The
wooden structure must undoubtedly have been very old, and con-
structed no doubt of teak, which formerly grew all over the country,
even in comparatively recent times : at that early age the supply must
have been very plentiful. Our second authority is the Carmelite mis-
THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF INDIA 31
(4) He, one of the Twelve, like a great lamp with oil from
the Cross replenished, flooded India's dark night with
light (XIII. ) .
(5) It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten :
this he did by making the unkempt beautiful and
radiant for the Bridegroom's acceptance (XIV.) .
(6) He had faith in the Bride, so he rescued her from
demons' errors ; the sunburnt he made fair with light
from the Cross (xv. ).
(7) The merchant is blessed for having brought so great a
treasure to a place where it was greatly needed (xvi .).
(8) Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the
GREATEST PEARL India could yield (xvII .) .
beauty expanded itself the king believed and was baptised with
the children of his house and the nobles of his court.'
Brescia, but I could not find anything to show how they obtained
these relics, which they placed in their respective churches.' No
doubt many another among the readers of these pages would feel in-
clined to ask the same question . An excellent little essay was written
for academical honours by Mathias H. Hohlenberg of Copenhagen,
entitled, De originibus etfatis Ecclesiae Christianae in India Orientali,
disquisitio historica ad finem saeculi decimi quinti perducta, Havniae,
1822. The title is rather high-sounding, but his effort to establish
that the first evangelisation of India was by the Apostle Thomas, is
not only commendable, but on the whole is the best thing yet pub-
lished on the subject, and we have found it often suggestive. The
writer (p. 82), referring to Bolland . Acta SS., die 18 Febr. et 22 Jan. ,
adds that, besides at Nola and Brescia, the relics of Thomas were
also deposed in the ' basilica Apostolorum ' at Milan. There are
thus three places, all in upper Italy, where relics of this Apostle
appear at about the same time. The mention of the relics of Thomas
at Milan will be found also in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum
[details of this important Martyrology will be given presently] (p. lxxiv.
and p. 57, first col., bottom) : vii. id. Mai, Mediolano, de ingressu
reliquiarum ApostolorumJohannis Andreae et Thomae in basilica ad
portam Romanam. If we bear in mind that in the year 394, as men-
tioned above, the relics of the Apostle Thomas were, at Edessa,
removed from the old church to the new magnificent basilica erected
in his honour, it will be noticed that an opportunity would then offer
itself to extract from the urn or sarcophagus that held them some
portion of the relics, and morsels or fragments from these could be
obtained by pious pilgrims and conveyed to Italy, where precisely
they are found in the cities of Nola, Brescia, and Milan, in the pos-
session of their bishops , Paulinus, Gaudentius, and Ambrose, after 395.
¹ Paulinus was born at Bordeaux in 353 ; his devotion to St.
Felix of Nola led him to that city, to which he was accompanied by
his wife, who was now a sister to him ; he was made bishop of Nola
in 409, and died in 431 ( Bardenhewer, ut supr. , ii. pp. 344 ff. ).
2 John, the son of a general of the Eastern empire, born at
Antioch in 344 (or perhaps as late as 347), was surnamed ' Chry-
THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF INDIA 47
separate lists were kept, one for the ' depositiones ' and
the other for the ' dies natales ' and festivals. The
Roman church had thus a similar feriale, which in the
past has been called by different names. The Roman
feriale, containing the two lists under the headings
' depositiones episcoporum ' and ' depositiones marty-
rum,' was first discovered and published by the Jesuit,
Bucher (De Doctrina Temporum, c. cxv. pp . 266 ff.
Antwerp, 1634), and thus came to be called the Kalen-
darium Bucherianum : it was reproduced by Ruinart in
Acta Sincera Martyrum. It was subsequently found
that this Calendar formed only a part of a larger com-
pilation bearing the name of Furius Dionysius Philo-
calus, and comprising a variety of elements, such as
an Almanac might contain , and had been prepared for
one Valentinus.
The latest development of the discoveries of this im-
portant document is given by the late Professor Theodore
Mommsen in Monumenta Germaniae historica, tom. ix.,
ed. in 4º, Berolini, 1891 , which contains his second edi-
tion of this ancient Roman Calendar. Mommsen shows
that Philocalus was not the author, but being a cele-
brated caligraphist of the age he transcribed the com-
pilation, and appended his name to it. Quoting De
Rossi, Mommsen shows that Philocalus inscribed him-
self the ' cultor ' and ' amator ' of Pope Damasus :
Damasi s[ui] pappæ cultor atque amato[ r] Furius Dionysius
Filocalus scribsit. Under these circumstances Mommsen
thought it best to style the compilation- Chronographus
anni CCCLIIII.
The former entry blends the feast of the ' natalis '
with that of the ' translatio,' an inaccuracy common to
several MSS, but both entries distinctly specify ( 1 ) that
the passio was in India, (2) that the translatio was from
India, and one of them (3 ) specifies that the feast was
kept in India ' v Non . Julii ,' or the 3rd of July.
The Martyrologium Bedae (see critical discussion by
De Rossi, ut supr., p . xxiv.§ 15), according to the Bollandist
edition, Acta SS. Martii, tom . ii. p . xlii .; and Migne,
P.-L., tom. xciv., Oper. Bedae, tom . v. col. 1137, gives the
following entry :-
A.
Codex lxv. (63) Venerabilis Bedae Martyrologium, fol. 47",
line 11 :-
( r ) xii kl iān sẽ thome apti
(Kalendas Januarias Sancti Thome apostoli).
Codex xc. (85) Orationes Hymni Preces Martyrologium Beda,
fol. 109 , 3rd last line :—
(2) xii k ian nāt sāī tome, apti.
N.B. - The letter h by a later hand of the tenth century.
64 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
B.
Codex lxv. (63) fol. 23 , line 12 :—
(3) v ñ iul Translatio thome, apti.
Line 13 :-
In edissa passus vero In India.
Codex xc., fol. 103", line 1 :-
(4) v nōn iul translatio thome apti.
THOMÉ
CATHEDRAL
SAN
OF
INTERIOR
THE
THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF INDIA 65
the mount, covered him with wounds and made him attain his
blessed end. Nisifor and Uzanes remained on the mount ; the
apostle, appearing, told them to be of good heart. For he had
ordained Nisifor a priest and Uzanes a deacon.
' After these things had happened, the son of the King was
suffering from a mortal disease, and the King asked that a relic
of the apostle might be brought to his son who was already
beyond hope of recovery, and near death. As the body of the
apostle was not found, he ordered earth from the grave to be
fetched . On this earth touching the dying man he was cured at
once. But the King, even then not having believed , died a
corporal and spiritual death.'
Col. 781 :-
The month ofJune, 30.'
('Feast of the Commemoration of the Apostles.')
' 5. The seventh Thomas, who is also named Didymus [the
Twin ] . He having preached the God-Word to the Parthians,
the Medes, the Persians, and the Indians, was by these killed,
transfixed with lances.'
Pars i., p. 97 :—
¹ Basnage was amongst the first to deny the Indian Apostolate and
martyrdom of Saint Thomas, and Assemani (Bibliotheca Orientalis,
tom. iv. p. 25 ff. ) gives a full refutation to his statements. La Croze
(Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, Lahaye, 1724) rejects the tradi-
tion summarily. Tillemont (Mémoires Hist. Eccl. , Venice, 1732, tom.
i. p. 359), on the erroneous supposition that the entire body of the
Apostle was at Edessa, declines to accept the tradition ; in his ad-
ditional Note 4 (p. 613) he accepts a statement of Theodoret, and
thereupon builds a further supposition that Thomas, one of Manes'
disciples, may have given occasion to the supposition that the Apostle
had visited India ; a refutation of this will be found in Chapter VI .
The Rev. J. Hough (History of Christianity in India, London, 1859,
vol. i. p. 30 ff.) denies that any Apostle was ever in India. Sir John
Kaye (Christianity in India, London, 1859 ) considers it a worthless
legend. The Rev. G. Milne-Rae ( The Syrian Church in India,
London, 1892) rejects the tradition ; while Dr. George Smith (The
69
70 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
means " the six forests ' ; this town lies due west of
Madras, and may be taken as a sample of other names
that could be produced . These remarks are also borne
out by the fact that the south-west monsoon clouds may
now be seen fleeting over Madras and denying the
parched land the benefit of the moisture held in sus-
pense, which they subsequently discharge in the Bay of
Bengal under more favourable atmospheric conditions ,
as captains of steamships are often known to remark.
These observations may be thought sufficient to justify
our view that St. Gregory wrongly attributed the scene
of the festival described as occurring at Edessa, whereas
it could only fit the surroundings of the Indian Shrine.
Even the error in giving the depth of the wells in that
neighbourhood, while not at all applicable to Edessa,
indicates that the narrator was a travelled Eastern who
had crossed the Syrian desert, and having but a slight
acquaintance of India, supplemented his remarks as to
the extent of drought with home ideas.
One further remark should be added on the details.
of this pregnant narrative. While the monastery men-
tioned attached to the Shrine and Church suggests
Mesopotamian Ascetics and Monks and consequently
a Syrian Liturgy, Ritual, and Calendar-for the clergy
of every Rite invariably carry these with them wher-
ever they go ; the record that even in India the feast
of the 3rd of July was kept, shows that there, in
accordance with their Calendar, the clergy kept the
feast of the Translation of the Apostle's Relics to
Edessa. All this admirably fits in with, and confirms
the data previously given from the Hieronymian
Calendar. As to whether the taint of Nestorian error
had already sullied the purity of primitive faith , the
reader is referred to Chapter V. , p. 199, note.¹
¹ Dr. R. Pauli in his Life of Alfred the Great (translated from the
German, London 1893 , pp . 146-148) says it is uncertain when the
Pagans were before London, 880 or even later.
2 See The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle according to the several
Original Authorities, edited with a translation by Benjamin Thorpe,
London, 1861 , vol. ii. p. 66. Vol. i. contains the Anglo- Saxon texts,
seven in number, in parallel columns ; vol. ii., the translation. Ofthis
passage there are six Anglo-Saxon texts (vol. i. pp. 150-153) ; all are
dated 883. Four of the texts are practically identical, and translate
as above ; a fifth makes no mention of Sighelm and Aethalstan, and
ends at ' Bartholomew ' ; the remaining sixth omits everything after
( sat one year.'
F
82 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
¹ Forester appends the following note : ' Asser did not die till
910 (see Saxon Chronicle), and he continued his life of Alfred to the
forty-fifth year of that prince's age, A.D. 893. Ethelward, not Swithelm ,
appears to have been Asser's successor as bishop of Sherborne. See
the list of bishops at the end of this work.' The lists of bishops are
considered to be by Florence of Worcester, as they are in all the MSS.
In the Sherborne list ( p. 421 ) Asser is No. 11 , Ethelward No. 12,
and Sighelm No. 15 ; no dates are given. Pauli wrote his Life of
Alfred about 1850 ; on pp. 146-148, dealing with the mission of Sighelm
and Aethalstan to Rome and India, he says, ' they were probably dis-
tinguished laymen. Except on one occasion (890) Alfred's ambassa-
dors to Rome were always laymen, so far as we know.'
SAINT THOMAS'S TOMB IN INDIA 83
latter says the relic was sent the same year and
seemingly before Sighelm or Sigelinus conveyed the
king's alms to Rome, whereas William makes Sige-
linus, on his return from India, the bearer of the relic
to the king. The Saxon Chronicle should undoubtedly
carry the greater weight ; it is, besides, a contemporary
document.
the minister of the Province, he related his story, which was taken
down, or turned into homely Latin, by William of Solagna of his
Order. On his way to the Papal court at Avignon he fell sick
and was taken back to his province of Udine, where he died on the
14th of January 1331. He was abroad fourteen and a half years.
The decree of his beatification was issued by Clement XIII . in 1755 .
