Abgar V of Edessa
Encyclopedia
For the other historical kings Abgar of Osroene, see Osroene
Osroene
Osroene, also spelled Osrohene and Osrhoene and sometimes known by the name of its capital city, Edessa , was a historic Syriac kingdom located in Mesopotamia, which enjoyed semi-autonomy to complete independence from the years of 132 BC to AD 244.It was a Syriac-speaking kingdom.Osroene, or...

.


Abgar V the black or Abgarus V of Edessa BC - AD 7 and AD 13 - 50) was a historical Syriac ruler of the Syriac kingdom of Osroene
Osroene
Osroene, also spelled Osrohene and Osrhoene and sometimes known by the name of its capital city, Edessa , was a historic Syriac kingdom located in Mesopotamia, which enjoyed semi-autonomy to complete independence from the years of 132 BC to AD 244.It was a Syriac-speaking kingdom.Osroene, or...

, holding his capital at Edessa
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...

. (Compare to the region that was referred to as Armenian Mesopotamia
Armenian Mesopotamia
Armenian Mesopotamia was a region in Northern Mesopotamia that was inhabited partly by Armenians, and from 401 BC to 387 AD was part of Kingdom of Armenia . Later it became part of Sassanid Empire, Arab Caliphate and County of Edessa. Then it became part of Ottoman Empire and Turkey...

 by the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 and Athur in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

). According to an ancient legend, he was converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 by Addai, one of the Seventy-two Disciples. According to Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 historian Moses of Khorene he was Sanatruk
Sanatruk
Sanatruk |Latinized]] as Sanatruces) was a member of the Arshakuni Dynasty who may have succeeded Tiridates I of Armenia as King of Armenia at the end of the 1st century. He was also King of Osroene , a historic kingdom located in Mesopotamia. Little or no information is available from either...

's relative.

The legend of King Abgar

Abgar V was, according to Syriac tradition, one of the first Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 kings in history, having been converted to the faith by the Apostle Thaddeus of Edessa. Abgar was a Syriac King in the city of Edessa. Other accounts regard this as mere legend, equating the Abgar in the story with the Syrian Abgar IX, a late 2nd-century convert to Christianity. Moses of Khoren suggests that the name of the legendary figure is a corruption of an individual's title: "…Because of his uncommon modesty and wisdom, and his old age, this Abgaros was given the title of "Avag Hair" (Senior Father in Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

). The Greeks and Assyrians, unable to articulate his name correctly, called him Abgar."
The legend tells that Abgar, king of Edessa, afflicted with an incurable sickness, had heard the fame of the power and miracles of Jesus and wrote to him, acknowledging his divinity, craving his help, and offering him asylum in his own residence; the tradition states that Jesus wrote a letter declining to go, but promising that after his ascension, he would send one of his disciples, endowed with his power.

The 4th century church historian Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...

, records a tradition concerning a correspondence on this occasion, exchanged between Abgar of Edessa and Jesus. Eusebius was convinced that the original letters, written in Syriac (Aramaic), were kept in the archives of Edessa. Eusebius also states that in due course, after Christ's ascension, Thaddeus, namely Addai (called Addaï), or one of the seventy-two Disciples, called Thaddeus of Edessa, was sent by Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

 in AD 29. Eusebius copies the two letters into the text of his history.

The correspondence consisted of Abgar's letter and the answer dictated by Jesus. As the legend later expanded, a portrait of Jesus painted from life began to be mentioned. This portrait, purportedly painted by the court archivist Hannan during his visit to Jesus, is first mentioned in the Syriac text called the "Doctrine of Addai
Doctrine of Addai
The Doctrine of Addai is a controversial book about Saint Addai.The story of how King Abgar and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History and it was retold in elaborated form by Ephrem the Syrian.In the...

