(Jn 20:19-31)

John 20:24 Thomas, one of the Twelve, called Dydimus, was not with them when Jesus came.

John 20:25 Then the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger in the place of the nails, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe."

John 20:26 Eight days later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was also with them. Jesus came, behind closed doors, stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you!"

John 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands; stretch out your hand, and put it in my side; and no longer be an unbeliever but a believer!"

John 20:28 Thomas answered, "My Lord and my God!"

John 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who, though they have not seen, will believe!"

John 20:30 Many other signs did Jesus do in the presence of his disciples, but they were not written in this book.

John 20:31 These have been written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name.

Thomas is a disciple who in John's Gospel plays a critical role within the believing community: he is the one who does not readily accept following Jesus and is not afraid to voice his criticism and reservations. In the account of the resurrection of Lazarus, he is the one who does not understand what is about to happen and reads the going of Jesus back to Judea, to Lazarus, as an unnecessary risk, with which he unwillingly associates himself (John 11:7-8, 16); and similarly in John 14:5, not understanding the discourse that Jesus was making, he asks him to show him the way where he was going, unknown to him. And now here, more blatantly, he is the one who pulls himself out of the pack; he was not present with the others at the apparition of Jesus; he is the one who does not willingly accept a testimony, but prefers to follow the logic of "first see and touch and then believe" (v. 25). In short, a figure that of Thomas who acts as a contrary bastian, one not easy to convince.

He becomes, therefore, the figure of the doubting and critical believer, who, in the face of an announcement or a testimony, expresses all his reservations. The proclamation, in fact, takes place eight days after the event of the resurrection, a time that sees the passing of seven days between the first and the second experience of the Risen One, in which the 'seven' speaks of a time that is now complete, a time that sees the fulfilment of an announcement (v. 25a), on which the new believer is called to place his trust; an announcement that, instead, often comes up against a criticism in which seeing and touching take the place of believing (v. 25b).

Thomas, from the Aramaic "tĕ'ōmā" which means "twin" and has its Greek equivalent in "dídimos", is presented as absent from the group of disciples at the coming of Jesus: "he was not with them". Significantly, this expression indicates how Thomas was not perfectly aligned with the group of the other disciples; he was not, in fact, with them. John probably wanted to make this disciple the metaphor of those believers whose faith is critical, and who do not passively accept the dictates of faith.

The announcement made by the group of disciples, witnesses to the event of the Risen Lord, is very explicit: "We have seen the Lord". The verb to see is expressed in Greek as "horaō", the verb of superior seeing, designating the experience of fulfilled faith, which knows how to go beyond appearances and is able to grasp the Mystery. Here the verb is placed significantly in the perfect indicative: "heōrákamen", which tells how a present state of faith is consequent to a past action. Faith in the Risen One, which is thus announced to Thomas here by the disciples, is rooted in their own experience of the resurrection event. And what the disciples have seen here is not Jesus, but 'the Lord', the term by which the Risen One was called in the early church to indicate his universal lordship. It is therefore a transformed Jesus. And it is precisely this particular vision of faith that Thomas opposes.

Indeed, v. 25a opens with a very strong adversative expression: "ho dé", "but he", i.e. Thomas contrasts himself with the other disciples. A contrast that takes on very harsh tones: "Unless I see in his hands the sign of the nails and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand in his side, I will not believe". The verb here translated as "I put" is rendered in Greek as "bállō", which literally means "I push in", which says all the harshness of the expression. It is not a question of simply touching, but of dipping his hand, as if to verify the consistency of that body; While that insistence on seeing and putting his finger and hand says all the hardness and resistance of his unbelief in the face of an event that was only announced.

At this point the evangelist tells us that "Jesus came" (v. 26), which however is not a "he came" but a "he comes" ("erchetai"), present indicative, to indicate the persistence of this coming, which continues in time. The Lord's invitation to Thomas to "be not unbelieving, but believing" tells how the experience of the Risen One no longer passes through the senses of seeing and touching, but through faith. A new way of approaching Jesus is therefore necessary, which requires a passage, a conversion from unbelief to belief. A change therefore of existential direction, calling the believer to sublimate his knowledge of the senses into knowledge of the spirit.

V. 28 reports Thomas' response and attests to his profound inner transformation: from a rationalistic mind, to a mystical mind, capable now of truly seeing Jesus as his Lord and his God, beyond the senses. Finally, even this disciple, emblematic of the difficulty of believing, enters into perfect communion with the group of disciples and shares with them the common experience and knowledge of the Risen One.

V. 29 closes the account of Thomas with a kind of reminder left for future believers: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who, though they have not seen, will believe". Bliss is reserved for those believers whose faith is based on the annunciation and not on seeing and touching.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

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