94 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
his faith during his travels in the East. The Pope im-
posed on him as penance to dictate an account of his
travels. The Pope's secretary, Poggio, took down the
narrative in Latin, but this remained unpublished at the
time, while an Italian translation was put in circulation.
M. Henri Cordier informed us that the interview between
Pope Eugenius and Conti at Florence took place in the
year 1438, which was the only time the Pope was there.
It is from this date that Conti's return to Italy can be
fixed. Supposing Conti had returned two or three
years earlier, we come to 1435, and his evidence bearing
on the Shrine at Mylapore might be of a date even ten
years earlier ; thus we come to c. 1425 : it will not be
unsafe to fix the date somewhere between 1425-1430.
1
IX. WHAT THE NESTORIAN BISHOPS SAY, A.D. 1504
pleted at the time of the emperor's visit, and certainly did not then
hold the relics of the Apostle. The reader is referred to the date
given above of their transfer to this new church, A.D. 394.
1 His visit is mentioned in the eighth chapter. After describing
what he had seen of the disciples of St. Anthony in Egypt, he adds
what he had himself seen in the neighbourhood of Edessa (ibid. ,
col. 517) : Habuit autem per idem tempus Mesopotamia viros nobiles
iisdem studiis pollentes. Quorum aliquantos per nos apud Edessam
et in Carcarum partibus vidimus ; plures autem auditione didicimus.
FURTHER HISTORICAL RECORDS 107
Asylu
MOGAPPER
Toll Cate
Mr. Prichard's Farm
mmang oat Tonk
Naduvakkarai
Asylu
Sinnakud Tell Ch
KOYAMBEDU
Amamikkaral
NEYKONRAW
Adaiy
C
Svabuda
SALIGIRAMAME Georg
VIRUGAMBAKKAN Kodambakam
M
alasaravakkam
Nesapakkam Mambalam T
PORUR Poriya Tank
MAMBALAM
AdyarR Tol
Collector's Cuters
Baldapet RS Hovt Yet
Hospital
Government Farm
bakka tutanga Agricultural
MODILIPAKKAM SAIDAFET Collegey dyar
APPAKKIN ND
Kottur Tank
vindy R
RACE
Thomas Mou COURS
Guindy Park
MOUN MEN Parittivakkam
Mount RADAMBAKKAM Kagan
Minambak PALAVANANGAL
han
eacher
H
UT Dagaram
SO T Tirusulam
rampatta
Pallavara
MASIPAKKAM
Perondit
CATHEDRAL
CHIOS
,N
IN
RELICS
AT
APOSTLE'S
THE
COVERED
WHICH
CHALCEDONY
SLAB
OFOW
GREEK
INSCRIPTION
BUST
AND
S
FIGURE
ORTONA
, HOWING
FURTHER HISTORICAL RECORDS 113
D. O. M.
LEONI DUCI ET CIVI ORTONENSI
CLASSIS PRAEFECTO
QUO SUB Manfredo a Chio INSULA
ANNO DOMINI MCCLVIII
OSSA BEATI THOMAE APOSTOLI
CAELITUS ADMONITUS
AD ORTONAM PATRIAM
TRANSPORTAVIT
CIVES ORTONENSES OB TAM PRAECLARUM
FACINUS GRATI ANIMI ERGO
MONUMENTUM AETERNUM
POSUERE
ANNO DOMINI MDCIII.
fuoco, ma però rotta per il peso che l' era caduta sopra ; e così
divotamente con lagrime pigliarono la detta testa e fù ricomposta
per le mani di essi D. Bartolomeo, D. Giovanni, ed alcuni altri
sacerdoti, con l'intervento del quondam D. Muzio de Sanctis allora
Vicario di detta Chiesa , in presenza del Magnifico Giovan Battista
de Lectis Fisico [anglice, Physician] e detti Giov. Tommaso de
Summa e Giuseppe Masca ed altri, ricomponendola di modo come
se mai rotta stata fosse, con tutto il martirio, senza mancarvi pur un
minimo osso, &c. , &c. , e di pui li sopradetti dichiarano che ivi erano
conservate altre sante reliquie, ed essi tutti dicono ed affermano che
l'Ossa del Glorioso Apostolo Tommaso riconobbero da quelle altre
dallo splendore e lucidezza che avvevano quell' Ossa, le quali erano
negre come ebano, l' altre erano bianche.'
1 The Archdeacon writes : " Thrice in the year feasts are kept in
honour ofthe Apostle. On the first Sunday of May, the day fixed for
the celebration of the solemn transfer to Ortona ; the 6th of Septem-
ber, the day of the arrival of the Relics at Ortona ; and on the 21st of
December, the day of the Apostle's martyrdom. The feast day in May
is the occasion when the Head of the glorious Apostle, enshrined in
a rich silver bust, is exposed to public veneration, and is carried in
solemn procession through the city. This is not done at the other
festivals. The May festival is kept up for three days.
UNL
hermits [say, monks] ; the church and monastery that had stood on
the mount had crumbled and was in ruins. The mount is about six
miles from Mylapore, and is traditionally reputed to be the site of the
Apostle's martyrdom. It stands out conspicuously by its towering
height in a flat country.
2. The Little mount is only two miles from the town of San
Thomé ; it is an outcrop of granite some eighty feet high. Local
tradition points to it, not as the site of the martyrdom—it is made the
centre of the peacock legend-but as the place where the Apostle
sought refuge from his persecutors, and probably it was the place he
would resort to for prayer and contemplation ; it has a small cave at
the summit, now enclosed in the church crowning the knoll. The
Jewish custom should here be remembered, practised by our Lord as
well, of resorting to hill tops for prayer and seclusion ( Luke vi. 12 ;
xxii. 39, &c.) ; further, all the shrines of Israel were situated on hill
tops. The most prominent hill on the Malabar coast, a table-top
mountain in appearance, named Maleatur, is also traditionally con-
nected with the Apostle. Near the summit of the granite outcrop of
the ' little ' mount, there is a cleft in the rock which always holds
some water, though it is difficult to say whence it comes.
3. The Apostle's Tomb. —This traditional site, now adjacent to the
seashore, has recently come to be enclosed in the crypt of the new
Cathedral of San Thomé. We have said ' now adjacent ,' because
there is an old tradition that the sea was at one time some miles, say
two or three, farther to the east, that extent of foreshore having been
gradually cut away—even now on a calm day portions of older Myla-
pore can be seen lying in the bed of the sea ; and further there is
evidence that when St. Francis Xavier visited the place and spent
a month there, he lived with the Portuguese priest stationed there.
Then there was a house and a garden to the east ofthe tomb ; the house
has since disappeared, engulfed in the sea with what land once stood
between it and the shore. The erosion still continues.
124 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
flat seashore. The mount mentioned in the Acts, as the spot where
the Apostle was executed by the king's order, now called the Great
Mount St. Thomas, never held a town. The Catalan map of 1375
gives the name Mirapor.
126 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
tributed. But, angered and enraged as the populace were at the loss
and destruction of their property, the rumour that the emperor had
purposely come from Antium to witness the scene and that it had
been got up for his amusement, excited them to such a pitch that
they threatened the emperor. Hence every step was taken to
appease the popular rage ; an inquiry was set on foot to ascertain the
origin of the fire, and thus to divert attention from the suspicions that
had been raised against the emperor.
The inquiry established that the fire originated at the covered
stalls ofthe Circus Maximus frequented by Eastern traders and that
the quarter in the vicinity of Porta Capena, occupied by the Jews, had
escaped the conflagration. These circumstances would tend to throw
suspicion on the Jews, the more so because of their irreconcilable
attitude to the national worship. This, coupled with the destruction
of the fanes and temples by the fire, was exploited to fix the blame
more definitely on this alien element of the population . The Jews
held important positions in the court of the emperor, and exercised
great influence in the city ; so, to divert adroitly all suspicion from
their body, they cast it on the believers of the new faith, whom they
hated most intensely. The cry was thus turned against the Christians—
people of an unknown, mysterious faith, who seemed, even more than
the Jews, to keep aloof from Roman life, its social intercourse and
amusements. The cry once raised was taken up rapidly, the most
absurd popular rumours regarding Christians , their practices and
beliefs, were spread and accepted by the exasperated multitude.
The emperor, glad ofthe opportunity to divert all suspicion from his
own person, and anxious to throw a victim to popular fury, did his
best to appease and conciliate the people. He , in consequence, threw
open the imperial gardens , which occupied the present sites of the
Vatican and the adjoining Borgo, and ordered games and sports to
be got up there for the people's amusement. It was then that the
alleged guilt of the Christians offered the opportunity of making
them subjects of popular sport. In the morning sports they were
brought out covered with the skins of wild beasts, and pushed into the
arena to be torn to pieces by the dogs set at them. In the evening the
park was lit up by a novel feature of horror, never heard of before or
since. Christians were covered with skins or other absorbent wrap-
pings, steeped with oil and tar, tied to posts, and set on fire.
This is what Tacitus tells us of these inhuman scenes (Annales,
xv. 44) : ' The confession of those who were seized (viz., the Chris-
144 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
(1) Jacob of Sarug ( Poem, The Palace that Thomas, &c .),
A.D. 552.
(2) Gregory of Tours (Gl. Martyr.), A.D. 590.
(3) Florus of Lyons ( Bedae Martyrol.), A.D. 830.
A.
Β.
Της ιδίως παλουμαινης παραλιας
Τωριγγων
χαβήρου ποτ. εκβολαι
χαβηρις εμποριον
σαβουρας εμποριον
Αρουαρων
ποδώκη εμποριον
μελαγγη εμποριον
Τηννα ποτ. εκβολαι
χοττις
μαναρφα εμποριον
Μαισωλίας
D.
Poduca emporium
Melange emporium
Tynae flu. ostia
Cottis
Maliarpha emporium
Mesoliae
166 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
E.
F.
Aruarorum
Puduca emporium
Melange emp .
* Tynnae flu. ostia [al. Tynae
Cottis
*
Manarpha emporium [al. Maliarpha
Maesoliae
* N.B.- This sign indicates that the editor has supplied in the next column
what he considers the present -day name of the place.
FURTHER HISTORICAL RECORDS 167
Αρουαρων
ποδώκη εμποριον
μελάγγη εμποριον
τυννα ποτ. εκβολαι
κοττις
μαναρφα εμποριον
Μαισωλίας
polavi. ...
. . . Est ubi Latinus codex plura habet quam
Graecus ; est ubi Graecus plura quam Latinus est ubi
ita inter se dissidunt ut quid sequaris vix scias . This
gives a fair idea of the value of this text based on a
single Greek MS . supplemented by readings from two
or three Palatine codices.
We place before the reader an analysis of the readings
of texts given above in regard to the passage which
refers to our Mailapur :-
Gr. Μαλιαρφα A
99 Μαναρφα BFG
19 Μαναλιαρφα G
Ital. Maliarfa E
I. ST. PANTAENUS
1 St. Jerome (De viris illustr., cap. xxxvi. col. 651 , Migne, P. L.,
tom. xxiii.) has the following notice on Pantaenus : Pantaenus Stoicae
sectae philosophus, juxta quamdam veterem in Alexandria consue-
tudinem, ubi a Marco evangelista semper Ecclesiastici fuere Doctores,
tantae prudentiae et eruditionis tam in Scripturis divinis, quam in
saeculari litteratura fuit, ut in Indiam quoque rogatus ab illius gentis
legatis, a Demetrio Alexandriae episcopo, mitteretur. Ubi reperit,
Bartholomaeum de duodecim Apostolis, adventum Domini nostri
Jesu Christi juxta Matthaei evangelium praedicasse, quod Hebraicis
litteris scriptum revertens Alexandriae secum detulit. It will be
noticed that Jerome states Pantaenus brought back with him to
Alexandria the copy of Matthew's gospel left among the people by
Bartholomew, while Eusebius makes no mention of the sort. Rufinus,
in his translation into Latin of Eusebius' history (text quoted from
Avtores Historiae Ecclesiasticae per Beatum Rhenanum apud Basi-
leam , anno MDXXIII , an early print, lib. v. c. 10, p. 113) reads : Quem
[vid. Pantaenum] ferunt cum ad Indos pervenisset, reperisse quod
Bartholomaeus apostolus apud eos fidei semina prima condiderit, et
Matthaei evangelium Hebraicis scriptum literis dereliquerit : quod per
idem tempus supradictus Pantaenus inibi repertum detulerit. This is
an important detail added by the translator ; anyhow there is no
further mention anywhere of this codex of the original text of
Matthew, lost after its work had been completed. Pantaenus is
supposed to have returned to Alexandria by A.D. 205. Rufinus, in
continuation of the passage quoted, says : apud Alexandriam claram
et satis nobilem vitam optimo et mirabili fine conclusit.
