De Thoma apostolo lectio
Standard abbreviation: On Thom.
Other designations: E7 in van Esbroeck’s classification of Dormition traditions; E6 in Mimouni’s
Clavis numbers: CANT 155; ECCA 835
Category: Dormition Accounts
Related literature: Homily on Mary the God-Bearer, Homily on the Assumption of the Virgin, by Pseudo-Cyril of Alexandria; Homily on the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin, by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem; Miracles of Mary story 483 and 538 and 1071, 1900, 87 (or 587), 1248
Compiled by Tony Burke (York University)
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Reading Concerning the Apostle Thomas.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/reading-concerning-the-apostle-thomas/.
Created November 2024.
1. SUMMARY
This anonymous, untitled text has some homiletic features and parallels with Coptic homilies on the Dormition/Assumption. It is related to the Homily on Mary the God-Bearer, a lengthy Ethiopic homily that features the same material from as On Thom. (at § 2–16 and § 18–37), though it is not known whether the On Thom. is an excerpt from the Hom. Theotok., or Hom. Theotok. has incorporated the On Thom.
On Thom. is introduced as a reading for 16 Nehase, the day of the feast of Mary’s assumption. On the Dormition, it provides only a few details: Mary died on 21 Tir, she was not placed in a tomb, but an angel took her from her bier and buried her beneath the Tree of Life. Only John witnessed these events and came to Jerusalem to tell the apostles what happened.
The apostles remain in Jerusalem for 206 days. Then Jesus comes with the heavenly powers, and prophets and martyrs, holding the body of Mary in his right hand and her soul in his bosom. Jesus tells the apostles to take the body and bury it so that people can come and pay reverence and earn entry into paradise. They bury her in Bethlehem (an odd location, perhaps a result of corruption). Numerous earthly and heavenly creatures attend the burial, as well as prophets, apostles, martyrs, and others. The disciples return home and in their absence, Jesus reunites Mary’s body and soul and takes her with him to the heavens.
One apostle was not present at these events: Thomas. He arrives from India on a cloud with three of his disciples and meets Mary in the air. She tells him that she is on her way to heaven and that a church will be built for her on three stones that burn like wax; she will appear there every year on 21 Nehase. Thomas is grieved to have missed the funeral and feels he was excluded because of his earlier doubt in Jesus’ resurrection. He wants to throw himself off the cloud but Mary presents him with some words of comfort. She tells Thomas that he was privileged to touch Jesus’ body and that when he dies, the fingers on his right hand will remain alive until the day of the resurrection; here the narrator intervenes in the story and says that the fingers are in India to this day. Mary gives Thomas a writing called the Prayer of Mary and her burial garment. Before Mary departs, she tells Thomas that he was given more grace than the other apostles in that he got to see her ascension. Now he must tell the apostles.
Thomas meets the apostles and asks them about what he missed. He pretends to doubt their account and tricks them into opening the grave. They are shocked to find the body gone, thinking it has happened because of their sins. When asked about these sins, they refuse to talk, so Thomas recounts how they abandoned the body of Mary in fear of a Jewish mob. Gabriel took her to paradise, buried her beneath the Tree of Life, and took her soul and John to heaven. The Jews thought the Christians stole her body, like they did Jesus, and will claim she rose from the dead. Some of them said, if Jesus’ body was stolen then why does the lamp that burns in his tomb fall every year on the day of his resurrection and many miracles are performed in his name? One man says that if Jesus was truly God, then why has he not been killed for blaspheming him? They became repentant and said they killed the God of Abraham; they reported that 700 people were baptized, as well as the son of Caiaphas, and there was astonishment in Jerusalem when the earth swallowed up Yabo.
His story finished, Thomas reveals to the apostles his meeting with Mary. She told him at the time that Jesus promised blessings and rewards to whoever celebrates her memory and writes the book of her struggle, or gives to the hungry or thirsty in her name, etc. She asked Jesus in return for a place on earth that would be dedicated to her; he gave her Aksum, which is not yet Christian (they worship serpents) but they will build a church there in her name. Thomas shows the apostle the funeral garment, its legitimacy confirmed when its touch heals three people. The apostles divide it between them and put the pieces in their hair. Then they cast lots among themselves for their preaching locations and journey there on clouds.
The story completed, the author tells his audience to rise now and do what they have heard in this book so that they can obtain the reward that it promises. A warning—said to be from Abba Benjamin to Anteyakos—is given to whoever denies that her body and soul are in paradise: they will be considered as if they were nonbelievers.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Adam (patriarch), Caiaphas, Gabriel (angel), John (the Baptist), John (son of Zebedee), Lazarus, Mary (Virgin), Moses (patriarch), Peter (apostle), Stephen, Thomas (apostle), Yabo.
Geographical Locations: Aksum, Bethlehem, India, Jerusalem, paradise,
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Ethiopic
London, British Library, Or. 641, fols. 268r–278v (18th cent.) ~ BL
Arras, Victor, ed. De Transitu Mariae Aethiopice. 2 vols. CSCO 342–43, 351–52. Leuven: Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1973 (Armenian text, vol. 2.1, pp. 62–72).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 Latin
Arras, Victor, ed. De Transitu Mariae Aethiopice. 2 vols. CSCO 342–43, 351–52. Leuven: Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1973 (Latin translation, vol. 2.2, pp. 47–55).
3.3 General Works
3.3.1 Dormition Narratives
Aranda Pérez, Gonzalo. Dormición de la Virgen. Relatos de la tradución copta. Apócrifos cristianos 2. Madrid: Editorial Ciudad Nueva, 1995 (general introduction, pp. 15-41; Coptic traditions, pp. 42–59).
Clayton, Mary. The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (pp. 24–100).
Esbroeck, Michel van. “Les textes litteraires sur l’Assomption avant le Xe siècle.” Pages 265–85 in Les actes apocryphes des apôtres. Edited by François Bovon. Publications de la faculte de theologie de l’Universite de Geneve 4. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1981.
Jugie, Martin. La Mort et l’Assumption de la Sainte Vierge: Étude historico-doctrinale. Studi e Testi 114. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944.
McNamara, Martin. “Transitus Mariae: General Introduction.” Pages 225–44 in Apocrypha Hiberniae II. Apocalyptica 2. Edited by Martin McNamara et al. CCSA 21. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019.
Mimouni, Simon. Dormition et assumption de Marie: Histoire des traditions anciennnes. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995.
__________. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
__________. Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Wenger, Antoine. L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle. Études et documents. Archives de l’Orient chrétien 5. Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955.
3.3.2 Reading Concerning the Apostle Thomas
Mimouni, Simon. Dormition et assumption de Marie: Histoire des traditions anciennnes. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995 (pp. 253–56).