THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY
The Acts of Thomas
From "The Apocryphal New Testament"
Translation and notes by M. R. James
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924Introduction (by the translator, M. R. James)
This is the only one of the five primary romances which we possess in its entirety. It is of great
length and considerable interest. The Stichometry (see p. 24 ) gives it only 1 , 600 lines: this is far
too little: it may probably apply only to a portion of the Acts, single episodes of which, in
addition to the Martyrdom, may have been current separately. We do, in fact, find some separate
miracles in some of the oriental versions.
There is a consensus of opinion among Syriac scholars that our Greek text of these Acts is a
version from Syriac. The Syriac original was edited and translated by Wright in his Apocryphal
Acts, and older fragments have since been published by Mrs. Lewis (Horae Semiticae IV, 1904.
Mythological Acts of the Apostles).
Certain hymns occur in the Syriac which were undoubtedly composed in that language: most
notable is the Hymn of the Soul (edited separately by A. A. Bevan, and others) which is not
relevant to the context. It has been ascribed to Bardaisan the famous Syrian heretic. Only one
Greek MS. of the Acts (the Vallicellian, at Rome, Bonnet's MS. U, of the eleventh century)
contains it; it is paraphrased by Nicetas of Thessalonica in his Greek rechauffe of the Acts.
There is, in fact, no room to doubt that the whole text of the Acts, as preserved complete in MS.
U and partially in other manuscripts, is a translation from the Syriac. But in the Martyrdom four
manuscripts (including a very important Paris copy-Gr. 1510 , of eleventh century, and another of
ninth century) present a quite different, and superior. text, indubitably superior in one striking
point: that whereas Syr. places the great prayer of Thomas in the twelfth Act, some little time
before the Martyrdom (ch. 144 sqq.), the four manuscripts place it immediately before, after ch.
167 , and this is certainly the proper place for it.
It is, I believe, still arguable (though denied by the Syriacists) that here is a relic of the original
Greek text: in other words, the Acts were composed in Greek, and early rendered into Syriac.
Becoming scarce or being wholly lost in Greek they were retranslated out of Syriac into Greek.
But meanwhile the original Greek of the Martyrdom had survived separately, and we have it
here. This was M. Bonnet's view, and it is one which I should like to adopt.
At the very least, we have a better text of the Martyrdom preserved in these four manuscripts
than in U and its congeners.
As to other versions. The Latin Passions-one probably by Gregory of Tours- have been much
adulterated. We have also Ethiopic versions of some episodes, and there is also an Armenian one
of which little use has been made. However, versions are of little account in this case, where we
have such comparatively good authorities as the Greek and Syriac for the whole book.