The Acts of Thomas was the topic of my 1977 Harvard doctoral dissertation subsequently published by Fortress Press as Language and Gnosis: the opening Scenes of the Acts of Thomas.
Introduction.
The Acts of Thomas (AT) is a rather long (90 page) work, belonging to the early Christian genre of the “Acts” (i.e. deeds) of apostles. Besides the canonical Acts of the Apostles which is found in the New Testament, there also exists, for example, books entitled The Acts of John, The Acts of Andrew, etc. most of these, like the AT, are probably not to any great extent based on fact. They are full of colorful stories and tales of wonder that have served as pious entertainment for Christians for many centuries.
The AT was probably composed in Syria in about 250 a.d.
Very little is known about the circumstances of its origin, apart from what can be gathered from the work itself. Walter Bauer, in Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christianity showed that the earliest Christians in this part of the world were probably Gnostics, Christians whose beliefs were heretical by the standards of what became mainstream “orthodox” Christianity. It has long been recognized that there are many Gnostic elements in the AT, though difficulties in interpreting the work as a whole had made it unclear as to whether these are just bits and pieces of lore scattered in a somewhat diffuse and not very coherent work, or whether there is some serious intention and coherent unity in the work which this Gnostic lore is a part of.
I addressed this problem in my doctoral dissertation (published in 1985 as Language and Gnosis), in which I was able to show that the AT is a coherent and even artful Gnostic work, and that the legendary stories in the AT serves as material for an elaborate allegory, expounding a rather developed and sophisticated version of Gnosticism. What I am presenting here is this introduction, a translation of the first few episodes of the AT, and a commentary outlining the main points of interpretation which I arrived at in my thesis.
A central feature of Gnostic thought is a strong feeling of the opposition between the spiritual mind and the material world. Many Gnostic writings express the belief that the soul was initially a pure spiritual being existing in a heavenly realm at home with a purely spiritual God. But the soul is now caught in a material world that is foreign to it, and is ruled in fact by evil beings. People who feel at home in the world do not realize their true nature, and must be awakened to this knowledge. Once one truly and completely recognizes one’s real nature, one has “gnosis”, the Greek word for “knowledge”, and this is a kind of salvation. Gnostic writing aims at “waking one up” to one’s true nature. Much of it is very colorful, borrowing from older stories and myths, but retelling them from a Gnostic point of view. For example, Gnostics retell the story of the Fall of Man in Genesis, but they turn the story around. The god who created the world and forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge (gnosis) was the evil god who rules the world — the real God (who has nothing to do with the material world) sent the snake as a savior!
The AT shows a side of Gnosticism that is either not present in other Gnostic writings, or has not been recognized in them due to difficulties in interpreting the writings. On the surface the book recounts the adventures of the apostle Thomas in India where he goes as a missionary. But there is another meaning below the surface. The story is an allegory about the adventures of the spiritual soul (Thomas) in the earthly realm (India) that is foreign to it. The story does take as its starting point the common Gnostic problematic about the felt alienation of the pure, heavenly soul or Mind from the foreign, “evil” Reality in which it finds itself. The uniqueness of the Gnosticism represented here is that the feeling of alienation from the material world is taken only as a starting point. Alienation is a problem to be overcome, and this is not done by escaping the world into a pure spiritual realm, but by relating to the world differently. It is due to the soul’s deficiency that it feels alien from the world. The one who sees and relates to the world rightly, sees a divine presence inherent in the material world.
The story in the AT is told then from two points of view at once. In one point of view, close to the common Gnostic one, Thomas/Mind is a heavenly savior come to destroy the hold of the demonic forces over Reality. In the other point of view, however, Reality is a manifestation of God which the Mind stubbornly resists, and only comes to see and enjoy it as such when it is forced to. The details of this double-edged allegory will be explained below.
Acts of Thomas (2). Detailed Commentary.
There are two different allegorical dramas going on in the text at once, one taking the side of Thomas/Mind against “evil” earthly Reality, the other taking the side of Reality as a divine presence over against the abstract self-enclosed Mind. I will present these two allegorical schemas separately, first quoting the main clusters of images and events in the narrative that belong to a single theme, and then commenting on them.
I – THE FIRST SCHEMA: MIND ENLIGHTENED BY REALITY.
