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{{short description|1st century AD King of Osroene and 1st Christian King}}
{{redirect|Abgar|other people with the given name or surname|Abgar (name)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Abgar V of Edessa
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| death_place =
| venerated_in = [[Catholic Church
| beatified_date =
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'''Abgar V''' (c. 1st century BC – c. AD 50), called '''Ukkāmā''' (meaning "the Black" in [[Syriac language|Syriac]] and other dialects of [[Aramaic]])
== Background ==
[[File:100,000_Armenian_dram_-_2009_(obverse).jpg|250px|thumb|left|Abgar V on an Armenian banknote]]
Abgar was described as "king of the [[Arabs]]" by [[Tacitus]], a near-contemporary source.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.syriac.talktalk.net/chron_tab1.html|title=History of Syriac texts and Syrian Christianity - Table 1|last1=Ring|first1=Steven|website=www.syriac.talktalk.net|access-date=2018-02-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227034200/http://www.syriac.talktalk.net/chron_tab1.html|archive-date=2018-02-27|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Annals_(Tacitus)/Book_12#12|title = ''The Annals'' 12.12}}</ref> [[Movses Khorenatsi|Moses of Chorene]] depicted Abgar as an [[Armenians|Armenian]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art|last=Nersessian|first=Vrej|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0892366392|pages=224}}</ref><ref>Armenian Van/Vaspurakan - p.68, Richard G. Hovannisian</ref> but modern scholarly consensus agree that the [[Abgarids]] were in fact an Arab dynasty.
Armenian historian [[Movses Khorenatsi|Moses of Chorene]] (ca. 410–490s AD) notes that Abgar V's chief wife was Queen [[Helena of Adiabene]],<ref>{{ws|{{cite book |author=Movses Khorenatsi |chapter=[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents/Moses of Chorene/Chapter 10|History of Armenia]] |translator-last=Pratten |translator-first=Benjamin Plummer |title=Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents |editor1-last=Roberts |editor1-first=Alexander |editor2-last=Donaldson |editor2-first=James |editor3-last=Coxe |editor3-first=Arthur Cleveland |editor4-last=Schaff |editor4-first=Philip |series=[[Ante-Nicene Fathers (book)|Ante-Nicene Fathers]] |volume=VIII |at=Chapter 10}}}}</ref> who according to [[Josephus]] was the wife of King [[Monobaz I]] of [[Adiabene]].
== Letter of Abgar to Jesus ==
{{Wikisource|The suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the original New Testament of Jesus the Christ/Chapter 6|Christ and Abgarus}}▼
[[File:Edessa Abgar king with Christ image.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Fresco from Varaga St. Gevorg church chapel showing king Abgar with image of Christ]]▼
Abgar V is said to be one of the first [[Christianity|Christian]] kings
The church historian [[Eusebius]] recorded that the Edessan archives contained a copy of a correspondence exchanged between Abgar of Edessa and Jesus.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jp7jAAAAMAAJ|title=The triumph of the meek: why early Christianity succeeded|last=Walsh|first=Michael J.|date=1986|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn=9780060692544|pages=125|language=en|quote=The story about this kingdom which Eusebius relates is as follows. King Abgar (who ruled from AD 13 to 50) was dying. Hearing of Jesus' miracles he sent for him. Jesus wrote back - this correspondence, Eusebius claims, can be found in the Edessan archives - to say that he could not come because he had been sent to the people of Israel, but he would send a disciple later. But Abgar was already blessed for having believed in him.}}</ref><ref>In his ''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Church History]]'', I, xiii, ''ca'' AD 325.</ref> The correspondence consisted of Abgar's letter and the answer dictated by Jesus. On 15 August 944, the [[Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)|Church of St. Mary of Blachernae]] in [[Constantinople]] received the letter and the [[Image of Edessa|Mandylion]]. Both relics were then moved to the [[Church of the Virgin of the Pharos]].<ref name=ja172>{{cite book|last=Janin|first=Raymond|author-link=Raymond Janin|title=La Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin. 1. Part: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. 3rd Vol. : Les Églises et les Monastères|publisher=Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines|language=fr|location=Paris|year=1953|page=172}}</ref>
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The text of the letter was:
{{blockquote|Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the good physician who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of you and of your cures as performed by you without medicines or herbs. For it is said that you make the blind to see and the lame to walk, that you cleanse lepers and cast out impure spirits and demons, and that you heal those afflicted with lingering disease, and raise the dead. And having heard all these things concerning you, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either you are God, and, having come down from heaven, you do these things, or else you, who does these things, are the son of God. I have therefore written to you to ask you if you would take the trouble to come to me and heal all the ill which I suffer. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against you and are plotting to injure you. But I have a very small yet noble city which is great enough for us both.<ref name="Leclercq"/>}}
Jesus gave the messenger the reply to return to Abgar:
{{blockquote|Blessed are you who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved. But in regard to what you have written me, that I should come to you, it is necessary for me to fulfill all things here for which I have been sent, and after I have fulfilled them, thus to be taken up again to him that sent me. But after I have been taken up, I will send to you one of my disciples, that he may heal your disease and give life to you and yours.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250101.htm|title = CHURCH FATHERS: Church History, Book I (Eusebius)}}</ref>}}
[[Egeria (pilgrim)|Egeria]] wrote of the letter in her account of her pilgrimage in Edessa. She read the letter during her stay around 384, and remarked that the copy in Edessa was "fuller" than the copies in her home (which was likely France).<ref name="Egeria">{{cite web|last1=Bernard|first1=John|title=The Pilgrimage of Egeria|url=http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/women/egeria/pilgrimage/pilgrimage.html|website=University of Pennsylvania|publisher=Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society}}</ref>
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 Syriac liturgies commemorate the correspondence of Abgar during Lent. The Celtic liturgy appears to have attached importance to it; 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.<ref name="Leclercq">{{Cite CE1913 |last=Leclercq |first=Henri |wstitle=The Legend of Abgar}}</ref>
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This event has played an important part in the self-definition of several Eastern churches. Abgar is counted as saint, with feasts on 11 May and 28 October in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent (Mid-Lent) in the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://syriacorthodoxresources.org/Feast/Abgar.html|title = Feast: Mid-Lent/King Abgar}}</ref> and daily in the Mass of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]].
