Page 13 - PushpaTarang_July

Thomas in the After Days

We do not know for sure what happened to Thomas in the days
after. There is an apocryphal book called ‘the acts of Thomas’
which purports to give his history. It is of course only a legend,
but may, will be a history beneath the legend.: and certainly in
it, Thomas is true to character.

The part of the story goes like this.
After the death of Jesus, the disciples divided up the world
among them, so that each might go to some country to preach
the Gospel. India fell by lot to Thomas. At first he refused to
go, saying that he was not strong enough for the long journey.
He said “I am a Hebrew man, how can I go amongst the In-
dians and preach the truth?” Jesus appeared to him by night
and said “Fear not Thomas, go to India and preach the word
there, for my grace is with you.” But Thomas still stubbornly

refused, “if you please, send me” he said, “But elsewhere, for
unto the Indians, I will not go.”

It so happened that there had come a certain merchant from
India to Jerusalem called Abbanes. He had been sent by King
Gundaphorus to find a skilled carpenter and to bring him back
to India and Thomas was a carpenter, Jesus came up to Abbanes
in the market place and said to him “Would you like to buy a
carpenter”? Abbanes said. “Yes.” Jesus said, “I have a slave
who is a carpenter, and I desire to sell him.” And he pointed at
Thomas in the distance. So they agreed on a price and Thomas

was sold and the agreement ran: “I Jesus, the son of Joseph
the Carpenter, acknowledge that I have sold my slave Thom-
as by name, unto thee Abbanes, a merchant of Gundaphorus,
King of the Indians. When the deed was drawn up, Jesus took