In this schema, Reality (India, the wedding banquet) is a potential revelation of the divine to the Mind, and so the Mind’s (Thomas’) resistance to “entering” or “participating” in Reality is looked upon negatively, as a resistance to God. I will first present (section A) images representing the forcing of the reluctant Mind, and then (section B) images representing Reality as a manifestation of God to the Mind.
A. The forcing of reluctant Mind to enter Reality.
- ” … each apostle should go to the region which fell to him by lot /the people to whom the Lord sent him.”
- By lot, India fell to Judas /Thomas …
but he did not want to set off.
He said he was not able to travel /understand…
‘…being a Hebrew /man, how shall I be able to go to the Indians. “He did not obey /was not persuaded, saying…
I’m not going to India.”‘ - “Judas” is sold as a slave.
Jesus is his (slave-)master/Lord.
He becomes Abban-the-Indian’s slave. - “The gods have brought you here
that you might dine in this city.” - “The king has sent out announcers to announce…
that everyone has to come to the wedding…
If anyone refuses…he will have to answer to the king.”
“Let us set off for the wedding, so we won’t run up against the king, especially since we are foreigners.- Thomas refuses to partake of food at the wedding banquet or listen to the flutist.
The wine-pourer strikes him.
- Thomas refuses to partake of food at the wedding banquet or listen to the flutist.
- The king wants Thomas to go into the bridal chamber (to pray over the bride).
“The apostle did not want to set off with him,
because the Lord had not yet been revealed to him there.
But the king led him unwilling into the bridal chamber.”
In this cluster we see the theme of the Mind’s reluctance to “enter” Reality, and the corresponding theme, that Reality is forced on the Mind. Judas Thomas is the Mind. Reality is represented by India, the wedding feast, and the bridal chamber.
The Mind (Thomas) feels itself to be “foreign” to Reality (it is “Hebrew”, vs. “Indian” Reality) [A2, A5]. It also feels itself to be in some respects “weaker” than Reality. (Fear of the Indian king gets Thomas to go to the wedding.[A5]) The continuity of the theme of Thomas’s reluctance to go into India/Reality is emphasized by the repeated use of the catchword “set off” (Gr. aperchomai) [A2, A5, A7].
The theme of the forcing of Thomas is expressed in several images associated in the Hellenistic world with the subjection of the spiritual soul to earthly reality. It is chance (Gr. tyche), in the casting of the lots [Al,A2], which sends Thomas to India — as the rational soul is subject in the world to irrational chance. And he goes there as a slave of the Indian merchant [A3], as the soul finds itself a slave bound unwillingly to material reality. In some respects, then, this theme reflects the Platonic tradition of the soul as a heavenly, quasi-divine reality that has “fallen” into bondage to earthly reality, to which it is essentially a foreigner. A similar image from the Jewish tradition probably also enters here: the king forcing the ascetic Thomas to attend the wedding recalls the image of the wicked Babylonian king Nebuchadnessar forcing all his Hebrew subjects to come and offer worship to idols (Daniel ch. 3). This image is however interpreted here in terms of the Platonic ideas just mentioned: The “Hebrews” are heavenly souls forced into “foreign” earthly involvement.
In this first schema, however, the forced character of this subjection to Reality is looked upon, contrary to the Platonic tradition, as a manifestation of the power of God, and is ultimately brought about so that the Mind will come to see the revelation of God which Reality potentially is. or rather, Reality itself initially has the felt character of something forced upon the resistant Mind, but this felt character of Reality as forced is due to the deficiency of the self-enclosed Mind. Once this is broken through in a final confrontation (the servant’s slap), the potential character of Reality as the presence of God comes through to the Mind.
The specific images portraying this theme of the soul bound by “chance” and “slavery” occur in Al and A3: Thomas’ chance assignment to India by lots is also a divine sending [All. Thomas’ slave “master” [Gr. despotes] is also his divine “Lord” [Gr. kyrios], and it is Thomas’ character as “slave” which allows Jesus to force him to go to India after his initial reluctance and refusal. The Indian Abban takes over this role of slavemaster from Jesus [A3].
