Apocryphal Thomas

ACTS OF THOMAS : M. M. NINAN
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Dialogues against Marcion and Valentinus.
Dialogue "Against Fate" addressed to an Antoninus..
A "Book of Psalms", 150 in number, in imitation of David's Psalter. These psalms became
famous in the history of Edessa; their words and melodies lived for generations on the lips of
the people. St. Ephrem composed hymns in the same pentasyllabic metre and had them sung to
the same tunes as the psalms of Bardaisan.
Astrologico-theological treatises, in which his peculiar tenets were expounded. They are
referred to by St. Ephrem, and amongst them was a treatise on light and darkness. A fragment of
an astronomical work by Bardaisan was preserved by George, Bishop of the Arab tribes, and
republished by Nau.
A "History of Armenia".
"An Account of India". Bardaisan obtained his information from the Indian Sramana
(wandering monks) ambassadors to the Roman Emperor Heliogabalus. A few extracts are
preserved by Porphyry and Stobaeus.
"Book of the Laws of the Countries".
The transmission of the text of the Acts of Thomas has been extremely complicated due to the fact of
repeated interpolations in subsequent years by various groups. It shows overlapping of both orthodox
and heretic layers. Manichaeism which was popular in East Syria was particularly involved in this
interpolations and rewriting process. (See East of Antioch, Studies in Early Syriac Christianity Drijvers
1984 I. ‘Forces and Structures in the Development of Early Syriac Theology’). The Gnostic interest is
seen in the fact that Acts of Thomas is part of the Manichean canon. Thus the history of Acts of
Thomas appears to have been constantly revised and rewritten. Though it often uses Gnostic
terminology, the centrality of Jesus and his Redemptive part is emphasized through out. We should
remember that we are now talking about the theology of the Eastern Churches in contrast to the general
understanding of Christianity in terms of Western Churches.
The Chronicle of Edessa, has Bardaisan born on the 11 th July 154 CE, and his death around 222 CE
(Drijvers, 1984).
The New World Encyclopaedia gives the following introduction:
“The Acts of Thomas is is one of the New Testament apocrypha, describing the adventures and
martyrdom of the Apostle Thomas, whom it portrays as Jesus' twin brother. A highly entertaining
literary work combining the genres of romance, travel journal, and hagiography, it was apparently a
popular work, as it has survived in numerous manuscripts in several languages, despite its Gnostic
depiction of Christ and its teaching of the femininity of the Holy Spirit.
The work provides dramatic narratives of Thomas' miraculous evangelistic adventures in India, where
he traveled after being sold as a slave by the resurrected Jesus. It ends with Thomas' martyrdom as a
result of the enmity of the monarch Misdaeus, whose wife and son Thomas converted to an ascetic form
of Christianity.”
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