What is the Legend of Abgar?
According
to an ancient legend, the legend of Abgar, a cloth with an image of
Jesus was brought to King Abgar V Ouchama of Edessa who ruled the city
state off and on between A.D. 13 and 50. There are various versions of
the story:
- The earliest known version of the legend comes to us by way of
Eusebius of Caesarea. He tells of the legend, as though it was
historical fact, in his early 4th century Ecclesiastical
History.
- Another version is by way of a Syrian manuscript, the
Doctrine of Addai, fills in some gaps.
According to this document, the image of Jesus was painted “with
choice pigments.”
- A later document, the Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, written in the early part of the 6th century, adds more detail. It suggests that the image was formed when Jesus wiped his face on the linen cloth and it refers to the cloth as a tetradiplon, meaning it was folded into eight equal sections.
The significance of the legend is not in how the images were formed. Nor is it in telling us how the cloth arrived in Edessa. The significance is that there was a cloth with an image on it. Legends often form as ways of creating explanations for some important object or phenomenon where a factual explanation is absent.
This part of a 10th century painting of Abgar receiving the picture from the disciple Thaddeus is significant in showing that the legend was current then in the Greek-Byzantine world. See: full Painting of Abgar receiving the Image of Edessa from Thaddeus.
We learn of a document that had been in Edessa’s archives. If it ever existed, it is now lost to history. It was a letter, we are told, written by an ailing King Abgar V and hand delivered to Jesus of Nazareth by an envoy named Ananias. The king had heard of Jesus and asked him to come to Edessa to cure him. In Eusebius’ history we learn that the Jesus’ apostle, Thomas, sent a disciple named Thaddeus sometime after Jesus’ death and that he founded a church in Edessa.
Historians are critical of this “historical account” because Eusebius’s history includes references from the Gospels which were written later. He also discussed theological concepts that were probably developed many years after the life of Abgar.
Is it Real? | Crazy Stuff | Science | History | Mystery | Religion | Journalism