When he gets to India Thomas is told that, “The gods (i.e. Jesus] have brought you here to dine in this city” [A4]. The scene of the king’s wedding announcement and threat [A5] is an allusion to a similar story in Mt. 22, in which God is the “king” in question. In some respects then, both Abban and the Indian king take over from Jesus as the representatives in the story of the divine power forcing the Mind into Reality. This is shown also in the last scene in which the Indian king forces Thomas unwillingly to “set off” into the bridal chamber.[A7]
The reason given for Thomas’ reluctance to enter the bridal chamber in the last mentioned scene is that “The Lord had not yet been revealed to him there” — i.e. he has not come to see Reality as a manifestation of God. This is in accord with a hint already given in the first scene, that it is a lack of understanding [Gr. chorein] that is behind Thomas’ inability to “travel” [chorein] to India. In the Neoplatonic tradition, only the Divine and divine Ideas are ultimately truly intelligible, and so the Mind cannot “enter” Reality (in the act of understanding) until it is able to see Reality as a manifestation of the Divine.
Thomas actually has a double name, “Judas Thomas”, and attention is called in the opening scene to the fact that “Thomas” in Hebrew means “Twin”. This probably refers to the fact that, on an allegorical level, the story as a whole has to do with two different aspects of the Mind. In this schema we have to do with the Mind-as-receptive — the Mind which is in need of the divine revelation that reality has to offer it. This Mind is initially unable to see Reality as a manifestation of God, and this inability is overcome by Reality forcing itself on the Mind. It is noteworthy in this connection that in the selling scene [A3] Judas Thomas is simply called “Judas” (this is the only case where this is so) — and Jesus is selling him for thirty pieces of silver! Here then “Judas”, the archetypal “sinner”, probably represents the receptive/needy side of the twin-Mind. His forcible subjection to Reality is for his eventual “education” in the World. (The other, “active” side of the twin-Mind will be treated in the second schema, sections C and D below.)
B. Reality as a manifestation of God to the Mind.
- Thomas enquires about “This feasting in /this city” He is told that “The gods have brought you here
that you might dine in this city…
“The joy and /gathering that you see, /the feasting is because of /the wedding. - When Thomas and Abban entered the city,
“Sounds of flutists..surrounded them”
Later, “The flutist..surrounded all with her fluting”
and then “Stood above (Thomas), playing her flute for a long time. The flutist was of the Hebrew race.”
- Thomas annoints his five senses, plus the top of his head, with (scented) oil.
He wears a crown of thorns/blossoms on his head
and holds a reed in his hand.
/”The flutist held the flute in her hand.”
- On being slapped by the servant, Thomas sings
“The Maiden is the Daughter of Light,
On her rests the proud brightness of kings.
On her head the King is established,
Feeding with his ambrosia those established on him.
On her head lies the Truth.
- “Her clothes are like spring blossoms,
Outpourings of sweet smells are given off by them.
… Her fingers suggest the gates of the city…
Her bedroom is bright
Breathing forth outpourings of balsam and every spice,
And giving out a sweet smell of myrrh and herbs.
Inside are strewn myrtle and many blossoms.
But the barred doors are decorated with reeds.”
- The hymn closes with a description of a divine wedding banquet:
“And they will be with him…at that eternal joy,
And they will be at that wedding
at which the great ones are gathered.
And they will remain at the banquet of which the eternal ones are counted worthy.
“They will put on royal clothing
And will dress in bright robes.
And they will…be in joy and great gladness
And will give glory to the Father of the All,
Whose proud light they received
And were enlightened by the Vision/Goddess of their Master,
Whose ambrosial food they received
And they gave glory and sang hymns
to the Father Truth, and to the Mother Wisdom.”
- Thomas initially refuses to enter the bedroom to bless the bride, “Because the Lord had not yet been revealed to him there”.
Upon dragged in by the king, however, he immediately recognizes
the presence of Jesus there:
“My Lord and My God…
You are, Lord, the one in all things.”
This cluster concerns Reality as a representative of the Divine for the Mind entering it. It is this theme which gives Thomas’ reluctance, described above, its negative character.
The most frequently recurring images here are those which have to do with the city, the wedding banquet, and the bedroom as images of Reality. That Reality is a revelation of the divine is most explicitly suggested in the last scene listed here [B8], in which Thomas, who initially doesn’t want to go into the bedroom “because the Lord had not yet been revealed to him there”, immediately on being dragged into the bedroom confesses “My Lord and My God”. (This is a quotation from the Gospel of John, in which the apostle Thomas refuses to recognize the risen Jesus as a physical person — he initially thinks he is seeing a ghost – until he is made to physically touch his wounded hands and feet. Likewise here the bedroom represents physical Reality in which Thomas initially cannot discern the divine presence.)
