________________
9. COMING OF THOMAS
Attestations continue sporadically until the 9th-century Byzantine patriarch Photius (Cod. 114) and the 11th-century archbishop, Nicetas of Thessalonica, who paraphrased the work. The original composition is probably to be dated in the first half of the 3d century, slightly later than the Acts of Peter, John, and Paul, which are attested in the 2d century. Some sections, particularly the originally independent Hymn of the Pearl, presuppose conditions in the Parthian period, which ended with the establishment of the Sassanian Empire in 226 C.E. It is likely that Acts Thom. underwent redactional development, including adaptation by Manicheans, in the late 3d or 4th centuries.
The author of Acts of Thomas is considered to be Bardesanes (Bardesan)
Bardesanes was born in 154 CE, became a Christian c. 180 CE, and died in 222/223 CE.
Bar-Daisan (Catholic Encyclopedia)
At the age of twenty-five he happened to hear the homilies of Hystaspes, the Bishop of Edessa; he received instruction, was baptized, and even admitted to the dioconate or the priesthood. .....when Abgar IX, the friend of his youth, ascended the throne (179) he took his place at court.
His acceptance of Christianity was perfectly sincere; nor do later stories, that he left the Catholic Church and joined the Valentinian Gnostics out of disappointed ambition, deserve much credit. His royal friend became the first Christian king; and both king and philosopher labored to create the first Christian State. Bardesanes showed great literary activity against Marcion and Valentinus, the Gnostics of the day. But unfortunately, with the zeal of a convert anxious to use his previous acquirements in the service of the newly found truth, Bardesanes mixed his Babylonian pseudoastronomy with Christian dogma and thus originated a Christian sect, which was vigorously combated by St. Ephrem.
CHTY
Androphagi
Indi
World map according to Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (ca. 40 A.D.) and probable route of Thomas from Israel to Malabar along the pepper route.
194
