Thomas: The Secret Twin of Jesus?

Most scholars agree Jesus had a brother named James. But a bunch of ancient Christians thought he had another brother. An identical twin brother: Judas Didymus Thomas. Where did this belief come from? And what was its significance?

Bibliography:
Gregory Riley, "Didymos Judas Thomas: The Twin Brother of Jesus," in Kimberley Patton (ed.), "Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology," Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

M. David Litwa, “I Will Become Him”: Homology and Deification in the Gospel of Thomas, Journal of Biblical Literature, SBL Volume 134, Number 2, 2015. pp. 427-447

Select footage courtesy of Getty

[ReknRalph]

I thought his brother was Brian? I saw a whole movie about it.

[kevprange]

So cool that you used the term "fan fiction." To me, it's an acknowledgment that we aren't so different from our ancestors. We are story-telling people and we have a long history of expanded universes.

[stelladet]

It's incredible to me how complicated these early Christian traditions and how different they're are from our modern ideas of this religion

[jeanfalconer]

'Early Christian fanfiction'
That's the best sentence I've heard in a while, love it😊😊😊😂

[CatManThree]

Its always fascinating seeing different intepretations branching off, especially when they involve apocrypha centered around minor characters like this.

[XDKang]

This reminds me of a very interesting place I once encountered in the rural north of Japan that claims to be the true burial site of Jesus. According to believers, Jesus left the Levant in his youth and somehow navigated across the world in the 1st century to eventually arrive in Japan where he preached Christianity. He later returned, and during the time of his persecution by the Romans there was mention of a twin brother of his called 'Isukiri' who "casually took his place on the cross" while Jesus escaped to Japan once more to eventually settle and pass away peacefully there.
Wild Bible fanfiction if you ask me, but learning about Thomas made me wonder how this apocrypha could have somehow promulgated in the far east...

[BloodWolfXZ]

I like to think all this started because Jesus and his buddy Thomas showed up to the market accidentally wearing the same robe and sandals, called each other "twinsies, " and then a whole lot of future christians took it out of context in the best way.

[Veredek]

The section where one recognizes themselves as a "twin of Jesus" reminded me a lot of certain beliefs in Hinduism where ones Self is in actuality Shiva. Is it possible that those who cultivated Thomas as a central figure to Christianity did so from impulses eastward -- as you said, the Acts of Thomas had him travel to India. Great video as always!

[micahjones]

When I knew little about the transmission of religion through history, I thought Christianity had always stayed constant throughout time.

When I knew a little more, I realized that we have lost some of the original context of Christianity and reinterpreted it to fit our current ideas.

Now I’m learning that since the very beginning of Christianity, Christians have been interpreting and reinterpreting the story of Jesus. It’s crazy how there has never been a static idea of who Jesus was or what he taught

[breadandbrews]

NEW JESUS LORE JUST DROPPED LET'S GOOO

[chronikhiles]

I'm from Chennai, and we do have a St Thomas Mount which is supposedly the burial site of Thomas. Despite the fact that there's no historical evidence of this, it is mind blowing that one of the Apostles is believed to be buried in my city according to Christian tradition and it's not that big of a deal here. xD

[ActiveAdvocate]

Twins have always been HUGE in mythology: Lav and Kusha from the Ramayana, Shatruman and Lakshmana from same, Nakul and Sahadev from the Mahabharata, Remus and Romulus, Artemis and Apollo (it's rarer to have fraternal twins), Castor and Pollux, the Asvan Horse Twins, Tijus Keha and Tawis Karong in Huron mythology: you name me a Near Eastern mythology, I can probably name you a set of twins.

[LibraBlue]

"Blessed be Tommie for he kept the books while his brother ran the operation!"

[Vanquish.]

Always happy to see a post notification from your channel!

[KTempestBradford]

This has me thinking about a parallel in ancient Egyptian culture: the Ka. It's often represented by a "twin" or mirror image of a person with the Ka symbol on their head. Since the Ka represents the spark of life and the spark of the divine in a person, it makes sense that it looks like the person. It's their divine twin! So interesting!

[Crossword]

This seems to explain a number of etymological questions I've had. I'm going to watch this again and rejoice if it indeed leads me where I need to go. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[grant.]

Everytime I watch one of these videos I am reminded of the joy of academic study and how one should apply themselves to learning. This is an incredible channel and I am so glad I stumbled upon it.

[Swampdragon]

I love bible fanfiction. Always enjoy these episodes. It connects me with people from thousands of years ago, because it's just the same today. People get two voice lines and an item description and develop whole complex lore, theories and storylines off of that. It's just about games and movies instead of the bible.

[TheRishijoesanu]

I'm a St Thomas Catholic from South India. St Thomas is thought havs landed very close to my mom's ancestral home in the legendary port city of Muziris which attracted many Jewish traders.

St Thomas Christians of Kerala goes by the name of "Nasranis" and is one of the oldest Christian community in the world

[WorgenGrrl]

"Early Christian Fanfiction"
So the Council of Nicia was the first JesusCon that had a group of panelists to determine which books about Jesus was to be considered Canon Lore.