Thomas

Thomas, also called Didymus (the Twin), appears at several crucial moments in John's Gospel in ways that illuminate both his character and his theological role. When Jesus proposed returning to Judea where people had tried to stone him, Thomas said to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" — a bleak courage. At the Last Supper, when Jesus said the disciples knew the way, Thomas objected plainly: "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" The question drew the answer, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

Thomas was absent when Jesus first appeared to the disciples after the resurrection. When told about the appearance, he said he would not believe without touching the nail marks and the wound in Jesus' side. A week later Jesus appeared again and invited Thomas to do exactly that. Thomas did not need to touch; he said, "My Lord and my God" — the most direct confession of Jesus' divinity in any of the Gospels, arriving at the climax of John's narrative. Jesus' response, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed," extends the blessing across every subsequent generation. Tradition holds that Thomas eventually carried the gospel to India.