Saint Thomas Christians Quotes

“There was no history of such a cross in the memory of the Malankara Nazranies. (PHILIP 2022:4).”

““It is not probable that any of the Apostles of our Lord embarked on a voyage ... to India.””

““I am fully convinced that [the tomb of St. Thomas] has never been in Mylapore. I have said that many times.””

“Wikipedia: Saint Thomas Christians”

“[the Portuguese account of their discovery of some relics was] “a most barefaced imposture [with] all elements of a forgery.””

“These narrators from the sixteenth or seventeenth century are often carried away by the stories or myths of the local people. (PHILIP 2022:10).”

“[There is a total] absence of any material evidence of Syriac Christianity or any form of Christianity before the 9/10th century period. (PHILIP 2022:xxx)”

“Though the Saint’s mission and death in India are probably legendary, his reputed burial place was a centre of pilgrimage for Indian Christians.”

“[There is an] absence of any historical or archaeological material from South India concerning Syriac or Persian Christianity before the 9th century. (PHILIP 2022:333).”

““I have read [your letter] carefully, and my impression is that you have given good reasons for doubting the historical truth of the story of St. Thomas in South India.””

“[Recent research gives an ] interesting situation where the Manichaean church becomes a strong contendor for the ownership of the Pahlavi crosses of South India. (PHILIP 2022:335).”

“[The crosses from Mylapore and Malankara are] "a continuation of the parallel developments that took place during the 6th-10th centuries in Persia, Central Asia, China, etc." (PHILIP 2022:2).”

“There is absolutely not the shadow of a proof that an Apostle of our Lord – be his name Thomas or something else – ever visited South India or Ceylon and founded Christian communities there.”

““The difference of their character and colour attest the mixture of a foreign race.... Their conformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century world equally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or Protestant.””

“In 1952, Prof. K.S. Latourette, the Yale University church historian who had written A History of the Expansion of Christianity, wrote to T.K. Joseph that the evidence against St. Thomas in South India “is very convincing”.”

“The evolution of crosses especially crosses belonging to Syriac churches, and their archaeological remnants from the region, show that the Malankara Church and South India had no connection with the Syriac churches before the 9th century. (PHILIP 2022:334).”

“These recent converts from Manichaeans migrated to the western coast. whereby then another Judeo-Dravidian group (the pre-Porto-orthodox group) of Jesus believers who were the result of an Afro-Eurasian trade network. also subjugated to Nestorianism" (PHILIP 2022:336).”

“[None of the] "detailed descriptions, narratives, and myths discussed by various Portuguese writers about Christians in South India" [mention such crosses in Kerala till 1599 CE , which proves that it was not ] "the cross of Christians in this part of the world" (PHILIP 2022:10).”

““You are right in denying any historical value to local legends which have nothing to bring to their support. What is known from early books points only to North-West India, and no other place, for St. Thomas’s apostolic activity and martyrdom. This is, of course, mere tradition, not real history.””

“The complete incredibility of the Thomas Legend has been established, so that we of a scientific mind can treat of the question, since when have the so-called Thomas-Christians been resident in Southern Indian coastal lands and whence have they come? ... In reality the entire Thomas Legend is [also] fictional.”