The Acts of Thomas, a Reliable Source to Study the Indian Apostolate of Saint Thomas 

The Acts of Thomas is one of the essential sources for studying the history of the mission of St Thomas in India. This book discusses the apostle’s voyage to India, his ministry, miracles, martyrdom and burial in India. According to this work, the India where Thomas first arrived was India ruled by King Gundaforus, which can be called Indo-Partia, which corresponds to North West India before India’s partition.

Being an apocryphal work, it should be studied diligently and critically, taking into account its peculiar literary genre. It is neither pure history nor sheer legend. It is neither a biography nor a missionary travelogue. While some historians discard it as being full of imagination and romantic descriptions, others make use of it by trying to discover the historical allusions it provides. If so, the subject dealt with in this work is as follows: Thomas first preached the gospel in Partia, the kingdom of Gundaforus and then in South India, in the kingdom of Masdai, where Thomas became a martyr. The Acts of Thomas uses language with a double meaning, literal and theological, as do certain gospel passages. It is not certainly history as we understand it today. Therefore, instead of dismissing it as a legend or fiction, we have to study it critically. Such a critical approach can contribute a lot to the study of the origins of Indian Christianity. According to recent studies, this book is written between 220 and 230, but there is no unanimous opinion with regard to its author.

There are different opinions regarding the original language of this book. The majority holds the view that it was written in Syriac, but there are also writers who say that its original language was Greek. Modern studies say that it was originally composed in Syriac and was translated into Greek several times. The early Syriac version was lost, and the present Syriac version is a translation of the Greek. The contents of the book show that the Greek version goes back to an earlier Syriac version. Though some deviations exist in the Syriac and Greek versions, they do not differ much. The original Syriac and Greek versions of the Acts of Thomas underwent several modifications in the course of centuries. This work manifests various features of early Syrian Christianity. As this book deals primarily with the activities of St Thomas in India, it is a reliable source to study the apostolic mission of St. Thomas in India.

Fr James Puliurumpil