The sensual enjoyments (music, food, perfume, sex) connected with the wedding are images of the divine gifts which Reality has to offer the Mind. In this connection we have then the image of flute music “surrounding” Thomas [B2], the conjoined images of city/feast/ wedding/joy in the scene of Thomas’ entering the city [Bl], and the images related to this of the divine weddingbanquet at the end of the hymn [B6]. The complex of images introduced in B3 are taken up in various ways in the wedding hymn. The oil is most likely presumed to be scented oil, and hence leads into the images of the perfumes of the bride and of her bedroom in B5. The blossoms in Thomas’ crown are likewise connected with the blossoms in the bedroom and the blossom-like clothes of the Maiden in B5.
Images of pain are however paradoxically mixed in with these very pleasant images. This is most clear in this same scene [B3], in the odd gesture of Thomas holding a reed in his hand — an allusion to the passion story in which Jesus being mocked as king is made to hold a reed “sceptre” by the Roman soldiers. In this context, the Greek word for “blossom” in Thomas’ crown, anthos, is probably meant to recall Jesus crown made of akanthos, “thorn”. (Note also the connection between the somewhat odd “annointing the top of his head”, with this blossom/thorn crown placed also on his head.) I think the connection here is that all these wonderful things that Reality has to offer initially appear to Mind to be something foreign and painful (its very attractiveness is felt as a “seduction”), that it does not want to involve itself in — as Thomas very reluctantly goes to India and to the wedding, and even when there refuses to participate. The hymn in which he expresses his appreciation of Reality as a manifestation of God comes only after he is slapped by the servant — i.e. it is only when Reality forcibly and somewhat painfully overcomes the Mind’s resistance that it comes to this appreciation.
The route of the Mind “into” the sublime pleasures offered by divine Reality is to some extent then through gates of pain, and this is represented in the text by some rather hidden connections between the reed Thomas is holding and the entrance to the bedroom and the city. Reeds decorate the “barred doors” (kleistades) to the bride’s bedroom [B5]. And note the parallelism between the reed, symbol of pain, and the flutes, symbol of pleasure:
(Thomas) held the reed in his hand.
/The flutist held the flutes in her hand.
This connection is then taken up in the wedding hymn as well: The “flutes” (aulai, plural) which the flutist holds are the Greek V-shaped double-flute, and in the hymn the maiden’s “fingers suggesting [arched] city gates” are probably also extended in a V-shape. (This connection is made more likely by the resulting parallelism of the gates guarding the city with the barred doors guarding the bedroom entrance.)
Besides the images of the city, the feast, and the bedroom, we have the image of the Maiden/Bride/Mother of the hymn herself, as another representation of Reality as divine. Following the general symbolism of this text, in which masculine images represent Mind and the Ideal world, whereas feminine images represent Reality and the concrete, she is “The Mother Wisdom”, parallel to the “Father Truth”. She is a “Goddess” (Thea) who is a “vision” (thea), i.e. a concrete manifestation, of the Father [B6].
In an earlier part of the hymn [B4], the Father-God is represented as seated “on top of the head” of the Maiden. I believe this rather odd image is related to a complexity in the figure of the flutist of the story. (Note that when Thomas begins his hymn speaking simply of “The Maiden … ” the reader naturally thinks of the flutist, she being the last female figure mentioned at this point in the story.) The f lutist is on the one hand a definite part of the “worldly” banquet — her flute-music is one of the sensual pleasures offered there. On the other hand she is, like Thomas, a “Hebrew” foreigner — i.e. in some respects she belongs to the Ideal world of the Mind. I think the idea here is that contact with concrete Reality offers images to the Mind which are in fact images of an Ideal world. (An example might be the concrete yet intensely meaningful images one finds in poetry.) This aspect of concrete Reality is represented as its “highest” aspect, and is thus the Father/Truth lying “on the top of the head” of the Bride who represents Reality. It is also that aspect of concrete reality which is the most “akin” to Mind, hence it is represented in the story by the flutist who is both part of the Indian banquet and also a kinswoman to Thomas the Hebrew. (This role of the flutist as a connecting link between Mind and Reality is confirmed by her function in the second schema, in which she serves to convey influence from the Mind to Reality.)