▲[[File:Edessa Abgar king with Christ image.jpg
=== Critical scholarship ===
A number of contemporary scholars have suggested origins of the tradition of Abgar's conversion apart from historical record. [[Walter Bauer]] argued the legend was written without sources to reinforce [[group cohesiveness]], [[orthodoxy]], and [[apostolic succession]] against [[heretical]] [[schism]]atics.{{sfn|Bauer|1971|loc=Chapter 1}} However, several distinct sources, known to have not been in contact with one another, claimed to have seen the letters in the archives, so his claim is suspect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://newadvent.org/fathers/0859.htm|title = CHURCH FATHERS: History of Armenia (Moses of Chorene)}}</ref>
Significant advances in scholarship on the topic have been made{{sfn|Camplani|2009|p=253}} including Desreumaux's translation with commentary,<ref>Histoire du roi Abgar et de Jésus, Présentation et traduction du texte syriaque intégral de la Doctrine d’Addaï par. A. Desreumaux, Brepols, Paris 1993.</ref> M. Illert's collection of textual witnesses to the legend,<ref>M. Illert (ed.), Doctrina Addai. De imagine Edessena / Die Abgarlegende. Das Christusbild von Edessa (Fontes Christiani, 45), Brepols,
==Letters of Abgar to Tiberius==
▲Significant advances in scholarship on the topic have been made{{sfn|Camplani|2009|p=253}} including Desreumaux's translation with commentary,<ref>Histoire du roi Abgar et de Jésus, Présentation et traduction du texte syriaque intégral de la Doctrine d’Addaï par. A. Desreumaux, Brepols, Paris 1993.</ref> M. Illert's collection of textual witnesses to the legend,<ref>M. Illert (ed.), Doctrina Addai. De imagine Edessena / Die Abgarlegende. Das Christusbild von Edessa (Fontes Christiani, 45), Brepols, Turhout 2007</ref> and detailed studies of the ideology of the sources by Brock,<ref>S.P. Brock, Eusebius and Syriac Christianity, in H.W. Attridge-G. Hata (eds.), Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism, Brill, Leiden-New York-Köln 1992, pp. 212-234, republished in S. Brock, From Ephrem to Romanos. Interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity (Variorum Collected Studies Series, CS644), Ashgate/Variorum, Aldershot-Brookfield-Singapore- Sydney 1999, n. II.</ref> Griffith<ref name="Griffith">{{cite journal|last1=Griffith |first1=Sidney H. |title=The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century |journal=Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies |date=2003 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=269–292 |doi=10.31826/hug-2010-060111 |s2cid=212688514 |url=http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No2/HV6N2Griffith.html |access-date=25 January 2017 |issn=1097-3702 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030821112810/http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No2/HV6N2Griffith.html |archive-date=21 August 2003 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and Mirkovic.{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004}} The majority of scholars now claim the goal of the authors and editors of texts regarding the conversion of Abgar were not so much concerned with [[historiography|historical reconstruction]] of the [[Christianisation]] of Edessa as the relationships between [[church and state]] power, based on the political and ecclesiological ideas of [[Ephraem the Syrian]].{{sfn|Camplani|2009}}{{sfn|Griffith|2003|loc=§3 and §28}}{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004}} However, the origins of the story are still far from certain,{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004|pp=2-4}} although the stories as recorded seem to have been shaped by the [[History of late ancient Christianity|controversies of the third century CE]], especially as a response to [[Bardaisan]].{{sfn|Camplani|2009}}
Letters between Abgar V and the Roman [[Emperor Tiberius]] are also recorded in history, by for instance the Armenian historian [[Movses Khorenatsi]], scholars have argued for the core of these being essentially authentic based on:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ramelli |first1=Ilaria |title=Possible Historical Traces in the Doctrina Addai |journal=Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies |date=2011 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.31826/hug-2011-090104/html}}</ref>
<blockquote> This work seems to preserve very ancient material, such as the information on the friendship between Abgar, correctly called toparkhês of Edessa, and the prefect of Egypt, in my view probably [[Aulus Avilius Flaccus|A. Avillius Flaccus]], who ruled Egypt AD 32 to 38—just the years of Vitellius’ mandate in the Near East and of the Abgar-Tiberius correspondence—and is well known to us thanks to Philo, ''In Flaccum'', 1-3; 25; 40; 116; 158. He was one of the most intimate friends of Tiberius; he was born and grew up in Rome with Augustus’ nieces, obtained the government of Egypt, a direct possession of the emperor, and probably helped the good relationship between Abgar and Tiberius that is evident in their correspondence.</blockquote>
