THE ANGELUS TRUMPET
The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts
THOMAS GIVES JESUS THE FINGER
by Jack D. Sypal
Dateline: Jerusalem, April 23, 20:19:31
This is the third in a series of interviews with first
shapers in The Way, or as we know them today, Christians. Earlier I covered conversations with Peter and
with James and John.
This week I was fortunate enough to stumble across Thomas
who was between trips to India. He was generous enough to give me some time as
his acolytes unloaded burros with goods from India and then reloaded their
packs for the pending journey back. I was intrigued by the number of
woodworking tools they were packing and questioned Thomas about them.
It appears, even though he has very limited vision, that Thomas
is a builder. He claims with a good plumb bob, an accurate square, a hand full
of marbles, and a pan of water, even the blind are able to build. Working as a
fisherman when he was recruited by Jesus the Messiah, aka Jam-Man, Thomas first
learned the lessons of his rabbi and then his rabbi’s trade as a builder.
“I wouldn’t have believed that my building skills would be
so important, but Raj Gondophares has commissioned me to build him a palace.
So, I have come back to Jerusalem to get my tools. It’s not that they don’t
make tools in India, but I’m used to these. They are the tools the Jam-Man also
used and gave to me.
“Yeah, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.”
One of the first things you notice about Thomas is his
vision. His eyes are milky white and he is almost sightless. He walks with one
of his acolytes now, but he was most often seen walking with Jesus or one of
the other disciples back in the day. His nicknames, Ditto or Didymus, even
Thomas itself, meaning twin, were not given him because he was genetically
related to one of them or anyone else for that matter; he was so-called because
he was always connected to another disciple by touch.
“I know the guys say that I went to India because of a night
vision, but the truth of the matter is that I just had a vision. The night and the
day are both alike to me. Maybe it was at night.
“I wasn’t going to go, but the young man I was walking with
that day ran off when this merchant and soldiers showed up. I felt a little
like Samson for a while there. One minute I felt like I was in control of my
life and my destiny, the next minute I was seized and made a slave for the
entertainment of the merchant Abbanes.
“Abbanes took me to India; I started talking about the days
of walking with the Jam-Man and how he had lifted me up from the life of
drudgery and social death from my blindness and how he had taught me to build
things; and, pretty soon, I was given permission to build a church.
“I’m sure that they didn’t believe that I could do it, but,
when I did, people were really impressed and asked me to build another.
Finally, Raj Gondophares told me to build him a palace.
“Okay, I’m back here in part to let the Raj cool off a
little. He told me to build him a palace the gods would be proud of. When he
said that, I recalled the young, rich kid that came to the Jam-Man that day. I
didn’t think that I could convince the Raj any more than the Jam-Man could convince
that kid…so, I decided to help the Raj along. I took his money and gave it to
the poor. Each day when he would ask me how things were going, I told him that
the work on his palace was progressing magnificently. One day he came out to
see the palace, and, of course, nothing was there.
“When the Raj asked for the money back, I told him that I
had spent it on building the palace that God would be proud of.
“‘But where is the palace?’ he asked me.
“I told him that I had given his money to the poor and that
these people would be the living stones that would build for him a magnificent place
in heaven.
“I guess Raj Gondophares doesn’t have a sense of humor and couldn’t
appreciate the living conditions of the poor. He definitely didn’t get the
Jam-Man’s memo about loving one another, so I decided to come home and get my
tools while he cools off. I should really be able to show them how to build
with my own tools in my hands.”
Asked about his tools, Thomas was more than willing to show
them off. I was surprised at how well they seemed to fit his hands and how
lovingly he handled them. I reminded him that he had said earlier that all he
really needed was a square, a plumb bob, a hand full of marbles and a pan of
water, and then indicated that I saw many more tools than that.
Thomas explained, “Well, of course you need more tools than
that for all of the adornments, but plumb bob and square along with the marbles
and the pan of water keep everything just so, you know.”
I understood the use of the plumb bob and the square, but
asked him about the marbles and pan of water.
He clarified it for me. “Oh, yeah, put a marble on top of
something you are building, and you can tell the lean by which way the marble
rolls. The pan of water can tell you how far you’re off. If the water starts
running out on one side, you know you’re in trouble. Then it’s time to do some
serious shimming. Usually the marble is enough, but they can get away from you
sometimes, and then you have to go looking for them. The pan of water is also
more accurate. Sometimes I need to have one of my helpers check it out, but for
the most part you can skim the palm of your hand over it and feel the variation
on the walls of the pan. For the most part, the plumb bob and the square do the
job. The rest is showing off.”
