¹ This essay takes inspiration from treatments by Brown, Peter in The Making of Late Antiquity (Cambridge, MA, 1978)Google Scholar, esp. ch. 1, and The Cult of the Saints (Chicago, IL, 1981). This essay also expands arguments made in Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, The Life and Miracles of Thekla: a Literary Study (Washington, DC and Cambridge, MA, 2006)Google Scholar.

² On the use of apocryphal legends in late antiquity, see Cameron, Averil, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: the Development of Christian Discourse (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1991), 89–119 Google Scholar. See also Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald, ‘Apocrypha and the Literary Past in Late Antiquity’, in Amirav, Hagit and Romeny, Bas ter Haar, eds, From Rome to Constantinople: Studies in Honour of Averil Cameron, Late Antique History and Religion 1 (Leuven, 2007), 47–66 Google Scholar.

³ On this picture of the intellectual character of late antiquity, see Inglebert, Hervé, Interpretatio Christiana: les mutations des savoirs (cosmographie, géographie, ethnographie, histoire), dans l’Antiquité chrétienne, 30–630 après J.-C. (Paris, 2001)Google Scholar.

⁴ See Eisner, Jaś, The Itinerarium Burdigalense. Politics and Salvation in the Geography of Constantine’s Empire’, Journal of Roman Studies 90 (2000), 181–95 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵ Though (significantly and explicitly), the later historians never attempted to rewrite the terrain he covered; see Socrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica, 1.1 and Sozomen, His toria Ecclesiastica, 1.1.

⁶ For example, on the ‘Pentarchy’, Chadwick, Henry, East and West: the Making of a Rift in the Church, from Apostolic Times until the Council of Florence (Oxford, 2003), esp. 115–16, 164–5 Google Scholar.

⁷ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 1.24–5.

⁸ Ibid., 1.25.

⁹ In Acta apostolorum homiliae (ed. M. Geerard, el al, Clavis Patrum Graecorum, 7 vols (Turnhout, 1974-) [hereafter: CPG], 4426, PG 60, 13–384). See also the study by Wylie, Amanda Lee Berry, ‘John Chrysostom and his Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles: Reclaiming Ancestral Models for the Christian People’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1992 Google Scholar. On the manuscript tradition and printing history of these sermons, see E. R. Smothers, Toward a Critical Text of the Homilies on Acts of St. John Chrysostom’, Studia Patristica 1 = TU 63 (1957), 53–7.

¹⁰ Homiliae in Acta apostolorum, 1.1. See also the comment in his fragmentary Homiliae in principium Actorum (CPG 4371, PG 51, 65–112), dating from AD 387: ‘We are about to set before you a strange and new dish& strange, I say, and not strange. Not strange, for it belongs to the order of Holy Scripture; and yet strange, because perhaps your ears are not accustomed to such a subject. Certainly, there are many to whom this book is not even known (πoλλoĩζ γoΰv τò βιβλίov τoΰτo ovδέ γvώρινόv έoτι).’ Chrysostom goes on to note that the book of Acts is traditionally only read during Holy Week.

¹¹ See the edition and French translation by Piédagnel, Auguste, ed., Jean Chrysostome: panégyriques de S. Paul (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar. See also his sermons on the New Testament books of Titus and Philemon, books which very rarely received dedicated treatment in patristic exegesis: Homiliae in epistulam ad Titum (CPG 4438, PG 62, 663–700); Argumentum et homiliae in epistulam ad Philemonem (CPG 4439, PG 62, 701–20). See also the study of these sermons by Blake Goodall, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Letters of St. Paul to Titus and Philemon: Prolegomena to an Edition (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1979). And see, more generally, Mitchell, Margaret Mary, The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation (Tubingen, 2000)Google Scholar.

