Abgar V

Abgar V (died c. AD 40), called Ukkāmā meaning "the

Abgar V of Edessa
Black" (in Syriac and other dialects of Aramaic),[a] was the
King of Osroene with his capital at Edessa.[1] Ruler of the kingdom of Osroene

Contents
Life
Christian legend
Letter of Abgar to Jesus
Critical scholarship
See also
Notes
References
Sources
External links

Icon of Abgar holding the mandylion,

the image of Christ (encaustic, 10th
Life century, Saint Catherine's Monastery,
Mount Sinai).
Abgar was described as "king of the Arabs" by Tacitus, a
Died c. 40 - 50
near-contemporary source.[2] According to Movses
Khorenatsi, Abgar was an Armenian.[3] Yet both Robert Spouse Helena of Adiabene
W.Thomson and Richard G. Hovannisian state Abgar's
Armenian ethnicity was invented by Khorenatsi.[4] Modern Saint Abgar
scholarly consensus agree that the Abgarids were in fact an Arab Venerated in Armenian Apostolic
dynasty.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Church
Roman Catholic
Abgar V came to power in 4 BC. He became a Roman client, lost Church
his throne in 7 AD and regained it five years later. Oriental Catholicism
Eastern Orthodox
Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, or Moses of Chorene (ca.
Church,
410–490s AD), reported that the chief wife of King Abgar V was
Syriac Orthodox
Queen Helena of Adiabene, the wife of King Monobaz I of
Church
Adiabene, and thus the kingdoms of Edessa and Adiabene were
linked in some manner. Robert Eisenman suggests Queen Helena as one of the wives of King Abgar V,
who allotted her the lands of Adiabene.[11] Professor Eisenman derived this association from Movses
Khorenatsi mentioning the same famine relief to Judaea as does Flavius Josephus:

As to the first of Abgar’s wives, named Helena...

She went away to Jerusalem in the time of Claudius,
during the famine which Agabus had predicted; with
 all her treasures she bought in Egypt an immense
quantity of corn, which she distributed amongst the
poor, a fact to which Josephus testifies. Helena’s
tomb, a truly remarkable one, is still to be seen
before the gate of Jerusalem.[12]
Abgar V on an Armenian 100,000
Dram banknote
Professor Eisenman goes on to equate King Abgarus V with the
Agabus in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 11:27-30), because Agabus
was identified with the same famine relief as Queen Helena. By
necessity Eisenman then equates the biblical Antioch Orontes
with Antioch Edessa, indicating that Paul the Apostle and
Barnabas went to Edessa.[13]

Christian legend

Letter of Abgar to Jesus

Abgar V is claimed to be one of the first Christian kings in
history, having been converted to the faith by Thaddeus of
Edessa, one of the seventy disciples.[14][15]

The church historian Eusebius records that the Edessan archives

contained a copy of a correspondence exchanged between Abgar
of Edessa and Jesus.[16][17] The correspondence consisted of
Abgar's letter and the answer dictated by Jesus. On August 15, King Abgar illustration in Gaidzakian,
944, the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae in Constantinople Ohan (1898). Illustrated Armenia and
received the letter and the Mandylion. Both relics were then Armenians (https://archive.org/detail
moved to the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos.[18] s/illustratedarmen00gaidrich).
Boston.
The account of this 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 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 growth has arisen from this event, with scholars disputing whether Abgar suffered from gout
or from leprosy, whether the correspondence was on parchment or papyrus, and so forth.[19]

The text of the letter was:

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.[20]

Jesus gave the messenger the reply to return to Abgar:

Blessed are you who hast believed in me

without having seen me. For it is written Fresco from Varaga St. Gevorg church
chapel showing king Abgar with image of
concerning me, that they who have seen me will
Christ
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.[21]

Egeria wrote of the letter in her account of her pilgrimage in Edessa. She read the letter during her stay,
and remarked that the copy in Edessa was fuller than the copies in her home (which was likely
France).[22]

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.[20]

This event has played an important part in the self-definition of several Eastern churches. Abgar is
counted as saint, with feasts on May 11 and October 28 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, August 1 in the
Syrian Church, and daily in the Mass of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Armenian Apostolic
Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, is named after Saint Abgar (also spelled as Apkar).
Critical scholarship
The scholar Bart D. Ehrman cites evidence from Han Drijvers and others for regarding the whole
correspondence as forged in the third century by orthodox Christians "as an anti-Manichaean polemic",
and entirely spurious.[23]