174 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
' Aram ,' more so Syria proper and Arabia Petræa. The
language of Aram gradually expanded itself over the
whole of the western countries, and was, in the Persian
period, the official language of these provinces . The
Jews, having learned it during their captivity, as the
bilingual texts of the books of Daniel and Ezra attest,
brought it back with them to Palestine as their col-
loquial tongue. Hebrew therefore does not answer to
what Josephus terms ' the language of our country ' : the
more so as he says the language was understood by
'the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest
Arabians, and those of our nation beyond the Euphrates,
with the Adiabeni.' The language here referred to by
Josephus can be no other than the Aramaic, and it is
now generally admitted to have been the language
of his text. Similarly, the language in which Matthew's
Gospel was written was the Aramaic tongue spoken by
Christ and His Apostles. Yet the term Hebrew, applied
by older writers to the text of that gospel found by
Pantaenus, demands a word of explanation .
The Chaldaic form of the Aramaic dialect, used to
the east of the Euphrates and in which some books of
the Old Testament were written, is found in the Hebrew
text of the Scriptures, written in Hebrew letters, though
the language is not Hebrew, but Aramaic or Syriac :
hence the language itself with reference to such books
came, in a general way, to be termed Hebrew, sometimes
Chaldaic, and, in our old English form , Chaldee . The text
found by Pantaenus is stated by Eusebius to be written
'Eẞpaiwv ypáμμaoi-' in Hebrew characters ' ; the transla-
tion by Vallesius renders it Hebraicis litteris ; Rufinus, in
his Latin translation of Eusebius' history, uses the terms
Hebraicis scriptum literis ; Jerome (De viris illustr., cap.
xxxvi.), referring to the same codex, expresses himself,
quod Hebraicis litteris scriptum. This strict exactness of
expression adopted by these three learned writers may
176 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
1 Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., lib. iii. cap. 24) treating of St. Matthew
says : Evangelium suum patrio sermone conscribens . . . relinquebat.
He quotes (lib. vi. c. 25) Origen's words : Evangelium scriptum esse
a Matthaeo . . . qui illud Hebraico sermone conscriptum Iudaeis ad
fidem conversis publicavit. St. Jerome, writing of the codex of the
gospel, kept at the Library collected by Pamphilus Martyr, says (De
viris illustr. de Matthaeo) : Evangelium Christi Hebraicis litteris ver-
bisque composuit. This is said in opposition to the other books of the
New Testament, which were written in Greek. It becomes apparent
from these different statements that the term 'in Hebrew,' as we
would express it in English, should be taken in the wider sense as
mentioned above. Perhaps it may not be inappropriate to support
this view by further authority. Mgr. Lamy (Introd. in Sacr. Script.,
Pars ii., ed. quarta, Mechliniae, 1887, c. ii. No. 5 , p. 215 ) writes :
Omnes novi Testamenti libri Graece exarati fuerunt, excepto S. Mat-
thaei Evangelio, cujus tamen textus graecus ad instar textus primi-
genii evasit. . . . Omnia porro antiquitatis documenta testantur
S. Matthaeum hebraice, id est in lingua aramaica palaestinensi,
quae etiam syrochaldaica vocatur pro popularibus suis fidem Christi
amplexis suum primitus conscripsisse Evangelium. Then follows a
list of Fathers who have written on the subject. The learned Pro-
fessor of Syriac takes for granted that the expression ' St. Matthew's
gospel was written in Hebrew,' used by some of the Fathers, does
not imply that the language of the text was the Hebrew idiom , but
on the contrary expressly asserts the same to have been the Aramaic
or Syro-Chaldaic.
THE ALLEGED APOSTLES OF INDIA 177
sermone .' But such was not the case. It has often
occurred to us to question the accuracy of this state-
ment. The view which impelled us to the doubt
arose from the fact that Barnabas' preaching, from
what can be ascertained from the canonical books ,
was to Greek-speaking populations, and he himself
was a Cypriote. Of what use then would the original
Aramaic text of that gospel be to him ? Satisfactory
evidence is forthcoming that places the subject in a
clear light.
Theodore Lector, in the first half of the sixth century
(Excerpta Hist. Eccl., lib. ii. ed . Valles, Moguntiae, 1679,
and Migne, P. Gr.-L. tom. lxxxvi. 1a, col . 183 ) , says :
Barnabae apostoli reliquiae in Cypro suo sub arbore
siliqua repertae sunt : super cujus pectore erat evangelium
Matthaei ipsius Barnabae manu descriptum. Qua de
causa Cyprii obtinuerunt ut metropolis ipsorum libera
esset ac sui juris, nec Antiochenae sedi amplius sub-
jaceret. Id evangelium Zeno deposuit in palatio in
aede sancti Stephani. Further details are given in the
Bolland . Acta SS. Junii, tom . ii. , where is published the
Laudatio S. Barnabae Apostoli auctore Alexandro Monacho
Cyprio (c. iv. n. 41 , p . 450) . Invenerunt etiam evangelium
supra Barnabae pectus impositum . .. and n. 44, p . 451 :
evangelium illud in urbe Constantinopolim attulerunt.
Erant autem libri tabellae thyinis lignis compositae.
Evangelium illud imperator in manus sumpsit, et
deosculatus est, auroque multo exornatum in palatio
suo reposuit, ubi ad hodiernum usque diem servatur,
et in magna quinta Paschae feria quotannis in palatii
oratorio Evangelium ex eo libro recitatur. This writer
lived during the reign of Justinian, 518-527.
A Bollandist Father, in a subsequent volume (Septr . ,
tom. vi. col. 206), quoting this passage, draws the obvious
conclusion : 'Haec lectio demonstrat Graece scriptum
fuisse illud exemplar ' : and this offers a fresh proof that
182 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
II.-ST. FRUMENTIUS
impie de Deo sentire, ita nempe affectum ut ille affectus declaratus est
scelestus cum sit. Verendumque est ne Auxumim praefectus vestrates
nefariis et impiis sermonibus corrumpat ; nec solum ecclesias con-
fundat et turbet, in Deumque blasphemet, sed etiam singulis nationibus
hinc vastationis et excidii auctor sit. Caeterum habeo ipsum Fru-
mentium non pauca edoctum, magnamque in publicum bonum utili-
tatem consecutum venerabilissimi scilicet Georgii consortio, nec non
reliquorum, qui in iis docendis apprime versati sunt ad suas sedes
reversurum in omnibus ecclesiasticis rebus apprime eruditum.
Deus vos custodiat, fratres honoratissimi.
In the admonitum prefixed to this Apologia, col. 593-594, it is
stated of the Apologia : . . . ad annum 356 eam haud dubianter
referimus. Cf. Cod . Theodos. , tom. ii. De Legatis, where a decree of
Constantius is found regarding the expedition of imperial messengers
to the Auxumitae and Homeritae, rightly supposed to have been en-
acted on the occasion of the despatch of this imperial letter. The law
bears the date of 15th January 356. Theophilus' mission should then
be placed earlier, in c. 354, as the imperial letter to the Auxumite
princes followed upon the failure of that mission.
1 At the close of his letter the emperor styles these princes—
fratres honoratissimi -' most honoured brethren,' an appellation he
would not have bestowed upon them had they not become Christians.
This discloses the success of Frumentius' apostolate among the Auxu-
188 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
mitae. Rufinus also says that ' an immense number of these people
were converted to the faith.' The early Arab narratives tell a similar
tale. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orientale, ad verb. ' Habasch,' says :
'The bishop whom St. Athanasius sent them, Salamah, who was the
first to baptize them ,' & c. The Abyssinian Church keeps the feast
of St. Frumentius on the 26th July and 18th December. In both
entries, as Ludolf (Calendar. Aethiopicum, in his Histor. Aethiop.)
observes, ' mutato nomine ' he is styled ' Salama ' ; he also mentions
Codex Paris Bibl. Regiae, No. 796 (ibid. , p . 74), which contains a life
of Frumentius , and produces from the same an extract in support of
the change of name. St. Athanasius' feast is also kept by the Abys-
sinian Church, 7th of January, and he is styled ' St. Athanasius the
Apostle.'
Another passage of the imperial letter demands a word of com-
ment : ' For you know indeed and remember, unless you alone pre-
tend to be ignorant of what is known to all, that Frumentius was
raised to this grade of life by Athanasius, guilty of more than six
hundred crimes.' Constantius shows full knowledge of how things
stood at Auxum. In spite of the emperor's emphatic language Fru-
mentius retained the support of the princes. But how came the
emperor to be so accurately informed of the state of matters ecclesi-
tical there but by Theophilus-of whom we shall presently treat- on
his return after the failure of his mission to Auxum ? The expression
' and remember ' points to some intimation made to the princes and
known to the emperor. The letter would thus offer internal evidence
that it was written after the return of Theophilus' mission.
THE ALLEGED APOSTLES OF INDIA 189
This author wrote his history in twelve books, A.D. 423 , the
first letter heading the commencement of each book formed his name
-Philostorgius. The original has not come down to us, but we have
a compendium (Photius, Bibliotheca), and a few extracts, chiefly con-
tained in Suidas' Lexicon. Photius (ibid.) thus briefly expresses his
opinion on the work : ' It is an eulogium of heretics and an accusation
of the orthodox ; a vituperation rather than a history ' ; the writer was
an Arian. The Compendium and Extracts are to be found in the
Corpus of Greek Ecclesiastical Historians with notes and Latin
translation by Valesius, reproduced by Migne, P. G.-L. , tom. lxv.
190 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
The ruins of the city and palace still exist in the neighbourhood of
Jerim. The place is mentioned in the Ming Annales of China as
Tsafarh, and as being a Mahommedan country. Marco Polo (Yule's
2nd ed. , vol. ii . p. 441 ) gives the following description of the place :
' Dufar is a great and noble and fine city, and lies 500 miles to the
north-west of Esher. The people are Saracens and have a Count
(Sheik) for their chief, who is subject to the Soldan of Aden ; for this
city belongs to the Province of Aden. It stands upon the sea and has
a very good haven, so that there is a great traffic of shipping between
this and India (viz. , the Kingdom of Ma'bar, p. 324), and merchants
take hence great numbers of Arab horses to that market, making
great profit thereby. This city has under it many other towns and
villages.' It was pre-eminently ' the frank-incense land ' of the
ancients.
1 Adane in the Periplus, § 26, is called, ' Eudaimon Arabia ,
a maritime village subject to that kingdom of which Kharibael is
sovereign. It is called Eudaimon, " rich and prosperous," because in
bygone days, when the merchants from India did not proceed to
Egypt, and those from Egypt did not venture to cross over to the
marts farther east, but both came only as far as this city, it formed the
common centre of their commerce, as Alexandria receives the wares
which pass to and fro between Egypt and the ports of the Mediter-
ranean. Now, however, it lies in ruins, the emperor [Augustus] having
destroyed it not long before our own times.' It will hardly be neces-
sary to tell the reader that Adane is the well-known port of Aden .