¹² Most of the homilies on apostles besides Paul which are attributed to Chrysostom are generally held to be spurious: e.g. the sermon on Thomas (CPG 4574, PG 59, 497–500; see also Sauget, J. M., ‘Deux homéliares syriaques de la Bibliothèque Vaticane’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 27 (1961), 387–424, at 408)Google Scholar and the sermon on Thekla (CPG 4515; see M. Aubineau, , ed., ‘Le Panégyrique de Thècle attribué à Jean Chrysostome (BHG 1720)’, Analecta Bollandiana 93 [1975], 349–62)Google Scholar.

¹³ See the introduction, edition, and translation by Meehan, Denis, Adamnan’s De locis Sanctis (Dublin, 1958)Google Scholar, at 3–4 for the presentation to Aldfrith. See also the edition by Bieler, Ludwig, ed., Adamnani de locis Sanctis libri tres, CCSL 175 (Turnholt, 1965), 175–234 Google Scholar. For the context of this work in seventh-century Europe, see Brown, Peter, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, AD 200–1000 (2nd edn, Oxford, 2003), 318–19 and 329 Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Ibid., 5 and n. 2.

¹⁵ For Adomnan’s text, see the critical edition by L. Bieler, CCSL 175 (Turnholt, 1965), 249–80. Peter the Deacon, librarian of Monte Cassino, in 1137 wrote a book on the holy places, based on Bede, Egeria (see below), and a third otherwise unknown text.

¹⁶ Bede tells us Arculf was a bishop from Gaul; but Iona is far out of his way if returning to Gaul from the Mediterranean. On this issue, see Meehan, Adamnan’s De locis Sanctis, 7.

¹⁷ There has been considerable interest of late in the work and tradition of Eusebius’s Onomasticon: see now Notley, R. Steven and Safrai, Ze’ev, ed. and trans., Onomastkon: the Place Names of Divine Scripture, including the Latin edition of Jerome (Leiden, 2005)Google Scholar; Weingarten, Susan, The Saint’s Saint: Hagiography and Geography in Jerome (Leiden, 2005)Google Scholar; ,Timm, Stefan, Das Onomastikon der biblischen Ortsnamen: Edition der syrischen Fassung mit griechischem Text, englischer und deutscher Übersetzung (Berlin, 2005)Google Scholar; and finally, Freeman-Greenville, G. S. P. and Taylor, Joan E., The Onomasticon: Palestine in the Fourth Century A.D. (Jerusalem, 2003)Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Though the trend in late antique studies has been to see late antiquity extending much later than previously thought up to and including the Umayyad world, at the least. See the introduction to Bowersock, Glen, Brown, Peter, and Grabar, Oleg, eds, Late Antiquity: a Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, MA, 1999), vii–xiii Google Scholar; and more aggressively, Horden, Peregrine and Purcell, Nicholas, The Corrupting Sea: a Study of Mediterranean History (Oxford, 2000), 32–4 Google Scholar (on Henri Pirenne).

¹⁹ Ibid., 28–9, for the Church of John the Baptist at Damascus, partially converted into a mosque. Furthermore, while there is no explicit evidence for this beyond the date of his journey, Meehan (the editor of Adomnan’s text) thinks it likely that Arculf was involved in the Third Council of Constantinople in 680–1, which attempted to resolve the question of Monothelitism, a question in which the Dyothelite western churches felt they had a high stake. See Chadwick, East and West, 59–70.

²⁰ The account of Willibald’s travels, called the Hodoeporkon, was written by his biographer Hugeburc (Hygeburg/Huneberc) of Heidenheim, a nun and member of Willibald’s family. See the study by Gottschaller, Eva, Hugeburc von Heidenheim: philologische Untersuchungen zu den Heiligenhiographien einer Nonne des achten Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1973)Google Scholar. The text of Willibald’s Vita (Société des Bollandistes, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina Manuscripta, 3 vols [Brussels, 1898–1901 and 1986] [hereafter: BHL] 8931), including the Hodoeporkon, can be found in Oswald Holder-Egger, ed., MGH Scriptores 15.1 (Hanover, 1887). See also the discussion in McCormick, Michael, Origins of the European Economy: Communication and Commerce AD 300–900 (Cambridge, 2001), 129–34 Google Scholar.