" (or Doctrina Addai; the name Addaei or Addaeus = Thaddaeus or Thaddeus), from the second half of the 4th century. Here it is said that the reply of Jesus was given not in writing, but orally, and that the event took place in 32 AD. This Teaching of Addai is also the earliest account of an image of Jesus painted from life, enshrined by the ailing King Abgar V in one of his palaces. Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 forms of the legend are found in the Acta Thaddaei, the "Acts of Thaddaeus".

The story of the "letter to Abgar", including the portrait made by the court painter Hannan, is repeated, with some additions, in the mid-5th century History of the Armenians of Moses of Chorene, who remarked that the portrait was preserved in Edessa.

The story was later elaborated further by the church historian Evagrius
Evagrius of Edessa
Evagrius of Edessa was Bishop of Edessa and early Christian historian.He was the first to claim that Jesus had sent a divinely wrought image of himself to king Abgar of Edessa. In fact he seems to be the first person to have alleged that any icon was made by the work of God and not by the work of...

, Bishop of Edessa (c. 536-600), who declared for the first time (as far as is known) that the image of Jesus was "divinely wrought," and "not made by human hands." In sum, the documented legend developed from no image in Eusebius, to an image painted by Hannan in "Addai" and Moses of Chorene, to a miraculously-appearing image not made by human hands in Evagrius.
This latter concept of an "image not made by hands" (acheiropoietos) formed the foundation on which the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of icons was later created in the 8th century. This doctrine held that Jesus made the first icon of himself by pressing a wet towel to his face, miraculously imprinting the cloth with his features — thus creating the prototype for all icons of Jesus, and an implied divine approval for their creation.

John of Damascus
John of Damascus
Saint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...

, the leading architect of the church dogma favoring icons, specifically mentioned that Jesus "is said to have taken a piece of cloth and pressed it to his face, impressing on it the image of his face, which it keeps to this day" (On the Divine Images I).

The Abgar legend enjoyed great popularity in the East, and also in the West, during the Middle Ages: Jesus' letter was copied on parchment, inscribed in marble and metal, and used as a talisman or an amulet. Of this pseudepigraphical
Pseudepigraphy
Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." The word "pseudepigrapha" is the plural of "pseudepigraphon" ; the Anglicized forms...

 correspondence, there survive not only a Syriac text, but an Armenian translation as well, two independent Greek versions, shorter than the Syriac, and several inscriptions on stone.

A curious legendary growth has arisen from this supposed event, with scholars disputing whether Abgar suffered from gout or from leprosy, whether the correspondence was on parchment or papyrus, and so forth.

Many scholars considered the letters spurious. Most testimony of the 5th century, for instance Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 and Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...

, is to the effect that Jesus wrote nothing. The correspondence was rejected as apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I
Pope Gelasius I
Pope Saint Gelasius I was pope from 492 until his death in 496. He was the third and last bishop of Rome of African origin in the Catholic Church. Gelasius was a prolific writer whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages...

 and a Roman synod (c. 495). Biblical scholars now generally believe that the letters were fabricated, probably in the 3rd century AD, and "planted" where Eusebius eventually found them. Another theory is that the story was fabricated by Abgar IX of Osroene
Abgar IX of Osroene
Lucius Aelius Megas Abgar IX was a Syriac ruler of Osroene from AD 177 to 212.Andrew Louth in his "Who's Who in Eusebius" at the end of G. A. Williamson's translation of Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History gives the dates of Abgar's reign as from 179-214.During the reign of Abgar the...

, during whose reign the kingdom became Christianized, as a way of legitimizing its religious conversion.

