Reading Acts of Thomas:
 with special consideration of its sexual ethic

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 | Intro | Who Wrote Acts of Thomas? | What is the context of the author? | What is the context of Acts of Thomas? | What is the genre of AofT | Things not discussed in AofT | What is the purpose of AofT? | Conclusion |

Some of the things not discussed in AofT

A good listener is a good learner and the best counsellor.  We need to learn how to truly listen to what is said--a task in its own--but we also must listen to the silences.  Silences often speak louder than words.  Silences may be accidents or omissions, but they hold important information.  Silences often create a backdrop for a story set the scene.  When watching a movie or play with no backdrop, we rely on the dialogue (or monologue) to paint a mental backdrop—without which we are unsettled and cannot ‘get into’ the play.  Students of Scripture often find themselves in this uneasy position because they lack information--usually history, philosophy, or social context information.

AofT is not a historical work.  If it were, it would have shared important information about the war, the death of the king, the new Kushan reign, and especially St. Thomas’ work with the Kushan officials.  AofT is exceptionally silent about historical information, which we need to understand the Scripture.

AofT is not a biography of the saint.  If it were we would have learned about the man’s most fascinating life starting as an apprentice in Wayism when he was a teenager, his work with Yusaf (the Lord’s father) in the exciting cities of Sepphoris (an hour’s walk from the tiny village of Nazareth) and those in Anatolia.  There would be so much to learn about his time spent with the Lord in Palestine and his association with the fascinating and dynamic Magadhalene.  Perhaps we would have learned why he and The Magadhalene were singled out by the Lord for deeper esoteric teaching He did not share with others.  In addition, of course, we would have learned volumes about the fascinating accounts of his work among the various Indian tribes and among Buddhist reformers.

AofT is not ALL the Acts of Thomas but is an account of some acts the saint performed in northern India.  Again, touching on the purpose of AofT, perhaps AofT is Xenophon’s attempt at a summary of the spiritual challenges faced by the saint and the communities in India as Wayism developed into a religion among them.  While the battle between good and bad is humanity’s main theme and purpose for incarnation, in the AofT the battle of opposing forces are concentrated on liberating sex and sensuality from cultures that encourage the abuse thereof and enslavement to its most basic forms.  AofT marks the beginning of the sacred sensuality teaching that The Magadhalene picks up from where Thomas left off.  She would continue to develop it into a grand school of thought that enveloped the teaching of kundalini, the chakras, the kama sutras, and rekindle the mother goddess and consciousness of God as Mother and Father and set the course for improved human rights and care of children.  

Other things AofT are silent about are the physical suffering the saint endured.  We hear nothing of the extremely cold and treacherous winters in the Karakoram and Himalayan areas, or about those hostile and primitive tribes in the jungles, or the extreme heat of the south, the troubles with communication in a country with a thousand languages –all things the saint had to endure for almost two decades.

The story of AofT leaves some important questions unanswered.  For the sake of economy and a foretaste to encourage further investigation, we provide only a few such questions and risk to postulate some answers below:

·       Why did Lord Yesu send Thomas and not The Magadhalene (a native Indian) to India?

o       One practical reason is that she was a female.  There were only three places free women in society could hold in those days –married and in the household, the brothel, or destitute in widowhood.  Even Buddhism did not allow women as monks (nuns) and both Buddhism and Hinduism taught that a woman could not go to heaven and spirituality is not for them to dabble in.  Women could only work among women, and it was very foolish to work with married women because they were possessions of their husbands and any attempt to consider her unhappiness would be tantamount to theft or damaging the owner’s goods.

·       Why did King Gondophares search for an architect in Baghdad when he was surrounded by some of the best schools of architecture, art, and science in the world?

o      Yes, certainly a slap in the face, and the king would suffer for it.  However, he probably had good reason.  Takshashila was almost destroyed by the earthquake of the year 30, being six years before Thomas arrived there.  It is possible that the newcomer king looked around at the new buildings that went up but came down again in the quake –all built according to the latest technology.  He bought Thomas five years after the earthquake and probably considered proposals and presentations from local experts, and probably surveyed their work during that time.  He must have decided to get outside help because he did not trust, or did not like local expertise.