²¹ On the theft of the relics of St Mark, see McCormick, , Origins of the European Economy, 237–40 Google Scholar. On the authenticity of the Translatio S. Marci (BHL 5283–4), see idem, 238 n. 2.

²² See Kaestli, Jean-Daniel, ‘Les scènes inventoriés d’attribution des champs de mission et de départ de l’apôtre dans les actes apocryphes’, in Bovon, François, ed., Les actes apocryphes de apôtres: christianisme et monde païen (Geneva, 1981), 249–64 Google Scholar. A similar scene appears in Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.1, ostensibly quoting Origen; see Eric Junod, ‘Origene, Eusèbe et la tradition sur la répartition des champs de mission des apôtres’, ibid., 233–48.

²³ Eudocia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 438 and eventually made her home there after being exiled from the capital in 443/4 ( Jones, A. H. M., Martindale, J. R., Morris, J., Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, 3 vols [Cambridge, 1971, 1980, 1992], 2: 408–9)Google Scholar. According to Gerontius’s Life of Melania the Younger (ed. D. Gorce, SC 90 [Paris, 1962], 57–8,), the pilgrim Melania the Younger made so great an impression on Eudocia that she decided to visit the Holy Land in person. Melania seems to have initiated Eudocia into devotion to Stephen: both Melania and the empress were present at the dedication ceremony of the original shrine in 439. On Melania, Eudocia, and the shrine of Stephen, see Hunt, E. D., Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire, AD 312–460 (Oxford, 1982), 230–44 Google Scholar.

²⁴ Breviarius, 4.93–5 (ed. R. Weber, CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 111).

²⁵ Theodosii de situ terrae sanctae, 8 (ed. P. Geyer, CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 118).

²⁶ Pilgrim, Piacenza: Antonini piacentini itinerarium, 22 (ed. Geyer, P., CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 140–1 Google Scholar). Arculf, : 1.18 (ed. Meehan, , Adamnan’s De locis Sanctis, 62–3)Google Scholar.

²⁷ Sophronius, , Anacreontica (ed. Gigante, M. [Rome, 1957], 125–6)Google Scholar; trans. Wilkinson, John, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (Warminster, 2002), 158–60 Google Scholar.

²⁸ Antonini piacentini itinerarium, 22 (ed. P. Geyer, CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 140–1).

²⁹ The dates of her pilgrimage were established by Devos, Paul, ‘La date du voyage d’Egèrie’, Analecta Bollandiana 85 (1967), 165–94 Google Scholar. For questions of authorship – the text as it stands is truncated and anonymous – see Maraval, Pierre, Égérie, journal de voyage (Itinéraire): introduction, texte critique, traduction, notes et cartes (2nd rev. edn, Paris, 2002)Google Scholar.

³⁰ Constantine’s mother, Helena, famously visited the Holy Land in the last years of her life before returning home to Rome and dying there as an octogenarian. Legend has it, of course, that Helena discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, on the site of today’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. While oft-cited, this particular legend has no strong historical evidence in its favor. What we do know rather well is that Constantine invested heavily in monumentalizing the city of Jerusalem and its environs, just before and coincident with Helena’s travels. Moreover, immediately subsequent to Constantine’s investment comes our earliest Christian pilgrimage account to have survived, the anonymous ‘Bordeaux Pilgrim’ from AD 333. The text mentions Constantine by name on three occasions, in relation to the following buildings: a basilica on Golgotha (presumably the Holy Sepulchre church, dedicated in 335), another at Bethlehem (dedicated in 339), and a church at the Oak of Mamre (quercus Mamris; dedicated in the late 320s). Golgotha: Itinerarium Burdigalense, 594.1–4 (ed. P. Geyer and O. Cuntz, CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 17); Bethlehem: Itinerarium Burdigalense, 598.1–7 (ed. idem, 19–20); Mamre: Itinerarium Burdigalense, 599.3–6 (ed. idem, 20). All these are mentioned also by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine and elsewhere and were well known in the Christian East. See Eusebius, Vita Constantini, 3.25–47 and 51–3 (ed. Friedhelm Winkelmann, Eusebius Werke, Die grieschischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, 1.1 [2nd edn, Berlin, 1975], 94–104 and 105–7). See also the translation and commentary by Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall, Eusebius: Life of Constantine (Oxford, 1999), 132–43 and 273–301.

