{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081448.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081448.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081448.htm","text":"Relating to the Earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the Neighbouring Countries.\nFrom the History of the Church. 2903\nThe Story 2904 Concerning the King of Edessa. 2905\nNow the story relating to Thadd\u00e6us was on this wise:\u2014\nWhile the Godhead of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was proclaimed among all men by reason of the astonishing mighty-works which He wrought, and myriads, even from countries remote from the land of Jud\u00e6a, who were afflicted with sicknesses and diseases of every kind, were coming to Him in the hope of being healed, King Abgar 2906 also, who was renowned among the nations on the east of the Euphrates for his valour, had his body wasting away with a grievous disease, such as there is no cure for among men. And when he heard and was informed of the name of Jesus, and about the mighty works which He did,\u2014for every one alike bore witness concerning Him,\u2014he sent a letter of request by a man belonging to him, 2907 and besought Him to come and heal him of his disease.\nBut our Saviour at the time that he asked Him did not comply with his request. Yet He deigned to give him 2908 a letter in reply: for He promised him that He would send one of His disciples, and heal his sicknesses, and give salvation 2909 to him and to all who were connected with him. 2910 Nor did He delay to fulfil His promise to him: but after He was risen from the place of the dead, and was received into heaven, Thomas 2911 the apostle, one of the twelve, as by an impulse from God, sent Thadd\u00e6us, 2912 who was himself also numbered among the seventy 2913 disciples of Christ, to Edessa, to be a preacher and proclaimer of the teaching of Christ; and the promise of Christ was through him fulfilled.\nThou hast in writing the evidence of these things, which is taken from the Book of Records 2914 which was at Edessa: for at that time the kingdom was still standing. 2915 In the documents, then, which were there, in which was contained whatever was done by those of old down to the time of Abgar, these things also are found preserved down to the present hour. There is, however, nothing to prevent our hearing the very letters themselves, which have been taken by us 2916 from p. 652 the archives, and are in words to this effect, translated from Aramaic into Greek.\nCopy of the letter which was written by King 2917 Abgar to Jesus, and sent to Him by the hand of Hananias, 2918 the Tabularius, 2919 to Jerusalem:\u2014\n\u201cAbgar the Black, 2920 sovereign 2921 of the country, to Jesus, the good Saviour, who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem: Peace. I have heard about Thee, 2922 and about the healing which is wrought by Thy hands without drugs and roots. For, as it is reported, Thou makest the blind to see, and the lame to walk; and Thou cleansest the lepers, and Thou castest out unclean spirits and demons, and Thou healest those who are tormented with lingering diseases, and Thou raisest the dead. And when I heard all these things about Thee, I settled in my mind one of two things: either that Thou art God, who hast come down from heaven, and doest these things or that Thou art the Son of God, and doest these things. On this account, therefore, I have written to beg of Thee that Thou wouldest weary Thyself to come to me, and heal this disease which I have. For I have also heard that the Jews murmur against Thee, and wish to do Thee harm. But I have a city, small and beautiful, which is sufficient for two.\u201d\nCopy of those things which were written 2923 by Jesus by the hand of Hananias, the Tabularius, to Abgar, sovereign of the country:\u2014\n\u201cBlessed is he that hath believed in me, not having seen me. For it is written 2924 concerning me, that those who see me will not believe in me, and that those will believe who have not seen me, and will be saved. But touching that which thou hast written to me, that I should come to thee\u2014it is meet that I should finish here all that for the sake of which I have been sent and, after I have finished it, then I shall be taken up to Him that sent me; and, when I have been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy disease, and give salvation to thee and to those who are with thee.\u201d\nTo these letters, moreover, is appended the following also in the Aramaic tongue:\u2014\n\u201cAfter Jesus was ascended, Judas Thomas sent to him Thadd\u00e6us the apostle, one of the Seventy. And, when he was come, he lodged with Tobias, son of Tobias. And, when the news about him was heard, they made it known to Abgar: \u201cThe apostle of Jesus is come hither, as He sent thee word.\u201d Thadd\u00e6us, moreover, began to heal every disease and sickness by the power of God, so that all men were amazed. And, when Abgar heard the great and marvellous cures which he wrought, he bethought himself that he was the person about whom Jesus had sent him word and said to him: When I have been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy disease. So he sent and called Tobias, with whom he was lodging, and said to him: I have heard that a mighty man has come, and has entered in and taken up his lodging in thy house: bring him up, therefore, to me. And when Tobias came to Thadd\u00e6us he said to him: Abgar the king has sent and called me, and commanded me to bring thee up to him, that thou mayest heal him. And Thadd\u00e6us said: I will go up, because to him have I been sent with power. Tobias therefore rose up early the next day, and took Thadd\u00e6us, and came to Abgar.