Friday, June 23, 2023
Monday, May 1, 2023
Doubting Thomas
by Philip A. Gottschalk
John 20:24-31
Jesus Appears to Thomas
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
I was reflecting on this passage as a part of my Bible reading plan. We almost always refer to the Apostle Thomas as “Doubting Thomas” due to this passage. However, I was struck by several things. First of all, though Jesus does say, “Do not be doubting, but believe.”, he doesn’t really reprove Thomas for his demand to see the Lord’s hands and his side. In fact, in the earlier passage just before this appearance, Jesus had appeared and showed the gathered disciples his hands and his side. This was proof that he was the same Jesus, who had died on the cross, and that he was alive, despite the fact that they saw him die. They were overjoyed. Thomas wasn’t there. Like a good empiricist, or empirical scientist he asks for reasonable proof. “You all saw him. You saw his hands and side. Well, I want proof.” We tend to see this as doubting, but Thomas is asking for the same thing the other disciples had already seen.
Thomas was asking for reasonable proof. He wasn’t refusing to believe without evidence. He was legitimately asking for evidence. That his request is reasonable is shown by the fact that Jesus grants his request. Jesus allows Thomas to have the same experience of himself as the Risen Christ that the others had had.
John’s Gospel ends with the famous ending above and chapter 21 has the same sort of ending. John says that the point of elaborating these miracles, the signs (those special seven miracles which are followed by an accompanying sermon related to the topic of the miracle), are to help us believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that in believing we may have life in his name. That John repeats this sort of ending in chapter 22 says he is deadly serious about this idea of proof and belief. Jesus is not calling for blind belief nor is John.
John continues on this theme in his first epistle in the first chapter:
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
John emphasizes that the disciples saw Jesus alive (not just once but they saw him many times, as Luke explains: “he appeared many times over 40 days”). They saw and touched him. Luke is giving us evidence of eyewitnesses who saw and touched Jesus. This ought to be good enough for the harshest skeptic. Jesus appeared in the flesh after his resurrection and they saw and touched him. Jesus even ate some fish with them. Despite the fact that he walked through walls and doors, he was a real person, a living person, a human being with a real body. He was recognizable at the same Jesus that they had known for three years.
However, John is not alone in this. Luke begins both his Gospel and his Book of Acts with the same idea.
Luke 1
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Luke is telling us that he is giving the report of eyewitnesses. He is giving a very careful account of what Jesus said and did so that Theophilus could “know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Luke wasn’t satisfied with just repeating nice stories. His goal was to give a careful account of things that had happened and that eyewitnesses had seen and heard.
Act 1
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
Again at the beginning of the Book of Acts Luke is trying to explain things that happened. He says that Jesus appeared after his death on the cross that he presented himself to them as alive and as a real person and that Jesus gave the apostles many convincing proofs of his being alive and real over a period of 40 days. Luke is at pains to explain that these men, these Apostles, were eyewitnesses and their accounts of the risen Jesus were real.
These two Gospel writers have the same goal: that we should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we may find life in his name.
I was struck by a fact that I learned many years ago. We know Jesus through the Gospels. We may know something of him via mystical experience, but what we really can prove or demonstrate about Jesus comes through the Gospels. Many scholars have set out to attack the Bible and the Gospels. Our faith lives or dies on this point. We only have the writings of these eyewitnesses for proof. If the Gospels are not true, then Christianity is just another story. I will relate two examples of what I have in mind.
A liberal scholar “proved” in the nineteenth century via the accounts Roman historians of Jesus’ time and later that there were no such things as Tetrarchs in Palestine. (See Luke 3:1) There were four “Tetrachs” in Palestine: “following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE. The latter's client kingdom was divided between his sister Salome I and his sons Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip.” The word Tetrarch actually means one of four rulers. Who those four rulers were changed when various of the Herodians died. Pontius Pilate was also considered a tetrarch at one point. Honestly being sent to Palestine to govern was no great assignment. The Jews were a fractious people, who constantly rebelled against Rome. But perhaps more to the point, a Roman historian had a lot to write about and miserable Palestine was the least of his concerns. Eventually, though, a lintel of a door was unearthed in Palestine which said that Lysanias was the Tetrarch of Abilene.
Lysanias, was tetrarch of Abila around 28 CE, according to Luke (3:1). Because Josephus only mentions a Lysanias of Abila who was executed in 36 BCE, some scholars have considered this an error by Luke. However, one inscription from Abila, which is tentatively dated 14–29 CE, appears to record the existence of a later tetrarch called Lysanias.[214][215]
214 Kerr, C. M., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Wm. B. Eerdmans 1939, entry Lysanias [32]
215 Morris, Leon, Luke: an introduction and commentary [33] Wm. B. Eerdmans 1988, p. 28
From Wikipedia
“List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources”
When this title was found on this lintel the liberal scholar was proven wrong. In fact historians have since said that Luke was in fact a better historian than Josephus.
Luke’s veracity was proven yet again when a biblical scholar, William Ramsay, set out to explore Asia Minor (present day Turkey) and visit the seven churches there. He considered Luke to be untrustworthy, but he thought he would use it as a rough guide. By the end of his search he came to view Luke as a better scholar and guide than any other books which were available to him.
See
William Ramsay
Paul: the Traveller and the Roman Citizen
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985
Free for download here.
https://archive.org/details/stpaultraveller02ramsgoog
Another excellent book on this theme is
F.F. Bruce
The New Testament documents: Are they reliable?
Fifth revised edition
InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, 2003
It can also be read for free at the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/newtestamentdocu0000bruc_e2s4/page/n4/mode/1up
There are many books of apologetics which show the same thing: the Gospels and Bible tell the truth. They give facts. Facts which can be known and verified. Our faith rests on these facts and we can trust them.
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