³¹ See Wilkinson, John, ‘Jewish Holy Places and the Origins of Christian Pilgrimage’, in Ousterhout, Robert, ed., The Blessings of Pilgrimage (Urbana, IL, 1990), 46–53 Google Scholar; and also Taylor, Joan E., Christians and the Holy Places: the Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (Oxford, 1993), esp. 318–32 Google Scholar.

³² Whereas the ‘Bordeaux Pilgrim’ follows rather strictly the ancient genre of the Roman itinerarium outside of Palestine – only breaking away from that model while visiting the most sacred sites in Jerusalem and nearby – Egeria’s text could be read as demonstrating an acquaintance with a broader range of travel literature from the ancient world (e.g. Onomastica, the ancient novel, etc.). On the ‘Bordeaux Pilgrim’ and itinerarium genre, see Eisner, The Itinerarium Burdigalense’.

³³ There is currently no complete critical text for the Acts of Paul, of which the Acts of Paul and Thekla comprises the middle third. The best edition is Lipsius, R. A. and Bonnet, M., eds, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, 3 vols (Hildesheim, 1891, rpt. 1972), 2: 235–72 Google Scholar, though reference must be made to the ‘critical translations’ of Hennecke, E. and Schneemelcher, W., eds, New Testament Apocrypha, trans. Wilson, R. M., 2 vols (rev. edn, Louisville, KY, 1992), 2: 213–70 Google Scholar, and Elliott, J. K., The Apocryphal New Testament: a Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation Based on M. R. James, (rev. edn, Oxford, 1999), 350–89 Google Scholar. Lipsius and Bonnet made use of eleven Greek manuscripts for their edition, but over forty are now known to be extant. There are also numerous versions in almost all the ancient Christian languages. Willy Rordorf’s new critical edition of the Acts of Paul for the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum is thus eagerly anticipated.

³⁴ Even though some have tried: Ramsay, W. M., The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, Royal Geographical Society’s Supplementary Papers 4 (London, 1890), 375–428 Google Scholar.

³⁵ On the late antique cult of Thekla, see Davis, Stephen, The Cult of Saint Thecla: a Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar; see also the introductions to Dagron, Gilbert, Vie et miracles de Sainte Thècle: texte grec, traduction, et commentaire, Subsidia Hagiographica 62 (Brussels, 1978)Google Scholar and Johnson, Life and Miracles.

³⁶ On the archaeology of the hilltop site, see the references at Johnson, Life and Miracles, 5 n. 17.

³⁷ Egeria, Itinerarium, 23.1–6 (ed. A. Franceschini and R. Weber CCSL 175 [Turnhout, 1965], 66).

³⁸ On the popularity of this work in late antiquity, see Johnson, Life and Miracles, 1–14.

³⁹ Egeria, Itinerarium, 47.3–4 (CCSL 175, 89).

⁴⁰ See Johnson, Life and Miracles, 3 nn. 5–6. Admittedly, TertuUian read Greek and could be reading the Greek original rather than a Latin translation (ibid.).

⁴¹ In the absence of any archaeological evidence of a library: contra Dagron, La Vie et Miracles de Thècle, 33.

⁴² See Sivan, Hagith, ‘Holy Land Pilgrimage and Western Audiences: Some Reflections on Egeria and her Circle’, Classical Quarterly ns 38 (1988), 528–35 Google Scholar; eadem, , ‘Who was Egeria? Piety and Pilgrimage in the Age of Gratian’, Harvard Theological Review 81 (1988), 59–72 Google Scholar.

