The Thomas narrative about the ressurection is written in paradoxical form. "I don't trust eye witnesses, trust me for I am an eye witness".
Where did you read the version of "the Thomas narrative" that you're referring to?
Here's the only version that I know of, from (the Bible) John 20:24-28:
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace
be with you.”
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed
are they who did not see, and
yet believed.”
No paradox there, that I can see.
Why exactly is that written in that form?
Because the form that you claim Thomas' statement takes is not the claim, in John 20, that Thomas' claim takes.
- John 20:19 - "So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
- John 20:20 - "And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord."
- John 20:24 - "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came."
- John 20:25 - " So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
- John 20:26 - "After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” "
- John 20:27 - "Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
- John 20:28 - "Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
There is a substantial difference between
- your "paradoxical form": "I don't trust eye witnesses, trust me for I am an eye witness" and
- the biblical account,
- In which Thomas was told, one day, 'Jesus is alive' by folks who claimed to have seen a resurrected Jesus; and
- Thomas' refusal to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead, even though the ones who told Thomas that Jesus was alive were fellow followers of Jesus;
- Then eight days later, Thomas sees Jesus personally and says: "WTF??? Guess I was wrong; now I'm an eyewitness."
Why is that question not raised when read?
'Cause you got your narrative from "fake" news, maybe?
The paradox is much older in Greek culture than Christianity yet here it is in a religious text. Generally the paradox is not read religiously but philosophically "all Cretans are liars and I am a Cretan."
Ignorance is bliss. You know who started the myth that the Cretan liar paradox had an ancient Greek origin? Paul of Tarsus:
- Paul's sermon on the Hill of Ares (a.k.a. Areopagus) and in his letter to Titus, in each of which he displays his familiarity with Epimenides the Cretan
- Epimenides - author of a poem called "Cretica"
- In the poem, Minos addresses Zeus thus:
Τύμβον ἐτεκτήναντο σέθεν, κύδιστε μέγιστε,
Κρῆτες, ἀεὶ ψευδεῖς, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
Ἀλλὰ σὺ γ᾽ οὐ θνῇσκεις, ἕστηκας γὰρ ζοὸς αίεί,
Ἐν γὰρ σοὶ ζῶμεν καὶ κινύμεθ᾽ ἠδὲ καὶ ἐσμέν.
Translation:
They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being.
The "lie" of the Cretans is that Zeus was mortal; Epimenides considered Zeus immortal.
- Acts 17, Paul's sermon: "24 - The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children."
- Titus 1:12, "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
- The phrase "Cretans, always liars" was quoted by the poet Callimachus in his Hymn to Zeus, with the same theological intent as Epimenides:
O Zeus, some say that thou wert born on the hills of Ida;
Others, O Zeus, say in Arcadia;
Did these or those, O Father lie? -- “Cretans are ever liars.”
Yea, a tomb, O Lord, for thee the Cretans builded;
But thou didst not die, for thou art for ever.
- From St. Paul to St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek into Latin, and from St. Jerome into the Medieval Church Scholastics, and from there into Philosophy.
Because there is no end to knuckleheads.
