Thomas, one of Jesus' 12 disciples, did not believe the other disciples when they told him Jesus had risen from the dead, and would not believe until he had seen Jesus for himself.
Jesus appeared to him (and to the group he was with) and invited Thomas to put his hands into his wounds, something portrayed in several works of art. And then he did believe.
So, he gained the name "Doubting Thomas", a name in English that is, or was, anyway, applied to people who were sceptical or would not believe without seeing for themselves.
I am not sure how fair the name is applied just to him, as in the Gospel accounts, the other (male) disciples had not believed the female disciples when they met the risen Jesus. And no one calls them "doubting".
I think I have always quite liked that Thomas wanted to see for himself, and would not believe until he had. I think I can identify with that view and perhaps it is the experimental scientific view.
Although you can take that view too far. If someone in my close family tells me they have heard or seen something, I probably would believe them.
Something I found that was not from a Christian website is this from the Oxford University Press blog.
The blogpost author argues that what happened when Jesus appeared to Thomas was a collective, communal, act of finding something out, which is as you might do in science. He also draws parallels between Caravaggio's painting of the scene with Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. In the first, Thomas' finger is probing a wound, in the second, a scientific instrument is.
Two other pieces about Thomas and scientists are this article by Wilson Poon, a physicist, drawing parallels between Thomas' conclusions about Jesus and how scientists make progress, and this blog post from the Science Missioner, about Thomas as a role model for both scientists and Christians.
No comments:
Post a Comment