⁴³ Meehan, Adamnan’s De locis Sanctis, 5, 11–18. See also Brown, , Rise of Western Christendom (2nd edn), 329 Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ See the article by Devos, Paul, ‘Egèrie à Édesse: S. Thomas l’apôtre, le roi Abgar’, Analecta Bollandiana 85 (1967), 381–400 Google Scholar. Devos is, however, unwilling to allow Egeria’s account of Thomas to stand in contradiction to Eusebius’s account (see below), thereby short-circuiting questions regarding the reception and availability of these legends (382).

⁴⁵ The motif of ‘Doubting Thomas’ is a highly successful one in medieval and early modern art and literature. See Most, Glenn W., Doubting Thomas (Cambridge, MA, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Pt 2.

⁴⁶ Charlesworth, James H., The Beloved Disciple: Whose Witness Validates the Gospel of John? (Valley Forge, PA, 1995)Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ The author of Jude names himself in the first verse and claims he is the brother of James.

⁴⁸ This conflation appears in the Cospel of Thomas, the Book of Thomas the Contender, and the Old Syriac version of John 14: 22. See the references in Drijvers, Han J. W., ‘The Acts of Thomas’, in Schneemelcher, Wilhelm, ed., New Testament Apocrypha, trans. Wilson, Robert McLachlan, 2 vols (rev. edn, Louisville, KY, 1992), 2: 324 Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ On Gnosticism and labels, see Williams, Michael, Rethinking “Gnosticism”: an Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton, NJ, 1996)Google Scholar, and King, Karen, What is Gnosticism? (Cambridge, MA, 2003)Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ See Drivers, Han J. W., ‘East of Antioch: Forces and Structures in the Development of Early Syriac Theology’, idem, East of Antioch: Studies in Early Syriac Christianity (London, 1984), no. I: 15–17 Google Scholar.

⁵¹ See Pagels, Elaine, Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of Thomas (New York, 2003)Google Scholar, esp. ch. 2. Compare Most, Doubting Thomas, 242–4.

⁵² The critical text in Coptic (including an edition of the three surviving Greek fragments) is in Bentley Layton, ed., Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2–7 Together with XIII, 2* Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1) and P. Oxy 1, 645, 655, Nag Hammadi Studies 20–1, 2 vols (Leiden, 1989), vol. 1. See also the English translation in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, 376–99.

⁵³ The critical text is in Layton, Nag Hammadi Codex 2, vol. 1. See also Turner, John Douglas, The Book of Thomas the Contender from Codex II of the Cairo Gnostic Library from Nag Hammadi (CG II,7): the Coptic Text with Translation, Introduction, and Commentary, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 23 (Missoula, MT, 1975)Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ For the Syriac text, see Wright, William, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols (London, 1871, rept. Hildesheim, 1990)Google Scholar, q’b-šlg, with the translation on 146–298. For the Greek text, see Lipsius, and Bonnet, , Acta Apostolorum, 2.2: 99–288 Google Scholar. For textual issues regarding the original version of the Acts of Thomas, see Klijn, , Acts of Thomas (2nd edn), 1–4 Google Scholar (see also the 1st edn, which has valuable material not included in the 2nd). For an English translation and commentary, see Klijn, , Acts of Thomas (2nd edn), 17–251 Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ The adjective ‘Syriac’ is preferable to ‘Syrian’ because what we are referring to is a cultural and linguistic region larger than the political designation of Roman Syria: Syriac was spoken in the fourth to sixth centuries in parts of what is today Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. In ancient terms this large cultural region comprised all or part of the following late Roman provinces: Syria, Euphratensis, Osrhoëne, and Mesopotamia.

