Assumption is a word associated with the Virgin Mary, although we have seen that there were two and maybe three precedents for this in the Old Testament with Enoch, Moses and Elijah.
The New Testament does not describe the later years of Mary or how she died. Information concerning Mary’s death, burial and assumption come from a pseudepigrapha work called The Passing of Mary attributed to Joseph of Arimathea.
In The Passing of Mary all the apostles gather round Mary when she is dying at her house in Jerusalem. The pseudepigrapha work claims that they were miraculously brought back to Jerusalem to be there from the countries where they had gone for their missions.
Thomas is not there. He comes late, but in time to see Mary’s resurrected body being assumed into heaven three days after she died and was buried in a tomb. Mary sees Thomas and throws down her belt (girdle) to him as a sign.
Thomas, the doubter is now the believer in resurrection and assumption. He tells the other apostles that Mary has been asssumed into heaven, but they don’t believe him. Thomas demands that her tomb be opened to show them he is right. The tomb is found to be empty.
I think that the apostles could have all been present when Mary died, but they returned from their mission fields to attend the Council of Jerusalem in 50 or 51 AD. They were found back in Jerusalem by natural means, and at this point, just before the council took place, Mary died naturally of old age.
The miraculous sign of throwing down the girdle by which she could be identified may just be embellishment. However, in essence, I do believe that Mary lived and then died in Jerusalem, and that her resurrected body was assumed into heaven from her tomb outside Jerusalem. This is confirmed to me by there being no relics of Mary even though there are relics of many other saints, and pilgrims in early times all went to see her empty tomb.
Thomas was the apostle who was not present at the first appearance of the resurrected Christ. He was the one who doubted. This fault is corrected when Thomas is the witness of the assumption of Mary or had the revelation that she had been assumed into heaven. It was he who ordered that her tomb be opened and then confirmed to be empty.
The story of doubting Thomas appears in the gospel of John 20:24-28:
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!
Merry and True 