A number of contemporary scholars have suggested origins of the tradition of Abgar's conversion apart
from historical record. S. K. Ross suggests the story of Abgar is in the genre of a genealogical myth
which traces the origin of a community back to a mythical or divine ancestor.[24] F. C. Burkitt argues that
the conversion of Edessa at the time of Abgar VIII was retrojected upon the Apostolic age.[25] William
Adler suggests the origin of the story of the conversion of Abgar V was an invention of an antiquarian
researcher employed by Abgar VIII, who had recently converted to Christianity, in an effort to securely
root Christianity in the history of the city.[26] Walter Bauer, on the other hand, argued the legend was
written without sources to reinforce group cohesiveness, orthodoxy, and apostolic succession against
heretical schismatics.[27] 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.[28]

Significant advances in scholarship on the topic have been made[29] by Desreumaux's translation with
commentary,[30] M. Illert's collection of textual witnesses to the legend,[31] and detailed studies of the
ideology of the sources by Brock,[32] Griffith,[33] and Mirkovic.[34] 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 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.[35][36][34]
However, the origins of the story are far still from certain,[37] although the stories as recorded seem to
have been shaped by the controversies of the third century CE, especially as a response to Bardaisan.[35]

See also
Abgar Legend
Doctrine of Addai

Notes
a. Arabic: ‫أﺑﺠﺮ اﻟﺨﺎﻣﺲ أوﻛﺎﻣﺎ‬, romanized: ʾAḇgar al-Ḥāmis ʾUkkāmā, Syriac: ‫ܐܘ‬ ‫ܐ‬,
romanized: ʾAḇgar Ḥmišāyā ʾUkkāmā, Armenian: Աբգար Ե Եդեսացի, romanized: Abgar
Hingerord Yedesatsi, Greek: Ἄβγαρος, translit. Abgaros, Latin: Abgarus.

References
1. Vailhé, Siméon (1913). "Edessa" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_
(1913)/Edessa). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton Company.
2. Ring, Steven. "History of Syriac texts and Syrian Christianity - Table 1" (http://www.syriac.tal
ktalk.net/chron_tab1.html). www.syriac.talktalk.net.
3. Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art.
Oxford University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0892366392.
4. Armenian Van/Vaspurakan - p.68, Richard G. Hovannisian
 5. Bowman, Alan; Garnsey, Peter; Cameron, Averil (2005). The Cambridge Ancient History:
Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337 (https://books.google.com/books?id=MNSyT
_PuYVMC&pg=PA508&dq=Abgar+arab&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMm9Xl_8DZAhXLvx
QKHVfHCTs4ChDoAQgyMAI#v=snippet&q=%22arab%20principality%20of%20edessa%22
&f=false). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521301992.
6. https://www.britannica.com/place/Osroene
7. Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica (https://books.google.co
m/books?hl=en&id=JD0OAQAAMAAJ&dq=Encyclopaedia+Judaica+Osroene&focus=searc
hwithinvolume&q=%22the+Arab+kingdom%22). Macmillan Reference USA.
ISBN 9780028659435.
8. Roberts, John Morris; Westad, Odd Arne (2013). The History of the World (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=A2cfZkU5aQgC&pg=PA246&dq=Abgar+Nabataean&hl=en&sa=X&ved=
0ahUKEwjc18_qh8PZAhVCPxQKHR4HAxgQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Abgar%20%22nab
ataean%20arabic%20state%22&f=false). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199936762.
9. "ABGAR Encyclopaedia Iranica" (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abgar-dynasty-of-ede
ssa-2nd-century-bc-to-3rd-century-ad). www.iranicaonline.org.
10. Laet, Sigfried J. de; Herrmann, Joachim (1996). History of Humanity: From the seventh
century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. (https://books.google.com/books?id=WGUz01yBu
mEC&pg=PA140&dq=Abgar+attested+arabia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKu56j98LZAhW
K7RQKHc19DcAQ6AEIYTAI#v=onepage&q=%22Abgar%20family%22&f=false) UNESCO.
ISBN 9789231028120.
11. Eisenman 1992, p. 8.
12. Movses Khorenatsi. "History of Armenia" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fat
hers/Volume_VIII/Memoirs_of_Edessa_And_Other_Ancient_Syriac_Documents/Moses_of_
Chorene/Chapter_10). In Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James; Coxe, Arthur Cleveland;
Schaff, Philip (eds.). Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. Ante-Nicene
Fathers. Vol. VIII. Translated by Pratten, Benjamin Plummer. Chapter 10..
13. Eisenman 1992, p. 1.
14. Chapman 1913.
15. Fortescue, Adrian (December 2001). "Lesser Eastern Churches" (https://books.google.com/
books?id=2_eAKmK7KkYC&pg=PA22&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false). ISBN 978-0-9715986-2-
1.
16. Walsh, Michael J. (1986). The triumph of the meek: why early Christianity succeeded (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=jp7jAAAAMAAJ). Harper & Row. p. 125.
ISBN 9780060692544. "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."
17. In his Church History, I, xiii, ca AD 325.
18. Janin, Raymond (1953). La Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin. 1. Part: Le
Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. 3rd Vol. : Les Églises et les
Monastères (in French). Paris: Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines. p. 172.
19. Norris, Steven Donald (2016-01-11). Unraveling the Family History of Jesus: A History of
the Extended Family of Jesus from 100 Bc Through Ad 100 and the Influence They Had on
Him, on the Formation of Christianity, and on the History of Judea (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=l-VpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281). WestBow Press. ISBN 9781512720495.
20. Leclercq, Henri (1913). "The Legend of Abgar" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_E
ncyclopedia_(1913)/The_Legend_of_Abgar). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
21. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250101.htm
22. Bernard, John. "The Pilgrimage of Egeria" (http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/women/egeri
a/pilgrimage/pilgrimage.html). University of Pennsylvania. Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.
23. Forgery and Counterforgery, pp455-458
24. S.K. Ross, Roman Edessa. Politics and Culture in the Eastern Fringe of the Roman Empire,
Routledge, London 2001, p. 135
25. Burkitt, F. C., Early Eastern Christianity, John Murray, London 1904, chap. I
26. Adler, William (2011). "Christians and the Public Archive". In Mason, E.F. (ed.). A Teacher
for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=wc8yAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA937). Supplements to the Journal for the Study of
Judaism. Brill. p. 937. ISBN 978-90-04-22408-7. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
27. Bauer 1971, Chapter 1.
28. http://newadvent.org/fathers/0859.htm
29. Camplani 2009, p. 253.
30. 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.
31. M. Illert (ed.), Doctrina Addai. De imagine Edessena / Die Abgarlegende. Das Christusbild
von Edessa (Fontes Christiani, 45), Brepols, Turhout 2007
32. 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.
33. Griffith, Sidney H. (2003). "The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in
Edessa in the Fifth Century" (https://web.archive.org/web/20030821112810/http://syrcom.cu
a.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No2/HV6N2Griffith.html). Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 6 (2): 269–
292. ISSN 1097-3702 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1097-3702). Archived from the original
on 21 August 2003. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
34. Mirkovic 2004.
35. Camplani 2009.
36. Griffith 2003, §3 and §28.
37. Mirkovic 2004, pp. 2-4.