⁵⁶ See Layton, Bentley, ‘The School of St. Thomas’, idem, The Gnostic Scriptures (New York, 1988), 357–65 Google Scholar. For a contrary interpretation, see Drijvers, , ‘Acts of Thomas’, 334–7 Google Scholar, where early Syriac Christianity is not quasi-Gnostic at all, but rather ‘sophisticated’.

⁵⁷ See Sellew, Philip, ‘Thomas Christianity: Scholars in Quest of a Community’, in Bremmer, Jan N., ed., The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas (Leuven, 2001), 11–35 Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Egeria, Itinerarium, 17.1 (CCSL 178, 58).

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 1.13.

⁶¹ On the tendentiousness of Eusebius’s account, see Brock, Sebastian, ‘Eusebius and Sytiac Christianity’, in Attridge, Harold W. and Hata, Gohei, eds, Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism (Detroit, MI, 1992), 212–34 Google Scholar.

⁶² Also identified with the ‘Judas, son/brother of James’ in Luke 6: 16 and Acts 1: 13. Could this potentially be a source of the relations (and later competition) between Thaddeus and ‘Judas Thomas’? ‘Brother’ is possible here because in both passages the earliest witnesses do not have a definite article between Judas and James, i.e. Ίoύδας Ίαxώβoυ. If accepted, then the apostle to Edessa was essentially understood to be a relation of James, no matter whether that meant Judas Thomas or Judas Thaddeus. For comparison, there is extant a curious inscription from the ‘40 caverns’ at Edessa: Θαδδαĩov τòv xαÌ Θωμav (Devos, ‘Egerie à Édesse’, 398).

⁶³ Interestingly, in some traditions Thaddeus is not the named disciple but ‘one of the seventy (or seventy-two)’ from Luke 10: 1 and 10: 17.

⁶⁴ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 13.5.

⁶⁵ Elsewhere (Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.1.1), Eusebius claims that Thomas is the apostle to Parthia (i.e. Persia). See Eric Junod, ‘Origene, Eusèbe et la tradition’, 239–40 and 247–8.

⁶⁶ Egeria, Itinerarium, 19.2–4 (CCSL 175, 59–60).

⁶⁷ The similarity extends even to the syntax of the two passages, especially the use of the phrase nee non etiam et connecting the notices about praying first, then reading the text on site. Compare Egeria, Itinerarium, 19.2 with 23.5 (CCSL 175,59 and 66).

⁶⁸ Drijvers, ‘East of Antioch’. On authorship, date, and setting, see Bremmer, Jan N., The Acts of Thomas: Place, Date, and Women’, idem, ed., The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas (Leuven, 2001), 74–90 Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ The Book of Thomas the Contender is available today only in Coptic translation but in all likelihood came from a Greek or Syriac original (or originals in both languages: see previous note).

⁷⁰ On the text, see n. 52 above.

⁷¹ A contemporary reference to ‘Judas Thomas’ in India is the Doctrina Apostolorum of C.250 in Syriac: see Mingana, Alphonse, ‘The Early Spread of Christianity in India’, BJRULM 10 (1926), 435–510, at 448 Google Scholar.

⁷² Roughly contemporary with Egeria, however, is Ephrem the Syrian, who makes reference to Thomas in India (Carmina Nisibena, 42). Ephrem is not necessarily an independent witness since he clearly knows the Acts of Thomas well: see Mingana, ‘Christianity in India’, 450.

⁷³ See Klijn, Acts of Thomas, 250–1. Egeria is the next writer to mention Thomas at Edessa, and from that point on the association appears very widely recognized (e.g. Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica, 4.18; Sozomen, Historia Ecclesiastica, 6.18).

⁷⁴ See Poirier, Paul-Hubert, L’Hyme de la Perle des Actes de Thomas: introduction, texte-traduction, commentaire (Louvain-La-Neuve, 1981), esp. Pt 2Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ For example, Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.25.6.

⁷⁶ On the text, see n. 5 3 above.

