Doctrine of Addai

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:New Testament Apocrypha The Doctrine of Addai (Syriac: ܡܠܦܢܘܬܐ ܕܐܕܝ ܫܠܝܚܐ Malp̄ānūṯā d-Addai Šlīḥā) is a Syriac Christian text, written in the late 4th or early 5th century CE. It recounts the legend of the Image of Edessa as well as the legendary works of Addai and his disciple Mari in Mesopotamia.

Content

The story of how King Abgar and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History (i.13 and iii.1) and it was retold in elaborated form by Ephrem the Syrian.

Purpose

Helmut Koester regards the development of tradition of Thaddaeus' activity in Edessa as part of an effort to build the authority of the orthodox or PalutianTemplate:Efn faction in Syria against the Manicheans and gnostics, who had an older and stronger presence in the area and traced their lineage to Thomas the Apostle.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn He considers the Palutian faction to have come to Edessa around Template:If empty CE and only become significant in the fourth century.Template:Sfn

Manuscripts

• ms Saint-Petersburg, National Library of Russia Saltykov-Shchedrine, N.S. Syr. 4 (Pigulevskaya 48), f. 1v33
• ms London, British Library, Add. 14654, f. 33r-v (fragment) + Add. 14644, f. 1-9v + Add. 14535, f. 1r (fragment) + Add. 12155, f. 53v + Add. 17193, f. 36v-37 (extrait)
• ms Alqosh, Église paroissiale chaldéenne, cod. 87 ?
• ms London, British Library, Add. 12161, f. 1v (fragment)
• ms London, British Library, Add. 14612, f. 165r (fragment)
• ms London, British Library, Add. 14644, f. 1-9v (mutilated from the beginning and in the middle)
• ms Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, syr. 62, f. 102v-108 (extraits)
• ms Birmingham, Selly Oak College Library, Coll. Mingana, Syr. 405, f. 1
• ms Jerusalem, Couvent syrien orthodoxe Saint-Marc, cod. 153, p. 241-259Template:Sfn
• Pseudo-Abdias (x. 1)
• Nicephorus (H. E., ii. 7)Template:Better source needed

Modern translations

English

• (HTML version)
• Note: This includes a reprint of the Syriac edition of Template:Sfn
• Lollar, Jacob A. (2023-11-10). The Doctrine of Addai and the Letters of Jesus and Abgar. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-6667-5208-3.

Other

• This also contains an Ethiopian version.
• Dutch: Jan Willem Drijvers, Helena Augusta, waarheid en legende ( Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1989), pp: 153–157, Note: partielle
• Russian: Elena Nikitična Meščerskaja, Legenda ob Avgare — rannesirijskij literaturnyj pamjatnik: (istoričeskie korni v ėvoljucii apokrifičeskoj legendy) ( Moskva: Nauka, 1984), pp: 185–203
• Armenian: A Carrière, La légende d'Abgar dans l'Histoire d'Arménie de Moïse de Khoren ( Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1895), pp: 357–414
• Ethiopic: Getatchew Haile, " The Legend of Abgar in Ethiopic Tradition," Orientalia christiana periodica vol. 55 ( 1989), pp: 375–410Template:Sfn

See also

• Abgar Legend
• Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari
• Early centers of Christianity

References

• Template:CC-notice

Further reading

• Template:Cite CE1913
• Doctrine of Addai Template:Webarchive (text, in English)
• Template:Cite CE1913
• (HTML version)
• (HTML version)
• (HTML version)