The Doctrine of Addai tells the story of how Christianity came to the Syrian city of Edessa. It incorporates and adapts a correspondence between Jesus and the Syrian king Abgar, who wrote to Jesus requesting healing from a long-term illness. In his response, Jesus promises to send him an apostle, Addai (sometimes called Thaddaeus), who will heal Abgar’s disease and establish Christianity in his kingdom. The exchange between Jesus and Abgar and Edessa’s subsequent evangelization by Addai functions as a founding myth for Christianity in the region, which likely did become Christian under a later King Abgar in the early third century. But the activities and interactions of Addai in Edessa reflect a later time: the fifth century, when Christians in the East were embroiled in a conflict over reforms enacted by the Bishop Rabbula. These complexities of Syrian Christian history are all made clear in the introduction and rich commentary that accompanies this updated English translation of the Doctrine of Addai and related texts—including early witnesses to the Abgar/Jesus Correspondence in papyri and inscriptions, and selections from the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, the Acts of Thaddaeus, and the Acts of Mar Mari.
The Doctrine of Addai and the Letters of Jesus and Abgar is volume 10 in the series Early Christian Apocrypha, offered as part of the Westar Tools and Translations series in cooperation with the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL). The Early Christian Apocrypha series features fresh new translations of major apocryphal texts that survive from the early period of the Christian church. These non-canonical writings are crucial for determining the complex history of Christian origins. The series continues the work of Julian V. Hills, who edited the first six volumes of the series for Polebridge Press.
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ENDORSEMENTS AND REVIEWS
“By making these once-influential texts readily available, the series on early Christian apocrypha performs an invaluable service to scholars but also to any thoughtful reader interested in the breadth and diversity of the Christian tradition. The latest volume on the Doctrine of Addai is an excellent contribution, with a lucid translation grounded in thorough scholarly research. Long may this fine series continue.”
—PHILIP JENKINS, distinguished professor of history, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University
“Through idiomatic translations of multiple Syriac, Greek, and Latin sources and a concise,yet comprehensive account of the development and transmission of the Abgar legend, Jacob Lollar has provided an invaluable tool for understanding how the Christians of Edessa fused civic history with sacred history to put Roman Mesopotamia at the very forefront of the apostolic tradition.”
—KYLE SMITH, associate professor of historical studies and the study of religion, University of Toronto
“This excellent book is much more than a fresh translation of a foundational piece of Syriac literature—the earliest narrative on the arrival of Christianity to Edessa. The volume also comprises a sophisticated commentary, as well as the first systematic study of several inscriptions and papyri that attest the Doctrine, and of its textual afterlife over centuries. Jacob Lollar’s work reshapes our understanding of the history of the Doctrine, its far-reaching impact on early Christians, and the role it played in later Syriac literature”
—ALBERTO RIGOLIO, associate professor of classics, Durham University