Anonymous, Acta Thomae, 29

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[29] And when he had thus spoken, some of them that stood by said: It is time for the creditor to receive the debt. And he said unto them: He that is lord of the debt desireth alway to receive more; but let us give him that which is due. And he blessed them, and took bread and oil and herbs and salt and blessed and gave unto them; but he himself continued his fast, for the Lord’s day was coming on ¹

And when night fell and he slept, the Lord came and stood at his head, saying: Thomas, rise early, and having blessed them all, after the prayer and the ministry go by the eastern road two miles and there will I show thee my glory: for by thy going shall many take refuge with me, and thou shalt bring to light the nature and power of the enemy. And he rose up from sleep and said unto the brethren that were with him: Children, the Lord would accomplish somewhat by me to-day, but let us pray, and entreat of him that we may have no impediment toward him, but that as at all times, so now also it may be done according to his desire and will by us. And having so said, he laid his hands on them and blessed them, and brake the bread of the eucharist and gave it them, saying: This eucharist shall be unto you for compassion and mercy, and not unto judgement and retribution. And they said Amen.

Acta Thomae. Anonymous. Oxford. 1924.

Funding provided by University of Virginia; Center for Hellenic Studies.

Current edition First1KGreek

Acts of Thomas (English) (Acts of Thomas. The Apocryphal New Testament, being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses. James, Montague Rhodes, translator. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.)

Editions (1)

Πράξεις τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου Θωμᾶ First1KGreek (Acta Philippi et Acta Thomae accedunt Acta Barnabae. Bonnet, Maximilian, editor. Leipzig: Hermannus Mendelssohn, 1903.) — 29 focus

[29] Ταῦτα εἰπόντος αὐτοῦ τινὲς τῶν παρεστώτων εἶπον αὐτῷ· Καιρός ἐστιν τοῦ τὸν χρεώστην ἀπολαβεῖν τὸ χρέος. Ὃ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Ὁ μὲν κύριος τοῦ χρέους ἀεὶ τὸ περισσὸν ἀπολαβεῖνβούλεται, ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ δέον αὐτῷ δῶμεν. Καὶ εὐλογήσας αὐτοὺς ἔλαβεν ἄρτον καὶ ἔλαιον καὶ λάχανον καὶ ἅλας, καὶ εὐλογήσας ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς· αὐτὸς δὲ παρέμεινεν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ νηστείᾳ, ἔμελλεν γὰρ ἡ κυριακὴ ἐπιφέειν. τῆς δὲ νυκτὸς ἐπιούσης καὶ καθεύδοντος αὐτοῦ ἐλθὼν ὁ κύριος ἔστη πρὸς τῇ κεφαλῇ αὐτοῦ λέγων· θωμᾶ, ἀναστὰς ὄρθρου, εὐλογήσας πάντας μετὰ τὴν εὐχὴν καὶ διακονίαν ἄπελθε κατὰ τὴν ἀνατολικὴν ὁδὸν μίλια δύο, καὶ ἐκεῖ δείξω ἐν σοὶ τὴν ἐμὴν δόξαν· δι᾽ ὃ γὰρ ἀπέρχει πολλοὶ πρόσφυγές μοι γενήσονται, καὶ ἐλέγξεις τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ. Ἀναστὰς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ἔλεγεν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς τοῖς οὖσιν μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ· Τέκνα καὶ ἀδελφοί, ὁ κύριος βούλεταί τί ποτε σήμερον δι᾽ ἐμοῦ διαπράξασθαι· ἀλλ᾽ εὐξώμεθα καὶ δεηθῶμεν αὐτοῦ ἵνα μηδέν τί ποτε ἐμπόδιον γένηται ἡμῖν πρὸς αὐτόν, ἀλλὰ ὡς πάντοτε καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῦ βούλημα καὶ θέλημα γένηται δι᾽ ἡμῶν. Καὶ ταῦτα εἰπόντος αὐτοῦ ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ καὶ εὐλόγησεν αὐτούς· καὶ κλάσας ἄρτον τῆς εὐχαριστίας ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς εἰπών· Ἔσται ὑμῖν αὕτη ἡ εὐχαριστία εἰς εὐσπλαγχνίαν καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ μὴ εἰς κρίσιν καὶ ἀμοιβήν. Καὶ αὐτοὶ εἶπον Ἀμήν.

Notes on the current edition

Acts of Thomas

1. (Syr. And he himself ate, because the Sunday was dawning).

2. So also it is used of holiness in Wright, p. 255, l. 6, another fem.

3. The Greek is preserved by Epiphanius, Panar. 645.

Note by Professor F. C. Burkitt, D. D.

In the Acts of Thomas, 27, the apostle, being about to baptize Gundaphorus the King of India with his brother Gad, invokes the holy name of the Christ, and among other invocations says (according to the best Greek text):

Come, O elder of the five members, mind, idea, thoughfulness, consideration, reasoning, communicate with these youths.

What is the essential distinction of these five words for mind, and what is meant by the elder ( πρεσβύτερος)? We turn to the Syriac, as the original language in which our tale was composed, though our present text, which rests here on two manuscrpits, has now and then been bowdlerized in the direction of more conventional phraseology, a process that the Greek has often escaped. Here in the Syriac we find (Wright, p.193, l. 13; E. Tr. p. 166, last line but one): come, Messenger of reconciliation, and communicate with the minds of these youths.

The word for Come is fem., while Messenger (Izgaddā) is masc. This is because the whole prayer is an invocation of the Holy Spirit, which in old Syriac is invariably treated as feminine. The word for Messenger is that used in the Manichaean cosmogony for a heavenly Spirit sent from the Divine Light: this Spirit appeared as androgynous, so that the use of the word here with the feminine verb is not inappropriate. ² It further leads us to look out for other indications of Manichaean phraseology in the passage. But first it suggests to us that πρεσβύτερος in our passage is a corruption of, or is used for, πρεσβευτής, an ambassador.

As for the five word for mind, they are clearly the equivalents of haunā, mad'ā, re'yānā, mahshĕbhāthā, tar'īthā, named by Theodore bar Khōnī as the Five Shekinas, or Dwellings, or Manifestations, of the Father of Greatness, the title by which the Manichaeans spoke of the ultimate Source of Light. THere is a good discussion of these five words by M. A. Kugener in F. Cumont’s Recherches sur le Manichéiseme i, p. 10, note 3. In English we may say:

haunā means sanity,

mad'ā means reason,

re'yānā means mind,

mahshĕbhāthā means imagination,

tar'īthā means intention.

The Greek terms, used here and also in Acta Archelai, § 9, ³ are in my opinion merely equivalents for the Syriac terms.

Anonymous Acta Thomae 29

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