II – THE SECOND SCHEMA: MIND AS SAVIOR OF REALITY.
In this second schema Reality is under the dominion of “Evil” (i.e. meaninglessness) and Mind is sent as a representative of God to destroy this evil and to free and enliven Reality so that it can fulfill the potentiality it has of being a divine reality. Mind here is then the active, “missionary” side of the twin-Mind.
It is unlikely that the change which the Mind is here represented as bringing about in Reality is meant as an objective change in what physical reality is in itself. What changes rather is the felt character that Reality has, the character Reality has as an element of experience. The change is then brought about correlatively with a change in the Mind. That is, when the Mind is relatively weak, concreteness as an element in experience is likely to be experienced as simply “brute fact” without meaning. When the Mind is energized in a certain way and can approach concrete reality in a creative way, the hold the “evil” meaninglessness seems to have over Reality is broken, and it becomes a divine/meaningful aspect of experience.
(On the other hand, Gnosticism was often connected with magic, and by a kind of spill-over, the authors of the AT may have felt that the mental energy that is able to change one’s internalized “Reality” is also able to change the physical world as well.)
This schema like the first one can be presented in two sets of images. one set (section C) concerns the empowering of the Mind which initially feels itself to be weak. The other set of images (section D) represents the actual liberation/enlivening of Reality by the Mind.
C. The empowering of the weak Mind for its mission.
- Thomas did not want to set off for India,
“He said he was not able, had not the power to travel, because of the sickness, the flesh, and
‘Being a Hebrew, man, how should I be able
To go to the Indians /to announce the Truth.”‘ - Jesus said to him,
“Don’t be afraid…Go to India and announce the Word there, My grace is with you.” - After selling Thomas as a craftsman to the Indian merchant, Jesus gave Thomas his price, saying,
“‘May your price /your authority be with you, with my grace,
Wherever you may go.’
And he caught up with Abban, likewise carrying his equipment onto the boat… Abban asked him, ‘What kind of work do you know?’ And he said, “In wood I can make… boats and oars and masts and pulleys’.
And Abban said, ‘Yes, we need just that kind of craftsman’.” - In the Christ-prayer Thomas says,
“My Lord and my God,
Traveling companion of his servants, Leader on the way…
Healer of souls lying in sickness… one who empowers souls.”
In this section we have a set of images representing the Mind being “empowered”, and given “equipment” by which it can wield power over Reality and destroy the evil in it. The divine gift conferred on the Mind here is probably something like what we might call “creative imagination” — the mental energy and inspiration that it takes to create images that will make sense for us of Reality which might appear at first to be meaningless. The inspiration and creative energy is thus the Mind’s “power” in relation to Reality. The images produced by creative imagination (again perhaps poetry and art are the best examples) are the “equipment” which allow the Mind to “enter” reality.
Turning now to specific images in the story: Thomas/Mind initially feels himself to be weak, without power
to go to the Indians/to announce the Truth.
I.e. in this schema, the Mind entering Reality is the same thing as the Mind bringing the Truth (from the Ideal world) to Reality. In order for it to do this, God (Jesus) must give it the power it lacks — in the words of the Christ hymn Jesus must “heal the soul [Thomas] lying in sickness”, and “empower the soul”. (“Sickness” in Greek is asthenia which also means “weakness”.) This empowering is cryptically represented in a complex set of images after the selling scene. There Jesus gives Thomas his “price” — in Greek, time, which also means “authority”. This is given “with my grace”, which was earlier what Jesus offered Thomas to ease his fears about going to India. Thomas, carrying his price, joins Abban “likewise carrying his equipment” — i.e.
Thomas’ price/authority is also his “equipment”. The nature of this equipment is partly clarified when Thomas gets into the boat carrying him to India and tells Abban that he himself makes boats, and boat equipment: “oars and masts and pulleys”. I.e. the Mind has a divine power (creative imagination) given to it which allows it to fashion the “equipment” (images) which will overcome its native weakness and be for it a vehicle enabling it to “travel” into Reality and to wield “authority” in that realm.
