Let’s see what the Bible has to say.
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
Why is Thomas called the Twin? This is the second of three times that Thomas is called the Twin (John 11:16, 20:24, and 21:2). Several translations use the word Didymus instead of Twin. The explanation is very simple. Thomas is the Aramaic form of the word twin. The Greek word for twin is didumos. So, the translations that use Didymus are using a transliteration of twin. You will notice that every time Didymus or Twin is used, it is capitalized. Since the verses say he was “called” Twin or Didymus, it is used as his nickname or epithet. Eusebius states that Thomas’ name was Judas and they called him Twin to distinguish between the other two apostles named Judas.[1]
In the third century, an apocryphal book, the Acts of Thomas, was published by the Gnostics. In this book, Thomas is called Thomas Judas or Judas Thomas. In two passages he is called the twin of Jesus by a serpent then by a donkey (Act 3:31 and Act 4:39),[2] hardly reliable witnesses. From this heretical book, all sorts of speculations developed trying to persuade early Christians that Jesus actually had a twin. It is simply a fabrication of those who wanted to hijack Christianity for their own purposes. Even today, there are those who use this to cast doubts upon the deity of Jesus. And this passage is really all about Jesus’ deity.
Thomas is better known to us today as “Doubting Thomas” because he didn’t believe that the other disciples had seen Jesus. Perhaps the Gnostics seized upon this passage about Thomas as a foil in their writings hoping that his moment of doubt would encourage others to doubt the veracity of Jesus’ resurrection. Gnostics completely reject Jesus’ resurrection because they believe the body is like a prison and their goal is to shed the body. So having Jesus die and then regain his body is unthinkable for them. When Thomas asks to be able to put even put his finger in to the print of the nails, the Gnostics seize on this and twist it to show that it is unbelievable for Jesus to have a physical resurrected body. But Jesus will soon show his resurrected body to Thomas disproving the Gnostics forever.
One of the big objections to Christianity today is the current scientific thinking that it is impossible for someone to come back to life. Gnostics may believe in the supernatural but have it all wrong. Today’s culture has even eliminated the supernatural and therefore dismissed the resurrection out of hand. Jesus has only one thing to say to Gnostics and anyone else who denies his resurrection. He said it in the story of Lazarus and the rich man. “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31). In other words, people who reject the Bible and anything supernatural are not going to believe Jesus was raised from the dead. However, believing that Jesus is raised physically is crucial to the Christian faith.
If you want to know more about salvation through Jesus, watch my video on YouTube, "The Gospel."
[1] “Thomas,” James Hastings, John Lambert, and Shailer Mathews, eds., David Smith in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, One-Volume Edition (New Your, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909).
[2] M R James, trans., “The Acts of Thomas,” The Gnostic Society Library, 1994, http://gnosis.org/library/actthom.htm.
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