Abgar V.

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An icon with Abgar holding an Abgar image of Jesus Christ (an encaustic image from the 10th century in St. Catherine's Monastery on Sinai).
Abgar V. on an Armenian 100,000 dram banknote

Abgar V. Ukamma (The Black One ) or Abgarus V. von Edessa ( Arabic أبجر الخامس أوكاما, Aramaic ܐܒܓܪ ܚܡܝܫܝܐ ܐܘܟܡܐ ʾAḇgar Ḥəmišāyā ʾUkkāmā , Armenian Աբգար Ե Եդեսացի Abgar Hingerord Jedessazi , ancient Greek Ἄβγαρος Abgaros ) was between 4 BC. BC and 7 AD and again between 13 and 50 King of Osrhoene , with the capital Edessa . Abgar is seen as a saint whose feast days are celebrated on October 11th and 28th in the Orthodox Church , on August 1st in the Syrian Church and daily in the mass of the Armenian Apostolic Church .

Life

Abgar's ethnic origin is not entirely clear. Abgar is described by contemporary Tacitus as "King of the Arabs", while the Armenian historian Moses von Choren describes him as an Armenian. However, later historians such as Robert W. Thomson and Richard G. Hovannisian stated that Moses von Choren invented Armenian descent. Most contemporary historians consider Abgard's dynasty to be Arabic. As a result, researcher Lucas Van Rompay says that it cannot be said with certainty whether Abgar is of Arab, Aramaic, Parthian, or Armenian descent.

Abgar V. came 4 BC. To power. He became a Roman vassal, lost his throne in AD 7, and regained it five years later. Moses von Choren reported that the main wife of King Abgar V, Queen Helena of Adiabene , was the former wife of King Monobaz I of Adiabene and thus the kingdoms of Edessa and Adiabene were connected.

Robert Eisenman suggests Queen Helena as one of the wives of King Abgar V, who gave her the lands of Adiabene. Eisenman goes further and equates Abgar with the prophet Agabus from the Acts of the Apostles of Luke (Acts 11: 27-30), who was associated with a great famine. Thus Antioch from the Acts of the Apostles is not Antioch on the Orontes but Antioch Kallirhoe (Edessa). But then, according to Eisenman, Abgar himself would be one of the seventy disciples.

It is alleged that Abgar V was one of the first Christian kings in history to be converted to the faith by Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the seventy disciples .

King Abgar's letter to Jesus

According to legend, Abgar fell ill and had his secretary Hannan write a letter to Jesus Christ. He is said to have sent him an image (mandylion) of himself and an answer for healing. However, only the image is mentioned at the beginning of the legend.

The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea reports that the Edessan archives contained a copy of an exchange of letters between Abgar and Jesus. The correspondence consisted of a letter from Abgar and the answer that Jesus dictated. On August 15, 944, the Church of St. Maria von Blacherna in Constantinople received the letter and the mandylion. Both relics were then moved to the Pharos Palace Chapel .

This correspondence enjoyed great popularity in both the East and West of the Middle Ages: Jesus' letter was copied on parchment, framed in marble and metal and used as a talisman or amulet. There is not only a Syrian text of this correspondence, but also an Armenian translation, two independent Greek versions, shorter than the Syrian one, and several inscriptions on stone. Scholars of the time argued among themselves whether Abgar suffered from gout or leprosy and whether the letters were written on parchment or papyrus.

The pilgrim Egeria mentioned this letter when she was in Edessa. She read the letter there and noted that the letter was more detailed than the copies she had seen in her homeland (probably France).

However, based on other researchers like Han Drijver , Bart D. Ehrman sees the correspondence as a construct and forgery from the 3rd century, which was invented by Orthodox Christians as propaganda against Manichaeism .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vailhé, Siméon:  Edessa . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.
  2. ↑ Steven Ring: History of Syriac texts and Syrian Christianity - Table 1 .
  3. ↑ Vrej Nersessian: Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art . Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0892366392 , p. 224.
  4. ↑ Richard G. Hovannisian: Armenian Van / Vaspurakan, p. 68, December 2000
  5. ^ Alan Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Averil Cameron: The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337 . Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780521301992 .
  6. ↑ Abgar V . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
  7. ^ Sigfried J. de Laet, Joachim Herrmann: History of Humanity: From the seventh century BC to the seventh century AD . UNESCO, 1996, ISBN 9789231028120 .
  8. ↑ Syriac Historiography and Identity Formation , Muriel Debié, Church History and Religious Culture, Vol. 89, No. 1/3, Religious Origins of Nations? The Christian Communities of the Middle East (2009), p. 100.
  9. ↑ Eisenman (1992); P. 8
  10. ↑ Eisenman (1992); P. 1
  11. ↑ Chapman: Doctrine of Addai
  12. ^ Adrian Fortescue: Lesser Eastern Churches . 2001, ISBN 978-0-9715986-2-1 ( google.com ).
  13. ↑ Eusebius in his Church History I, xiii
  14. ^ Raymond Janin: La Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin. 1. Part: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. 3rd Vol .: Les Églises et les Monastères . Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines, Paris 1953, p. 172 (French).
  15. ↑ John Bernard: The Pilgrimage of Egeria . Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.
  16. ↑ Bart D. Ehrman: Forgery and Counterforgery. The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics , New York 2013, ISBN, pp. 455–458

swell

  • Walter Bauer: Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity . Fortress Press, Philadelphia, PA 1971. (German original published in 1934)
  • Alberto Camplani: Traditions of Christian foundation in Edessa: Between myth and history . In: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni (SMSR) . 75, No. 1, 2009, pp. 251-278. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  • Henry Palmer Chapman: Doctrine of Addai . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.
  • Robert Eisenman : The sociology of MMT and the conversions of King Agbarus and Queen Helen of Adiabene . 1992 ( roberteisenman.com [PDF]).
  • Robert Eisenman : James the Brother of Jesus . 1997.
  • Frederick George Holweck: A biographical dictionary of the saints . B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis, MO 1924.
  • Alexander Mirkovic: Prelude to Constantine: The Abgar tradition in early Christianity (=  work on the religion and history of early Christianity ). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2004.
  • Constantin von Tischendorf: Acta Thaddei (Acts of Thaddeus) . In: Acta apostolorum apocr . S. 261 ff .
  • Ian Wilson: Holy faces, secret places . 1991.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Abgar V.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abgar V. Ukamma; Abgar the Black; Abgarus V. of Edessa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Osrhoene
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century