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Thomas knew with a certainty that Jesus was dead. All of Jerusalem knew that the rabbi from Galilee had been crucified and hastily buried. How then, he reasoned logically, could he possibly give any credence to the other disciples’ report that Jesus had returned to life and appeared to them (John 20:19-20, 24-25; see also Luke 24:36-43)?
Though Thomas was a brave man, one who had been ready to accompany Jesus into danger when the Pharisees were hunting him (John 11:8, 16), he was also a realist who moved only when he was sure of the way to go (14:5). He was a man who would only believe what he could see with his own eyes, who wanted to handle the evidence with his own hands before he would be convinced of anything and commit himself to it wholeheartedly. Thus, it’s become common in colloquial speech to refer to a skeptic as a “Doubting Thomas.”
Thomas set stringent conditions for belief–“Unless I see in [Jesus’] hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Given these strong…
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