Development of the Images in the Acts of Thomas

We have seen that literature from the earliest years of Christianity in northern Mesopotamia contains intriguing language of the Spirit, language that, in many cases, is most fully developed in the Acts of Thomas.

The Spirit is presented as a feminine figure in several prayers within the Acts of Thomas, the latest of the five apocryphal acts of apostles produced in the second and third centuries of the Common Era.^[1362] Several of these prayers are epicleses, calling on the Spirit to be present with the communi­ty in ritual action. Although the work was most likely written in Syriac,^[1363] the extant Greek of the Acts of Thomas is, in many ways, superior to the extant Syriac, which has undergone revision in order to bring it in line with an understanding of orthodoxy that was gaining momentum in the fourth century and later. Indeed, precisely in the areas of most interest to this es­say, the Syriac Acts of Thomas has been made to conform with western sensibilities regarding the Spirit; some of the native flavor of early Semitic Christianity has been lost. It is to the Greek Acts of Thomas that we will give most of our attention, treating corresponding passages in the Syriac when necessary.

Within the Acts of Thomas are two hymnic compositions that probably originated independently of the rest of the work,^[1364] and both speak in dif­ferent ways of a threefold “family.” The Hymn of the Bride, set within a tale of a wedding ceremony, speaks of the anticipated arrival of the bride­groom and the joys of knowing him; it closes with the declaration that the participants in the wedding banquet “have given praise and glory, with the Spirit that is living, to the Father ever truthful and the Mother ever wise” (Greek, chapter 7).^[1365] The Hymn of the Pearl tells the story of the son of royal parents, who travels to Egypt to retrieve a pearl but who, in the pro­cess, forgets his identity and his purpose. Only when his parents send him a letter does he recall who he is and is able to complete his mission. As Paul-Hubert Poirier has pointed out, the hymn can be read on many levels, but the parents are usually understood as heavenly figures. Early Christian readers of the poem saw the king and queen as the Father and the Spirit; the son can be identified both as the First Adam and the Second Adam, Christ. ^[1366]

The brief Act 4 of the Acts of Thomas tells the story of the apostle’s en­counter with a talking ass (a descendant of Balaam’s ass), who provides Thomas with a ride as the apostle journeys toward a city. Responding to the ass’s declaration that the apostle is the “twin of Christ,”^[1367] the apostle offers a prayer that closes in the Greek with praise to Jesus, as well as to “your unseen Father, and your Holy Spirit and the Mother of all creation” (chapter 39). A redactor has cleansed the doxology in the Syriac so that it is offered to the good shepherd and “through you the father most high, who is unseen, and the Holy Spirit who hovers over all creatures.” Both Greek and Syriac versions of the prayer show signs of alteration, leading to con­fusion of the mother image. The presence of the conjunction in the Greek renders unclear the original identification of the Spirit as Mother of all cre­ation; at first glance the doxology appears to be addressed to a fourfold en­tity.

The Syriac of this passage lacks the conjunction, thus clarifying the identification of the Spirit as the one last described, but the language of “mother” is noticeably absent. Instead, the Spirit is one who “hovers over all creatures.” Although explicit mother language is lacking, this image clarifies that a feminine figure is indicated. Alluding to the Genesis crea­tion story, the language of hovering (rahheph) recalls the behavior of a mother bird over her nest. The term “mother” has been excised from the Syriac but the idea that the Spirit functions as a mother is unmistakable. The prayer seems to have been altered in both Greek and Syriac, yet the association of the Spirit with a mother figure can still be seen.

All of the remaining prayers in the Acts of Thomas that use mother lan­guage are found in liturgical settings. In each, the Syriac has been altered, apparently to remove any language that could be considered objectionable, including reference to the Spirit as Mother. The Greek of these prayers is clearly more primitive and will be the focus of discussion. The epicletic language of the prayers and the declaration that the one invoked is “hid­den,” together with similarities in the language used, including the appella­tion “Mother,” all suggest that a common figure is adjured in these pray­ers.

When asked by the general Siphor (a figure who appears in and unites the two originally disjointed halves of the work) to administer “the seal,” the apostle complies and a ritual involving baptism, anointing with oil, and Eucharist is described.^[1368] Over each element used in the initiatory ritual, a prayer is spoken, and it is in the prayer offered to the “bread of life” (chap­ter 133) that mention is made of “the Mother.” The Eucharistic bread is directly addressed and is said to bring incorruptibility, remission of sins, and immortality.

