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The Acts of Thomas. Translated with introduction and notes by Harold W. Attridge. Early Christian Apocrypha series. Salem, Ore.: Polebridge, 2010. viii + 157 pp. $18.00 (paper).
The Acts of Thomas sits at an important intersection in the texts that were the traffic of early Christianity. On the one hand, it lies on the second-century literary trajectory of "Apocryphal Acts" - a genre combining travelogue, miracle, and discourse, driven by plots tracking the marvelous adventures of various members of the Jesus movements first generation. That trajectory starts with the New Testament s Acts of the Apostles, but then moves on to non-canonical works taking a particular hero as the focus - Andrew, John, Peter, Paul, and Judas Thomas (Judah "the Twin").
On the other hand, this particular "romance" - of Judas Thomas - is also part of a tracing of that very specific protagonist in Jesus' company. For besides these Acts of his, "the Twin" inspired writings in other genres, too: a sayings-source, a post-resurrection dialogue, an infancy narrative, an apocalypse. Thomas was a figure of intense interest not only to early Syrian and then to Indian...