Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 163
Chapter Eleven—Jesus Goes to India 163 Apostle is given as Judah Thomas, and is expressly set forth that he was the twin of Jesus Christ. (a) It is claimed that the Acts is historical, and further that the scene of the Acts is laid in southern India. Unfortunately for his view, the details in Acts which point to any acquaintance with India at all, are connected with the North West (b) and the country between India and Mesopotamia. ‘Christians of St. Thomas’ is a name often applied to the ancient Christian churches of south- ern India; the view taken of their story is so intimately connected with the historicity of ‘The Acts of Thomas’ that it is convenient to treat of them here. According to their tradition, St. Thomas went from Malabar [South-West Coast] to Mylapur, now a suburb of Madras, where the shrine of his martyrdom, rebuilt by the Portuguese in 1547, still stands on Mt. St. Thomas, and where a miraculous cross is shown with a Pahlavi inscrip- tion which may be as old as the 7th century. We know from Cosmos Indicopleustes that there were Christian churches of Persian (East Syrian) origin, and doubtless of (a) His being called the twin of Jesus probably means that he from among all his disciples accompanied him in his long journey to India, and preached his message as Jesus’ mission was his own mission, otherwise there is no cogent reason for his being called ‘twin of Jesus. ’ ( b) This corroborates our theory. North-West was the place where masses of the lost ten tribes were domiciled. Jesus and his disciple St. Thomas at first came to the North West and then Thomas was sent by Jesus, if he accompanied him: or of his own accord if he followed Jesus, to the South-West of India, where also the Israelites lived.