It is in two prayers in initiatory settings in the Acts of Thomas that the identification of the Spirit as Mother is expressed in exceptionally colorful language:

The epicleses in chapters 27 and 50 of the Acts of Thomas are strikingly similar to one another.

Since the prayer in chapter 27 closes with an explicit appeal to the Spir­it, there can be no doubt with whom the “compassionate mother” in the prayer is identified. Although the prayer in chapter 50 lacks mention of the Spirit, its use of images and terms similar to those in chapter 27 and the closing appeal to the addressee to “come and share with us in this Eucha­rist” leave little doubt that the Spirit is intended. Both prayers contain oth­er language that points to God’s spirit as well. Precisely in the language used to describe the figure addressed, as well as in the rituals within which the prayers are spoken, the epicleses build upon elements of Hebrew tradi­tion and earlier Christian traditions of northern Mesopotamia. These earlier materials, already examined, are often widely divergent in theology and in origin, but the traditions are drawn together in the prayers of this early novel, in which the images find full explication. The Spirit in the epicleses is one who communicates mysteries, offers compassion, and brings joy; she is a mother dove and explicitly addressed as “Mother” - all set in the context of initiatory rituals. In all of these ways, the traditions of earliest Christianity in the region are gathered together and articulated in coherent fashion.

Several lines within these epicletic prayers identify the feminine ad­dressee as “Mother.” In chapter 27, the figure is invoked by the phrase, “Come, compassionate Mother,” while the prayer in chapter 50 (in the Greek) includes the appeal, “Come, hidden Mother.” In addition, the pray­er in chapter 27 includes the line “Mother of the seven houses,” while the familiar image of a dove appears in the epiclesis in chapter 50.

Chapter 27, in both Greek and Syriac, contains an appeal to the “Mother of seven houses.” The Mother, who provides rest (άνάπαυσι$) and is even called “respite” (ησυχία) in the prayer in chapter 50, finds her own rest in the eighth house, according to the epiclesis in chapter 27.

Some have looked for the meaning of the seven houses in descriptions of Gnostic thought, and suggest that the reference is to the concept of heavenly spheres filled with hostile rulers.^[1379] Indeed, both Clement of Al­exandria and Epiphanius speak of Gnostic groups that conceive of an “eighth heaven.”^[1380] Epiphanius even knows of the idea that a “shining Mother” dwells at the top of the eighth heaven,^[1381] while Irenaeus speaks of the Ophites who conceived of a mother (who is also called Spirit) who re­sides in an “eighth place” beyond the initial seven heavenly realms.^{[1382] [1383] Yet the idea of seven heavens, with a distant eighth heaven that forms the dwelling place of God, is not limited to Christian Gnostic thought; in fact, it was not uncommon among both Christians and non-Christians. The con­cept appears also in Jewish texts, but apparently finds its origin in Babylo­nian thought. It is not surprising to find Babylonian traditions, with an in­terest in the seven planets and speculation on numbers, influencing the Christianity of northern Mesopotamia. While the ancient heresiologists claimed that the idea of seven heavens was related to cosmic speculation on the seven planets, it may also stem from Babylonian magical tradi- 94}

tions.

Echoes of language associated with wisdom can be found elsewhere in the epicleses also. The knowledge embodied by the personified Wisdom in the Hebrew wisdom literature is something attributed to the Spirit in the prayer in chapter 27 of the Acts of Thomas. In a list of five “members,” each indicating an intellectual property, the Spirit is associated with attrib­utes that are in the purview of Wisdom’s expertise. While Wisdom is prior to creation in Prov 8 and Sir 24, here the Spirit is “older” than the five members.^[1384]

We have already seen that several Christian texts with ties to northern Mesopotamia describe the activity of the Spirit through the imagery of a mother dove. Such language will become especially popular for many writers during the classical period of Syriac-speaking Christianity. The concept of the Spirit as a “dove” clearly develops the image of the spirit hovering over the waters in Genesis. The only instance in these epicleses of bird imagery for the Spirit occurs in a puzzling line in the epiclesis in chapter 50 of the Acts of Thomas, a line that has long frustrated commenta­tors.^[1385] This line is the only one lacking the anaphoral “come” that orders these epicletic prayers. I have suggested elsewhere^[1386] that the designation of the “dove” may in fact have originally followed the appellation “Mother” in the epiclesis in chapter 50, but even if that was the case, the background and meaning of the phrase remain confusing.

