London, David Nutt, 1905, 8vo.)
In the beginning of the sixteenth century Barbosa found the church of St.
Thomas half in ruins and grown round with jungle. A Mahomedan fakir kept
it and maintained a lamp. Yet in 1504, which is several years earlier than
Barbosa's voyage, the Syrian Bishop Jaballaha, who had been sent by the
Patriarch to take charge of the Indian Christians, reported that the House
of St. Thomas had begun to be inhabited by some Christians, who were
engaged in restoring it.
Mr. W.R. Philipps has a valuable paper on The Connection of St. Thomas
the Apostle with India in the Indian Antiquary, XXXII., 1903, pp. 1-15,
145-160; he has come to the following conclusions: "(1) There is good
early evidence that St. Thomas was the apostle of the Parthian empire; and
also evidence that he was the apostle of 'India' in some limited sense,
- probably of an 'India' which included the Indus Valley, but nothing to
the east or south of it. (2) According to the Acts, the scene of the
martyrdom of St. Thomas was in the territory of a king named, according to
the Syriac version, Mazdai, to which he had proceeded after a visit to the
city of a king named, according to the same version, Gudnaphar or
Gundaphar. (3) There is no evidence at all that the place where St. Thomas
was martyred was in Southern India; and all the indications point to
another direction. (4) We have no indication whatever, earlier than that
given by Marco Polo, who died 1324, that there ever was even a tradition
that St. Thomas was buried in Southern India."
In a recent and learned work (Die Thomas Legende, 1912, 8vo.) Father J.
Dahlmann has tried to prove that the story of the travels of St. Thomas in
India has an historical basis. If there is some possibility of admitting a
voyage of the Apostle to N.W. India (and the flourishing state of Buddhism
in this part of India is not in favour of Christian Evangelization), it is
impossible to accept the theory of the martyrdom of St. Thomas in Southern
India.
The late Mr. J.F. FLEET, in his paper on St. Thomas and Gondophernes
(Journ. Roy. As. Soc., April, 1905, pp. 223-236), remarks that "Mr.
Philipps has given us an exposition of the western traditional statements
up to the sixth century." He gives some of the most ancient statements;
one in its earliest traceable form runs thus: "According to the Syriac
work entitled The Doctrine of the Apostles, which was written in perhaps
the second century A.D., St. Thomas evangelized 'India.' St. Ephraem the
Syrian (born about A.D. 300, died about 378), who spent most of his life
at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, states that the Apostle was martyred in 'India'
and that his relics were taken thence to Edessa. That St. Thomas
evangelized the Parthians, is stated by Origen (born A.D. 185 or 186, died
about 251-254). Eusebius (bishop of Caesarea Palaestinae from A.D. 315 to
about 340) says the same.