During the Middle Ages it regained its former commercial importance
and prosperity. It was found by Marco Polo in this flourishing state,
and he says that all the Indian trade was landed there, and thence
merchants trading with Egypt would convey it in small vessels for
a journey of seven days, when it would be landed, loaded on camels,
and conveyed to the Nile, a distance of thirty days' journey, and thence
by river to Alexandria. The Portuguese under Albuquerque captured
the place and destroyed it later on. But owing to the natural advan-
tages of its situation, though placed on a barren rock, it has in our
days under British sway more than regained its former importance.
2 The emporium localised in ostio maris Persici but not named,
is Oman, our present Sohar ; the gulf in front still retains the older
name and is marked in charts ' the Gulf of Oman .' The following is
THE ALLEGED APOSTLES OF INDIA 195
from Colonel Miles (J. R. A. Soc., new series, vol. x. , 1878 , p . 164) :
'The city of Oman is Sohar, the ancient capital of Oman, which
name, as is well known, it then bore ; and Pliny seems to be quite right
in correcting former writers who had placed it in Carmania.' The
Periplus, § 36, says : ' If you coast along the mouth of the gulf, you
are conducted by a six days' voyage to another seat of trade belonging
to the Persis called Omana.' Philostorgius has called it ' Persicum
emporium .' It is difficult to say for what reasons it came to be
known as the ' Persian ' emporium. It would perhaps not be amiss
to suppose that the appellation may be due to a prior supremacy of
Persia over that portion of Arabia ; anyhow this was not the case
in Philostorgius' time, for the port then formed part of the territories
of the prince ruling at Tapharon who erected there the third Christian
church. Pliny (vi. 32 ) writes of it : Homana quae nunc maxime cele-
brari a Persico mari negotiatores dicunt ; here the reason assigned
is that it lies in the Persian Gulf. Idrisi calls it ' one of the oldest
cities of Oman and one of the richest. It was in ancient times fre-
quented by merchants from all parts of the world, and voyages to
China used to be made from it.' Marco Polo mentions it under the
name of Soar, as one of the ports that exported horses to southern
India. In modern times it has been superseded by Muscat situated
farther south.
196 INDIA AND THE APOSTLE THOMAS
col . 47) says : This man so died and left the disciples
I have mentioned, Adda, Thomas, and Hermeas ,
whom before his death he had sent to different
places. Hermeas, with whom many are acquainted,
went to Egypt ; nor indeed is this heresy so old as
to prevent those who had spoken to Hermeas, the
disciple of Manes, from narrating to us what con-
cerned him . Adda went to the further region [ which
here implies the countries east of the Euphrates],
Thomas to Judea, and from these the sect has acquired
vigour and growth down to our days.' In the Latin
version of the Acta disputationis Archelai episcopi, at the
close of the eleventh chapter (division by the editor
Zacagnus) we have the following : Haec est omnis
doctrina quam tradidit tribus discipulis suis et jussit
eos in tres mundi plagas proficisci. Adda partes sor-
titus est Oriētis ; Thomas vero Syrorum terras suscepit ;
Hermas vero ad Aegyptum projectus est, et usque in
hodiernum ibi degūt, dogmatis hujus gratia praedicandi.
'This forms the entire body of his teaching which he
(Manes) handed down to his three disciples, ordering
them to proceed to three different countries of the world.
Of whom Adda was destined to the East, Thomas went to
the land of Syria, and Hermas to Egypt, and up to this
day they dwell there to propagate these doctrines.' In
the Acta, at a later stage, Archelaus again mentions these
three disciples of Manes (chapter liii. ) : Tunc visum est ei
mittere discipulos suos cum his quae conscripserat in
libellis ad superioris illius Provinciae loca , et per diver-
sas civitates et vicos ut haberet aliquos se sequentes et
Thomas quidem partis Aegypti voluit occupare, Addas
vero Scythiae, solus autem Hermas residere cum eo
elegit. In this second passage missions are assigned to
two only, Thomas, who is sent to Egypt, and Addas, to
Scythia. Epiphanius had the document before him
from which he quoted , and of which St. Jerome (De
MANES AND INDIA 209
Latin copy and the Greek extracts attest the Acta to be of Aramaic
origin, apart from the authority of St. Jerome—no mean authority on
a question of Eastern literature. Nor should the fact be overlooked
that Epiphanius, a native of Judea though he wrote in Greek, knew
besides, according to Jerome (Adv. Ruf. , ii. n. 22 ; Migne, P. L.,
xxiii. col. 446), Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, and had also some know-
ledge of Latin, quoted long passages from these Acts ; he wrote
his Adversus Haeres. between 374-377. Surely all these autho-
rities cannot be set aside. The only plausible meaning that can be
assigned to the passage of Photius is that Hegemonius may have been
the author of the Greek translation. Finally, Harnack, writing on
these Acta and Tatian's Diatessaron, considers himself justified in
concluding that the Acta, of which he made a special study, repro-
duced quotations of the Gospels from the Diatessaron. This offers
additional internal evidence that the writing originated in Meso-
potamia and was the work of a Syrian, not a Greek, author, and was
written in the Aramaic tongue.
Since writing the above we have consulted Dom Remy Ceillier, who
discusses (L'Histoire générale des auteurs sacrés et ecclésiastiques, new
ed. , Paris, 1868, vol. ii. p. 453 ) the passage quoted from Photius. The
opinion he arrives at is the following : On peut concilier ces deux ver-
sions en supposant que cet Hégémone traduisit en grec les Acta de
la dispute d'Archelaus, ou qu'il les publia de nouveau en y ajoutant
plusieurs circonstances dont Archelaus n'avait pas fait mention ; car
il est certain que ces Actes sont de deux auteurs-more probably were
slightly supplemented, if at all ; this may also account for the dis-
crepancies of the later citation with the earlier discussed above.
APPENDIX
SECTION I
PREAMBLE
1. CRITERIA
find, from what will come before him , that the above criteria are
absolutely necessary to guide him in forming a sound opinion
on the merits or demerits of the story as a whole, or of its com-
ponent parts, where analysis enables us to separate its different
elements .
1
3. Two DIFFERENT ANCIENT VIEWS OF THE SAME
5. REASONS IN SUPPORT
SECTION II
PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
So we have not only the name, but we can see the probability
that this Abdias, cured by a miracle, may have attached himself to
the person ofthe Apostle Thaddeus. This latter inference we shall
presently find supported by one of the texts of the short histories
of the Apostles in the collection above mentioned . We take our
quotation from Nausea's edition ( Passio sanctorum Apostolorum
Simonis etJudae, c. vi. fol. lxxii . ) : ' ordinaverunt autem in civitate
illa [Babylon ] episcopum nomine Abdiam ' ; it then adds, ' qui cum
ipsis venerat a Judaea, ' &c, which latter insertion would be by way
of an inference. Lazius, in his edition of the text, does not leave
it to be inferred, as in that given by Nausea, that the name of
the city was Babylon, but expressly inserts the name. It should
further be borne in mind that the Apostles James, son of Alpheus
(Matt. x. 3 ), and Thaddeus, named Jude by Luke (vi. 16), and
Simon the Canaanean, were brothers ; for the two former we have
the authority of Matthew and Luke, and for Simon the constant
tradition of the Western and Eastern Churches . Jude-Thad-
deus suffered martyrdom in Persia with his brother Simon ; the
joint feast is kept on 28th October. Jude-Thaddeus could
therefore have appointed Abdias bishop of Babylon.
That no direct evidence has come down to us from other
sources that Abdias was the first bishop of that city proves
nothing. Even in the case of large and important places within
the Roman empire we possess no list of the early bishops, much
less need we expect to find those of cities outside the empire
recorded and handed down in some prominent record. Yet we
have here a mention , the rejection of which cannot be warranted
on the sole ground that it is found in an anonymous writing.
On the other hand, it will appear obvious that during the
Apostolic age, when a sufficient number of conversions to the
faith demanded the nomination of a bishop, the selection would
fall on some well-tried disciple who had accompanied an Apostle
and had been trained in such a school, and not on a neophyte,
however zealous and fervent. The ' non-neophytum ' principle
(1 Tim. iii. 6) would naturally be enforced.
No texts in the Syriac have yet appeared which would cover
anything like the ground of the Latin compilation published
under the name of Abdias. Many manuscripts still remain to
be printed ; as to whether such writings in Syriac cover a large
field we have yet to learn , since no collection of the existing
Syriac texts has yet appeared. There is, however, hope that in
APPENDIX 221
the near future this want will be supplied. The editors of the
new series, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, J. B. 1
Chabot, J. Guidi, H. Hyvernat, and B. Carra de Vaux, propose
to publish Eastern works written by Christians in the following
languages : Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Arabic, and, perhaps later,
Armenian may also be included . The series will embrace four
sub-heads for each language. Under the sub-head Apocrypha
Sacra for Syriac, four volumes are reserved for writings bearing
on the New Testament, treating of the Blessed Virgin, the
Apostles, and the Cross. These may give us the supplementary
texts. It will hence be wise to keep an open mind on the sub-
ject, the more so as recent researches have singularly re-habili-
tated many a piece of early ecclesiastical literature which had
been placed under ban by a long succession of savants.
1871 , in two volumes, one of text and the other giving the English
translation by the editor. Of those published in the former, the
Acts ofJohn the Evangelist, and on his Decease ; on Matthew and
Andrew, as also that of Thomas, are in Syriac. There are besides
three other copies of our text which have come from the East : one
was procured by Sachau and is in Berlin-a modern transcript ; a
second copy, probably taken from the same original also, is at
Cambridge ; the third, also a modern transcript as we believe,
was procured for the Borgian Museum, Rome, by the late Syrian
Archbishop of Damascus, David, together with a large number
of other Syriac MSS , some of which were copies. All these latter
have now passed to the Vatican Library with the other MSS which
had been collected either by the founder, Cardinal Borgia, or by
the late Cardinal Barnabò. Besides Wright's edition of the text,
the Rev. Paul Bedjan has also given a separate edition in vol.
iii. of his Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, Leipsic-Paris, 1892,
incorporating readings from the Borgian MS. This edition
contains several additions to Wright's text taken from the
Berlin MS ( Duval, Litt. Syriac, 2nd edition, 1900, p. 98, note).
Fragments of these Acts, from a palimpsest Sinaitic codex,
have been read and published, with an English translation by
Mr. Burkitt, in Appendix vii. to Studia Sinaitica, No. ix., text and
translation, London , 1900, Clay & Sons, edited by Agnes Smith
Lewis ; also Horae Semiticae, Nos. iii. and iv., text and translation,
Cambridge University Press, edited by the same lady. The text
yielded by the palimpsest, of which only eight pages were found
decipherable, would cover the space of about five pages of
Wright's edition . Burkitt holds these fragments to be 400
years older than any known text ; this would give us A.D. 936–
400 = A.D. 536, or the second quarter of the sixth century. The
reader should, however, be warned that the learned Professor
worked on photos taken by Mrs. Lewis, and had not the
opportunity of handling the original sheets.
A small poem in Syriac of the Acts of Judas Thomas by a
Nestorian of the eighteenth century, Giwargis of Alkosh, will be
found in P. Cardahi's Liber Thesauri de arte poetica Syrorum,
p. 130.
The best edition of the Greek and Latin versions has been
given by Professor Max Bonnet, of Montpellier, Acta Thomae :
APPENDIX 223
Of the Latin versions Bonnet says (praef. xiii. ) : ' Acta Thomae
latina habemus bina, pleniora altera altera breuiora, neutra ex
alteris hausta.' The third statement that they are independent
of each other is of considerable importance, as this implies that
they descend from independent sources. The former of these
versions, on the authority of the codices ,' is called De Miraculis
Thomae, the other Passio Thomae. The difference of names is
important. St. Gregory of Tours, A.D. 590, knew only the
latter-Thomas Apostolus secundum historiam Passionis ejus.2
The point is of importance for more than one reason, and
will turn up again for consideration. Bonnet terms the version
' Passio ' (p . xiii . ) ' minoris pretii librum .' This is true in
two ways, it is not as good a compilation as the other De
Miraculis, and is written in an inferior style ; but he remarks
' sed a multis deinceps lectum .' The ruggedness of its style
may also be a reason for holding it as the more ancient version
of the two, even apart from the witness of Gregory of Tours.