As interested as I am in these stories, I am most interested
in those early days of The Way. In order to get back on track, I asked Thomas why
he was known as Doubting Thomas, a term he dismissed.
“The guys never called me Doubting anything. That came from
a bunch of people who didn’t want to believe that a blind guy could be part of
the gang with the Jam-Man.
“You know, in those early days, soldiers were everywhere.
They were looking for us because they claimed that we had stolen Messiah’s body
in order to scam Rome. We had our safe house, really, it was just a safe room,
where we gathered, but, too much activity around there, and it wouldn’t have
been safe anymore. So, I volunteered to slip out at night when people wouldn’t
be as likely to notice me moving around without a lantern or a torch ’cuz,
like, I didn’t need one. I knew that part of town pretty well, and so I could
get around by myself easily. All I needed to do was get away from there before
it got too light and then not come back until after it was dark again.
“During the day, I could get the news and talk with some of
my friends. Mostly I hung out with the beggars outside the temple or at one of
the city gates. I liked the Dung Gate the best because the people were pretty
friendly there. In this way, I picked up some change and bought food for the
rest of the guys.
“I did say that I would lead any of them out, but they were
pretty scared. Rocky was so full of self-recrimination I wasn’t sure that he
wouldn’t go and do the same thing the Bag Man had done. And the rest of them
were suffering from extreme disillusionment.
“I was more interested in living and being around the
living. That room got to be like a tomb of its own, and I’ll tell you, ten guys
living in one room for any time at all makes the stink of the tomb smell sweet.
Nate the Great had a particular issue with flatulence that made close confines
challenging. Now you know how he got the great attached to his name.
“One night when I returned, the guys were all excited. They
said that the Jam-Man had come and stood among them, that he had spoken with
them and then breathed on them. Philip said that he didn’t even have halitosis
like Lazarus had had.
“I told them that it was a nice try, but I wouldn’t believe
them until I put my finger in the marks of the nails in his hands and put my
hand in the hole in his side. I mean, that’s how a blind guy sees, ya know?
“So, it was a few days later when the Jam-Man showed again.
One minute he wasn’t there, and then, all of a sudden, he was. When he called
me, I wasn’t really sure that it was him. He sounded like himself…sort of…but…different.
He told me to give him my finger, so I did. I gave him my reading finger and
then knew it was him. From where I stood, the marks were just dark spots, but
there is no way that you could fake those holes.
“Of course, I claimed him. It wasn’t so much that I had ever
doubted him, but I did question the other guys. They’d pulled some fast ones on
me before, but the Jam-Man, he always treated me like real people, ya know?
“There were so many political maneuverings in those days—the
issue of Beloved, some trying to prove that the Jam-Man hadn’t risen, the ‘Gentiles
are Welcome’ program, whether women were to be acknowledged as disciples. The
thought of me being blind was just too much for many early followers to
swallow, so they thought that it would be better to call me a doubter than
blind, so to them I became Doubting Thomas.
“I mean, what do I care. I’m going back to India. I have my
own life to live, and it is going to be a long way away from them. I’ll do fine
as long as Raj Gondophares chills a little. I mean it’s not like he’s really
going to miss the money.”
Before I could ask anything more, Thomas rushed on.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to have to go. Mummsy is over at
John’s place, and a few of the other guys are back for a conference. Rocky’s
supposed to be there with the other guy with sight trouble, Saul or Paul, something
like that. He’s annoying because he never fully recovered from the flash
blindness on the Damascus road, and he’s always talking about having the thorn
in his flesh being removed and his self-consciousness about writing so big. I
keep telling him to just get on with his life. You can’t live backwards—that’s
like being dead. The Jam-Man is all about life and living. Maybe he’ll come
around.
“In the meantime, Mummsy has probably made her famous chicken
casserole again ’cuz Rocky’s going to be there. She really does know how to
cook other things. You know, she’s a pretty good cook, but, somehow, she’s just
got to push Rocky’s buttons.
“Well, it’s been nice talking. Luv ya, man.”
With that, Thomas got up and walked over to where his
acolyte was waiting with his burro. He pushed his elbow out a little nudging
Thomas. Thomas took his elbow and off they went.