\n\u201cNow, when they were come up, his princes happened to be standing 2925 there. And immediately, as he was entering in, a great vision appeared to Abgar on the countenance of Thadd\u00e6us the apostle. And, when Abgar saw Thadd\u00e6us, he prostrated himself before him. 2926 And astonishment seized upon all who were standing there: for they had not themselves seen that vision, which appeared to Abgar alone. And he proceeded to ask Thadd\u00e6us: Art thou in truth the disciple of Jesus the Son of God, who said to me, I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thee and give thee salvation? And Thadd\u00e6us answered and said: Because thou hast mightily 2927 believed on Him that sent me, therefore have I been sent to thee; and again, if thou shalt believe on Him, thou shalt have the requests of thy heart. And Abgar said to him: In such wise have I believed on Him, that I have even desired to take an army and extirpate those Jews who crucified Him; were it not that I was restrained by reason of the dominion of the Romans. 2928 And Thadd\u00e6us said: Our Lord has fulfilled the will of His Father; and, having fulfilled it, has been taken up to His Father. Abgar said to him: I too have believed p. 653 in Him and in His Father. And 2929 Thadd\u00e6us said: Therefore do I lay my hand upon thee in His name. And when he had done this, immediately he was healed of his sickness and of the disease which he had. And Abgar marvelled, because, like as he had heard concerning Jesus, so he saw in deeds by the hand of Thadd\u00e6us His disciple: since without drugs and roots he healed him; and not him only, but also Abdu, 2930 son of Abdu, who had the gout: for he too went in, and fell at his feet, 2931 and when he prayed over him he was healed. And many other people of their city did he heal, and he did great works, and preached the word of God.\n\u201cAfter these things Abgar said to him: Thou, Thadd\u00e6us, doest these things by the power of God; we also marvel at them. But in addition to all these things I beg of thee to relate to me the story about the coming of Christ, and in what manner it was; and about His power, and by what power He wrought those things of which I have heard.\n\u201cAnd Thadd\u00e6us said: For the present I will be silent; 2932 but, because I have been sent to preach the word of God, assemble me tomorrow all the people of thy city, and I will preach before them, and sow amongst them the word of life; and will tell them about the coming of Christ, how it took place; and about His mission, 2933 for what purpose he was sent by His Father; and about His power and His deeds, and about the mysteries which He spake in the world, and by what power He wrought these things, and about His new preaching, 2934 and about His abasement and His humiliation, and how He humbled and emptied and abased Himself, and was crucified, and descended to Hades, 2935 and broke through the enclosure 2936 which had never been broken through before, and raised up the dead, and descended alone, and ascended with a great multitude to His Father. 2937\n\u201cAbgar, therefore, commanded that in the morning all the people of his city should assemble, and hear the preaching of Thadd\u00e6us. And afterwards he commanded gold and silver to be given to him; but he received it not, and said: If we have forsaken that which was our own, how shall we accept that of others?\u201d\nThese things were done in the year 340. 2938\nIn order, moreover, that these things may not have been translated to no purpose word for word from the Aramaic into Greek, they are placed in their order of time here.\nBy Eusebius of C\u00e6sarea.\u2014Tr. The ms. from which this extract from Eusebius is taken is numbered 14,639, fol. 15 b. It is described in Cureton\u2019s Corpus Ignatianum, p. 350.\n651:2904\nBook I. chapter the thirteenth.\u2014Tr.\n651:2905\nProperly Urrhoi, or Orrhoi (***). It seems probable that the word is connected with Osrhoene, the name of the province in which Edessa held an important place, the correct form of which is supposed to be Orrhoene. The name Edessa (***) occurs only once in these Documents, viz., in the \u201cActs of Sharbil,\u201d sub init.\u2014Tr.\n651:2906\n\u201cBy this title all the toparchs of Edessa were called, just as the Roman emperors were called C\u00e6sars, the kings of Egypt Pharaohs or Ptolemies, the kings of Syria Antiochi.\u201d Assem., Bibl. Or., vol. i. p. 261. Assemani adds: \u201cAbgar in Syriac means lame.\u201d Moses of Chorene, however, with more probability, derives it from the Armenian Avag-a\u00efr, \u201cgrand homme, \u00e0 cause de sa grande mansu\u00e9tude et de sa sagesse, et de plus, \u00e0 cause de sa taille.\u201d See below the extract from his History of Armenia, book ii. ch. 26.\n651:2907\nEusebius has \u03b4\u03b9\u1fbd \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03b7\u03c6\u03cc\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5.\nSee note on \u03c4\u03b1\u03c7\u03c5\u03b4\u03c1\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5 , on next page.\u2014Tr.\n651:2908\nLit. \u201cdeemed him worthy of.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n651:2909\nGr. \u03c3\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03bd: and so the Syriac word, meaning \u201clife,\u201d is generally to be translated in this collection.\u2014Tr.\n651:2910\nSyr. \u201cnear to him;\u201d Gr. \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b7\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd.