St.Thomas

[Stephens]

The following is some references to Christianity in India from Greek
documents of the 3rd and 4th century. I am expecting some more references
and will post them when they reach me.

1. Letter of St. Jerome to Marcella ca. 396 A.D.

Was the risen Christ before His ascension present only with the disciples,
or was He in heaven and elsewhere as well? The latter according to Jerome is
the true doctrine. "The Divine Nature," he writes, "exists everywhere in its
entirety. Christ, therefore, was at one and the same time with the apostles
and with the angels; in the Father and in the uttermost parts of the sea. So
afterwards he was with Thomas in India, with Peter at Rome, with Paul in
Illyricum, with Titus in Crete, with Andrew in Achaia

2. St. Jerome
    Book: Lives of Illustrious Men    .

Chapter XXXVI

Pantaenus, a philosopher of the stoic school, according to some old
Alexandrian custom, where, from the time of Mark the evangelist the
ecclesiastics were always doctors, was of so great prudence and erudition
both in scripture and secular literature that, on the request of the legates
of that nation, he was sent to India by Demetrius bishop of Alexandria,
where he found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, had preached
the advent of the Lord Jesus according to the gospel of Matthew, and on his
return to Alexandria he brought this with him written in Hebrew characters.
Many of his commentaries on Holy Scripture are indeed extant, but his living
voice was of still greater benefit to the churches. He taught in the reigns
of the emperor Severus and Antoninus surnamed Caracalla


3. Letter of St. Jerome to Magnus a Roman orator

. Pantaenus, a philosopher of the Stoic school, was on account of his great
reputation for learning sent by Demetrius bishop of Alexandria to India, to
preach Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers there

4. St. Jerome to Evangelus

Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East worship one Christ
and observe one rule of truth

5. St. Gregorios Nazianzin - oration delivered at constantinople 380AD

XI. But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will
say, "But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner." What of the Apostles?
Were not they strangers to the many nations and cities among whom they were
divided, that the Gospel might have free course everywhere, that nothing
might miss the illumination of the Threefold Light, or be unenlightened by
the Truth; but that the night of ignorance might be dissolved for those who
sat in darkness and the shadow of death? You have heard the words of Paul,
"that we might go the Gentiles, and they to the Circumcision."21 Be it that
Judaea is Peter's home; what has Paul in common with the Gentiles, Luke with
Achaia, Andrew with Epirus, John with Ephesus, Thomas with India, Marc with
Italy, or the rest, not to go into particulars, with those to whom they
went? So that you must either blame them or excuse me, or else prove that
you, the ambassadors of the true Gospel, are being insulted by trifling. But
since I have argued with you in a petty way about these matters, I will now
proceed to take a larger and more philosophic view of them.

----- Original Message -----
From: Klaus Karttunen <Kjkarttu at ELO.HELSINKI.FI>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: 27 May, 1999 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: St.Thomas


> Dear Colleagues
>
> The information about the origins of Christianity in India is mainly
> found in Greek sources (and to some extent Syriac). In these, Thomas
> was originally the apostle of Edessa (the was one of his many graves,
> too) and Persia. The very first mentions of Christians in India
> ascribe the mission to St.Bartholomew (this has been discussed in a
> German article by Professor A. Dihle). These Christians were visited
> with boat from Egypt, therefore they might belong to the south. The
> Acta Thomae - perhaps in the fourth century - describe Thomas'
> mission in India, but nothing refers specifically to the South. On
> the contrary, the name of India King, Gondophares, seems to be same
> as Gudnaphar, an Indo-Parthian ruler in the Northwest in the first
> century A.D. N.B. Indo-Parthian -- Thomas is still understood as the
> apostle of Persia and Parthia. When the Indian church became part of
> the Persian, it was natural that the apostle of the Persian church
> was introduced in India. Cosmas Indicopleustes in the sixth century
> was the first to make Thomas visiting South India, he also knew that
> the South Indian church was subject to the Persian. Thomas probably
> never visited India, but the tradition that he did is much earlier
> than the Portuguese.
> Unfortunately I have no references at hand (they are at home), but
> can send them afterwards, if needed.
>
> Greetings
> Klaus Karttunen
>