THOMAS tŏm’ əs (Gr. Θωμᾶς, G2605, from Aram. תְּאﯴם, twin, one of the twelve apostles, Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). In the fourth gospel, wherever Thomas appears he is also called “Didymus” (KJV), which is Gr. for “twin” (RSV, John 11:16; 20:24; 21:2). “Thomas,” then, meaning “twin” in Heb., may not be a personal name but an epithet. In Syr.-speaking churches he was known as Judas Thomas (“Judas the twin”) as is evidenced in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas and in the Syr. MSS where the variants “Thomas” and “Judas Thomas” are used for “Judas (not Iscariot)” in John 14:22 (syrs and syrc respectively). In fact, in the Gr. tr. of the Acts of Thomas, “Judas Thomas” is regarded as the twin of Christ Himself, a view which has been taken seriously by some scholars and is still held as fact by the Mesopotamian church.
His character exudes through the text of John’s gospel. When the Lord resolved to go to Judea to heal Lazarus against the warning by the other disciples that the Jews wanted to stone him, Thomas exhibited both pessimism and intense loyalty when he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (11:16). When Jesus assumed that the disciples knew the way to the Father’s house, Thomas was honest and forthright enough to confess openly his ignorance, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (14:5). The dull and imperfect understanding of Thomas provided Jesus an opportunity to disclose more truth about Himself (14:6, 7). For some reason, perhaps melancholic and disillusioned, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the evening of the resurrection (20:24, 25). When told that they had seen the Lord, he refused to be convinced of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection unless he could see and touch the tangible evidence (20:25). For this, “doubting Thomas” has become a byword. When such evidence was presented eight days later, he uttered the grandest expression of faith in the fourth gospel, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).
Thomas had been fishing on the Sea of Galilee with six other disciples and caught nothing, when Jesus appeared to them the third time after His resurrection (21:1-14). Directed by the Lord to cast their net on the right side of the boat, they brought in a net full of fish, after which they had breakfast together. The last NT mention of Thomas is as a loyal follower of Jesus after the ascension, gathered in a prayer meeting with the eleven, some women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brethren (Acts 1:12-14).
There are questionable traditions concerning the post-resurrection missionary activities of Thomas. According to Origen, cited by Eusebius (Hist. III. 1), Thomas worked in Parthia. The Acts of Thomas (2nd cent.) tells how the world was partitioned by lot as a mission field by the disciples. According to this apocryphal and conflicting account, Thomas’ lot fell to India, where he experienced many trials and martyrdom, and was buried by his converts. According to Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis, Bk. 4), however, Thomas died a natural death, not as a martyr. His supposed remains were exhibited there as late as the 16th cent. Other adventures are narrated in the apocryphal “Preaching of St. Thomas” and the “Martyrdom of St. Thomas in India.” Present-day Christians of St. Thomas of India base their claims to spiritual descent from this missionary father largely on these documents. Another tradition states that his remains were brought to Edessa in Mesopotamia, and from there to Ortona in Italy during the Crusades.
Bibliography C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (1955), 327, 388, 389; “Acts of Thomas” in Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha II (1964), 425-437.