Thomas was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Thomas in Hebrew means "The Twin". So he was also known as "Didymus" which meant 'The Twin' in Greek. Thomas is also called Judas Thomas or Jude Thomas.
Thomas appears in a few passages in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has just died, the disciples are resisting Jesus' decision to return to Judea, where the Jews had previously tried to stone Jesus. Jesus is determined, and Thomas says bravely: "Let us also go, that we might die with him".
Here is the sincere verses of a bold man who was determined to follow Jesus. That same commitment brought him from Judea to various places in India and to be a martyr for the millions of Indian sub-continent.
In Thomas' best known appearance in the New Testament, John 20:24-29, he doubts the resurrection of Jesus and demands to touch Jesus' wounds before being convinced. This story is the origin of the term Doubting Thomas. After seeing Jesus alive (the Bible never states whether Thomas actually touched Christ's wounds), Thomas professed his faith in Jesus, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!"; on this account he is also called Thomas the Believer.
He also speaks at The Last Supper in John 14:5. Jesus assures his disciples that they know where he is going, but Thomas protests that they don't know at all. Jesus replies to this and to Philip's requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father. When Jesus revealed that he is going to leave them, Thomas came out with his doubt "Lord, we do not know where Thou art going; how are we know the way there?" and Jesus answered lovingly for the whole mankind: "I am the way; I am the truth and Life; nobody can come to the Father except through me." Generations to come will be indebted to the doubting Thomas for this illuminating glance into the eternal life.
This is all that we know about Thomas from the New Testament. Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost he was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves "Christians of St. Thomas." He capped his life by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine.
One of the source books for the life and mission of Thomas the Apostle is the work called: 'The Acts of St. Thomas' which dates probably from early 3rd Century.
It is understood to be an apocryphal work; but serious scholars seem to favour the historical foundation for the main statements made in the work, as for example, the travel of the Apostle to the Indus Valley, reference to names which sound similar to historical potentates of Northern India, e.g., Gondophares.
Thomas appears in a few passages in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has just died, the disciples are resisting Jesus' decision to return to Judea, where the Jews had previously tried to stone Jesus. Jesus is determined, and Thomas says bravely: "Let us also go, that we might die with him".
Here is the sincere verses of a bold man who was determined to follow Jesus. That same commitment brought him from Judea to various places in India and to be a martyr for the millions of Indian sub-continent.
In Thomas' best known appearance in the New Testament, John 20:24-29, he doubts the resurrection of Jesus and demands to touch Jesus' wounds before being convinced. This story is the origin of the term Doubting Thomas. After seeing Jesus alive (the Bible never states whether Thomas actually touched Christ's wounds), Thomas professed his faith in Jesus, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!"; on this account he is also called Thomas the Believer.
He also speaks at The Last Supper in John 14:5. Jesus assures his disciples that they know where he is going, but Thomas protests that they don't know at all. Jesus replies to this and to Philip's requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father. When Jesus revealed that he is going to leave them, Thomas came out with his doubt "Lord, we do not know where Thou art going; how are we know the way there?" and Jesus answered lovingly for the whole mankind: "I am the way; I am the truth and Life; nobody can come to the Father except through me." Generations to come will be indebted to the doubting Thomas for this illuminating glance into the eternal life.
This is all that we know about Thomas from the New Testament. Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost he was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves "Christians of St. Thomas." He capped his life by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine.
One of the source books for the life and mission of Thomas the Apostle is the work called: 'The Acts of St. Thomas' which dates probably from early 3rd Century.
It is understood to be an apocryphal work; but serious scholars seem to favour the historical foundation for the main statements made in the work, as for example, the travel of the Apostle to the Indus Valley, reference to names which sound similar to historical potentates of Northern India, e.g., Gondophares.
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