Ethiopia.——The earliest testimony on this point by any ecclesiastical history, is that of Socrates, (A. D. 425,) a Greek writer, who says only, that “when the apostles divided the heathen world, by lot, among themselves,——to Matthew was allotted Ethiopia.” This is commonly supposed to mean Nubia, or the country directly south of Egypt. The other Fathers of the fifth and following centuries, generally assign him the same country; but it is quite uncertain what region is designated by this name. Ethiopia was a name applied by the Greeks to such a variety of regions, that it is quite in vain to define the particular one meant, without more information about the locality.
But no such idle inventions can add anything to the interest which this apostolic writer has secured for himself by his noble Christian record. Not even an authentic history of miracles and martyrdom, could increase his enduring greatness. The tax-gatherer of Galilee has left a monument, on which cluster the combined honors of a literary and a holy fame,——a monument which insures him a wider, more lasting, and far higher glory, than the noblest [♦]achievements of the Grecian or the Latin writers, in his or any age could acquire for them. Not Herodotus nor Livy,——not Demosthenes nor Cicero,——not Homer nor Virgil,——can find a reader to whom the despised Matthew’s simple work is not familiar; nor did the highest hope or the proudest conception of the brilliant Horace, when exulting in the extent and durability of his fame, equal the boundless and eternal range of Matthew’s honors. What would Horace have said, if he had been told that among the most despised of these superstitious and barbarian Jews, whom his own writings show to have been proverbially scorned, would arise one, within thirty or forty years, who, degraded by his avocation, even below his own countrymen’s standard of respectability, would, by a simple record in humble prose, in an uncultivated and soon-forgotten dialect, “complete a monument more enduring than brass,——more lofty than the pyramids,——outlasting all the storms of revolution and of disaster,——all the course of ages and the flight of time?” Yet such was the result of the unpretending effort of Matthew; and it is not the least among the miracles of the religion whose foundation he commemorated and secured, that such a wonder in fame should have been achieved by it.
[♦] “achievments” replaced with “achievements”
THOMAS, DIDYMUS.
The second name of this apostle is only the Greek translation of the former, which is the Syriac and Hebrew word for a “twin-brother,” from which, therefore, one important circumstance may be safely inferred about the birth of Thomas, though unfortunately, beyond this, antiquity bears no record whatever of his circumstances previous to his admission into the apostolic fraternity.
Nor is the authentic history of the apostles, much more satisfactory in respect to subsequent parts of Thomas’s history. A very few brief but striking incidents, in which he was particularly engaged, are specified by John alone, who seems to have been disposed to supply, by his gospel, some characteristic account of several of the apostles, who had been noticed only by name, in the writings of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those in particular who receive this peculiar notice from him, are Andrew, Philip, Nathanael, Thomas, and John himself,——of all whom, as well as of Peter, are thus learned some interesting matters, which, though apparently so trivial, do much towards giving a distinct impression of some of the leading traits in their characters. Among those facts thus preserved respecting Thomas, however, there is not one which gives any account of his parentage, rank in life, or previous occupation; nor do any other authentic sources bring any more facts to view on these points. The only conclusion presented even by conjecture, about his early history, is, that he was a publican, like Matthew,——a notion which is found in some of the Fathers,——grounded, no doubt, altogether on the circumstance, that in all the gospel lists, he is paired with Matthew, as though there were some close connection between them. This is only a conjecture, and one with even a more insignificant basis than most trifling speculations of this sort, and therefore deserving no regard whatever. Of the three incidents commemorated by John, two at least, are such as to present Thomas in a light by no means advantageous to his character as a ready and zealous believer in Jesus; but on both these occasions he is represented as expressing opinions which prove him to have been very slow, not only in believing, but in comprehending spiritual truths. The first incident is that mentioned by John in his account of the death of Lazarus, where he describes the effect produced on the disciples by the news of the decease of their friend, and by the declaration made at the same time by Jesus, of his intention to go into Judea again, in spite of all the mortal dangers to which he was there exposed by the hatred of the Jews, who, enraged at his open declarations of his divine character and origin, were determined to punish with death, one who advanced claims which they pronounced absolutely blasphemous. This mortal hatred they had so openly expressed, that Jesus himself had thought it best to retire awhile from that region, and to avoid exposing himself to the fatal effects of such malice, until the other great duties of his earthly mission had been executed, so as to enable him, at last, to proceed to the bloody fulfilment of his mighty task, with the assurance that he had finished the work which his Father gave him to do.
But in spite of the pressing remonstrances of his disciples, Jesus expressed his firm resolution to go, in the face of all mortal dangers, into Judea, there to complete the divine work which he had only begun. Thomas, finding his Master determined to rush into the danger, which, by once retreating from it for a time, he had acknowledged to be imminent, resolved not to let him go on, alone; and turning to his fellow-disciples, said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” The proposal, thus decidedly made, shows a noble resolution in Thomas, to share all the fortunes of him to whom he had joined himself, and presents his character in a far more favorable light than the other passages in which his conduct is commemorated. While the rest were fearfully expostulating on the peril of the journey, he boldly proposed to his companions to follow unhesitatingly the footsteps of their Master, whithersoever he might go,——thus evincing a spirit of far more exalted devotion to the cause.
The view here taken differs from the common interpretation of the passage, but it is the view which has seemed best supported by the whole tenor of the context, as may be decided by a reference to the passage in its place, (John xi. 16.) The evidence on both views can not be better presented than in Bloomfield’s note on this passage, which is here extracted entire.
“Here again the commentators differ in opinion. Some, as Grotius, Poole, Hammond, Whitby, and others, apply the αὐτου to Lazarus, and take it as equivalent to ‘let us go and die together with him.’ But it is objected by Maldonati and Lampe, that Lazarus was already dead; and die like him they could not, because a violent death was the one in Thomas’s contemplation. But these arguments seem inconclusive. It may with more justice be objected that the sense seems scarcely natural. I prefer, with many ancient and modern interpreters, to refer the αὐτου to Jesus, ‘let us go and die with him.’ Maldonati and Doddridge regard the words as indicative of the most affectionate attachment to our Lord’s person. But this is going into the other extreme. It seems prudent to hold a middle course, with Calvin, Tarnovius, Lyser, Bucer, Lampe, and (as it should appear) Tittman. Thomas could not dismiss the idea of the imminent danger to which both Jesus and they would be exposed, by going into Judea; and, with characteristic bluntness, and some portion of ill humor, (though with substantial attachment to his Master’s person,) he exclaims: ‘Since our Master will expose himself to such imminent, and, as it seems, unnecessary danger, let us accompany him, if it be only to share his fate.’ Thus there is no occasion, with Markland and Forster, apud Bowyer, to read the words interrogatively.” (Bloomfield’s Annotations, vol. III. p. 426, 427.)