Abgar V the black or Abgarus V of Edessa (Syriac: ܐܒܓܪ ܚܡܝܫܝܐ ܐܘܟܡܐ; ʼAbgar Ḥmišōyō ʼAwkawmō) BC - AD 7 and AD 13 - 50) was a historical Syriac ruler of the kingdom of Osroene, holding his capital at Edessa. (Compare to the region that was referred to as Armenian Mesopotamia[1] by the Greeks and Ashur in the Old Testament). According to an ancient legend, he was converted to Christianity by Addai,[2] one of the Seventy-two Disciples. According to Armenian historian Moses of Khorene he was Sanatruk's relative.
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Abgar V was, according to Syriac tradition, one of the first Christian kings in history, having been converted to the faith by the Apostle Thaddeus of Edessa. Abgar was a Syriac King in the city of Edessa.[3] Other accounts regard this as mere legend, equating the Abgar in the story with the Syrian Abgar IX, a late 2nd-century convert to Christianity. Moses of Khoren suggests that the name of the legendary figure is a corruption of an individual's title: "…Because of his uncommon modesty and wisdom, and his old age, this Abgaros was given the title of "Avag Hair" (Senior Father in Armenian). The Greeks and Assyrians, unable to articulate his name correctly, called him Abgar."[4]
The legend tells that Abgar, king of Edessa, afflicted with an incurable sickness, had heard the fame of the power and miracles of Jesus and wrote to him, acknowledging his divinity, craving his help, and offering him asylum in his own residence; the tradition states that Jesus wrote a letter declining to go, but promising that after his ascension, he would send one of his disciples, endowed with his power.
The 4th century church historian Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, records a tradition[6] concerning a correspondence on this occasion, exchanged between Abgar of Edessa and Jesus. Eusebius was convinced that the original letters, written in Syriac (Aramaic), were kept in the archives of Edessa. Eusebius also states that in due course, after Christ's ascension, Thaddeus, namely Addai (called Addaï), or one of the seventy-two Disciples, called Thaddeus of Edessa, was sent by Thomas the Apostle in AD 29. Eusebius copies the two letters into the text of his history.
The correspondence consisted of Abgar's letter and the answer dictated by Jesus. As the legend later expanded, a portrait of Jesus painted from life began to be mentioned. This portrait, purportedly painted by the court archivist Hannan during his visit to Jesus, is first mentioned in the Syriac text called the "Doctrine of Addai" (or Doctrina Addai; the name Addaei or Addaeus = Thaddaeus or Thaddeus), from the second half of the 4th century. Here it is said that the reply of Jesus was given not in writing, but orally, and that the event took place in 32 AD. This Teaching of Addai is also the earliest account of an image of Jesus painted from life, enshrined by the ailing King Abgar V in one of his palaces. Greek forms of the legend are found in the Acta Thaddaei, the "Acts of Thaddaeus".
The story of the "letter to Abgar", including the portrait made by the court painter Hannan, is repeated, with some additions, in the mid-5th century History of the Armenians of Moses of Chorene, who remarked that the portrait was preserved in Edessa.
The story was later elaborated further by the church historian Evagrius, Bishop of Edessa (c. 536-600), who declared for the first time (as far as is known) that the image of Jesus was "divinely wrought," and "not made by human hands." In sum, the documented legend developed from no image in Eusebius, to an image painted by Hannan in "Addai" and Moses of Chorene, to a miraculously-appearing image not made by human hands in Evagrius.
This latter concept of an "image not made by hands" (acheiropoietos) formed the foundation on which the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of icons was later created in the 8th century. This doctrine held that Jesus made the first icon of himself by pressing a wet towel to his face, miraculously imprinting the cloth with his features — thus creating the prototype for all icons of Jesus, and an implied divine approval for their creation.
John of Damascus, the leading architect of the church dogma favoring icons, specifically mentioned that Jesus "is said to have taken a piece of cloth and pressed it to his face, impressing on it the image of his face, which it keeps to this day" (On the Divine Images I).
The Abgar legend 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 pseudepigraphical 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 legendary growth has arisen from this supposed event, with scholars disputing whether Abgar suffered from gout or from leprosy, whether the correspondence was on parchment or papyrus, and so forth.
Albany James Christie, a nineteenth century writer on Greek and Roman legend questions the authenticity of the letters. [7] Most testimony of the 5th century, for instance Augustine and Jerome, is to the effect that Jesus wrote nothing. The correspondence was rejected as apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I and a Roman synod (c. 495). Biblical scholars now generally believe that the letters were fabricated, probably in the 3rd century AD, and "planted" where Eusebius eventually found them. Another theory is that the story was fabricated by Abgar IX of Osroene, during whose reign the kingdom became Christianized, as a way of legitimizing its religious conversion.
The text of the letter varies. The less available variant, transcribed from the Doctrina Addaei, and printed in the Catholic Encyclopedia 1908, is:
The Doctrina then continues:
(†According to Eusebius, Jesus himself wrote the letter; nothing is mentioned of his having dictated it to Hannan.)
The quotations paraphrasing the Gospels are actually from the famous concordance of Tatian, the Diatessaron, itself compiled in the 2nd century.[8] The legend could not be older than the 3rd century.
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 decree, De libris non recipiendis ("Books not to be received"), traditionally attributed to Pope Gelasius I, places the letter among the apocrypha. That in itself may be an indication of its having been interpolated among the officially sanctioned lessons of the liturgy of some churches. The Syriac liturgies commemorate the correspondence of Abgar during Lent. The Celtic liturgy appears to have attached importance to the legend; 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.
The account given by Thaddeus/Addai contains a detail that may be briefly referred to. Hannan, who wrote at Jesus' dictation, was archivist at Edessa and painter to King Abgar. He had been charged to paint a portrait of Jesus Christ, and brought to Edessa an icon that became an object of general veneration, and that was eventually said to have been painted (or created miraculously) by Jesus himself. Like the letter, the iconic portrait was destined be the nucleus of a legendary growth; the "Holy Face of Edessa" was chiefly famous in the Byzantine world, where the legend of the Edessa portrait forms part of the subject of the iconography of Christ, and also of the pictures of miraculous origin called acheiropoietoe ("made without hands") both in the Eastern Orthodox Church and, in the West where the tradition is associated with St. Veronica and Veronica's Veil and the Shroud of Turin.
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 (known also as Saint Apkar).
On August 24, 2009, the board of the Central Bank of Armenia adopted a decision on introducing a new banknote with a nominal value of AMD 100,000. The new banknote depicts King Abgar V (King of Armenian Mesopotamia as described). The front of the banknote depicts him pointing at a canvas of the royal flag with a lively portrait of Jesus Christ. The reverse of the banknote depicts disciple Thaddaeus handing the canvas to King Abgar V and his consequent miraculous healing.[9]
