(«.) The first trait is found in his speech when our Lord determined to face the dangers that awaited liim in Jud;ea on his journey to Bctliany. Thomas said to. his fellow-disciiik'S. " Let us also go (Ka\ i)f^ific'), that we may die with him" (John xi, 16). He entertained no hope of his escape — he looked on the journey as leading to total ruin; but he determined to share the peril. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."
[b.) The second occurs in his speech during the last supper: "Thomas saith unto him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John xiv, 5). It was the prosaic, incredulous doubt as to moving a step in tlie unseen future, and yet an eager inquiry to know how this step was to be taken.
(c.) The third was after the resurrection. He was absent — possibly by accident, perhaps characteristically — from the first assembly when Jesus had ajipeared. The others told him what they had seen. He broke forth into an exclamation, the terms of wliich convey to us at once the vehemence of his doidjt, and, at the same time, the vivid picture that his mind retained of his Master's form as he had last seen him lifeless on the cross: "Except I see in his hands the jirint of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into iiis side, I will not, I cannot, be- lieve" (o('i jiu) TTKTrtf'iffcii, John xx, 25). On the eighth day he was witii them at their gathering, perhaps in expectation of a recurrence of the visit of the previous week ; and Jesus stood among them. He pronounced the same salutation, "Peace be unto you;" and then, turning to Thomas, as if this had been the special object of his appearance, uttered the words whicli convey as strongly the sense of condemnation and tender reproof as those of Tiiomas had sliown the sense of hesitation and doubt: "Bring thy finger hither [(o^t — as if him- self pointing to his wounds] and see my hands; and bring thy hand and thrust it in my side; and do not become (/.it) yn'ov) unbelieving (uttjotoc), but believing {iriaToc)." " He answers to the words that Thomas had spoken to the ears of his fellow-disciples only ; but it is to the thought of his heart rather than to the words of his lips that the Searclier of hearts answers. . . . Eye, ear, and touch at once appealed to and at once satisfied — the form, the look, the voice, the solid and actual body : and not the senses only, but the mind sat- isfied too ; the knowledge that searches the very reins and the hearts; tlie love that loveth to the end. infinite and eternal" (Arnold, Serm. vi, 238). The effect on Thomas is immediate. It is useless to speculate wlieth- er he obeyed our Lord's invitation to examine the wounds. The impression is that he did not. Be that as it may, the conviction produced by the removal of his doubt became deeper and stronger than that of any of the other apostles. The words in which he express- ed his belief contain a far higher assertion of liis Mas- ter's divine nature than is contained in any other ex- pression used by apostolic lips, "My Lord, and my God. ' Some have supposed that (crpiof refers to the human,
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ZtiH^ to the divine nature. This is too artificial. It is more to the point to ol)serve ilie exact terms of tlie sentence, uttereil, as it were, in astonisiied awe. " It is, then, my Ltini anil my God!" (It is obviously of no d<»gmatic importance whether the words are an address or a deserii)tion. Tliat they are the latter appears from the use of the nominative o Kvpiog. 'I'he form 6 5»of jtroves nothini;, as tliis is used for tiie vocative. At the same time, it should be observed that tlie passajje is said to Cltrii't, iiTtiv ai'Tiji.) The word "my" gives it a personal a|)plication to himself. Additional emjiha- sis is given to this declaration from its beinij the last incident related in the direct narrative of tlie jfospel (before the supplement of eh. xxi), thus corresiiontliiitc to the opeiiinLC words of the proloijue. "Tims Christ was acknowleilii'eil on earth to be what Jolm hail in the beginning of his gospel declared him to be from all eternity; and the words of Thomas at the end of the twentieth chapter do but repeat the truth wliich John had stated before in his own w-ords at the begiiming of the first" (Arnolil, Senn. vi, 401). The answer of our .Lord siniis up the moral of the whole narrative: "He- cause ["TlionVis" (Hiu/ia) is omitted in the best IMSS. ] thou hast seen me, tliou hast believed: blessed are tliey that have not seen me. and yet have believed" (xx, 29). Hy this incident, therefore, Thomas, "the doubt- ing apostle," is raised at once to the theologian in the original sense of the word. "Ab eo dtibitatum est," says .\ugiistine, "ne a nobis dubitaretur." AViner and others find in tlie character of Thomas what they con- sider contradictory traits, viz. inconsiderate faith and a turn for exacting the most rigorous evidence. We find that a resolute and lively faith is always necessarily combined with a sense of its importance, and with a de- sire to keep its objects unalloyed and free from error and superstition. Christ himself did not blame Thom- as for availing himself of all possible evidence, but only pronoimcpit those blessed who would be open to convic- tion even if some external form of evidence should not be within their reach (comp. Nienieyer, /IX-aJe««VAe Predigten und Reden, p. 321 sq.). Monographs have been written in Latin on this scene in Thomas's life by Carpzov (Helmst. 1757), id. (Vim. 1765), IJust (Budiss. 1785), and Gram (Norimb. 1(518).