Oh, how I wish there had been a Luke to follow Thomas on his missionary journeys to what we today call Iraq, Iran, and India. The “narrative” of early Christianity, that it was primarily a European [in contemporary racist terms, a “White man’s”] religion, would be shattered, as it should be: the gospel was preached in Africa, throughout the Middle East, in India, and via the Silk Road to China, as well as in Europe, within a generation of Pentecost.
And what makes our ignorance even worse, is that starting in the 7th century, the forces of jihad swept through the area, killing, exiling or subjugating the indigenous people, that is, the Christians and their already-ancient churches, in many cases extirpating every scroll, every carved rock, every relic, every sign of their history.
And the few precious traces that remained, have been smashed by resurgent jihadi forces over the past dozen years. Blown up, bulldozed, buried before our eyes.