⁷⁷ On the question of which Abgar Egeria was viewing, see Devos, ‘Egèrie à Édesse’, 392–400. On the Edessene dynastic name Ma’nou, see the references at Bremmer, The Acts of Thomas’, 75, nn. 5–6.

⁷⁸ Egeria, Itinerarium, 19.9 (CCSL 175, 60).

⁷⁹ Ibid., 19.16–17 (CCSL 175, 61).

⁸⁰ Ibid., 19.18 (CCSL 175, 61).

⁸¹ Ibid., 19.19 (CCSL 175, 62).

⁸² On the discovery of the text and subsequent editions, see Maraval, Egèrie, ch. 2.

⁸³ An exception is Paul Devos’s article ‘Egèrie à Édesse’, on which see n. 44 above.

⁸⁴ Sivan only gives passing attention to the sites outside of Jerusalem: ‘It would appear, then, that the prime aim of pilgrimage from the circle’s point of view was to relive established biblical episodes rather than those narrated in apocryphal writings’ (‘Egeria and her Circle’, 530). The two categories should not be so readily separated, either as destinations for pilgrimage or as literary devices.

⁸⁵ The most recent critical editions of these versions are collected in Klijn, Acts of Thomas (2nd ed.), 4 nn. 6–11.

⁸⁶ See n. 62 above.

⁸⁷ See Cameron, Averil, ‘The History of the Image of Edessa: the Telling of a Story’, in Mango, Cyril and Pritsak, Omeljan, eds, Okeanos: Essays Presented to Ihor Ševcenko on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 80–94 Google Scholar [reprinted in Averil Cameron, Changing Cultures in Early Byzantium (Aldershot, 1996), no. XI].

⁸⁸ See Howard, George, The Teaching of Addai (Chico, CA, 1981), 21–35 Google Scholar (with facing Syriac text). On the Protonike legend, see Drijvers, Han J. W. and Drijvers, Jan Willem, The Finding of the True Cross: the Judas Kyriakos Legend in Syriac (Leuven, 1997), esp. 14–16 Google Scholar. The legend exists only in extant Syriac and Armenian texts (appearing first in the Doctrina Addai) and is thus thought not to have travelled outside these traditions.

⁸⁹ Greek Acts of Thaddeus: Lipsius and Bonnet, Acta Apostolorum, 1: 273–8. Syriac Acts of Mari: see Harrak, Amir, The Acts of Mar Mari the Apostle (Atlanta, GA, 2005)Google Scholar. For a separate tradition about Thaddeus, see the Armenian, Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus in Malan, S. C., The Life and Times of S. Gregory the Illuminator (London, 1868), 66–98 Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ On ‘encratism’ and the Acts of Thomas, see Drijvers, Han J. W., ‘Facts and Problems: Early Syriac-Speaking Christianity’, idem, East of Antioch, no. VI: 170–1 Google Scholar. The Acts of Thomas was adopted by the Manichaeans as a foundational text, along with other apocryphal Acta: see Poirier, P.-H., ‘Les Acts de Thomas et le manichéisme’, Apocrypha 9 (1998), 263–87 Google Scholar.

⁹¹ On the theological resonance of this theme, see Drijvers, ‘East of Antioch’, esp. 15–16: ‘I believe that Judas the twin brother of the Lord is the most perfect representative of the state of salvation, which implies an identification with the Savior, God’s Word and Spirit dwelling in a human being. Who is more like the Lord than His own twin brother?’

⁹² The blending of genres and experimentation with form can be read as definitive of late antique literature, see Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, ed., Greek Literature in Late Antiquity: Dynamism, Didacticism, Classicism (Aldershot, 2006), esp. introduction.

