Lives of Scripture

Thomas, also called Didymus ("Twin"), was one of Jesus's twelve apostles, remembered chiefly for his honest doubt and its resolution. When Jesus decided to return to Judea despite the danger to raise Lazarus, Thomas urged the other disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him" -- fearful but loyal (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, Thomas asked how the disciples could know the way to where Jesus was going, prompting Jesus's declaration, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:5-6). Thomas is best known for what happened after the resurrection: absent when the risen Jesus first appeared to the other ten, he refused to believe unless he could see and touch Jesus's wounds himself (20:24-25). Eight days later, Jesus appeared again with Thomas present and invited him directly: "Reach here your finger, and see My hands... do not be unbelieving, but believing" (20:26-27). Thomas responded with one of the Gospels clearest confessions of Christ's deity, "My Lord and my God!" -- to which Jesus replied, "Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed" (20:28-29). Thomas appears again by the Sea of Galilee among the disciples who saw the risen Jesus provide a miraculous catch of fish (21:2), and is later listed among the apostles gathered in Jerusalem after the ascension (Acts 1:13).