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APRIL, 1909.] THE CONNECTION OF ST. THOMAS WITH INDIA.
We have no King's sister's son in the Acts; but we have the son of King Mazdai, Vizan in the Syriac, who was baptised in his own house. In the Greek versions of the Acts, Vizan, as shewn above, is Οὐαζάνης, Ιουζανής, Ιουαζάνης, and ’Αζάνης, and in the Latin Zuzanes, Zuzani, Zuzanius, Luzanis, and Oazanes. The allusion may be to the same person.
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In the Indian Antiquary, Vol. 9, 1880, pp. 255-263, there is a review of A. von Sallet's Die Nachfolger Alexanders des Grossen in Baktrien und Indien, Berlin, 1879, with translations of long extracts from the same. One of the extracts is as follows (p. 262 f.):
"Abdagases, Nephew of Yndopheres. The passage communicated by Gatschmid from Apocryph. "Evangelium Joannis de obitu Maria is important. There the apostle Thomas says of his mission “to the king of India :--- τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀδελφῆς τοῦ βασιλέως ὀνόματι Λαβδανοῦς ὑπ' ἐμοῦ μέλλοντος "oppayiceobai ir T waλariq. Moreover, besides Gondophoros, his brother Gad, who was converted with ahim, is mentioned ; now Gutschmid justly compares BACILEY ΑΒΑΔΑ ΓΥΝΔΙΦΕΡΟ ΑΔΕΛΦΙΔΕΟΣ "with viós ris adeλøns roû Baridéws. This is certainly the same person, and the notice again "demonstrates how well the first legend writers were informed about Gondophares and his family. "But from the former erroneous lection AOAAA instead of ABAAA fixed by the Berlin specimen which "I copied, the erroneous suppositions of Gutschmid follow, who considers Bareva" to be a barbarous "genitive of the name 'Oádas Gvâd, Gad, -the supposed brother of the king and perhaps = Labdanes "(Abdanes) and compares this supposed Oadas with OAAO, the wind-god of Kanerku.
"Now the more correct lections of these nephew-coins (Prinsep, Essays, Vol. II., p. 216), with the "distinct name Abdagasa in Aryan, which Gutschmid has not used in this instance, demonstrate the "erroneousness of these conjectures.
"The nephew of Gondophares, as we learn from his coins, was called Abdagases, in Aryan "always Abdagasa, or Avdagasa, in Greek sometimes corrupted to 'Aẞadá..., 'Aẞahárov, etc. “The reading adduced by Gutschmid of υἱοῦ τῆς ἀδελφῆς τοῦ βασιλέως Λαβδανοῦς is certain and of "great value; this nephew and his name are certainly identical with the Abdagases, Abada 66 Abalgases of the coins."
We seem hardly in a position to make such positive statements. If we make use of these "legends," we must interpret them one with another. There seems no sufficient reason to think that the king to whom St. Thomas is made to allude, in the passage given just above, is Gondophares: the allusion would seem to be a totally different king, namely, the Mazdai of the Syriac Acts, the Miadaios of the Greek and Misdeus of the Latin, the king who put St. Thomas to death. It may be that the "legend-writers" have confused them; but, then, how are we to say they were well informed about Gondophares and his family"? This Labdanes may perhaps be the Vizan or Ovatárns of the Acts, the son of King Mazdai; but there seems no good reason to identify him with Abdagases, the nephew of Gondophares. It should be remarked also that, though the reading Aaßbarous is probably certain, still one of Tischendorf's texts has Khavdarovs. Also the texts do not say that the apostle is speaking "of his mission to the king of India :" that is only Von Sallet's inference.
We know nothing about Gondophares and his family except what can be learnt, as detailed above, from coins, from one inscription, and from the Acts of St. Thomas. His date is not yet definitely fixed; his territories are still more or less undefined; and his race is still not certain.
But, according to Gutschmid, all had been settled. Gondophares reigned A. D. 7 to 29; he ruled over "Aria, Drangiana and Arachosia; " and he derived "his descent from a Parthian "dynasty." His investigations had also shewn "that the Acts of Thomas are really based on "a Buddhist work, containing the history of a conversion, the scene of which must have been
There seems to be something wrong about this sentence, from the word "But" to "Bartheva" I can only quote exactly what is before me in print.