D. The destruction of evil and the enlivening of Reality.
- Thomas says at the banquet,
“I came here for more than food and drink
and to fulfill the will of the king.
The announcers announce the king’s matters,
and whoever doesn’t listen to the announcers
will be liable to the king’s judgement.” - Thomas, speaking in Hebrew, curses the servant who slapped him. The servant is killed by a lion.
The dog brings the servant’s hand into the dining hall,
fulfilling Thomas’ curse, and disturbing all the guests.
The Hebrew flutist, already enraptured by Thomas’ “changed appearance” following his hymn,
Realizes that the dog’s appearance is a fulfillment of Thomas’ curse (which she alone understood, since it was in Hebrew). And she knows also then that Thomas “Is either a god or an apostle of God”.
She is converted and breaks her “worldly” flutes.
She explains the matter to the guests, and some of them are also converted. - Thomas says in the Christ-prayer: “You know what is to come, And through us you bring it to completion
You are, Lord, the one revealing hidden mysteries, and making manifest secret sayings.
You are, Lord, the planter of the good tree,
and through your hands all good works are brought to birth.
You are Lord, the one…
Coming to completion through all …
Made manifest in the energies of all…
- Hope of the poor and Redeemer of the captives… Savior of all creation
One who gives life to the cosmos …
Unfallen Power, destroying the Enemy,
Voice heard by the Rulers, shaking all their Powers.
Messenger sent from the Heights, and reaching down to Hades,
Who, opening the doors, led up from there
those shut up for long ages in the prison of darkness,
And showed them the way up, leading to the heights.”
The images in this section center principally on the narrative events grouped here in D2: Thomas’ curse, its fulfillment, and the conversion of the flutist and some of the guests. These narrative events are interpreted in the Christprayer in two sets of images.
First, the images quoted in D3 here interpret the curse-andfulfillment as a gradual coming into manifestation of an initially hidden divine reality. The fact that the curse was spoken in Hebrew represents the fact that it initially has only a “mental” kind of being — it exists first as a creative mental image of the destruction of evil, and only gradually comes to be implemented and made manifest in Reality. It is in this sense that it is a “hidden mystery” gradually “made manifest”, a “good tree” that later bears fruit in “good works”, a divine force that slowly “comes to completion through everything…is made manifest in the energies of everything”. This gradual unfolding of an initially hidden force is represented both in the fact (1) that the curse initially exists only verbally, and is subsequently implemented in the concrete through a series of steps involving the lion and the dog, and (2) that it initially exists in Hebrew, and needs to be translated by the mediating “Hebrew” flutist to the rest of the guests.
Secondly, the images in D4 represent the curse and fulfillment as the final culmination of the empowered Mind’s mission to Reality. The curse is the “Voice … sent from the Heights and reaching down to Hades”, a “Power, destroying the Enemy [the servant] … heard by the Rulers, shaking all their powers [disturbing the guests] … opening the doors and leading up from there those shut up for long ages in the prison of darkness [converting and ‘liberating’ the flutist and the guests]”. In this way the Mind, and the images of its creative imagination, are a force sent into Reality by God as “the hope of the poor and Redeemer of the captives, Savior of all creation, giving life to the cosmos”.
In this schema the servant who slapped Thomas is the chief representative of the power of Evil over reality — i.e. the painfulness that in the first schema was only a prelude to bliss, is here taken seriously as a real manifestation of the hostility of Reality to the Mind and the divine Ideal world which it represents. Most likely then also the Indian king, who in the first schema represents God as present in Reality, represents in this schema the Gnostic, evil “god of this World” who is in opposition to Mind and to the highest God. In this light one can see the deliberately ambivalent character of Thomas’ statement [Dl] that he himself comes “for more than food and drink and to fulfill the will of the king — the announcers announce the king’s matters, and whoever does not listen to the announcers will be liable to the king’s judgement.” In the first schema this is an unconscious criticism of Thomas of himself: in refusing to eat and drink he is refusing also to “fulfill the will of the king (God]”, and is “liable to the king’s judgement”. In the second schema his refusal to partake is a proper refusal to fulfill the will of the Gnostic evil god of this world, and represents a remaining true to his real mission, to fulfill the will of the high God as liberator of reality. And those (the servant)who do not respect him are “liable to the king’s judgement [destruction)”.
