An extract from Eusebius’s Church History recounting the Abgar tradition: the king of Edessa writes to Jesus, receives a reply, and is later visited by Thaddaeus, who heals and teaches in the city.
Author
Eusebius of Caesarea
Date
Early 4th century
Origin
Caesarea
Genre
Church History Excerpt
The runtime source identifies this item as “From the History of the Church,” by Eusebius of Caesarea, Book I, chapter 13.
By Eusebius of Cæsarea.—Tr. The ms. from which this extract from Eusebius is taken is numbered 14,639, fol. 15 b. It is described in Cureton’s Corpus Ignatianum, p. 350.
2
Book I. chapter the thirteenth.—Tr.
3
Properly 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 “Acts of Sharbil,” sub init.—Tr.
4
“By this title all the toparchs of Edessa were called, just as the Roman emperors were called Cæsars, the kings of Egypt Pharaohs or Ptolemies, the kings of Syria Antiochi.” Assem., Bibl. Or., vol. i. p. 261. Assemani adds: “Abgar in Syriac means lame.” Moses of Chorene, however, with more probability, derives it from the Armenian Avag-aïr, “grand homme, à cause de sa grande mansuétude et de sa sagesse, et de plus, à cause de sa taille.” See below the extract from his History of Armenia, book ii. ch. 26.
5
Eusebius has δι᾽ ἐπιστοληφόρου. See note on ταχυδρόμου , on next page.—Tr.
6
Lit. “deemed him worthy of.”—Tr.
7
Gr. σωτηρίαν: and so the Syriac word, meaning “life,” is generally to be translated in this collection.—Tr.
8
Syr. “near to him;” Gr. τῶν προσηκόντων.
9
His real name was Judas Thomas: see p. 8.
10
The name is taken from Eusebius, but in the original Syriac treatises, which follow, he is called Addæus.
11
In The Teaching of the Apostles he is said to have been one of the “seventy two apostles.” His name, like that of Thomas, seems to have been the very common one, Judas.
12
These 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’s statement, vol. iii. p. 164.]
13
The kingdom of Edessa was brought to an end and entirely subjected to the Romans in a.d. 217 or 218.
14
The extract from the archives was probably made by Sextus Julius Africanus, and copied by Eusebius from his Chronographia.
15
Gr. τόπαρχος.
16
Called Hanan in the original Syriac document; and so in Moses Chor.; Eusebius has ᾽Ανανίας, which is copied here.
17
Gr. ταχυδρόμου. 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 Addæus (infra) he is called, in connection with the name Tabularius, a sharir, or confidential servant. It would seem that Tabularius has been confounded with Tabellarius, a letter-carrier.—Tr.
18
Or “Abgar Uchomo.” The epithet was peculiar to this King Abgar. He was the fourteenth king: the eleventh was called Abgar Sumoco, or “the Red.” The occasion of the name “Black” is doubtful: it can hardly have arisen from the fact that Abgar was suffering, as Cedrenus asserts, from the black leprosy.—Tr.
19
“Head,” or “chief.”—Tr.
20
Comp. Matt. iv. 24; “And His fame went throughout all Syria,” etc. See also Moses Chor. B. ii. c. 30.
21
Gr. ἀντιγραφέντα, “written in reply.”
22
[John ix. 39, and xx. 29, 31; Hab. i. 5; with Isa. lii. 15, liii. 1.]
23
Cureton, “were assembled and standing;” nearly as Euseb.: παρόντων καὶ ἑστώτων. But in 2 Sam. xx. 1, the only reference given by Castel for the word *** is used for the Heb. ארקנ, “he chanced.”—Tr.
24
, like the προσεκύνησε of Eusebius, may be rendered “worshipped.”—Tr.
25
Gr. μεγάλως, lit. “greatly;” C. “nobly.” But nothing more than intensity is necessarily denoted by either word. Compare, for the Syriac, Ps. cxix. 107, 167; Dan. ii. 12.—Tr.
26
Compare the letters of Abgar and Tiberius, infra.
27
In another piece, The Teaching of Addæus, i.e., Thaddæus, we have a portion of the original Syriac from which Eusebius’ translation was made. The only portions that correspond are: in the present piece, from this place to “—accept that of others,” near the end; and, in the following one, from the beginning to “—that which is not ours.” Some of the variations are worthy of notice.
28
See note 9, p. 657, infra.
29
This answers sufficiently well to the Greek: ὁς καὶ αὐτὸς προσελθὼν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ἔπεσεν; but, as the original Syriac, p. 12, reads “he too brought his feet to him, and he laid his hands upon them and healed him,” the Greek translation must have been at fault. For brought read presented.—Tr.
30
The original Syriac has “I will not hold my peace from declaring this.”
31
So Euseb. The orig. Syr. has “His sender.”
32
The orig. Syr. has “the certitude of His preaching.” The error seems to have arisen from the Greek translator confounding *** with ***. More probably with ***, “newness (of his preaching),” which was freely translated by him (περὶ) τῆς καινῆς αὐτοῦ κηρύξεως; and this, again, was by the Syrian re-translator rendered literally, as in the text. The word certitude (above) may be rendered unerring truth. —Tr.
33
Or “Sheol,” as in Hebrew. The orig. Syr. gives “the place of the dead.”
34
Eph. ii. 14.
35
Comp. Matt. xxvii. 52.
36
Valesius 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. It should be the beginning of the 117th Olympiad.—Tr.
