\u00a0 \u00a0But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
\nThe other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
\nAnd after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
\nThen saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
\nAnd Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.
\nJesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The priest explained that, although Thomas had been skeptical, his recognition of Jesus as \u201cMy LORD and my God\u201d was a declaration of faith. \u201cAfter all,\u201d the priest said, \u201cwhen the moment came, Thomas did not actually<\/em> touch Jesus\u2019s wounds. The Bible doesn\u2019t say \u2018and then he did reach forth his finger and thrust it into his side. The kind of proof he thought he needed was superfluous.\u201d<\/p>\nI was fairly dubious of this exegesis, since I thought Thomas had<\/em> received the proof he had asked for (after all, this story fuels plenty of atheist rhetoric \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ll believe when I get the kind of proof Thomas did\u201d). When I looked it up after Church, it looked like most sources were in favor of my reading (not to mention the Caravaggio embedded at the top of this post). That\u2019s not to say the priest was necessarily wrong. The text doesn\u2019t contradict either reading.<\/p>\nBoth readings could be true, and both might provide comfort or point a reader to an important lesson about their faith. Therefore, the fact that a lesson can be drawn is not proof of the historical fact. The same argument applies to the much more abstract, highly conceptual points of disagreement that form the basis for a lot of heresies mentioned in the Nicene Creed and elsewhere. \u00a0Any story can serve as a pointer to a helpful new frame of thinking, but we\u2019re still left without a heuristic to distinguish true from false.<\/p>\n
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