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Thomas the Apostle

Thomas the Apostle

b. c. 1 CE · Jerusalem

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Thomas was one of the Twelve Apostles. John's Gospel calls him 'Didymus', the Greek for 'twin'; 'Thomas' itself comes from the Aramaic word for twin (John 11:16). In John he speaks three times. He urges the others to go with Jesus to Judea, 'that we may die with him' (John 11:16). He asks how they can know the way (John 14:5). He refuses to believe in the risen Jesus without seeing and touching his wounds. A week later he confesses 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:24-29), hence the later nickname 'Doubting Thomas'. He is listed with the apostles in Jerusalem after the resurrection (Acts 1:13). Origen, as reported by Eusebius, records the tradition that Thomas was allotted Parthia. The 3rd-century Syriac Acts of Thomas sends him to India, to the court of a King Gundaphorus, and ends with his death by spears. Gondophares is a historical Indo-Parthian king of the 1st century CE. The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala trace their origin to his preaching. They hold that he landed at Muziris in 52 CE and was martyred near Mylapore (Chennai) in 72 CE. These dates come from community tradition and are not found in early written sources.

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Stop 1 of 328–30Disciple; witness of the risen Jesus

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

John sets Thomas's doubt and confession in Jerusalem, eight days after Easter (John 20:24-29). Acts 1:13 names him among the apostles there. He also appears by the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:2).

Jerusalem in this era

Under Roman rule Jerusalem was, according to the Gospels, where Jesus was crucified and, in Christian belief, rose from the dead; Acts places Pentecost and the first Christian community, led by the apostles and later by James, there. The Romans destroyed the city in 70 CE.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary, mother of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Philip the Apostle, Matthias the Apostle

Across the traditions, in Jerusalem at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Thomas the Apostle’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Thomas the Apostle’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.