·       Why did King Gondophares and his royal brother actually minister with St. Thomas as civil devotees – this is probably a first in the history of spirituality?

o      We do not know the answer to this question for sure, except that we know both brothers served Senior Council at one time or another after they served St. Thomas.  Senior Council members have always been spiritual leaders and Teachers par excellence, there is no other way.  This is the reason why Wayism has never been a state religion –because a secular ruler could never appoint, or cause to be appointed, a person in his favour to serve Senior Council.

·       Why did King Gondophares not take action against king Misdeas for executing Thomas – or did he?

o      Let’s consider some of the known facts.  King Misdeas acts entirely within his powers and civil right when he executes the troublemaker.  After being extraordinarily patient with an unpleasant foreigner who cuckolded his royal best friend, and who then set out to cuckold him and also steal his peace, his wife, and mess with his household, and turns the chief of defence against him–he executes the troublemaker.  Misdeas, although a small king in a small kingdom, enjoys the favour of powerful rulers in Persia and Rome, and owes no local ruler or nobody an explanation for his justified (almost belated) deed.  Why then the sudden turnaround in attitude –going about burying Thomas in the Royal Tomb, erecting a temple for the church and allowing Wayism to get a good foothold in his kingdom?  Was it only an attack of conscience, an attack from Tertia, or something else?  We know he never did truly walk in The Way and was therefore not committed spiritually.  We also know that Siphor, his military executive feared the wrath of the king and had to flee for his life.  Was there another pressure on him to be a good boy –an external political pressure perhaps?  Well, another thing is that Gondophares was a member of Senior Council.  He was probably a better person than most, and definitely knew things that we do not.  Whichever way – Takshashila continued to exist for hundreds of years after that incident and even today stands its ground against Mohammedan desolation –but Khotan ceased to exist more than a millennium ago and is buried under infertile sand –truly a sad thing to see.  In fact, we do not know the answer, but sometimes it is nice to play guessing games.

o      Having considered the above, it needs to be reiterated that students of Scripture need to know their history.  King Gondophares was not around when king Misdeas executed the saint in 62CE –he died, most probably in the year 47.  Therefore, Gondophares probably did not put pressure, threat, or retribution on Misdeas.  The Suren reign over the Kashmir Jammu states was no more.  The Surens (Gondophares’ dynasty) were defeated by their western neighbour, the Kushans under king Kajula Kadphises from the Yeuh Chi (Kushan) tribe of China, in the year 50.  Gad was made a vassal king of the Arachosia province under Kushan suffrage, where the church grew strong and prospered for many years –but by the year 60 Gad was dead and his sons and nephews continued as vassal rulers of an ever-shrinking area west of the Indus and south to the sea.  Therefore, by the time Misdeas executed St. Thomas in 62, King Vima Taktu; the second Kushan emperor was already in power (since 60 CE) and was pushing his empire south to Delhi.  St. Thomas had no relationship with Vima Taktu but he had met Kajula Kadphises, under whose patronage the Lotus Sutra was written and the cult of the Lord as Lord Avalokitesvara started. 

o      Now, if we had to rephrase the question, we could therefore ask, “Did not King Vima Taktu punish Misdeas for executing St. Thomas?”  Let’s briefly examine the situation.  King Vima Taktu was on the throne for only two years before the death of St. Thomas.  He never met St. Thomas and by that time, he had not yet met +Xenophon.  Vima Taktu was a patron of Senior Council during later years but never served it officially –his son King Wima Kadphises followed The Way from 80CE.  Therefore, the king had no particular interest in Wayism and he did not know the leaders personally, and probably did not care to know anything about them at the time.  We guess the answer to our question is that even if the Kushan king did in fact act against Misdeas on behalf of Wayist pleas to his court—it would be an impersonal and very light reprimand at most.  It is possible that Misdeas learned of St. Thomas’ influence among the Kushan after the execution and acted cautiously just in case.  By the year 78, the new Kushan king Kanishka would annex Chitral, Khotan and Yarkand; and Misdeas and his kingdom ended, but Wayism continued to prosper there.  Nevertheless, we cannot answer the question but it is still profitable to look into these questions because intelligent children in our communities will (we hope) eventually ask us to explain.

| Intro | Who Wrote Acts of Thomas? | What is the context of the author? | What is the context of Acts of Thomas? | What is the genre of AofT | Things not discussed in AofT | What is the purpose of AofT? | Conclusion |