Earlier attempts to understand this figure of a dove include the associa­tion of the image with eastern mythology,^[1387] and the explicit identification of the dove as one of the attributes of the Syrian Mother goddess.^[1388] In a relatively sustained treatment of the Spirit epicleses in chapters 27 and 50 of the Acts of Thomas, Heinz Kruse^[1389] maintains that the dove originally represented a bride, only later becoming associated with the Spirit in Christian tradition. Kruse believes that the dove in Syriac-speaking Chris­tianity, and especially in the epiclesis in question, symbolizes the Christian church as the daughter of the Holy Spirit and also the bride of Christ; in­deed there are two “daughters” - Israel and the Gentiles. The nestlings in the prayer in chapter 50, then, are Israel and the Gentiles, the offspring of God’s Spirit who is represented by the figure of a dove. It seems to me, however, that the most promising explanation for the dove imagery is to be found in the Syriac-speaking Christian tradition itself, in which the dove, rather than being a daughter, is itself a beneficent mother.

Within this tradition, as we have seen, the concept of the Spirit as a dove is found and developed. Just as the Spirit “hovers” (rahheph) over the waters of creation in the Peshitta of Gen 1:2, it also descends in the form of a dove at Jesus’s baptism.^[1390] The concept of the Spirit as a hovering bird^[1391] becomes integral to reflections on the Spirit in this region. In litur­gical texts, the Spirit’s presence is likened to a mother bird; she “hovers” over the waters of the font, as well as over the bread and wine at Eucha­rist.^[1392] The verb for hovering used in the liturgical texts is the verb rahheph from Genesis, used of the Spirit’s presence at creation.

The language of the dove in chapter 50 in the Acts of Thomas also re­minds one of the Spirit as a dove in Odes 24 and 28. The dove of Ode 28 also cares for nestlings, and the dove’s wings are likened to the wings of the Spirit. But not only does the idea of a mother dove caring for her nest­lings antedate the appearance of this image in the epiclesis, the idea of twins is found earlier in the region as well. According to Ephrem,^[1393] Bar- daisan claimed that the Holy Spirit, who is, as we have seen, likened to a Mother in Bardaisan’s thought, gave birth to twin daughters.

The idea of twinning is especially developed in the Acts of Thomas, in which Jesus and Judas Thomas appear as twins. Building on John 20:24, in which the name of Thomas, which means “twin” in Aramaic, is explained to the Greek reader, several texts that are associated with the person of Thomas present the apostle as Jesus’s twin. The Coptic Gospel of Thomas declares that the work gives the teachings of Jesus as spoken to and written down by “Didymos Judas Thomas.” The Book of Thomas the Contender also employs “twin” in naming the apostle, and Jesus declares that his “Brother Thomas” is his “twin and true companion.”^[1394] Although the rela­tionship between these texts, and the possibility that they represent a “Thomas community” is debated,^[1395] the literature associated with the name of Thomas does reflect the notion, inherent in the name itself, that Thomas was the twin of Jesus. The idea is most clearly developed in the Acts of Thomas.

The Acts of Thomas opens with a scene in which Jesus sells his slave, Thomas,^[1396] to a king, perhaps reminiscent of the Philippians 2 Christ hymn, in which Jesus takes the form of a slave. The apostle addresses crowds with the same words that Jesus used, offers numerous allusions to the gospels in his teachings, and prays as Jesus did (“Let your will be done” in chapters 3 and 30).^[1397] Even more striking, confusion between Je­sus and Thomas occurs after Thomas attends the wedding of the king’s daughter. The apostle is asked to pray over the wedding couple in their bridal chamber. After complying, he and the other attendants leave, but the bride is later found talking to Jesus, in the likeness of the apostle. The groom initially believes it is indeed the apostle, but Jesus clarifies that they are brothers. In addition, the talking ass of chapter 39 addresses the apostle as the “Twin of Christ,” while in chapter 57 a woman, after a tour a hell, announces that she saw “one who was like you” (the apostle) who deliv­ered her out of the place of punishment. Finally, in the Martyrdom (chapter 160), Thomas must declare, “I am not Jesus, but a servant of Jesus. I am not Christ, but one who ministers before him.”

