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The Gnostic Apostle Thomas:"Twin" of Jesus

After Constantine

The Gnostic Apostle Thomas: Notes, Chapter 13

General Sources

Conversion of Constantine
Barnes,Timothy David. Constantine and Eusebius (1981).
Drake, H. A. In Praise of Constantine ( 1976).
Eusebius of Caesarea, The History of the Church (Trans. G. A. Williamson, Penguin ed., 1965).
MacMullen, Ramsey. Constantine (1987)

Ephraim
Burkitt, F. C. (1)Early Eastern Christianity (l904);
(2) Introduction to I Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion and Bardaisan (1921).
Murray, Robert. Symbols of Church and Kingdom (l975)
Segal, J. B. Edessa ( l970)

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Conversion of Constantine to Christianity:
In his Life of Constantine (written after the emperor's death), Eusebius places the conversion before Constantine's battle at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome, against his rival Maxentius (Drake, 22-8). In his Church History , written earlier, Eusebius speaks of a "miracle" at the Milvian Bridge -- the span's collapse, throwing Maxentius and his troops into the stream -- with no mention of a vision (Eusebius, 368-9). Lactanius, another church historian, writing a few years after Constantine's death, refers briefly and ambiguously to a sign that should be put on shields (Drake, 7).
Labarum. Drake, 72-3

"If the sky writing . . . "
MacMullen, 73.

Statue of Constantine in Rome
Drake, 28;
Eusebius, 370.

Persian persecution of Christians under Shapur II
Asmussen, J. P. "Christians in Iran," Cambridge History of Iran , vol. 3 (1983) 924-948;
Creeds, Councils and Controversies , ed. J. Stevenson (1966) 6-7;
Percy Sykes, A History of Persia (3rd ed., l95l) vol. i, 414.

"You will arrest Simon, . . ."
Freya Stark, Rome on the Euphrates (1967) 375, (citing Labourt, Christianisme en Perse )

Zoroastrians offended by Christians
Sykes, vol. i, 414.

Ephraim in Nisibis and Edessa
Burkitt (1), 95;
Murray, 9, 23-24, 30-31;
Segal, 87-91.

Ephraim's attacks on Marcion, Bardaisan, and Mani
Burkitt (2) cxii;
Murray, 74-75, 155, 277;
Segal, 90

Sexual abstinence preached by Ephraim and Aphrahat
Burkitt (1) 81-93;
Burkitt(2), cxii;
Murray, 12-6.

Sons and Daughters of the Covenant
Murray, 16-7, 255-7.

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The Gnostic Apostle Thomas (c) 1997 Herbert Christian Merillat.