The text of the letter varies. The less available variant, transcribed from the Doctrina Addaei, and printed in the Catholic Encyclopedia 1908, is:
"Abgar Ouchama to Jesus, the Good Physician Who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting:

"I have heard of Thee, and of Thy healing; that Thou dost not use medicines or roots, but by Thy word openest (the eyes) of the blind, makest the lame to walk, cleansest the lepers, makest the deaf to hear; how by Thy word (also) Thou healest (sick) spirits and those who are tormented with lunatic demons, and how, again, Thou raisest the dead to life. And, learning the wonders that Thou doest, it was borne in upon me that (of two things, one): either Thou hast come down from heaven, or else Thou art the Son of God, who bringest all these things to pass. Wherefore I write to Thee, and pray that thou wilt come to me, who adore Thee, and heal all the ill that I suffer, according to the faith I have in Thee. I also learn that the Jews murmur against Thee, and persecute Thee, that they seek to crucify Thee, and to destroy Thee. I possess but one small city, but it is beautiful, and large enough for us two to live in peace."


The Doctrina then continues:
When Jesus had received the letter, in the house of the high priest of the Jews, He said to Hannan, the secretary, "Go thou, and say to thy master, who hath sent thee to Me: 'Happy art thou who hast believed in Me, not having seen Me, for it is written of Me that those who shall see Me shall not believe in Me, and that those who shall not see Me shall believe in Me. As to that which thou hast written, that I should come to thee, (behold) all that for which I was sent here below is finished, and I ascend again to My Father who sent Me, and when I shall have ascended to Him I will send thee one of My disciples, who shall heal all thy sufferings, and shall give (thee) health again, and shall convert all who are with thee unto life eternal. And thy city shall be blessed forever, and the enemy shall never overcome it.'"


(†According to Eusebius, Jesus himself wrote the letter; nothing is mentioned of his having dictated it to Hannan.)

The Nuttall Encyclopaedia attributes the legend to a king Ab'gar XIV
Ab'gar XIV
Ab'gar XIV was a king of Edessa, one of a dynasty of the same name. He was a contemporary of Jesus Christ, with whom he is said to have corresponded....

 of Edessa.
After the ascension of God, Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

 - the one of the 'twelve ones' sent from there the one of the 'seventy ones'- Thaddeus to Edessa to heal Abgar and praise the Word of God. Thaddeus, finding himself in Edessa, stepped in a house of some Tubiya- a Jewish nobleman, they say from the kin of Bagratuni, who once skulked himself from Arsham and did not renounced from Judaism as the rest of them, but remained faithful to its laws until won't believe in Jesus. The news about Thaddeus flew around the town at speed of light. Hearing that Abgar said - This is the one Jesus wrote about and called him to audience at once. Scarcely had he stepped in, a glorious vision came to Abgar to his face, and raising up from his throne he fell down to his knees and bowed to him. And all the presenting noblemen were astonished as they saw this glorious visions. And told him Abgar - Are you really the one of the disciples of the blessed Jesus whom He promised to send and can you heal me from my illness?. And Thaddeus answered him - The desire of your heart will come true if you come to believe in Jesus Christ Son of God. And Abgar told him then - I came to believe in Him and the Father of His. That is why I wished to come with my army and uproot the Jews who crucified him but was stopped by roman authorities. After those words Thaddeus begun blessing him and his town and putting his hand on him cured him and the victim of gout Abdia, the ruler of the town respectful in the kings house. Also he cured all those needed and illed in town. And everyone came to believe and Abgar was baptized as well as all the town. They closed the doors to cathedrals of the idols and shut their images standing on an altar with reed. Although no one obliged anyone to accept the faith, the toll of the believers grew with every passing day. The apostle Thaddeus baptizes some master of silken hats and giving him the name Addai appoints him as a spiritual head of Edessa and lefts him there with a king instead of himself. He, in his turn, taking a deed in which it was told to everyone to hark to the Gospel of Christ, arrives to Sanatruk
Sanatruk
Sanatruk |Latinized]] as Sanatruces) was a member of the Arshakuni Dynasty who may have succeeded Tiridates I of Armenia as King of Armenia at the end of the 1st century. He was also King of Osroene , a historic kingdom located in Mesopotamia. Little or no information is available from either...

 king's sister's son who ruled the country of Assyria and its army.

