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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 523. What was Thomas?
Subjects in this Topic:
II
What was He?
Literature
Alexander, S. A., Christ and Scepticism (1894), 293.
Arnold, T., Sermons, v. (1878) 223.
Bernard, J. H., From Faith to Faith (1895), 263.
Calthrop, G., In Christ (1893), 205.
Campbell, R. J., in Sermons by Congregational Preachers, i. 9.
Carpenter, W. B., The Son of Man among the Sons of Men (1893), 117.
Curzon, J. E., in Sermons on the Gospels: Advent to Trinity (1896), 284.
Davidson, A. B., The Called of God (1902), 319.
Dawson, W. J., The Church of To-Morrow (1892), 83.
Gwatkin, H. M., The Eye for Spiritual Things (1907), 131.
Hadden, R. H., Selected Sermons (1911), 12.
Hardy, E. J., Doubt and Faith (1899), 104.
Henson, H. H., The Value of the Bible (1904), 182.
Ingram, A. F. W., Friends of the Master (1898), 60.
Ingram, A. F. W., A Mission of the Spirit (1906), 149.
Jones, J. D., The Glorious Company of the Apostles (1904), 172.
Lilley, J. P., Four Apostles (1912), 95.
Macnutt, F. B., The Riches of Christ (1903), 34.
Magee, W. C., Growth in Grace (1892), 81.
Maggs, J. T. L., The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul (1901), 195.
Rattenbury, J. E., The Twelve (1914), 193.
Robertson, F. W., Sermons, ii. (1875) 268.
Ryle, H. E., On the Church of England (1904), 125.
Temple, W., Studies in the Spirit and Truth of Christianity (1914), 121.
Thew, J., Broken Ideals, 141.
Tholuck, A., Light from the Cross (1869), 99.
Whyte, A., Bible Characters: Joseph and Mary to James (1900), 159.
Wilkinson, G. H., Some Laws in God's Spiritual Kingdom (1909), 280.
Williams, C. D., A Valid Christianity for To-Day (1909), 124.
Williams, T. R., Belief and Life (1898), 99.
Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, ii. (1908) 728 (E. H. Titchmarsh).
My Lord and my God.- Joh_20:28.
It is probable that, as Jesus chose only twelve Apostles, He chose persons of distinct and marked character, in order that the truth of the gospel might in after ages shine among men, not with one colour of light, but in many colours. Now, in judging men's conduct, we need to know not only their circumstances but, above all, their kind of mind. We need this even in judging of their religious conduct. For religion does not alter the natural cast of a man's mind; it only sanctifies and consecrates the natural disposition. The man who was impulsive before he was impressed with the truth remains impulsive still, and will act impulsively even in religious things, although he may be taught gradually to guard against his impulsiveness. The man who is despondent by nature will not be immediately transported by his faith into a clear air and sunny sky, although his natural disposition may be, to some extent, corrected by the many hopes set before him in the gospel, and even more by the healthy activity into which it sets all his feelings. At all events, in forming an opinion of men's actions, we should endeavour, if we have the means, to get behind their actions and look at themselves.
Now, while there are many wonderful portraits in the portraitgallery of St. John's Gospel, there is no figure more distinctly drawn than that of the Apostle Thomas. And yet, strange to say, it is possible that great injustice has been done to him. His name has become, in Church history, a proverb for unbelief. Among the typical characters that surround our Lord in the gospel story, he has always been regarded as the type of the doubter; he is known as the doubting or unbelieving Thomas. Why should he be so called? It is true that he doubted; but his doubt does not seem either so very unreasonable or so very obstinate that he should be called, by way of distinction, the doubter, the unbeliever. It was not unreasonable, on the contrary it was reasonable and natural, that he should feel some doubt respecting the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Others had doubted as well as he, and they were called “fools, and slow of heart to believe”; and yet they did not inherit the name of the doubters. Nor was his disbelief of a very obstinate kind. It seems to have yielded almost instantaneously to evidence, and immediately after he had seen what he asked to see, he gave utterance to a confession of faith which was really in advance of his time-he said more for Christ than many others of His disciples perhaps would then have said-he said, “My Lord and my God.” He not only admitted Christ's resurrection but acknowledged His Divinity; and yet he is called “Thomas the doubter-the sceptic.”