Thomas

AI summary: Thomas matters because the cross references present him as a disciple whose questions are direct and whose eventual confession is one of the New Testament's highest Christological statements. He is willing to go and die with Jesus, admits when he does not understand the way, and refuses secondhand resurrection testimony until he encounters the risen Lord. That movement from doubt to worship gives his story enduring pastoral force. Taken together, the material presents Thomas as an apostle whose realism is transformed into clear confession: "My Lord and my God."¹

Twin, one of the twelve (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18, etc.). He was also called Didymus (John 11:16; 20:24), which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name. All we know regarding him is recorded in the fourth Gospel (John 11:15, 16; 14:4, 5; 20:24, 25, 26-29). From the circumstance that in the lists of the apostles he is always mentioned along with Matthew, who was the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:18), and that these two are always followed by James, who was also the son of Alphaeus, it has been supposed that these three, Matthew, Thomas, and James, were brothers. ³