[Previous: lines 405-440]
Jesus has risen from the dead, and has been seen by many, but not all, of his disciples.
Hinc Thomas aberat Didymus vicina pererrans------------
oppida, quô metus impulerat, duce nuper adempto.
Isque ubi dein rediens est sacrae redditus urbi,
acceptusque domo, socios videt ecce recenti
attonitos casu, ac caeco terrore silentes: [445]
quales, aut templum, domini aut ubi divitis aedes
marmoreas petiit, ruptis de nubibus, ignis,
terrificisque locum implevit splendoribus omnem,
stant intus pavidi cives; quatit omnibus horror
pectora; vix longo pôst tempore corda residunt. [450]
Obstupuit visu ignarus, causamque requirit,
et socios dictis Didymus demulcet amicis:
quem senior Petrus amplexus, lacrymisque profusis
menti caniciem humectans, sic denique fatur:
“Vidimus (o iam nos felices!), vidimus ipsum [455]
ut soliti, regem spirantem, aurasque trahentem,
cœlicolûm regem, qui nos modò morte reliquit.”
Haec ait, exultansque animo cœlum usque tuetur.
Ille autem (neque enim narranti talia credit)
“Ipsene rursus,” ait, “cœli hoc spirabile lumen [460]
aspicit? an potiùs simulacri apparuit umbra,
atque oculos fallax vestros elusit imago?”
“Immo,” ait, “illum ipsum divino illa ipsa gerentem
vulnera, et antiquam servantem corpore formam
vidimus, ac veros manibus tractavimus artus: [465]
vidi oculis, vidi ipse, meis, et vulnera novi.
Vesper erat, clausaeque fores, clausaeque fenestrae;
nos intus pavidi latitare, et corpora victu
curare, ac positis mœsti discumbere mensis.
Ecce autem tecti in mediis penetralibus ipse [470]
improvisus adest, et inobservabilis heros
effulget, clausis ingressus limina portis;
improvisus adest, inopinaque gaudia portat.
Continuò ad lucem visum tectum omne cremari.
Nos trepidare animis, subitoque horrescere visu [475]
attoniti: verùm ille metus, vanumque timorem
increpitans, vetuit trepidos exsurgere mensis.
“Ipse ego sum: pacem unanimes agitate, metusque
solvite,” tentandosque dabat simul omnibus artus,
vulneraque insigni quae corpore quina gerebat. [480]
Quinetiam parcis nobiscum accumbere mensis
non fugiens, solito est coram de more loquutus,
ceu mortalis adhuc quae verba novissima nuper,
ad mortem properans, nobis memoranda reliquit:
tum demum liquidis abiens se immiscuit auris.” [485]
Haec senior, sociique eadem simul ore canebant.
Now: Thomas the Twin was absent, wandering------------
nearby towns, driven by fear at the leader’s death.
Returning to the holy city and
welcomed back into the house, he saw his friends
struck dumb, amazed almost to panic—as if [445]
lightning had struck a temple, or a rich man’s
marble mansion burnt up, with explosions
spreading terrifying splendour everywhere:
the frightened citizens stand, hearts shaking
in terror, their heart-fear barely subsiding. [450]
Amazed at this sight, and not knowing why,
the Twin questioning his friends and allies.
Then aged Peter embraced him, his tears
moistening his grey beard. At last he spoke:
“We saw him (oh, happy us!), saw the real him, [455]
just as he used to be—breathing again, the King
of Heaven, who so recently left us and died.”
Speaking, he gazed on heaven with joyful eyes.
But (for he did not believe this) the other asked:
“Did he really,” he said, “breathe this air? See [460]
this light? Was it not, rather, a dream-shadow
some false image that deceived your vision?”
“Truly,” was the reply, “we saw his divine
body as it used to be, save for its wounds—
we saw, we even touched him with our hands. [465]
I saw, with my own eyes! I saw his fresh wounds.
It was evening; the doors and windows were closed—
We were hiding, frightened, inside the house,
All reclining at supper in a gloomy mood.
Suddenly, in the inmost part of the house [470]
the hero appeared—he had, unobserved,
impossibly passed through the locked doors! He shone,
and immediately we were filled with great joy.
It seemed the whole room burned with his brightness!
We trembled with alarm in our very souls [475]
And felt a thrill of fear at the sight of him:
But he laughed, telling us not to rise from table:
“I am me. You can be at peace, and let go
your fears!” And he offered us his body
that we might examine his five injuries. [480]
Indeed, he sat with all of us at our meal,
he didn’t rush off. He spoke in his usual way
as though he was still, as he had been, mortal:
still hurrying towards his death, as we all are.
But then he melted away into thin air!” [485]
The old man spoke; his comrades confirmed his words.
Thomas Didymus (that is, ‘Thomas the Twin’) is more commonly known as ‘Doubting Thomas’ in English-speaking circles, because of all the disciples he found it hardest to accept Jesus’s resurrection.
Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were [e]assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord …Vida gets to the last part of this famous story later in Book 6 (it’s line 575 before Thomas’s doubts are dispelled), but the first part is followed closely here. Later traditions say that Saint Thomas travelled east and evangelised Christianity in India:
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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.”
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” [John 20:19-29]
According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of India, the Apostle Thomas landed in Muziris (Cranganore) on the Kerala coast in AD 52 and was martyred in Myalpur, near Madras in AD 72. He is believed by the Saint Thomas Christian tradition to have established seven churches (communities) in Kerala. These churches are at Kodungallur, Palayoor, Kottakkavu (Paravur), Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kollam, and Thiruvithamcode.[23] Thomas baptized several families, namely Pakalomattom, Sankarapuri, Nedumpally, Mampally, Payyappilly, Kalli, Kaliyankal. Whatever dubious historicity may be attached to such local traditions, there can be little doubt as to their great antiquity or to their great appeal in popular imagination. [Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India: from Beginnings to the Present (Oxford University Press 2008), 101–102]It couldn't be claimed that he did an entirely bang-up job on the old missionary proselytising, here, since today India's one-and-a-third-billion population is 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim and only 2% Christian. Still, when a population is as huge as India's is, even 2% adds up to a very significant congregation. The Indian Post Office even issued a stamp commemorating Thomas's mission:
So that's nice. One brief note on the translation, here. In line 478 Christ, reassuring his disciples that it's really him, says ipse ego sum. ‘myself, I, I am.’ Tricky to get this into idiomatic English without losing its I AM THAT I AM, burning-bush-to-Moses vibe. ‘Hey it's me!’ too slangy, and ‘Behold it is I that is me’ too weird. I've gone with the plainer ‘I am me’, but maybe that's a bit lame. Not sure.
[Next: lines 487-509]
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