Sources
Bauer, Walter (1971). Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (https://web.archive.org/
web/20000818212534/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm).
Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press. Archived from the original (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~hu
mm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm) on 18 August 2000. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
(German original published in 1934)
Camplani, Alberto (2009). "Traditions of Christian foundation in Edessa: Between myth and
history" (https://www.academia.edu/download/31469043/Camplani_SMSR_75.pdf) (PDF).
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni (SMSR). 75 (1): 251–278. Retrieved 25 January
2017.
Chapman, Henry Palmer (1913). "Doctrine of Addai" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catho
lic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Doctrine_of_Addai). In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Eisenman, Robert (1992), "The sociology of MMT and the conversions of King Agbarus and
Queen Helen of Adiabene" (http://roberteisenman.com/articles/mmt_agbarus.pdf) (PDF),
Paper presented at SBL conference, retrieved 21 March 2017
 Eisenman, Robert (1997). "Judas the brother of James and the conversion of King Agbar".
James the Brother of Jesus.
Holweck, F. G. (1924). A biographical dictionary of the saints. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder
Book Co.
Mirkovic, Alexander (2004). Prelude to Constantine: The Abgar tradition in early Christianity.
Arbeiten zur Religion und Geschichte des Urchristentums. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
von Tischendorf, Constantin. "Acta Thaddei (Acts of Thaddeus)". Acta apostolorum apocr.
p. 261ff.
Wilson, Ian (1991). Holy faces, secret places (https://archive.org/details/isbn_97803852610
50).

External links
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. VIII: (http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-08/anf08-103.htm) Acts of
the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, One of the Twelve
Epistle of Jesus Christ to Abgarus King of Edessa (https://web.archive.org/web/2004101005
4056/http://www.comparative-religion.com/christianity/apocrypha/new-testament-apocrypha/
1/1.php) from Eusebius
St. Apkar Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona (http://www.saintapkar.com/)
Correspondence between Abgarus Ouchama, King of Edessa, and Jesus of Nazareth
(J.Lorber, 1842) (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062531/http://www.jakoblorberbook
s.com/e-books/Letters-of-Jesus/Letters-of-Jesus.pdf)
English translation of ancient documents on the conversion of Abgar, including relevant
passages from Eusebius and the Doctrine of Addai are available in Cureton, W. (1864).
Ancient Syriac documents (https://archive.org/details/ancientsyriacdo00wriggoog). London,
UK: Williams and Norgate. p. 1–23. Retrieved 15 June 2017.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abgar_V&oldid=933936516"

This page was last edited on 3 January 2020, at 20:49 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.