In the Acts of Thomas, Jesus and the apostle are twins. It is, therefore, not surprising to have a prayer in which twins appear.^[1398] The prayer ad­dresses a feminine figure who is to be identified with the Spirit, and speaks of a dove caring for twins. She is called “Mother” and her twins, then, are the figures of Jesus and Thomas.^[1399] We have already seen that “Father” and “Mother” are elsewhere paired in this work (chapters 7 and 133, as well as the royal parents of the Hymn of the Pearl). Based on this evi­dence, Drijvers concludes that there is a trinitarian concept of sorts in the Acts of Thomas, in which there is a Father and a Mother (the Spirit) who gives birth to the Son and to his twin brother.^[1400]

The feminine addressee of the epicleses is also a revealer figure. She reveals “hidden mysteries,” “secrets,” and “great things.” Despite the fact that Jesus is not mentioned by name in the epicleses, the hidden realities are associated with him; the prayer in chapter 27 opens with an appeal to the “holy name of the Anointed.” Although the prayer is clearly addressed to the Spirit, the Spirit and Jesus here seem to be equated. We have seen that, in the prayer in chapter 133 of the Acts of Thomas, the same language can be used of the Mother/Spirit as is used of Jesus. The same holds true in the epicleses, especially in calling on the “name of the Anointed.” The mention of anointing, especially in a narrative setting that involves a ritual anointing, draws attention to the oil, which is always associated with the Spirit in this region. To explain this apparent double address, Gabriele Winkler initially argued that the addressee of the prayer oscillates between the Messiah and the Spirit, but she later concludes that the opening line indicates that the prayer is directed toward “the Spirit, the Mother, who reveals herself and is made present by calling down the Name of the Anointed.”^[1401] Indeed, this addressee, explicitly identified as Spirit, is the one who reveals mysteries and is called the power of the Most High. The prayer’s language for the Spirit corresponds with the idea that calling on the “holy name” of one who is anointed with the Spirit is in itself appeal­ing for the presence of the Spirit,^[1402] and Winkler is correct that the Spirit is the power hidden in the name and that the name itself is a revelation of the one named. This assertion corresponds with the notion, found in Philo and elsewhere, that the name of God can be identified as an entity in its own right.^[1403] Here, in the midst of an anointing ritual, to call on the name of one who is anointed in the Spirit is to reveal hidden mysteries; these mysteries include both the revelation of Jesus and the rituals described. As is indicat­ed by the symbolism in the concluding narrative of chapter 27, in which “the Lord” appears as a youth carrying an exceedingly bright light, it is precisely in the ritual of the oil that the revelation of Jesus can be found.^[1404]

This language of the Spirit as a revealer, and in particular as one who reveals Jesus (or the Anointed) recalls the language in the Valentinian Gospel of Truth, in which the Son is hidden in the bosom of the Father, and the bosom is explicitly identified with the Spirit. We have seen that, in the Odes, the Spirit communicates the correct teachings; so also in the Gospel of Truth, the revelation of truth is offered through the Spirit, and in the Gospel of Philip, the Spirit, who is one who reveals hidden truths, is also present in the ritual bread and cup. This concept is made especially clear in the address to the figure in the epicleses as one who “make[s] manifest what is secret and render[s] visible what is hidden.” In the Valen- tinian school, as in the epicleses, the means to revelation is precisely the presence of the Spirit. The Acts of Thomas has taken up the language and concepts of earlier materials from the region and placed them into a direct address to the Spirit, who is present in the ritual action and who makes present the Anointed one, Jesus, in whose body and blood the new initiates will share.^[1405]

The varied elements of the Hebrew and Christian traditions are, there­fore, brought together in these prayers in the Acts of Thomas, a fully de­veloped fictional account of the ministry of an apostle of Jesus preaching in a new land. The epicleses in chapters 27 and 50 of the Acts of Thomas demonstrate how earlier traditions of the region were gathered and devel­oped in this early Christian novel. Following is a summary of the main in­fluences that we have noted.