Bonnet admits further that there may have been from the be-
ginning two Latin versions of the Acts, as there were two of
Hermas's book, Pastor ; and, we may add , as there were of
the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, as well as of other early
writings.
Anyhow, note should be taken of the fact that St. Gregory,
who had made a special study of early literature of this class,
and to which he himself was a large contributor, does not
mention the present compilation De Miraculis.
Of the Acts of Thomas, the shorter version , Passio, was the
1 These texts are now incorporated in Part II. of vol. ii. of the Leipsic
edition of the Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, 1903.
2 Liber in Gloria Martyrum, cap. 31, p. 507, Opera Gregorii Tvronen.
tom. i. , Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, of the series Monumenta Ger-
maniae Historica, in quarto, Hanover edition ; this gives a critical edition of
the text for all the works of the Bishop of Tours.
224 APPENDIX
the known Acts ; the story can give no help in elucidating the
Syriac text.
An Arabic edition, text and translation of the Conflicts or
Contendings, has been lately issued by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis,
under a new title, The Mythological Acts of the Apostles (Horae
Semiticae, Nos. iii. and iv. ut supr. ). The Arabic is supposed to
represent a Coptic text, of which up to the present only fragments
are known to exist. As this Arabic text gives a version of the
doings of the Apostle Thomas, the Coptic most probably con-
tained it. The Ethiopic version mentioned above now turns out
to be, as we surmised, a translation from this Arabic text.
The manuscript of an Armenian version is at Berlin ; the
text is unpublished and consequently not available for com-
parison with the present text of the Syriac. Armenian versions,
however, are often more helpful, and bear a closer relation to
older originals. Even in literature of this class the Armenian
has been found serviceable ; it has been employed with advantage
along with the Syriac version in the study of some Acts, as the
reader will have occasion to see.
Patrum, Oxoniae, 1698, tom. i. pp. 93-128 ; they will be found also
in the second edition, Oxoniae, 1700, tom. i . pp . 81-128 ) , with
Greek text and Latin translation . Thilo , in the first half of the
nineteenth century, was preparing a critical text, but did not
survive to complete the task. His papers passed into the hands
of C. Tischendorf, who completed and published this text in his
Acta Apocrypha, 1851. As the demand for such works con-
tinued to increase, it was decided to bring out a second enlarged
edition of Tischendorf's book . The editorial duties were divided
between R. A. Lipsius and Max Bonnet. The first volume of
this edition is by Lipsius and appeared under the title Acta
Apostolorum Apocrypha (Pars 1ª Leipzig) in 1891. In this
volume are the Acta Teclae in a Greek text, taken from eleven
MSS, pp. 235-272 ; there are yet eight or nine MSS of the text
in the convent of Mount Sinai which have not been collated.
The Syriac version was published by Dr. W. Wright in his
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in two volumes, text and transla-
tion, London, 1871 : quotations will be given from this transla-
tion . An Armenian version of Thecla's text was published by
Conybeare in The Apology and Acts of Apollonius, and other
documents of early , Christianity, 2nd edition, London, 1896,
pp. 49 ff. The Syriac and the Armenian offer the two best texts
of the Acta. Dom. H. Leclercq, Les Martyrs, vol . i . Paris, 1902,
Appendix, pp. 141-177 , has much that is of importance ; he
also gives the Patristic and later literature on the subject, and a
popular reconstruction of the story.
Professor Carl Schmidt has recently published an important
text of an apocryphal writing connected with the Acts of Thecla
recovered from over 2000 fragments of papyrus unearthed in
Egypt : this document is mentioned in the writings of some of the
Fathers, but no copy of it was heretofore known —the IIpágeis,
or Пepiódovs of Paul. Much time and great labour were spent in
reconstructing these scraps and completing a connected narrative.
Only one entire sheet of the MS was recovered-this contains
pp . 21-22 of the text. A better readjustment of certain passages
may yet be obtained by further patient labour. The work is
issued under the title, Acta Pauli, Leipsic, 1904 .
The text of the Acta, besides what was invented by the writer
and set down as the doings and sayings of the Apostle during
his missionary excursions on the routes traced by Luke or men-
tioned in his Epistles, embodies what are known as the Acta
APPENDIX 227
lacuna of the MS, when the Coptic resumed the narrative, it will
be found to agree textually with the complete Syriac version :
so that it can be asserted in all fairness that from the opening
sentences recovered from the Coptic MS down to the two last
lines of the same, also fortunately recovered, both versions,
excepting lacunæ, reflect the same original, of which they are
independent renderings. We are thus enabled to infer that were
the text of the MS complete we should find both substantially
the same.
Some of the lacunæ, however, have deprived us of important
historical passages. The first of the larger lacunæ occurring at
p. 7 of the text (the second of the Acts of Thecla ) , would have con-
tained the narrative of the meeting of Onesiphorus with Paul ; the
text retains- ' on the royal road which ' —and here the lacuna com-
mences, omitting the important mention of Lystra. The second
large lacuna, of some sixteen lines, pp . 8 and 9 , has dropped the
teaching of Paul at the house of Onesiphorus, when in the form of
a series of new Beatitudes, attributed to the Apostle, in imitation
of those found in the Gospel, the first germs of Gnostic error
are gradually introduced, culminating in an open assertion that
wedded life is an improper state . The third lacuna, pp. 17
and 18, cuts off the entire narrative of the ordeals to which
Thecla was subjected at Iconium at her first trial and con-
demnation ; a few lines only have survived which tell us that
she ascended the pile and the crowd set fire to it. The fourth
consists of an entire sheet, leaving a blank of two pages. This
lacuna would have contained Thecla's second trial at Antioch
on the charge proffered by Alexander, the High Priest of Syria.
Because of these, the account given by the Coptic papyrus misses
some ofthe principal details of the narrative.
The German professor contends, against the view upheld .
by Professor W. M. Ramsay and Corssen, that the Acts of
Thecla had no separate written form apart from the work he
publishes ; and that Basileus of Seleucia, who, as we said,
wrote two books on the life and miracles of the saint, based
his information on this text. It becomes of importance, if not
necessary, that we should thoroughly test the point so raised
before proceeding further. The lacunæ indicated above will
considerably militate against the case for a separate and prior
existence of Thecla's Acts being argued fully ; we shall be
compelled, therefore, where the Coptic is deficient, to recur to
APPENDIX 229
shall indicate here only two ; see No. 14. ( 1 ) The Acts recite
that Onesiphorus went from Iconium on the royal road which
led to Lystra, and was there waiting for Paul's arrival, who was
coming from Antioch (of Pisidia). For the argument deduced
from the state of the routes of communication existing about
A.D. 50 between Iconium, Lystra, and Antioch correctly given in
the text, but altered shortly after that date, a circumstance
which a later writer would not have known, we refer the reader
to Ramsay's book quoted at No. 14. (2 ) Another, and in our
opinion the most cogent argument in support of the early exist-
ence of the Acts of the virgin-martyr, i.e. shortly after the middle
of the first century, will be found in the very correct presentation
of the position held by Queen Tryphaena at Thecla's trial at
Antioch, given in the same, but which was completely altered
after A.D. 54 ; see No. 14.
Before closing this digression we will invite attention to
another point given in the Coptic MS. The Greek text (Grabe,
tom . i. p. 108) assigns the cause of Thecla's condemnation at
the second trial to Iepoortλia . The Latin version recites : ' erat
autem eulogium [causa ] eius scriptum SACRILEGIUM . '
Coptic (transl. of Schmidt) renders it thus : ' And the cause
which was written behind her was this- she had stolen from the
temple.' The rendering is simply absurd ; the text mentions
neither temple nor theft, but the action of Thecla who snatched
the crown worn by Alexander, the High Priest, and cast it on the
road. The only way of accounting for this blunder is to suppose
that the Coptic language offering no equivalent for the word
' sacrilege,' the translator was bound to substitute its meaning ;
but he offers one which is not applicable to the subject. The
crime of sacrilege may be committed either by theft from a
temple, or by profanation ; the latter, which was applicable to
the text, the Coptic translator overlooks, because, perhaps, in
his days sacrilege chiefly implied theft from a temple ; but this
discloses a low intellectual standard.
Modern students, encouraged by what they found in the
writings of the Fathers referring to the story of Thecla, have begun
to examine the Acta more closely ; not only such parts of the
narrative as would constitute its essential portion, but also
some striking details contained therein, and have ascertained
that many of these do belong to her age and are of undoubted
historical accuracy (see No. 14) .
APPENDIX 231
off the crown from his head and flung it on the ground and rent
his garment.¹ As to Alexander's conduct : when the assault was
committed, he was then going to the games escorted by his
followers ; he met Thecla entering the city, and, attracted by
the charm of her beauty, he embraced and kissed her. From
a Roman social point of view, it is explained, he took her
for a dancing girl, whose status would not be outraged by
such attention as he had paid her. That this represents
the true view of the case will be found supported by what is
narrated in the Acta. Thecla, at the outrage offered to her,
cried out bitterly (Wright's translation , p . 131 ) , ' Do not force
the stranger ! Do not force the handmaid of god [ the servant
of God] ! I am a noble's daughter of the city of Iconium .'
On the occasion when Thecla was going to be removed from
Queen Tryphaena's protection to be exposed to the wild beasts
in the arena, the latter exclaims in grief (p. 134) : ' Thy help
O God (I implore) ; for lo, twice is there mourning in my house,
and I have no one to help me ; for my daughter lives not, she
is dead, and there is none of my kinsmen to stand at my side,
and I am a widow.' The points here put forth admirably suit
her position ; she had mourned her husband and her daughter ;
into the latter's place, as the tale says, she had taken Thecla,
and she was, besides, away from her sons, who were Kings of
Thrace, Pontus, and Armenia, and on Roman territory. The
latter fact is also capable of a reasonable explanation. Her
lonely presence there would probably be the result of friction
between herself and her son, the King of Pontus . She had
reigned before him in her own right, and it is most probable
that her son after a time preferred to be unfettered by her
presence ; on that account she may have left the kingdom, or
she may have been exiled.
We will quote a passage describing what happened when
Thecla was fastened to the post bearing her sentence of con-
demnation, ' Sacrilegium,' and a lion or lioness was let loose
upon her (p. 139) : ' Queen Tryphaena, who was standing by
1 Under Roman rule there existed sacerdotes provinciae and flamines ; the
former presided over public sports, the latter were priests of the emperor in
the sense of the divine honours rendered to them in municipal functions.
Alexander is thus the ' Sacerdos provinciae ' presiding at the games, and is
invested with (pagan) sacerdotal office ; see Diction. d'Archéol. Chrét. et de
Liturg., ut supr. , article ' Adoratio, ' col. 542 f.
236 APPENDIX
the door of the theatre, fainted away and fell down on the
ground, because she thought that Thecla was dead. And when
her slaves saw that she had fainted and fallen down, they broke
out into wailing, and rent their garments and say, " The Queen
is dead ! " And when the hêgemôn (governor) heard them say
"The Queen is dead ! " (he stopped the games) and the whole
city trembled. And Alexander was afraid, and he ran (and)
came and said to the hêgemôn : " Have pity on me, sir, and
also on this city, and release this (woman who was) doomed to
be devoured by beasts, that she may go away from us, so that
the city too may not perish, lest perchance, when Cæsar
[ Claudius] hears of these things which we have done, he may
destroy the city, for Queen Tryphaena is of the family of Cæsar,
and lo, she was standing beside the door of the theatre, and
she is dead." The Acta state further that the governor caused
criers to proclaim (p. 140) to the people : Thecla who is God's
[of the god], and Thecla who is righteous, I have released and
given unto you.' The Greek text says : ' I release to you Thekla
the servant of the god.' By this it is implied, in the sense
understood by pagans-as Thecla had twice asserted herself to
be the handmaid of God-that she was a woman who had given
herself in celibacy to a god, and her innocence under the cir-
cumstances is proclaimed . All this admirably reflects the social
state and public opinion prevailing in that corner of Asia which
was the scene of the events described.
