dr. nicola denzey lewis has come to the british library, where there is a rare copy of an ancient book, the acts of thomas. this text is written in syriac, and that s significant because it s very closely related to aramaic, and aramaic is the language which jesus spoke with his disciples, so this is a really, really fabulous piece to the puzzle in uncovering a little more information than we had before about what thomas was up to. and the story goes that after jesus death, the disciples are getting together, and they re trying to decide who goes where, and they actually draw lots. thomas chooses the short straw. the disciples believed drawing lots would allow god to decide where they should go to spread the word. thomas gets india. i cannot go. i do not wish to go. to a first-century judean,
he baptizes people, and people start converting, and he gets himself kind of on the wrong side of politics in this way because he s converting people who are very high up within the kingdom, and they start to pull their loyalties away from the king. it makes the king angry, and by the time thomas converts his wife and the king s son as well, misdaeus has had enough. the jealous king dispatches his men to capture and kill thomas. his final words repeat the same acclamation he made in the gospel of john when jesus, the risen christ, appeared to him. my lord, my god, i have fulfilled the work you gave me and obeyed your every command. today, i receive my final freedom.
the trauma of the disciples at the arrest and eventual crucifixion of jesus. we get the sense that they believed this movement was over. thomas misses the defining event of christian faith. he s not there on easter sunday night when jesus first appears to the ten. he misses out on jesus saying, receive the holy spirit. it strongly suggests that he d not only abandoned hope in jesus, he d abandoned the other
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disciples as well. where were you? away i went away. thomas, so little faith. it s over. perhaps he felt that now that jesus was dead, the group should fragment and break up. perhaps he decided to grieve privately. we have seen him. he was here in this room. no. we have seen him with our own eyes. and i saw him, crucified, dead and buried. it was hard for him to believe that something good could ve come from the terrible crucifixion. unless i see in his hands the print of the nails and put my