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Most people
know the Bible tells us nothing about Thomas after the disciples dispersed
to teach The Way. It is not commonly known (yet not unknown) that he went
on to teach in India and Sri Lanka. Years later after teaching in many
places throughout the southern part of India and Sri Lanka he fell victim
to an assassination in what is now a suburb of the City of Madras in Southern
India.
Now ask yourself for what reason(s) would he have been disinterred three times and moved 6000 km and why has general knowledge of his work there not be made known? There are several reasons his work there is relatively unknown, outside the area, which would include Rome not wanting to put any emphasis on Thomas... it would open up questions they weren't prepared to answer, about people who accompanied him on his trip to India. Thomas went to India with his teacher, someone commonly known as Jesus (Joshua, Yeshua, or Yus) and a dozen other families familiar with him and those teachings. It is known several of the others stayed in the northern part of India to minister to the Jewish people of that area which were numerous, the so-called "Lost Tribes", amongst them was the Teacher. We know the "Lost Tribes" still knew their heritage in 1948 for there were thousands of men who came to the hospitals to be circumcized, around the time Israel formed as a country. Strangely those who left India for Israel were not accepted as Jews yet later the politicians of Israel acccepted the Black Jews of Ethiopia into their midst. It appears they rethought their position and discovered or admitted to themselves that Jews are not all light skinned. We know more about the "Lost Tribes". A few years ago the National Geographic did an article on the Gypsies having origins in India... well partly. They were not able to be traced to anywhere prior to their appearance in India. There are still 9 or 10 tribes of Gypsies there in India, still wandering about as they did when they left Egypt with Moses 3300+ years ago, still identifiable by their different (tribal) patterns of stitching their garments. Moses failed to take action at a crucial point in his leadership, he didn't cross the Jordan. He and his faithful wanderers continued to wander into history (and of those, many chose to settle and become part of the local population.) Those who took action at the Jordan claimed Palestine as theirs and the formation of the Bible was handed from Moses to Joshua. The people who accepted Moses was important to them continued with him, but it wasn't those who left him at the Jordan when his leadership faltered. His importance as a leader in those days would have ensured his gravesite revered and well marked for ages. It is, but not according to scriptures, certainly not in the sense that has been given to the words there. Those who made a choice to follow a different leader didn't know where he went to wander for 40 years. It isn't in the Middle East, it's in India where he ended his days. His gravesite is still guarded. It was of little interest to the Hebrews who crossed the Jordan, he was no longer 'their man'. Not later than sixteen years after the crucifixion, in the year 49 A.D. it is known The Way (Christianity before it was erroneously named after the teacher) was being taught in India. The name associated with the teaching in the southern part of India was Thomas. It appears some of the information relating to the time he was there and his writings have been removed from India and Sri Lanka. It is hidden away in some place, awaiting an appropriate time for it to be brought to light. Is it possibly in the Vatican libraries? Local tradition claims St. Thomas as the founder of the church in Malabar. He landed in 52 A.D. at Malankara, an island in the lagoon near Cranganore in Cochin, "a place that is now an obscure hamlet, but was in those days a flourishing seaport called, by ancient geographers, Muziri." One date of St. Thomas' death is given as 72 A.D. The place of burial as Mylapore (Chennai/Madras), a few miles from St. Thomas' Mount where the actual martyrdom is stated to have taken place. His remains were removed from Mylapore to Edessa (now Sanliurfa in Turkey) at a very early date. From there, later on they were taken to Chios, an island in the Aegean sea off the coast of Turkey, and later still to Ortona in Italy (almost directly east of Rome on the Adriatic) where they now repose. The original grave at Mylapore is still on view in the nave of the Roman Catholic Cathedral reconstructed and completed in 1896.
Two books attributed
to Thomas. The second is said to be about the early years of Jesus.
John
It's not odd that the man's name has so many titles/descriptors. You should check out how they see him in Greece on his island and by Greeks. They know him as John the Apostle, John the Theologian, John the Divine, John of the Apocalypse, the Apostle John and of course St John, and with any of the above descriptors. It must have something to do with the way people see him and partly the translation from Greek... They don't seemed concerned about the fact he's known with so many titles, he's still the same person to them no matter what a few benighted theologians have done to try to make two people out of the one man's life work. Patmos
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Where Thomas was first buried
The Cave & three views
of Patmos Island