It should also be noted that at this trial Thecla's religion was
not openly brought into question, therefore it must have taken
place before the edicts of Nero, who ruled A.D. 54-68, against
the new faith, were published ; these ordered the extreme penalty
of the law for the profession of the Christian faith unless the
person recanted.
Mr. Ramsay puts a new construction on the passage of
Tertullian given above (we have partly reflected his opinion in
our translation). He maintains that Tertullian was aware of
the existence of a narrative older than that which he attributes
to the presbyter of Asia ; his words show that the book was not
composed but constructed by him- ' eam scripturam construxit,
quasi titulo Pauli ' —and, if any ambiguity or doubt of the right
meaning yet prevails, this is entirely removed by the short
formula added to the preceding words- ' de suo cumulans—
adding of his own. Ramsay, after Zahn, ascribes the known
APPENDIX 237
' Drag him along, he is a magician, for he has corrupted all our
wives.' Paul is scourged and cast out of the city.
We learn from St. Epiphanius, Haeres. xlvii., that the sect of
Gnostics was spread largely over that portion of Asia to which
these Acta belong : Horum ingens est hodie numerus in Pisidia
eaque Phrysiae parte, &c.-praeterea in Asiae provinciis et in
Isauria, Pamphilia, Cilicia, Galatia, &c. Thecla was greatly
venerated in those parts, as the homilies of the bishops of these
countries attest. It was therefore a master-stroke on the part of
the heretics to secure the Acta and make them an early purveyor
of their doctrine.
The skeleton of this writing, skilfully reconstructed by Ramsay
(end of chap . xvi), shows that the original narrative would men-
tion her having heard Paul preaching, perhaps in the streets, and
that she embraced the Christian faith and eventually decided to
devote herself to God and to preserve her virginity . On this
account she had to face domestic trials, which induced her to
leave her home and follow Paul. On her entering Antioch of
Pisidia, the incident occurred which caused her to be charged
with the crime of ' sacrilege ' against the person of the high priest
of Syria, on which account she had to appear for judgment
before the governor. Having upheld her conduct, she was
sentenced to be exposed to wild beasts, and this occurred
at the games then being held there . The account contained
the intervention of Queen Tryphaena with the incidents con-
nected with her. Her subsequent traditional history makes her
lead a life of active usefulness in spreading the faith ; she spent
her later years in a sort of retired life with other holy virgins, on
the spot where the lady pilgrim went to pray at her Martyrion,
and where she found a convent of holy women, under the
direction of a person whose acquaintance she had made in the
Holy Land .
1 The prologue in Cod. 46 bears the heading ' Praefatio Gregorii episcopi
Turonensis in libro miraculorum beati Andreae apostoli, ' at the close,
'Incipit textus ipsorum miraculorum . '
APPENDIX 243
1 Several codices here mark the end of the book ; 46 closes, ' Finit
Gregorii Turonensis episcopi liber de virtutibus et miraculis beati Andreae
apostoli.'
244 APPENDIX
SECTION III
19. INTRODUCTION
1 See text, pp. 146-47, last and first line, and De Mir, p . 97 1. 5 f.
252 APPENDIX
1 Chronica Minora, of Scriptores Syri, series 3a, tom. iv. , Paris, 1903,
2nd Chron. parvum, p. 17 , l. 18 seq.-' Corpus Scriptor. Christianor.
Orientalium .'
APPENDIX 255
' Act I. Judas Thomas the Apostle, when [ Our Lord] sold
him to the merchant Hâbbân that he might go down and con-
vert India.'
It includes the introduction already dealt with. The story
then proceeds to what occurred on the landing at Sandarūk (or
Sanadruk), the Greek has Andrapolis instead ; both Latin versions
omit the name. Gutschmidt thought he found here an allusion
to the Andhra race. This race, according to Caldwell, formed
the western branch of the Telegu race, but between it and the sea
lay the Konkani on the western shores of India (see the excellent
map of ancient India by Reinaud, Mémoire sur l'Inde). The
change of Sandarūk into Avôpañoλis, Andrapolis , comes about
by dropping the sibilant letter and adding the termination roλis .
But the town referred to in the text ought not to be in India, for
in two succeeding passages we are led to know that it was later
the Apostle entered ' in the realm of India ' : the passages are
at the close of this and the beginning of the next Act. The
poem of Jacob of Sarug, which, as we said, incorporates the
first two Acts of the story, also supports the interpretation that
the wedding feast which comes after the landing occurred before
the Apostle had entered India, based no doubt on the Acts.
If the reader follows us, we can, perhaps, place a different
construction on the whole of the narrative given at the Apostle's
first landing. Above we pointed out, No. 21 , that the Introduction
and the sea voyage from the ' south country ' should be rejected
as inaccurate. The Apostle on this, his second mission, would
be approaching India from the island of Socotra and not from
the south country ' (the estuary of the Euphrates), he would
then land on the western shores of India. Hence the contents
of Act. I., whatever the present form of the text may say, should
refer to India, as well as those of Act II.
The narrative recites that on arrival the townspeople were
found keeping the bridal of the King's daughter ; the new-
comers were made to take part in the rejoicings, and a Hebrew
flute girl is brought on the scene. She attracts Thomas's attention,
and she makes the discovery of a countryman in him. An
attendant at the feast strikes Thomas, and he foretells his
imminent punishment : the man, who is a cup- bearer, is killed
256 APPENDIX
1 These are (i. ) St. Augustine Opera omnia, edit. Benedict. Venetiis, 1730,
tom. iii., pars ii. col. 194, De Sermone Domini in monte secundum Mattheum,
lib. i. c. xx. n. 65 ; ( ii. ) tom. viii. , ejusd. edit. , Contra Adimantum Manichaei
discipulum, c. xviii. n. 2 ; and (iii. ) tom. viii. Contra Faustum, lib. xxii.
c. lxxix. col. 409.
APPENDIX 257
' Act II. When Thomas the Apostle entered into India and
built a palace for the King in Heaven.'
We are inclined to accept the story of the palace building as
true, not because the Acts contain it, but because St. Ephraem
accepts it, and Jacob of Sarug writes of it, entering into details ;
it must therefore have had ecclesiastical tradition to support it.
It may interest the reader to read the imaginative description of
the plan, traced for the Apostle by Jacob, on the ground selected
for its erection.
Thomas accompanied the king to the place assigned for the
building.
' He measured with the measuring rod and left place for
windows to give light and for windows to let the wind pass ; he
measured the rooms for summer and the chambers for winter ;
the house for the bakers [ he traced out ] towards the sun (south)
and the spot for the reservoir of water. He marked out the
place where the artificers of the royal palace should dwell, and
the halls in which the weavers, the coiners in gold, and the
silversmiths should carry on their trade. He measured off the
house for the smiths and the house for carvers in wood, and the
house for painters, and the stables for the horses and the mules .
He measured the strong-room for the treasury, situated in the
centre of the building plot on account of the danger to which it
is exposed, leaving but few window openings for light and making
them small.' (From Vatican Codex 118. 'He measured thus
upon earth in order to show his art, whilst he knew the Lord on
high would lay the foundations of the palace.') The king saw
all this and rejoiced.'
While we accept the story of the palace building, to our
way of thinking the event could not have occurred at the court of
King Gondophares in northern India, but elsewhere in India.
And why? Because it could only have happened after the
vision-dreams, and not before : and these latter, for the reason
assigned above, would not belong to the first period of Thomas's
apostolate which was to Parthia and the surrounding countries
of Asia-as tradition handed down by Origen and Eusebius
demands (see No. 20) , supported as it is by the general tradition
R
X
258 APPENDI
' Act VII . How Judas Thomas was called by the General of
King Mazdai to heal his wife and daughter.' The Greek version
of this Act as well as the rest of the book was published for the
first time by Max Bonnet. The De Mir. has it and the rest of
the story on the lines of the text. The Passio omits it altogether
and passes to describe what is given in the following Act.
We hold Act VII. to be substantially historical, barring a
romantic incident treated separately. A certain man of import-
ance is introduced , called the General, whose name is not
given in this, but only in the following act when, after a number
of incidents, different persons are brought on the scene and
names are assigned to all ; then also the General bears a name.
This shows plainly that this individual bore no name in the
primitive text of the narrative ; and discloses the fact that when
the tale came to be dramatised, as we now find it, the necessity
arose of assigning names to one and all the principal persons
brought on the scene. A narrative of this description, coming
from India to the valley of the Euphrates as an oral narrative,
would have been told without personal names, except perhaps
of one or two of the principal personages. It is well to re-
member that besides Hâbbân the messenger, Gondophares the
king, Gad, his brother, Xanthippus the deacon, no names occur
in the book till we come to the full dramatic effort produced
in Act VIII., where the last scenes are described. The names
occurring in the Acts are treated separately under No. 34.
place to place both in town and country even to this day, except
where Europeans dwell in numbers. In Native States hardly
any other vehicle is procurable, but the state of things must
be now rapidly altering with the introduction of railways ; and
if even now it be still so, in ancient times it must have been the
general, almost exclusive, means of conveyance. So the detail
of the General travelling in a ' bullock cart, ' as they call it in
India, gives a touch of local colouring to the scene. Had the
incident anything to do with Northern India, where Gondophares'
kingdom was situated, the horse would have been introduced on
the scene, and the General would have been mounted on a steed.
Gondophares on his coins is figured riding a horse, not seated in
a cart drawn by oxen. The local colouring offered by this in-
cident will be strengthened by other incidents which will be
noticed in No. 33.
We return once again to the story. The General had a wife
and daughter ; both are said to be possessed by evil spirits . It
was this misfortune which had induced him to seek the Apostle's
aid. The possession , it would appear, was of an impure form, as
implied by what is narrated ; this could but be the sequel, or
the result of their having led an impure life. The Apostle, on
arriving at the house, found the two women in a frightful con-
dition ; it is unnecessary to go into details, they would besides
not be reliable. They were delivered, and must have been made
to do penance in atonement for their conduct, and were placed
under instruction . In such cases the conferring of baptism would
be deferred for a considerable time. This in fact is what we find
had been done in the case ; they were only admitted to it shortly
before the Apostle's martyrdom.
below its junction with the Sutlej , to within a few miles of Delhi,
and extending from the Rann of Kutch northwards to Ferozepore
and Sirsa, known as the Indian or Bikaneer Desert . The writer
was informed by a friend that in the cold season these wild,
fleet denizens of those sandy plains visit the salt licks of the
Rann ; and when he was at Ferozepore in the Punjab, he pos-
sessed the skin of a wild ass shot a day's journey from Fazilka, on
the Sutlej, on the outer limb of this desert. The species, how-
ever, is well known in the sandy tracts of Persia ; and Marco
Polo mentions wild asses when on his homeward journey from
China, en route from Yezd to Kerman . So we may take it that
a Gnostic or other hand introduced the incident as an illustration
from a scene near home to enhance the charms of the narrative
to his Eastern readers.
'Act VIII. - Mygdonia and Karish.' The title covers only part
ofthe story given in this Act. The Greek version, which closely
follows the text, subdivides it : ( 1 ) the doings of the wife of
Charisius ; (2 ) the story of Mygdonia's baptism ; ( 3 ) the doings
of the wife of Misdeus ; ( 4) the doings of Uazanes, the son of
Misdeus ; (5) the martyrdom of the holy and blessed Apostle
Thomas who suffered - év Tŷ ' Ivdíg-in India. The text has a
following but short section, with the sub-head-' The consumma-
tion of Judas Thomas.' Wright's text of the Acts is divided
into eight, while Bedjan's gives as many as sixteen acts. The
STAINED GLASS, CATHEDRAL, TOURS
APPENDIX 263
in great grief. During the night she goes to the prison, taking with
her money to bribe the keepers and obtain admission . To her
astonishment, on the way she meets the Apostle and takes him to
her house. She awakens her nurse, Narkia, and tells her to fetch
certain things which were necessary for baptism . This is ad-
ministered to her by the Apostle ; the nurse also, at her own
request, is baptized . Thomas then returns to his prison.
