Passio sancti Thomae apostoli
Standard abbreviation: Pass. Thom.
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 296
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Acts of Thomas, Miracles of Thomas, Golden Legend 5
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Passion of Thomas.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/passion-of-thomas/.
Created April 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Pass. Thom. is a translation of the Greek Acts of Thomas with some notable additions and omissions. It begins with Thomas in Caesarea where Jesus appears and commands him to preach in India. Thomas is resistant but Jesus tells Thomas that he will be with him in India and once his mission is completed, he will receive the crown of martyrdom. Jesus hands Thomas over to Abban, who seeks craftsmen to serve his king Gundaphorus. As they travel aboard ship, Abban asks Thomas about his master; Thomas says he is greater than any king and his father has a great kingdom where no one lacks anything.
After seven days they arrive in Andrapolis and attend a wedding celebration. As in Acts Thom. 1, Thomas encounters a Hebrew flute girl and curses a man who is subsequently torn apart by lions. Then the king asks Thomas to bless the wedded couple. After the blessing, the groom leads Thomas away and a branch of palm with large dates appears in his hand. He takes it back to his wife and they both eat of its fruit and then have a dream of a powerful king telling them they will have eternal life. Then Thomas appears to them and preaches about the virtues of virginity. The couple throw themselves at Thomas’ feet and he tells them to come to him the following night to hear more. When they meet, Thomas baptizes them. The young man, named Dionysius, becomes a bishop. After his death, his wife Pelagia endures a double martyrdom: refusing both a new husband and the worship of idols. As a result, she is decapitated. Over her tomb is written in Greek words and letters: “In this place rests the bride of Dionysius the bishop, who is the daughter of the apostle Thomas.”
Abban and Thomas arrive at Hieroforus where Gundaphorus commands Thomas to build him a palace. As in Acts Thom. 2, Thomas gives the funds to the poor, angering the king, but when his brother Gad dies and sees the heavenly palace built by Thomas with the king’s unintended charity, the king frees Thomas from prison. In a departure from its source, Pass. Thom. continues with a gathering of all the people at the foot of Mount Gazi where Thomas assembles those who are ill and heals them. He then ascends the mountain and delivers a sermon in which he denies being a god and tells them to worship their true Creator and not idols. The sermon also includes doctrine about the Trinity and a discussion of the twelve virtues. At its conclusion 9000 men as well as women and children are baptized.
Pass. Thom. then jumps ahead to material paralleled in Acts Thom. 9. Thomas moves on to Upper India and again builds a reputation as a healer. Mygdonia, the wife of Charisius (a friend to king Misdaeus), is introduced. After her friend Syntice is healed of blindness, Mygdonia comes to Thomas and is inspired by his teaching to take on a life of asceticism. Angered by his wife’s behavior, Charisius has Thomas imprisoned but Mygdonia and Syntice (in Acts Thom. her companion is the nurse Narkia) are able to visit him in prison. After a seven-day fast, Mygdonia is baptized. In another attempt to win back his wife, Charisius asks Misdaeus to send the queen, Tertia, to convince Mygdonia to return to his bed (as in Acts Thom. 11), but Tertia is instead converted after witnessing Thomas heal a man of leprosy (in a new story set in the house of Siphor, a man introduced in Acts Thom. 7).
Misdaeus interrogates Thomas in a sequence that expands upon Acts Thom. 12; the same material is found in the Miracles of Thomas. Unsatisfied with Thomas’ responses to his questions, Misdaeus orders the apostle to walk barefoot on hot plates, but their heat is extinguished by water that springs from the ground. Then Thomas is thrown into a furnace but emerges from it unharmed. Finally, Thomas is commanded to sacrifice before a gold statue of the sun god. He stands before the statue and banishes the demon who dwells within it; the statue melts like wax in a fire. The priests are livid and one of them plunges his sword into the apostle. Fearing violence from the crowd, Misdaeus and Charisius flee. The body of Thomas is embalmed with precious spices and placed with honors in the church. Great signs and wonders occur at the church. Later, his body is transferred to Edessa in a silver chest. That city is protected by the letter written to Abgar by Jesus and by the presence of Thomas.
Named historical figures and characters: Abban, Abgar, Alexander (emperor), Charisius, Dionysius (bishop), Gad (brother of king Gundaphorus), Gundaphorus, Misdaeus, Mygdonia, Pelagia (martyr), Siphor, Syntice, Tertia, Thomas (apostle), Xerxes (Ardashir).
Geographical locations: Andrapolis (Sandaruk), Caesarea, Edessa, Hieroforus, India, Mount Gazi.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Latin (BHL 8136)
Sigla are based on Zelzer 1977; additional manuscripts listed in Zelzer, pp. xlv–xlviii.
