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APRIL, 1903.] THE CONNECTION OF ST. THOMAS WITH INDIA.
145
THE CONNECTION OF ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE WITH INDIA.
BY W. R. PHILIPPS.
(Concluded from page 15)
Some writings of doubtful date or antiquity which make mention of the connection of St. Thomas with India.
III.
E come now to some writings which have been frequently quoted as the genuine
productions the ancient authors whose names have been put upon They have
been even quoted as genuine from the very volumes in which they are distinctly printed as "spurious," where, indeed, they have been inserted by way of warning to prevent persons being deceived by extracts and references they may find elsewhere. It is therefore necessary to say something about them. They are not entirely to be rejected because they have a wrong name attached to them; but, until we know their real dates, we cannot make much practical use of them.
1.
Pseudo-Hippolytus. The genuine Hippolytus is St. Hippolytus, bishop, who died about 239; be lived and wrote in Rome. There is a Greek work ascribed to him entitled "Hippolytus on the Twelve Apostles: where each of thera died, and where he met his end."
It contains the following passage:
"And Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and "Margians, and was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spear at "Calamene, the city of India (év móde Kaλaμývn, The 'Loins) and was buried there.
"1 Mápyos. Combebisius proposes Mápdos. Jerome [should be Pseudo-Jerome] has 'Magis.' “2 The text is ἐλακήδη ἐλογχιάσβη, ἐλακήδη being probably for ἐλάτῃ.
"3 Kalauny. Steph. le Moyne reads Kapaμny."
The above translation and notes are from S. D. F. Salmond: The Writings of Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, Vol. 2, Edinburgh, 1869, p. 131. The translation has been verified by reference to the Greek text in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 10, Paris, 1857. Salmond apparently took his notes from Migne.
On reference to several authors who treat of St. Hippolytus and his works, Cardinal Wiseman (1853), Combefis (1648), Wetzer and Welte (1861), Bunsen (1854), Ceillier (1858), etc., I find no opinion as to the real date of the doubtful work "On the Twelve Apostles." The point seemed important in view of the mention of Calamene or Caramene. As regards the "Margians," Combefis proposed Mápdos, as the Mardi were a Hyrcanian people.
This Pseudo-Hippolytus affords an example of the misuse of such writings. In 1892, the Rev. George Milne Rae, Fellow of the University of Madras, published at Edinburgh a book entitled "The Syrian Church in India," a subject which has lent itself to much foolish writing in England, India, and Germany during the last two hundred years or more. Mr. Rae referred to this passage from Pseudo-Hippolytus as if the work containing it were genuine, and he actually made use of Salmond's translation, overlooking the translator's warning.
2. Pseudo-Dorotheus. A Greek writing exists under the title of "Ecclesiastical "History (evyypappa ikkλnotaσтikov) concerning the 70 Disciples of the Lord, by Dorotheus, "bishop of Tyre." It does not purport to be his actual writing; but it gives particulars of his life, and then records what he wrote about the Seventy Disciples and the Twelve Apostles "and the places where each of them preached Christ." The passage about St. Thomas is as follows:
"And Thomas the apostle, having preached the gospel to the Parthians and Medes, and "Persians, and Germani, and Bactrians, and Magi, suffered martyrdom (rehecoura) in a city of "India called Calamita (Kalauiry)."
