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ABGAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABGAR , a name or See also:

title See also:borne by a See also:line of See also:kings or toparchs, apparently twenty-nine in number, who reigned in Osrhoene and had their See also:capital it See also:Edessa about the See also:time of the See also:Christian era. According to an old tradition, one of these princes, perhaps Abgar V. (Ukkama or Uchomo, " the See also:black "), being afflicted with leprosy, sent a See also:letter to Jesus, acknowledging his divinity, craving his help and offering him an See also:asylum in his own See also:residence, but Jesus wrote a letter declining to go, promising, however, that after his See also:ascension he would send one of his disciples. These letters are given by See also:Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. i. 13), who declares that the See also:Syriac document from which he translates them had been preserved in the archives at Edessa from the time of Abgar. Eusebius also states that in due course Judas, son of Thaddaeus, was sent (in 340= A.D. 29). In another See also:form of the See also:story, de-rived from See also:Moses of Chorene, it is said further that Jesus sent his portrait to Abgar, and that this existed in Edessa (Hist. Armen., ed. W. See also:Whiston, ii.

29-32). Yet another version is found in the Syriac Doctrina Addaei (Addaeus = Thaddaeus), edited by G. See also:

Phillips (1876). Here it is said that the reply of Jesus was given not in See also:writing, but verbally, and that the event took See also:place in 343 (A.D. 32). See also:Greek forms of the See also:legend are found in See also:tale Acta Thaddaei (C. See also:Tischendorf, Acta apostolorutx apocr. 261 ff.). These stories have given rise to much discussion. The testimony of See also:Augustine and See also:Jerome is to the effect that Jesus wrote nothing. The See also:correspondence was rejected as apocryphal by See also:Pope See also:Gelasius and a See also:Roman See also:Synod (c. 495), though, it is true.. this view has not been shared universally by the Roman churck (See also:Tillemont, Memoires, i.

3, pp. 990 ff.). Amongst Evangelicals the spuriousness of the letters is almost generally admitted. See also:

Lipsius (See also:Die Edessenische Abgarsage, 1880) has pointed out anachronisms which seem to indicate that the story is quite unhistorical. The first See also:king of Edessa of whom we have any trustworthy See also:information is Abgar VIII., See also:bar Ma'nu (A.D. 176-213). It is suggested that the legend arose from a See also:desire to trace the christianizing of his See also:kingdom to an apostolic source. Eusebius gives the legend in its See also:oldest form; it was worked up in the Doctrina Addaei in the second See also:half of the 4th See also:century; and Moses of Chorene was dependent upon both these See also:sources.

End of Article: ABGAR

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