Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

3.2
In the Christian tradition, the spread of Christianity to the East, to India and
neighbouring countries, particularly Bactria, is associated with the name of Thomas
the Apostle, who was given India when the Apostles drew lots to divide up the parts
of world where they would go to preach Christianity. Thomas, however, did not
want to go to India, so the Lord sold him for twenty pieces of silver to Habban (or
Nabban), a merchant of the ‘King of India’, Gondophares, who was searching for a
skilled carpenter. When Thomas arrived in India at the court of Gondophares, he
began preaching Christianity and converted the king, his brother Gad, and many
others in the towns and villages. He then arrived in another kingdom, that of King
Mazdai (in Greek, Misdaeus), and converted his wife, Tertia, and other noble women
and men to the Christian faith. His activities aroused suspicion and he was killed by
four soldiers, after which he was allegedly buried in the burial place of the kings, from
where his body was secretly removed and sent westwards.
This legend of the Acts of Thomas may, of course, not be credible, but the
historical person mentioned in it did exist – the ‘King of India’, Gondophares, is
known from other sources. According to Christian tradition, Thomas the Apostle
visited Gondophares in AD 29, so on this premise we can date his reign back to
the second quarter of the 1st century AD. The Indo-Parthian dynasty of rulers to
which Gondophares belonged did not last long and was apparently abolished by the
Kushans in the second half of the 1st century AD.
There are more reliable sources than the Acts of Thomas that testify to the early
spread of Christianity in Central Asia and neighbouring countries. One is the Syriac
Book of the Laws of Countries, which, according to one version, was attributed to
Bardaisan of Edessa (AD 154–222), and according to another, was composed by
his pupils, allegedly in the middle of the 3rd century, in Bactria. At this time, the
Christian Gospel was already widespread in Persia and Lydia. The Book of the Laws
of Countries also mentions the presence of Christians in Kushan, i.e., in the territory
of the Kushan State. The Armenian historian Elishe also wrote about the presence of
Christians in Bactria and in the country of the Kushans up to the Indus during the
reign of Shapur II (309–379). According to O. Hansen’s research, another stage of
Christian migration to this region took place during the reign of the Sassanian shah,
Yazdegerd II (438–457).
According to Christian tradition, Barshabba, the legendary bishop of Merv and
founder of the Christian Church in Eastern Iran, also played a prominent role in the
Christianisation of Central Asia. Barshabba was one of the Christians deported from
Syria to Iran by the Sassanian king, Shapur II (309–379), where he converted Shapur’s
sister and wife, Shirran, to the Christian faith. In order to free her from Barshabba’s
influence, Shapur sent Shirran to Merv; however, Barshabba soon followed her. In
165