Religion:Doctrine of Addai

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Short description: Syriac Christian apocrypha


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.[1]

Content

The document details how Addai went to Edessa and cured King Abgar — fulfilling the promise made to Abgar by Jesus. After the royal family had been healed and Addai preached for Abgar, the royal family and many of the citizens of Edessa became Christians. Abgar asked Addai to build a church in Edessa. Many people came to the church in order to pray and listen to reading daily from the Old Testament and the Ditonron - a reading that William Cureton purported was the Diatessaron of Tatian. Addai died in 45 AD just prior to Abgar, meaning that he was in Edessa for approximately ten or eleven years.[2]

History

File:Mar Addai and Mari Apostles of the East.jpg
An icon of Mar Addai and Mari, Apostles of the East

In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius of Caesarea provides the earliest reference to this text in which he describes an exchange between Jesus Christ and Abgar V in the "language of the Syrians." The Doctrine of Addai itself originated in Edessa, though its author is unknown. It was circulated far and wide, reaching as far as Spain.[3]

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 Palutian[lower-alpha 1] 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.[4][lower-alpha 2] He considers the Palutian faction to have come to Edessa around 200 CE and only become significant in the fourth century.[5]

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. 241-259[6]
  • Pseudo-Abdias (x. 1)
  • Nicephorus (H. E., ii. 7)[7]

Published editions

Modern translations

English

Other

  • Desreumaux, Alain (1993) (in fr). Histoire du roi Abgar et de Jésus: présentation et trad. du texte syriaque intégral de "La doctrine d'Addaï". Paris: Brepols. pp. 53–117. ISBN 978-2-503-50305-9.  This also contains an Ethiopian version.[8]
  • 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: 375–410[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The group now understood as the orthodox faction was known as the Palutians in Syria at this time. (Koester 1965)
  2. ↑ Cf. Bauer, Walter (1909) (in de). Das Leben Jesu im Zeitalter der neutestamentlichen Apokryphen. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr. pp. 444–445. 

Citations

  1. ↑ Noegel, Scott B.; Wheeler, Brannon M. (2010-04-01) (in en). The A to Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 89. ISBN 9781461718956. https://books.google.com/books?id=lNAWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89. 
  2. ↑ Moosa, Matti (2020). Prepared by Robert Bedrosian. "Selected Writings of Matti Moosa". Internet Archive: 18. https://ia803106.us.archive.org/35/items/moosastudies19672014/Moosa_Studies_1967-2014.pdf. "According to the Doctrine of 'Addai, an apocryphal Syriac document of the late fourth century, 'Addai went to Edessa and healed King Abgar in fulfillment of the promise of Jesus. As a result of the healing of Abgar and the preaching of 'Addai, the Edessan royal family and many citizens were converted to Christianity. By the order of Abgar, 'Addai built a church in Edessa. Day by day, a large multitude of people assembled and attended the prayers and listened to the reading of the Old Testament and the "Ditonron," believed by William Cureton to be the Diatessaron (43). The death of 'Addai occurred shortly before that of Abgar, in A.D. 45, so that the ministry of 'Addai in Edessa covered a period of about ten or eleven years.". 
  3. ↑ Lollar, Jacob A (2023). "The Doctrine of Addai and the Letters of Jesus and Abgar". Cascade. ISBN 978-1-6667 -5206-9. https://www.academia.edu/111614748/The_Doctrine_of_Addai_and_the_Letters_of_Jesus_and_Abgar. 
  4. ↑ Koester 1965, p. 296,305.
  5. ↑ Koester 1965, p. 305-306.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Saint-Laurent et al. 2015.
  7. ↑ Walker, Alexander (1885). "Translator's introductory notice to the apocryphal acts of the apostles". Ante-Nicene Christian Library. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. . Note: Walker conflates the Acts of Thaddeus with the Doctrine of Addai.
  8. ↑ French national library

References

Further reading



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