Karish rising again early in the morning, goes to Mygdonia,
whom he finds in prayer with her nurse and still opposed to his
wishes. He starts at once for the court and lays his complaint
once more before the king. The king in reply said : ' Let us
fetch and destroy him.' But Karish thought it better to suggest
that he should rather be utilised to influence Mygdonia to change
her conduct. The king fell in with this view, and Thomas is sent
for. The king sets him at liberty and tells him, ' Lo, I let thee
loose, go and persuade Mygdonia, the wife of Karish, not to part
from him .' Karish accompanies the Apostle to his house.
Thomas is, by the Gnostic interpolator, made to say to her,
' My daughter, Mygdonia, consent unto what thy brother Karish
saith unto thee .' At this she quotes his own words-put into
the mouth of both by the Gnostic-against himself. Thomas
leaves them and goes back to the house of the General. The
latter asks for baptism for himself, wife, and daughter ; they are
instructed further, and then baptized.
Then follows the story of King Mazdai's family and their
conversion.
The king, after dismissing Thomas, communicated to Tertia ,
his wife, what had befallen Karish . Tertia goes next morning
to visit Mygdonia ; she finds her seated in penitential robes
bemoaning her fate. Tertia expostulates with her at what she
beholds. Mygdonia then discloses to her the new life, and she
is at once fired with the desire to see and hear the prophet of
the new faith. She goes to the Apostle at once and converses
with him ; she returns home full of the new ideas she has im-
bibed . The king inquires of her why she returned on foot- a
thing beneath her dignity. Tertia passes the remark by and
thanks him for sending her to Mygdonia . She adds, she had
heard the new life and had seen the Apostle of the new God,
and avowed her change of mind.
Her husband's astonishment needs no description : he rushes
out, meets Karish, upbraids him for dragging him also into
APPENDIX 265
' Sheōl,' and says : ' He had bewitched Tertia also.' They go
to the General's house and assault the Apostle ; he is ordered
to be brought to the seat of judgment. While Thomas is de-
tained there by the guard, the king's son, Vizan, enters the
hall. He takes Thomas aside and converses with him. Thomas ,
brought to judgment, is interrogated . The king becomes
enraged and orders plates of iron to be heated, and the
Apostle is made to stand on them barefooted. Whereupon
a copious spring of water suddenly gushes out from the earth ;
the fire is extinguished, the plates are immersed, and the
executioners fly in terror. The Apostle is then remanded to
prison, and the General and the king's son accompany him ; the
latter asks leave to go and bring his wife Manashar. Tertia,
Mygdonia, and Narkia, having bribed the guard, also enter the
prison, when each narrates the trials she had to endure.
On hearing all this Thomas offers thanks to God ; Vizan is
told to go and prepare what is needful for the service which is to
follow. On the way he meets his wife Manashar ; Thomas
overtakes them, accompanied by Sifur, his wife and daughter,
also Mygdonia with Tertia and Narkia. They all entered the
house of Vizan ; it was then night. After praying and address-
ing them, the Apostle asked Mygdonia to prepare the women
for baptism. They are then baptized, and when they had come
up from the water the Eucharist is celebrated , as is stated to
have been done at the two preceding administrations of baptism .
All received holy communion ; the Apostle left them and
returned of his own accord to be re-imprisoned ; ' they were
grieved and were weeping because they knew that King Mazdai
would kill him.'
1 The original text of the Diatessaron, the Syriac, has not been yet
discovered, but the work exists in an Arabic form and was published with a
Latin translation by the late Cardinal Ciasca from a Vatican codex and a
more complete Egyptian copy ; an English translation was given by the
Rev. J. H. Hill, Edinburgh, 1894, see Introduction, pp. 6-7.
2 See Assemani, Bibl. Oriental. , i. p . 47, and Chron. Edessen. , ibid.;
also No. viii. of same in Guidi's Chron. Minor., p . 4, Scriptores Syri, ut . supr.
·
3 See article, Bardesane,' in new Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique,
Paris, 1903 , by Mangenot, now in course of publication. The article treats
very fully the history and teaching of this early leader of a sect, and repro-
duces the result of the latest researches.
APPENDIX 267
P. Gr.-L., vol. xxiii . , Haeres. , xlii . cols. 359-419) gives a very full
account, and almost the entire text of the altered sections by
Marcion. An English translation of Marcion's gospel was
published by the Rev. J. H. Hill from a recently discovered
MS, but no allusion whatever is made to the older text given by
Epiphanius.
In regard to our Acts Epiphanius mentions two Gnostic
sects which in his time, A.D. 315-403 , made special use of them
in their assemblies, to the exclusion of the Scriptures. One of
these had its chief seat at Edessa . When treating of the
Encratites who succeeded Tatian , he says (laeres. , xlvii . ) that
they added many more ridiculous errors to those they had
imbibed from their master : they openly make the devil the
author of marriage ; in the celebration of the mysteries they
make use only of water for they abhor wine and style it diabolical ;
' among their primary Scriptures they reckoned the Acts of
Andrew and John as well as those of Thomas,' & c. May not
these have been the first to corrupt the text of the Acts of
Thomas ? In Haeres . , lxi. , dealing with the ' Apostolici ' ' who
renounced all things and held fast to the principle of possessing
no goods ; ' these, he says, came from the followers of Tatian,
as the Encratites and the Kathari ; they hold different sacra-
ments and mysteries from ours ; they do not receive back the
'lapsi,' and as to marriages they hold the same views as those
mentioned above.
What St. Epiphanius distinctly says of the Acts of Thomas,
that they were used by Gnostic heretics, is confirmed in a general
way by St. Ephraem, who further lays on them the distinct charge
of falsifying the Acts ofthe Apostles. A commentary of his on
the Epistles of St. Paul has been preserved in an Armenian
version ; this, together with a translation in Latin, has been
issued by the Mechitarist monks of Venice.¹ Referring to
certain points of doctrine, he says (p . 119 ) : Nam putant disci-
puli Bardezani, quod haec a Bardezano magistro suo adinventa
fuerint- the disciples of Bar - Daisan believe these things
were discovered by their teacher, Bar-Daisan ' ; Atque ab ipsis
omnino scriptae sunt Praxes Avrov [acta nimirum Apostolorum
apocrypha] ut inter Apostolorum virtutes ac signa, quae con-
scripsere, scriberent in nomine Apostolorum iniquitatem quam
1 S. Ephraem Syrii Commentarii in Epistolas D. Pauli, nunc primum ex
Armeno in Latinum sermonem a Patribus Mekitharistis translati , Venetiis,
1893.
APPENDIX 269
(1) (1)
At the opening of the story, Thomas is taken by the king
Paul, on entering the house of to bless the young couple ; this
Onesiphorus, is made to speak he does in a long prayer (pp.
'words of God concerning the 153-155 ) . When all had re-
controlling ofthe flesh ' (p . 118). tired from the bridal chamber,
The narrative discloses the be- the bridegroom ' sawour Lord in
trothal of Thecla to Thamyris the likeness of Judas [ Thomas]
(p. 120) ; Paul's discourses are who was standing and talking
listened to with avidity by to the bride. " Lo, thou didst
Thecla (p. 119) . ' Thamyris is go out first," says the bride-
weeping because his betrothed groom in astonishment, " how
had parted with him ' (p . 121 ). art thou still here ? " " I am
Thecla, after her condemna- not Judas," replies our Lord,
tion at Iconium to be burnt, "but I am the brother ofJudas,"
was looking out for Paul in the and our Lord sat on the bed '
crowd. She saw the Lord Jesus, (p. 155).
who was sitting beside her in
the likeness of Paul (p . 128).
270 APPENDIX
(2) (2)
(3) (3)
(5) (5)
When Paul is sent to prison When Thomas was sent to
Thecla bribes the jailors, giving prison, Mygdonia also, on hear-
them her mirror of gold [ Greek, ing it, took money with her
silver mirror] to obtain admit- and went without any one per-
tance to him in the prison. ceiving her to the prison to
give it to the keepers to let her
in (pp. 255-256). This circum-
stance is interpolated into the
text to no purpose, for she is
made to meet him on the way ;
yet it seems to have been intro-
duced to follow up the lines of
the prototype in Thecla's Acta.
Another instance when payment
was made also occurs (p . 284) .
272 APPENDIX
(6) (6)
Cause of Thecla's condemna- Cause of Judas's condemna-
tion at Iconium. She is asked tion. After the views disclosed
in court by the hêgemôn, 'Why by Tertia, the king rushes out
art thou not to thy betrothed and exclaims : ' May the soul of
according to the law of the Karish have no rest, who hath
Iconians ?' She gives no brought this sorrow upon my
answer ; her mother is made soul .' And when he finds him,
to cry out, ' Burn the fool in he says, ' Why hast thou taken
the midst of the theatre, that me as thy companion unto
all the women whose doctrine Sheōl, ' &c.; Why didst thou
this is, who see her, may be not let me destroy that wizard
afraid.' The hêgemôn was before he could corrupt my wife
sorry for her ; then he con- by his sorceries?' (p. 272). All
demned her to be burnt, & c. this is said not because of any
(p . 127). change of religion that had
taken place, but because his
wife also, as in the case of
Mygdonia, was taught to deny
herself to him. So, when the
sentence of condemnation is
passed, it is because of the
Gnostic doctrine taught and
upheld ; see No. 32 .
(7) (7)
A list of thirteen Gnostic The Gnostic Beatitudes in
Beatitudes is given at pp. 118- the text on virginity number
119 ; they are a mixture of the thirteen, and are a great deal
special tenets of the sect with more explicit in their meaning
some of the eight Beatitudes than those in Thecla's Acta
of the Gospel. (pp. 226-227). As a rule, all
the doctrinal insertions of the
text are more pronounced than
in the former, but the develop-
ment runs on the same lines
throughout.
STAINED GLASS, CATHEDRAL , BOURGES (FRANCE )
APPENDIX 273
oil and glorified God , ' &c.; then followed a prayer, at the close
of which he cast oil upon the head of Vizan and upon the
heads of the others and said, In Thy name, Jesus the Messiah,
let it be to these persons for the remission of offences and sins
and for the destruction of the enemy and for the healing of their
souls and bodies ; and he commanded Mygdonia to anoint them ,
and he himself anointed Vizan. And after he had anointed
them , he made them go down into the water in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit of Holiness . '
There can be no doubt that in all these three instances
the text recites a valid baptism by water and not by oil. The
unction by oil preceding the baptismal ceremony may belong to
an earlier rite, perhaps for catechumens, but the words used at
the third baptism also give reason to suppose this unction was a
Gnostic form, perhaps, of initiation to the sect ; anyhow it does
not supersede baptism. It has been obiter said by some writers,
and was taken for granted, that the Acts supported baptism by
oil, but the text clearly rejects such a supposition.
the point perfectly clear why King Mazdai, always according to the
present Syriac text, condemned Thomas to death . At pp. 263-
264, the king addresses him in these words : ' Now, therefore, if
thou choosest, thou art able to dissolve these former charms of
thine and to make peace and concord between the husband and
his wife ; and in so doing thou wilt have pity on thyself,' &c.
'And know if thou dost not persuade her, I will destroy thee out
of this life.' The object, then , of the omission of the incident of
the destruction of the idol becomes perfectly clear. The retain-
ing of it would make him a Christian martyr, the omission an
upholder of, and a martyr for, Gnostic principles. On the other
hand, if the Apostle died a martyr, the incident of the destruc-
tion of the idol must form an integral part of the narrative of
the Acts.