The epicleses address the Spirit as a revealer figure and one whose ex­istence precedes several named noetic qualities, just as the Spirit in the Odes of Solomon is able to communicate correct teachings. Both the Odes and the epiclesis in chapter 27 of the Acts of Thomas use language that hints at a likeness between the Spirit and the personified Wisdom of the Hebrew tradition. The Spirit is one who circumcises the heart in Odes of Solomon 11, a concept that is associated with initiatory anointing later in the Syriac tradition; in an intermediate position is the epiclesis in chapter 27, prayed over the oil of anointing, in which the Spirit is asked to be pre­sent in the ritual of anointing. Although the anointing is not explicitly as­sociated with circumcision in the epicleses, it is central to becoming Chris­tian in this work and is linked with the Spirit’s presence.

The most notable similarity between the portraits of the Spirit in the Odes of Solomon and in the Acts of Thomas is the mention in both of the Spirit as a dove, developing the image of God’s spirit hovering over the waters in Gen 1:2. In both the Odes and the epiclesis in chapter 50, the Spirit is understood as a mother bird, caring for - or giving birth to - her nestlings. In the Acts of Thomas, these nestlings are twins, recalling the developed presentation in this work of Thomas as the twin of Christ. In both the image of the Spirit as a mother dove and in the presentation of a virgin (perhaps to be identified with the Spirit) who bears “the Son,” the concept of the Spirit as Mother becomes evident, a claim that is explicitly made in both epicleses in the Acts of Thomas.

Gnostic Christian literature with ties to Syriac-speaking Christianity al­so has similarities with the epicleses in the presentation of the Spirit. Again, the Spirit is a revealer figure in both the Gnostic texts and the epi- cleses; in particular, she is, in the Gospel of Truth, that which allows the Son to be revealed. The epiclesis in chapter 27 appeals to the “holy name of the Anointed,” while the prayer in chapter 50 immediately follows a prayer to Jesus that also calls upon his “holy name.” In the epicleses, the Spirit can be revealed precisely by calling on the name of Jesus, and the Spirit is the one who “understands the mysteries of the chosen one” (chap­ter 50) and reveals that which is hidden.

Reflection on the “mysteries,” which later comes to be a technical term for sacramental rituals in Syriac-speaking Christianity, is an important part of another Gnostic Christian work that reflects knowledge of Thomas tra­ditions. The Gospel of Philip associates the Spirit with anointing, but also speaks of the Spirit’s presence in the ritual bread and cup. The epicleses are set in liturgical contexts of an anointing, clearly the most significant initiation ritual in the Acts of Thomas, and Eucharist. Again, the Spirit re­veals hidden truths in the Gospel of Philip, as in the epicleses, although identifying her as “mother” is explicitly denied.

Explicit identification of a mother figure, probably equated with the Spirit, is, however, found in the best known Christian individual hailing from the region of northern Mesopotamia in the first centuries of Christi­anity: Bardaisan. The Christian court philosopher in late second-century Edessa, although known primarily from Ephrem’s unsympathetic presenta­tion of him, speaks of the Spirit bearing two daughters in an apparent ref­erence to the hovering spirit of God in the Genesis creation story. Ephrem’s denial that Gen 1:2 refers to the Holy Spirit, and his horror with Bardaisan’s Father/Mother language, appears only to confirm Bardaisan’s identification of the Spirit with the hovering figure in Genesis. We have already noted that the epicleses, which clearly call the Spirit Mother, also contain in chapter 50 a reference to the dove giving birth to twins.

It is impossible to claim a direct literary relationship between the Acts of Thomas - or the epicleses in particular - and the earlier writings from the region. It is, however, clear that the images and understanding of the feminine Spirit found in these works were present in the region and influ­enced the development of the language used in prayers to the Spirit found in the Acts of Thomas. The idea of the Spirit as a mother dove, the associa­tion of the Spirit with Wisdom, and the explicit use of “Mother” language for Spirit are all here combined in colorful appeals to the Spirit to be pre­sent with the community in initiatory rituals. This creative melding of tra­ditions in the Acts of Thomas continues in the writings of later authors from the region, although not all of the early traditions are embraced fully.

D.