\n651:2911\nHis real name was Judas Thomas: see p. 8.\n651:2912\nThe name is taken from Eusebius, but in the original Syriac treatises, which follow, he is called Add\u00e6us.\n651:2913\nIn The Teaching of the Apostles he is said to have been one of the \u201cseventy two apostles.\u201d His name, like that of Thomas, seems to have been the very common one, Judas.\n651:2914\nThese were kept in the archives of the kingdom, which were transferred by Abgar from Nisibis to Edessa when he made it the capital of his dominions. See Moses Chor. B. ii. ch. 27, infra. The archives appear to have been still kept at Edessa in a.d. 550. [Compare this fact with Tertullian\u2019s statement, vol. iii. p. 164.]\n651:2915\nThe kingdom of Edessa was brought to an end and entirely subjected to the Romans in a.d. 217 or 218.\n651:2916\nThe extract from the archives was probably made by Sextus Julius Africanus, and copied by Eusebius from his Chronographia.\n652:2917 652:2918\nCalled Hanan in the original Syriac document; and so in Moses Chor.; Eusebius has \u1fbd\u0391\u03bd\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03b1\u03c2, which is copied here.\n652:2919\nGr. \u03c4\u03b1\u03c7\u03c5\u03b4\u03c1\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5. But the post held by Hananias must have been one of more dignity than that of a courier. He was probably a Secretary of State. In The Acts of Add\u00e6us (infra) he is called, in connection with the name Tabularius, a sharir, or confidential servant.\nIt would seem that Tabularius has been confounded with Tabellarius, a letter-carrier.\u2014Tr.\n652:2920\nOr \u201cAbgar Uchomo.\u201d The epithet was peculiar to this King Abgar. He was the fourteenth king: the eleventh was called Abgar Sumoco, or \u201cthe Red.\u201d\nThe occasion of the name \u201cBlack\u201d is doubtful: it can hardly have arisen from the fact that Abgar was suffering, as Cedrenus asserts, from the black leprosy.\u2014Tr.\n652:2921 652:2922\nComp. Matt. iv. 24; \u201cAnd His fame went throughout all Syria,\u201d etc. See also Moses Chor. B. ii. c. 30.\n652:2923\nGr. \u1f00\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1, \u201cwritten in reply.\u201d\n652:2924\n[John 9:39, John 20:29, 31, Hab. 1:5, Isa. 52:15, Isa. 53:1]\n652:2925\nCureton, \u201cwere assembled and standing;\u201d nearly as Euseb.: \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f11\u03c3\u03c4\u03ce\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd. But in 2 Sam. xx. 1, the only reference given by Castel for the word *** is used for the Heb. \u05d0\u05e8\u05e7\u05e0, \u201che chanced.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n652:2926\n***, like the \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b5\u03ba\u03cd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5 of Eusebius, may be rendered \u201cworshipped.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n652:2927\n***; Gr. \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03ac\u03bb\u03c9\u03c2, lit. \u201cgreatly;\u201d C. \u201cnobly.\u201d But nothing more than intensity is necessarily denoted by either word. Compare, for the Syriac, Ps. 19:107, 167, Dan. 2:12.\u2014Tr.\n652:2928\nCompare the letters of Abgar and Tiberius, infra.\n653:2929\nIn another piece, The Teaching of Add\u00e6us, i.e., Thadd\u00e6us, we have a portion of the original Syriac from which Eusebius\u2019 translation was made. The only portions that correspond are: in the present piece, from this place to \u201c\u2014accept that of others,\u201d near the end; and, in the following one, from the beginning to \u201c\u2014that which is not ours.\u201d Some of the variations are worthy of notice.\n653:2930 653:2931\nThis answers sufficiently well to the Greek: \u1f41\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b5\u03bb\u03b8\u1f7c\u03bd \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c0\u03cc\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f14\u03c0\u03b5\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd; but, as the original Syriac, p. 12, reads \u201che too brought his feet to him, and he laid his hands upon them and healed him,\u201d the Greek translation must have been at fault.\nFor brought read presented.\u2014Tr.\n653:2932\nThe original Syriac has \u201cI will not hold my peace from declaring this.\u201d\n653:2933\nSo Euseb. The orig. Syr. has \u201cHis sender.\u201d\n653:2934\nThe orig. Syr. has \u201cthe certitude of His preaching.\u201d The error seems to have arisen from the Greek translator confounding *** with ***.\nMore probably with ***, \u201cnewness (of his preaching),\u201d which was freely translated by him (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76) \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03ba\u03b7\u03c1\u03cd\u03be\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2; and this, again, was by the Syrian re-translator rendered literally, as in the text.\nThe word certitude (above) may be rendered unerring truth. \u2014Tr.\n653:2935\nOr \u201cSheol,\u201d as in Hebrew. The orig. Syr. gives \u201cthe place of the dead.\u201d\n653:2936 653:2937\nComp. Matt. xxvii. 52.\n653:2938\nValesius says that the Edessenes commenced their era with the 117th Olympiad, the first year of the reign of Seleucus. The year 340 corresponds, therefore, with the fifteenth year of Tiberius.\nIt should be the beginning of the 117th Olympiad.\u2014Tr.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents.: The Story Concerning the King of Edessa.","type":"page"}