Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 168
? 168 countrymen the Glad Tidings of the advent of the Messiah must have led him to these regions first. To this day many tribesmen of the Indo-Afghan border claim their descent from Israel. After preaching the Gospel in Gundaphoros’ kingdom, other countries claimed the Apostle’s attention. A zealot of Thomas’s energy could not find peace as long as a single country remained ignorant of the life and teachings of the Master. The anarchical condition then prevailing in Hindustan proper and news of the existence of numerous Jewish communities on the ports of the West Coast must have influenced the Apostle’s decision to pro- ceed to the Malabar Coast from the Kingdom of Gundaphoros. Thus St. Thomas, by travelling to the regions in which the lost ten tribes lived, fulfilled the duty imposed upon the Disciples by Jesus saying: ‘Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’. And St. James obeyed this order by writing an Epistle address- ing the twelve tribes wherever they might be. He commenced his Epistle with these words: ‘James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting’. Jesus in Search of the Other Sheep The fourth Gospel reveals the fact that Jesus met his disciples for the last time at the Sea of Tiberias, dined with them, told Peter to ‘feed my sheep,’ bade them his last farewell, and departed for good. Where did he go? The Gospel contains no answer. In the Acts and the Epistles of St. Paul, however, we read that he was seen by St. Paul near Damascus in a vision, but 1 Corinthians 15:8