Acts of Apostle Thomas

III AD 40 ARRIVAL OF APOSTLE THOMAS IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
III
AD 40
ARRIVAL OF APOSTLE THOMAS IN INDIA
The acts of Thomas are not found in the Acts of the Apostles. But an apocryphal book written around 200
AD called "Acts of Thomas", describes it with embellishments and exaggerations. “Like other apocryphal
acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work attempts to entertain and instruct. In
addition to narratives of Thomas' adventures, its poetic and liturgical elements provide important evidence
for early Syrian Christian traditions.” (Harold W. Attridge: The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 6, p. 531) The
style of the book is typical of the period and is written in the form of a dramatic story telling. In the days
when books were rare and not accessible to common man, the idea was to make the point clear with added
techniques of keeping the major theme in tact while embellishing them with memorization fringes. Acts of
Thomas, is thus an early Christian kind of novel, which was originally written either in Greek or Syriac
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the historicity of the events and hence the traditions were questioned
by scholars.
“Did a king of the name of Gondophares reign over any portion of India, and was he a contemporary of
the Apostolic age? Where was his kingdom situated? Was it practicable for the Apostle Thomas to have
had access to it?
Should the above questions receive an affirmative solution, they would justify the inference that the recital
in the Acts of Thomas in this point was based on historical knowledge; and further, that on this account
the Acts themselves deserved closer study and examination.
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