Liturgical use of the letter of Abgar

The quotations paraphrasing the Gospels are actually from the famous concordance of Tatian
Tatian
Tatian the Assyrian was an Assyrian early Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century.Tatian's most influential work is the Diatessaron, a Biblical paraphrase, or "harmony", of the four gospels that became the standard text of the four gospels in the Syriac-speaking churches until the...

, the Diatessaron
Diatessaron
The Diatessaron is the most prominent Gospel harmony created by Tatian, an early Christian apologist and ascetic. The term "diatessaron" is from Middle English by way of Latin, diatessarōn , and ultimately Greek, διὰ τεσσάρων The Diatessaron (c 160 - 175) is the most prominent Gospel harmony...

, itself compiled in the 2nd century. The legend could not be older than the 3rd century.

In addition to the importance it attained in the apocryphal cycle, the correspondence of King Abgar also gained a place in liturgy for some time. The decree, De libris non recipiendis ("Books not to be received"), traditionally attributed to Pope Gelasius I
Pope Gelasius I
Pope Saint Gelasius I was pope from 492 until his death in 496. He was the third and last bishop of Rome of African origin in the Catholic Church. Gelasius was a prolific writer whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages...

, places the letter among the apocrypha
Apocrypha
The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....

. That in itself may be an indication of its having been interpolated among the officially sanctioned lessons of the liturgy of some churches. The Syriac liturgies commemorate the correspondence of Abgar during Lent. The Celtic liturgy appears to have attached importance to the legend; the Liber Hymnorum, a manuscript preserved at Trinity College, Dublin (E. 4, 2), gives two collects on the lines of the letter to Abgar. It is even possible that this letter, followed by various prayers, may have formed a minor liturgical office in some Catholic churches.

True images

The account given by Thaddeus/Addai contains a detail that may be briefly referred to. Hannan, who wrote at Jesus' dictation, was archivist at Edessa and painter to King Abgar. He had been charged to paint a portrait of Jesus Christ, and brought to Edessa an icon that became an object of general veneration, and that was eventually said to have been painted (or created miraculously) by Jesus himself. Like the letter, the iconic portrait was destined be the nucleus of a legendary growth; the "Holy Face of Edessa" was chiefly famous in the Byzantine world, where the legend of the Edessa portrait forms part of the subject of the iconography of Christ, and also of the pictures of miraculous origin called acheiropoietoe ("made without hands") both in the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 and, in the West where the tradition is associated with St. Veronica and Veronica's Veil and the Shroud of Turin
Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The image on the shroud is...

.

Christian legacy

Abgar is counted as saint, with feasts on May 11 and October 28 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, August 1 in the Syrian Church
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....

, and daily in the Mass of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...

. The Armenian Apostolic Church in Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...

, is named after Saint Abgar (known also as Saint Apkar).

On August 24, 2009, the board of the Central Bank of Armenia
Central Bank of Armenia
The Central Bank of Armenia is the central bank of Armenia with its headquarters in Yerevan. The CBA is an independent institution responsible for issuing all banknotes and coins in the country, overseeing and regulating the banking sector and keeping the government's currency reserves...

 adopted a decision on introducing a new banknote with a nominal value of AMD
Armenian dram
The dram is the monetary unit of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It is subdivided into 100 luma . The word "dram" translates into English as "money" and is cognate with the Greek drachma...

 100,000. The new banknote depicts King Abgar V (King of Armenian Mesopotamia as described). The front of the banknote depicts him pointing at a canvas of the royal flag with a lively portrait of Jesus Christ. The reverse of the banknote depicts disciple Thaddaeus
Thaddaeus
Thaddaeus or Thaddeus is a man's given name.As of the 1990 Census, 'Thaddeus' was the 611th most popular male name in the United States and 'Thad' was the 846th most popular....

handing the canvas to King Abgar V and his consequent miraculous healing.

External links

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