Abgar's initial letter to Tiberius read:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0859.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: History of Armenia (Moses of Chorene)|website=www.newadvent.org|accessdate=7 May 2023}}</ref>
<blockquote>Abgar, king of Armenia, to my Lord Tiberius, emperor of the Romans, greeting:—
I know that nothing is unknown to your Majesty, but, as your friend, I would make you better acquainted with the facts by writing. The Jews who dwell in the cantons of Palestine have crucified Jesus: Jesus without sin, Jesus after so many acts of kindness, so many wonders and miracles wrought for their good, even to the raising of the dead. Be assured that these are not the effects of the power of a simple mortal, but of God. During the time that they were crucifying Him, [[Crucifixion darkness|the sun was darkened, the earth was moved, shaken]]; Jesus Himself, three days afterwards, rose from the dead and appeared to many. Now, everywhere, His name alone, invoked by His disciples, produces the greatest miracles: what has happened to myself is the most evident proof of it. Your august Majesty knows henceforth what ought to be done in future with respect to the Jewish nation, which has committed this crime; your Majesty knows whether a command should not be published through the whole universe to worship Christ as the true God. Safety and health.</blockquote>
Tiberius' reply read:
<blockquote>Tiberius, emperor of the Romans, to Abgar, king of the Armenians, greeting:—
Your kind letter has been read to me, and I wish that thanks should be given to you from me. Though we had already heard several persons relate these facts, Pilate has officially informed us of the miracles of Jesus. He has certified to us that after His resurrection from the dead He was acknowledged by many to be God. Therefore I myself also wished to do what you propose; but, as it is the custom of the Romans not to admit a god merely by the command of the sovereign, but only when the admission has been discussed and examined in full senate, I proposed the affair to the senate, and they rejected it with contempt, doubtless because it had not been considered by them first. But we have commanded all those whom Jesus suits, to receive him among the gods. We have threatened with death any one who shall speak evil of the Christians. As to the Jewish nation which has dared to crucify Jesus, who, as I hear, far from deserving the cross and death, was worthy of honour, worthy of the adoration of men — when I am free from the war with rebellious Spain, I will examine into the matter, and will treat the Jews as they deserve.</blockquote>
==See also==
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== Sources ==
▲{{Wikisource|The suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the original New Testament of Jesus the Christ/Chapter 6|Christ and Abgarus}}
* {{cite book|last1=Bauer|first1=Walter|author-link1=Walter Bauer|title=Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity|date=1971|publisher=Fortress Press|location=Philadelphia, PA|url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm|access-date=25 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000818212534/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm|archive-date=18 August 2000}} (German original published in 1934)
* {{cite journal|last1=Camplani|first1=Alberto|title=Traditions of Christian foundation in Edessa: Between myth and history|journal=Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni (SMSR)|date=2009|volume=75|issue=1|pages=251–278
* {{Cite CE1913 |last=Chapman |first=Henry Palmer |wstitle=Doctrine of Addai }}
* {{citation |last=Eisenman |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Eisenman |date=1992 |contribution=The sociology of MMT and the conversions of King Agbarus and Queen Helen of Adiabene |title=Paper presented at SBL conference |contribution-url=http://roberteisenman.com/articles/mmt_agbarus.pdf |access-date=21 March 2017 }}
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abgar 05
[[Category: Syrian Christian saints]]
[[Category:Syriac Orthodox Church saints]]
[[Category:1st-century BC births]]
[[Category:1st-century
[[Category:1st-century BC
[[Category:50 deaths]]
[[Category:1st-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Kings of Osroene]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Christian royal saints]]
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[[Category:Arab Christian saints]]
[[Category:Legendary Arab people]]
[[Category:Year of death uncertain]]
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