We return to the two suppressed passages. Under the second
ordeal the Apostle was forced into the furnace of the baths, or
the steam bath, to be killed ; he issues out of this trial on the
second day unharmed. Finding that this attempt likewise
failed, the Passio narrates that Caritius-this is the form the
name Karish assumes - suggests that he should be robbed of the
protection of his God by forcing him to adore and sacrifice to
the idol in the temple-fac illum sacrificare deo Soli et iram incurrit
dei sui quiillum liberat (p. 156 ) . The Apostle is made to follow
a procession going to the temple with music and singing. Even
at the present day the sacrificing (Brahman) priest is thrice daily
accompanied by such a procession when he goes to sacrifice to the
idol, early morning, noon, and evening . Arriving at the temple
the king says to Thomas : Modo faciam tundi arteria tua si non
adoraueris et sacrificaueris ei—' I will cause thy bones to be
broken if thou wilt not adore and sacrifice to him.' The Apostle
answers : Ecce adoro sed non metallum ; ecce adoro sed non
idolum, &c.-' I adore not a block of metal, nor an idol ' ; adoro
autem, meum Dominum Jesum Christum- ' but I adore my Lord
Jesus Christ ' In cujus nomine impero tibi, daemon, qui hic in
ipso lates, ut nullum hominum laedens, metallum simulacri com-
minuas-' In His name I command thee, O demon, who liest con-
cealed in this idol, to injure no person but to destroy the metal
of this image.' Statim autem quasi cera juxta ignem posita ita
liquefactum idolum resolutum est ' The image of the idol is
suddenly dissolved like wax before the fire.' The priests raise a
howl, the king runs away with (Karish) Caritius, and the high
APPENDIX 277
is a Hindu, and his wife must also be one. The latter point is
confirmed by what follows.
(6) There is yet one last detail of custom mentioned in the
Acts that has to be placed before the reader. This is given in
the text, p. 222. When Mygdonia first went to see the Apostle in
her pâlkî, she ' sprang up and came out of the palanquin and fell
down on the ground before the feet of the Apostle, and was
begging him,' &c.
Let the reader remember that Mygdonia is a lady of the
court, related to the king, or Rajah ; she is consequently not a
poor, humble woman, who through an act of self-abasement
would seek to obtain a favour, and may prostrate herself before
a great man. But being a lady of high position, how could she
behave in such manner to an utter stranger ? the more so as this
was the first time she had come in contact with the preacher of
this new doctrine. Nothing but Hindu custom will offer a full
explanation. Any Hindu, man or woman, who approaches a
Brahman priest, when not influenced by the presence of
Europeans, before addressing him, performs the same act of
prostration on the bare ground as Mygdonia had done, with
hands joined forward over the head, prostrate on the ground, in
an act not only of supplication but of semi-worship, imploring
a blessing and showing the deepest veneration for the person.
The writer is informed that in Malabar even the Hindu Rajah
performs this religious act to the chief Brahman priest in the
temple at his religious installation on the Guddee (coronation
ceremony), and when he attends any great religious ceremony at
the temple. But the act is now so performed as not to be
visible to the public. It is this act that the Hindu wife of Karish
instinctively, and as if to the usage quite accustomed, here per-
forms on her first appearance before the Apostle. The act, as
we see, is the natural outcome of the first impulse in a Hindu
woman who comes before the high priest of a new religion which
has struck her intelligence and won her heart.
(7) The text at p. 265 gives a second instance of Mygdonia's
homage to the Apostle in the Hindu form-and this in
the presence of her husband and at her home : ' Whilst she
was saying these things (to herself) Judas came in, and she
sprang upright and prostrated herself to him.' The description
is clearly by a narrator who had seen similar acts done ; she
does not prostrate herself from the seated position in which she
APPENDIX 281
is, but stands up and completes the act, as those who have seen
it performed, know. Then, again, how does her husband, with
his intense animosity against Thomas, take her behaviour ? Is he
surprised ? Does he rebuke her ? Nothing of the sort ; his
approving remark to the Apostle is, ' See, she feareth thee,'
hoping no doubt that the excess of veneration for Thomas he
had witnessed would secure his own object.
(8) A third instance is also given at p. 287 , performed by
Manashar : And when Manashar the wife of Vizan (the king's
son) saw him [Thomas who had entered her house ] she bowed
down and worshipped him,' no doubt according to Hindu religious
usage.
the indications that have been already culled from the text, it has
become clear we are dealing with what not only was occurring
in India proper, as the text says , but also with events concerning
and passing among Hindu people, and in a Hindu realm. With-
out being thought guilty of rashness, we may therefore be per-
mitted to presume that the name of the king would, or ought
to be, Indian- viz. , Hindu- and not foreign, as in the previous
case of Gondophares.
Having said this much, before entering into an examination
of the names found in the text, it will be very advisable to sub-
mit a few observations. Should any of the voyages narrated
by early travellers, say down to those of the early Arab travellers
of the eighth or ninth centuries, or even later, be taken up, with
hardly any exception that we can recall to mind, it will be found
that they one and all scarcely ever introduce personal names in
the narrative of peoples or events they describe . Even names
of towns are constantly omitted, rarely in fact given, except they
be of mercantile importance or of some principal place ; they
may, perhaps, give the name of the country.
With regard to rulers of countries travelled through, they, as
a rule, are mentioned in a generic form, and if the name is intro-
duced, it is either the popular form of the name or a name
coined from the country, or the country is found named after the
sovereign-instances of both can be found in the geographies ; in
the one by Ptolemy, and in that which goes under the name of
the Periplus Maris Erythraei. Oftener a generic form of descrip-
tion is adopted : the ruler is styled the king, the khan, the prince,
the great khan, &c. The names of ministers and courtiers with
whom the traveller has come in contact are similarly omitted, and
when indicated they are designated by their office.
Hardly ever does the personal name of an individual appear
in the narrative. Should the reader entertain any doubt on the
subject, we would refer him to Yule's Cathay, where he will find
quite a collection of early narratives of this description down to
even those of Christian missionaries in the Far East. The only
exceptions we would make to the above statement would be the
great Venetian, Marco Polo, in some instances, and the case of
Mahommedan writers when they have met a countryman holding
high position in foreign lands.
It may be asked, Why are personal names omitted by early .
travellers ? Any one who has journeyed through foreign lands,
APPENDIX 283
has arrived at the conclusion that of the Acts of Peter, Paul, John ,
Thomas, and Andrew, which in the time of Photius were attributed
to Lucius Charinus, all, even those of John, are by more or less
orthodox Catholics ; certainly none are of Gnostic origin ( p. 129) :
Der gnostiche Apostelroman, he says, ist für mich ein Phantom-
' In my opinion a Gnostic romance [ Acts ] of the Apostles is a
phantom .' It is satisfactory to find others coming to the views
we hold.
The passages ' a mingled draught in a cup ' (text, p . 258),
and the mingled cup ' (p . 290) we maintain are survivals of the
primitive writing ; for since the Gnostic sects abhorred wine and
did not use it in their celebration of the mysteries, ' it becomes
undeniable that these expressions were not inserted by them .
Besides the use of wine and bread on the above two occasions,
the use is also mentioned at a third celebration on p. 268 ; these
offer ample evidence that the expressions have come down to us
from the original text in which they stood before Gnostic
manipulation took place-and this proof of itself would be
sufficient to fix the date of the composition as anterior to the
development which it now presents-to the latter portion, at least,
of the second century .
Perhaps the reader would like to see a quotation of the oft-
repeated phrase, as used half a century later, by another bishop,
St. Cyprian of Carthage, A.D. 250-268. The extract we are
going to give is taken from a lesson of the office for the octave
of Corpus Christi ; Epist. ad Caecilium :-
Mazdai questioned him whence he came and who was his master.
The king hesitated what sentence he would pass, or rather how
he should compass his death without causing popular excitement.
The reason for his hesitation is given, ' because he was afraid of
the great multitude that was there ; for many believed in our
Lord, and even some of the nobles.' So Mazdai took him out
of town, to a distance of about half a mile, and delivered him to
the guard under a prince with the order, ' Go up on this moun-
tain and stab him.' On arriving at the spot the Apostle asked
to be allowed to pray, and this was granted at the request of
Vizan, the king's son, one of the two last converts . Arising
from his prayer, Thomas bid the soldiers approach and said,
' Fulfil the will of him who sent you .' ' And the soldiers came
and struck him all together, and he fell down and died.'
The burial is described in the following words : ' And they
brought goodly garments and many linen cloths, and buried
Judas in the sepulchre in which the ancient kings were buried .'
The narrative also states that the grave was opened in the
king's lifetime and by his orders, when the bones were not found,
'for one of the brethren had taken them away secretly and con-
veyed them to the West.'
The Greek version and the Latin De Miraculis generally
agree with the text, but both say, as to the manner of death
inflicted, ' four soldiers pierced him with lances .' As to the dis-
appearance of the Apostle's bones, the former says : ' One of the
brethren having stolen him, removed him to Mesopotamia.' The
latter is more explicit : Quoniam reliquias sancti apostoli quidam
de fratribus rapuerunt et in urbe Edissa a nostris sepultus est '—
this tells us the removal was to Edessa, where the Apostle's
bones were again buried.
The Passio places the death at a different period, and assigns
its occurrence to quite a different cause, as shown in No. 32 .
The same is made to take place immediately after the miraculous
destruction of the idol : The priests raised a howl, and the
chief priest of the temple seizing a sword transfixed the Apostle,
exclaiming, " I will avenge the insults to my god."' As to
the removal of the bones from India it also gives a different
version : The Syrians begged of the Roman emperor Alexander
[ Severus, A.D. 222-235 ] , then on his victorious return from the
Persian war against Xerxes [ Ardashir], and petitioned that
instructions should be sent to the princes of India to hand
294 APPENDIX
sent and broke his legs, as he was sitting in the church and
expounding.' This discloses that after the new faith had been
followed by Abgar and his son Manu V., after the year 57 , when
Manu VI. obtained power, he not only rejected the faith—if he
had ever accepted it but started an open persecution against
the nascent church, and killed the chief priest or bishop who
then presided over it. As his reign was prolonged to fourteen
years, and he was succeeded by his son Abgar VI ., who reigned
for twenty years, down to A.D. 91 , and would have been a
heathen like his father, the faith that had commenced to bud
would in all probability have been crushed out under persecution,
to revive at some later date.
Now, had the remains of the Apostle come to Edessa during
the reign of Abgar Ukkama, or the short reign of his son Manu V.
(whose conversion, together with that of his father is mentioned,
see Addai, p. 31 and note a) , there is not the slightest doubt it
would have been loudly proclaimed by Edessan scribes and by
St. Ephraem . It not having taken place then, we may assume
that the ground at Edessa would not again have been ready
for such removal until Abgar IX. had ascended the throne,
and had embraced the Christian faith. He reigned thirty-
five years (A.D. 179–214 ) . Besides this local improbability,
there arises another objection. The route from India viâ
the Euphrates was not open to dwellers within the circle or
bounds of the Roman empire except after Trajan's expedition,
A.D. 114-116 ( Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. v. p. 395 ; see
also Duval's Edesse, p. 53 ) ; and again after the victory of Alex-
ander Severus (see date given above) over the Persians. So the
removal, said to have taken place during the lifetime of Mazdai,
must be summarily rejected as untenable.
Abgar IX. , mentioned above, styled on his coins Meyaλos,
after his return from Rome-which is by Gutschmidt ( Unter-
suchungen über die Geschichte des Konigsreichs Osrohane) placed not
earlier than 202-embraced the faith. This would be the second
time that the ruler in Edessa submitted to the preaching of the
Gospel. The details of this conversion have unfortunately not
come down to us. This is the same Abgar of whom the compiler
of the Chron. Edessen. (Guidi, Chronica Minora, p. 3, 1. 15 f.),
quoting from the city archives, says that he witnessed the great
flood that destroyed the walls and a great part of the city in
November, 201 : ' Abgarus rex stans in magna turri, quae Persarum
296 APPENDIX
13 : 4