A Montpellier, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de médicine, 55, fols. 20r–21v (ca. 800) ~ Bonnet M
B Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 5771, fols. 22v–30r (9th/10th cent.) ~ DVL
C Stuttgart, Württemberg. Landesbibliothek, HB XIV 14, fols. 7r–12r (9th cent.) ~ chs. 1–25
E Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, 256, pp. 56–81 (10th cent.)
F Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale, 341 (289), pp. 397–415 (10th/11th cent.) ~ chs. 1–50
G St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 561, fols. 37r–52v (9th/10th cent.) ~ e-codices
K Stuttgart, Württemberg. Landesbibliothek, HB XIV 15, fols. 9r–25r (9th cent.) ~ chs. 14–62
L Graz, Universitätsbibliothek, 412, fols. 21r–33r (9th cent.)
M Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4554, fols. 22v–31r (8th/9th cent.)
N Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, XV.AA.12, fols. 18v–22v (10th/11th cent.)
O Ottobeuren, Kloster Ottobeuren, frag. A (3 fols.) (9th cent.) ~ chs. 11–21
P Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 18298 (9th/10th cent.) ~ Bonnet P; IMAGES
Q Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 17002, fols. 200v–206v (10th cent.) ~ Bonnet Q; IMAGES
S Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, N.A. lat. 2180, fols. 29v–40v (11th cent.) ~ IMAGES
V Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 358 (Hist. eccl. 13), fols. 10r–20v (9th cent.) ~ ONB
W Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M.p.th.f. 78, fols. 6r–15v (8th cent.)
Z Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, XCV (90), fols. 119v–135v (9th cent.)
Additional manuscripts:
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 22020, fols. 33v–41v (12th cent.)
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 13074, fols. 101v–119v; illustrations fol. 100v, 101r (1175)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 5273 (13th cent.) ~ IMAGES
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 5274 (12th cent.) ~ IMAGES
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 9737 (12th cent.) ~ Bonnet R; IMAGES
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11750, fols. 91v–99v (11th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 18298 (9th/10th cent.) ~ IMAGES
Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 547 (12th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 557 (11th/12th cent.) ~ Bonnet G
Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 558 (13th cent.)
Bonnet, Max, ed. Acta Thomae graece partim cum novis codicibus contulit partim primus edidit, latine recensuit. Supplementum Codicis Apocryphi 1. Lipsiae: Hermann Mendelssohn, 1883 (edition based on P, Q, R, G, M, pp. 133–60).
Zelzer, Klaus. Die alten Lateinischen Thomasakten. TUGAL 122. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1977 (edition, pp. 3–42).
3.1.2 Glossiarolum di domiciliis (BHL 8139): a glossary with the names of the twelve rooms of Gundaphorus’ palace sometimes appearing in the margin of Pass. Thom. or as a coda and later as an independent text; see the discussion in Lendinara, “Minimal Collections of Glosses” (below).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.3 General Works
Amore, Orsola. “‘De Palatio in passione Thomae’: La teoria della regalità da Costantino all’età dei Maurini.” Athenaeum: Studi periodici di letteratura e storia dell’antichità 93 (2005): 553–75.
__________. De palatio in passione Thomae: Miti e leggende tra immanenza e trascendenza in Occidente e in Oriente. Noceto: Monduzzi, 2011.
Bernard, Philippe. “Un passage perdu des Acta Thomae latins conservé dans une anaphore mérovingienne.” RBén 107 (1997): 24–39.
Lendinara, Patrizia. “Minimal Collections of Glosses: The Twelve Rooms of Thomas’ Palace.” Pages 175–201 in Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts. Edited by Ursula Lenker and Lucia Kornexl. Buchreihe der ANGLIA/ANGLIA Book Series 67. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019.
Otero, Aurelio de Santos. “Later Acts of the Apostles.” Pages 426–82 in New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 2: Writings Related to the Apostles, Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by R. McLachlan Wilson. 6th ed. 2 vols. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1992 (see p. 456).
Rose, Els. “Provinciae et civitates ecclesiis plenae. Transformation of the civitates Indorum in the Apocryphal Acts and the Liturgical Commemoration of the Apostle Thomas.” Pages 103–22 in Sanctifying Texts, Transforming Rituals: Encounters in Liturgical Studies. Edited by Paul van Geest, Marcel Poorthuis, and Els Rose. Brill’s Studies in Catholic Theology 5. Leiden: Brill, 2017 (see pp. 105–107).
__________. “Thomas Peregrinus. The Apostle as Stranger in the Latin Apocryphal Acts of Thomas.” Apocrypha 27 (2016): 161–75.
Zelzer, Klaus. “Zu den lateinischen Fassungen der Thomasakten.” Wiener Studien 84 (1971): 161–79; 85 (1972): 185–212.
__________. “Zu Datierung und Verfasserfrage der lateinischen Thomasakten.” Studia Patristica 13 (1975): 190–94.