The Acta Thorme or HtpioUi BaifAn* is a Gnostic work prob- ably going back to the 2nd cent., and written by one Leuciug the author of several apocr>-phal Acts. It begins by telling that, at the division of the field of the world among the apostles, India was allocated to Thom.is ; that he was at first unwiUinff to go there, but was persuaded by a vision of Christ, who sola him as a slave to an Indian merchant. After some adventures by the way (which display the Gnostic tendencies of the writer ; see Salmon, Introd. to XT^ p. 334 f.), he arri\ed in India, and there (being a carpenter) was entrusted by his master with the building of a palace, but expended the nioney on the relief of the poor. His missionary efforts were at last crowned with success. The connexion of his name with India, (or which these Acta are the earliest authority, was widely accepted after the 4th cent, in both East and West. The Malabar 'Christians of St. Thomas ' still count him as the first martyr and evangelist of their country. It is probable, how- ever, that these Christians were evangelized from Edessa, and that the traditional account of their origin is due to a confused memory of one of the pioneer missionaries from that place, who was called Thomas after its patron saint. For there is a quite distinct(and seemingly earlier) account of the missionary activity of the apostlewhich makes Partbia the scene of hislabours(Eu8. UEni. 1 ; see also Clem. Recogn, is. 29, and Socrates, HB i. 19), and Edessa his burial-place (Rufinus, £f£.' ii. 5, and Socrates, HE iv. 18). According to the Roman Martyrolo^y his remains were brought from India to Edessa, and thence, it was said, to Ortona in Italy during the Crusades. The oldest extant tradi- tion as to the manner of his death is that it was from natural causes (Clem. Alex. Strom, iv. 9. 73).
J. H. Bernard. THOMEI (B ebixBei. A e6M«, AV Thomoi), 1 Es 5'-' = Temah, Ezr 2^, Neh 7".
THORNS.— See Thistles.
THOUGHT.— In 1 S 9' ' Come, and let us re- turn ; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us,' the phrase 'take thought' means 'be anxious,' 'grieve.' The same verb (jn-i) is translated 'sorrow' in 10" 'Thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sor- roweth for you.' RV lias ' take thought' in both
Cassages, but Amer. RV gives ' be anxious ' in oth. In Ps 38'* both ver.sions render the Hebrew word ' I will be sorry.' ' Thought ' was once freely used in English in the sense of ' anxiety ' or ' grief. ' Thus Cranmer, Works, i. 162, ' Alas, Master Secretary, you forget Master Smyth of the Ex- chequer, who is near consumed with thought and penjiveness ' ; Somers Tracts, 'In five hundred years only two queens have died in childbirth. Queen Catherine Parr died rather of thought ' ; Shaks. Hamlet, III. L 85 —
• And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought* ;
and IV. v. 177 — ' KnA there is pansies, that's for thoughts.' Cf. Wyclif's use of^ the verb, Selert Works, iii. 9, ' As a bird of a swalowe, so I scbal crie, I schal thinke as a do\we.' In AV ' thought' occurs in this sense only in the phrase 'take thought.' Besides 1 S 9' (above) the examples are Mt e^'- »'•»•"•"'"' 1019, Lk i2ii.s2.a>.M (aji ^p^^_ via), and Mk 13" ' take no thought beforehand '
■ ♦ The best C'lition of the Gr. and Lat. texts of these Acta is that of Bonnet (18S;l); for the Syriac Acts see Wright, Apocry- phal Acts 0/ the Apostles (1871) ; and, for the .fCthiopic version of the stor}', Malan, Conjlicts of the Holy Apostles (1871). For all legends about Thomas the best and fullest account will be found in I.ipsius' Dit Apoleryphen Apottelgeschiehttn (1888-1890), vol. i. pp 22S-S47.
{pLTi Tpofi.eptftfS.Ti); KV alw.ays 'be anxious.' Cf. Coverdale's tr. of 1 S 10^ (see above), ' Thy father hath put the asses out of bis mynde, and taketh thouglite for the, and sayeth : What shall I do for my Sonne ? ' and Shaks. Jul. Ctesar, II. L 187 —
' If he love C:esar, all that he can do, Is to himself take thought and die for Caesar.'
J. Hastings THRACIA ^QplfKr|) was the country lying east ol Macedonia, bounded on the north by the Danube and on the south by the jEgean Sea, the Darda- nelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the territory of Byzantium (a ' free city,' connected with the Roman province of Bithynia from B.C. 74). Thrace is never mentioned in the NT, nor did any action alluded to in the NT take place in that country. Philippi and Neapolis, indeed, had originally been in Thrace ; but the boundaries of Macedonia were extended far towards the east by the conquests ol the Macedonian kings, and included botn citie.». Before the Roman period the boundary between Macedonia and Thrace was the boundary between civilization and barbarism, and this varied as civilization enlarged its limits. Originally the name Thracia was used in a very loose and vague fashion, and the Macedonians were even sometimes spoken of as a tribe of Thrace, which in that case practically meant the land north and north-east of Greece. The Macedonians were akin to the Tliracians, but came under the inttuence of Greek civilization earlier.* It was not until A.D. 46 that Thrace was incorporated as a province in the Roman empire.