⁹³ Critical edition is Wolska-Conus, Wanda, Cosmas Indicopleustes: Topographie Chrétienne, 3 vols (Paris, 1968–73)Google Scholar. See also eadem, , La Topographie Chrétienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes: théologie et science au Vie siècle (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar. The name ‘Cosmas Indicopleustes’ (i.e., ‘Cosmas the India-sailor’) was not attached to this work until the eleventh century. The author was intentionally anonymous, calling himself only ‘a Christian’. On questions of authorship and date, see the introduction to Wolska-Conus, Cosmas Indicopleustes. As Cosmas notes in the prologue (1–2) to the Topography, he wrote two other geographical works, both of which are now lost: these are the Geography dedicated to a Constantine, and an Astronomy dedicated to a deacon Homologos.

⁹⁴ See, e.g., Christian Topography, 2.35 (ed. Wolska-Conus, 1: 340–1). Cosmas’s principal interlocutor was John Philoponus, a Miaphysite theologian, philosopher, and cosmologist in the sixth century. See Wolska-Conus, , Cosmas Indkopleustès, 40–1 Google Scholar. Philoponus’s De opifìcio mundi was a direct retaliation to the Topography. See Pearson, Carl William, ‘Scripture as Cosmology: Natural Philosophical Debate in John Philoponus’ Alexandria’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1999 Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ Cosmas’s discussions of Persian churches in Taprobane are at 3.65 (ed. Wolska-Conus, 1: 502–5) and 11.14 (342–5). It is not absolutely certain from the Christian Topography whether Cosmas travelled himself to India and Taprobane or whether he was relying on others’ accounts: see Wolska-Conus, Cosmas Indkopleustès, 17. On Taprobane, including Cosmas’s description, see Weerakkody, D. P. M., Taprobane: Ancient Sri Lanka as Known to Greeks and Romans (Turnhout, 1997)Google Scholar.

⁹⁶ On Cosmas and Mar Aba, whom Cosmas calls ‘Patrikios’, see the Christian Topography 2.2 (ed. Wolska-Conus, 1: 306). On the Antiochene tradition of theology to which Cosmas assented, see Wolska, , La Topographie Chrétienne de Cosmas Indkopleustès (Paris, 1962), 63–85 Google Scholar and Becker, Adam H., ‘The Dynamic Reception of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the Sixth Century: Greek, Syriac, and Latin’, in Johnson, , ed., Greek Literature in Late Antiquity, 29–47 Google Scholar.

⁹⁷ Christian Topography, 3.65 (ed. Wolska-Conus, 1: 502–3). He also describes such Persian churches on Dioskorides (Socotra, in the Gulf of Aden): ibid.

⁹⁸ The label ‘Nestorian’ is today understood to be pejorative and historically misleading: see Brock, Sebastian P., ‘The “Nestorian” Church: a Lamentable Misnomer’, in Coakley, J. F. and Parry, K., eds, The Church of the East: Life and Thought, BJRULM 78 (1996), 23–35 Google Scholar. For the history of the Church of the East, see Baum, Wilhelm and Winkler, Dietmar W., The Church of the East: a Concise History, trans. Henry, Miranda G. (London, 2003)Google Scholar, and Baumer, Christophe, The Church of the East: an Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity (London, 2006)Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ Weerakkody, , Taprobane, 134–5 Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, 5.10–11. For a separate tradition about Bartholomew (though one which mentions Thomas, India, and Thaddeus), see the Armenian Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Bartholomew in Malan, S. Gregory the Illuminator, 99–103.

¹⁰¹ See Mingana, , ‘Christianity in India’, 449 Google Scholar. See also Dihle, Albrecht, ‘The Conception of India in Hellenistic and Roman Literature’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 190 (1964), 15–23 Google Scholar, for a different view, i.e. that Christian writers had a rather precise knowledge of (real) Indian geography. For example, 22–3: ‘In early Christian literature the conception of India definitely changed and was adapted to really existing conditions. We are able to prove this change not only by comparing the different size and shape given to India in pagan and Christian literature but also by noting the differences in the ethnographical details attached to the general idea of India.’

¹⁰² On the later history of the Syriac churches in India, see Brown, Leslie, The Indian Christians of St Thomas: an Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar (rev. edn, Cambridge, 1982)Google Scholar.