Acts of Thomas

Ascribed to Judas Thomas, the apostle Thomas; author unknown. Composed in Syriac, probably at Edessa in the early 3rd century AD (some scholars propose the late 2nd), and preserved complete in a Greek version, making it the only one of the five great apocryphal Acts to survive whole. Thirteen 'Acts' follow Thomas's mission to India under King Gundaphorus, his miracles and exorcisms, and his martyrdom, with a strongly ascetic teaching on chastity and renunciation. It includes the Hymn of the Soul (the 'Hymn of the Pearl'), a Syriac poem generally thought older than the Acts, seeded here as its own chapter.