Abgar of Edessa - correspondence with Jesus ( Shroud of Turin - Sudarium of Oveido )

Steven Avery · Apr 22, 2021

There are connections with the Shroud of Turin and the Mandylion (which might be the Shroud.)
While the Shroud is most assuredly authentic, that does not automatically make the Abgar letters authentic, but it is corroborative evidence..

Bart Ehrman discusses on a recent blog about Jesus and writing. He tends to be superficial, however it got me thinking that there is no information post here.

https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/stlcataldoppt.pdf

Steven Avery · Apr 22, 2021

Copy of a Letter Written by Abgarus the ruler to Jesus, and sent to him at Jerusalem by Ananais the swift courier
Eusebius
https://books.google.com/books?id=boIXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA100
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250101.htm

Egeria (circa 384 AD)
THE PILGRIMAGE OF S. SILVIA OF AQUITANIA TO THE HOLY PLACES (CIRC. 385 A.D.),
Translated, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY JOHN H. BERNARD, B.D.,
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/egeria/pilgrimage/pilgrimage.html

Jerome

Augustine

Doctrine Addai (written between 4th-6th century)
The Doctrine of Addai (1876). English Translation
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/addai_1_intro.htm
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/addai_2_text.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Doctrine-Addai-Apostle-Armenian-Development/dp/1105770249

There are even more versions of it. There is an apocryphal text, called Greek Letter of Abgar, consisting of two letters, and a story of Mandylion. It is however worthy to note, that in the Acts of Thaddeus written circa 600 AD (although New Advent claims 250 AD see http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0826.htm ) there is no written letter of Jesus, only oral message. It is one of the two texts (the other is ‘Story of the Image of Edessa’, written by, or on behalf of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos) where the term tetradiplon appears.
https://shroudstory.com/2014/01/06/yannick-clment-on-the-letters-between-jesus-and-king-abgar/

Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon ecclesiasticum quod e codice Musei britannici descriptum conjuncta opera ed ...
Gregory Bar Hebraeus - (1226–1286) - Thomas Joseph Lamy (1877)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Np5PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13

Books Published in the Name of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Of Several Forgeries by Early Heretics. Remarks on this Whole Question Richard Simon
Critical History of the Text of the New Testament
Andrew Hunwick
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ia01_pLxGr8C&pg=PA19
https://brill.com/view/book/9789004244214/B9789004244214_004.xml
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...4214_004.xml&usg=AOvVaw0IHSUMsBWrsNw3GEHO40f9
1689 edition
https://books.google.com/books?id=nYzPAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA12

The letter of Jesus Christ to Abgar, King of Edessa, does not seem totally fanciful since Eusebius,3 who adduces it together with the letter to Jesus from that Prince, declares that he got these two documents from the Edessa archives which contained the records of what happened in the reign of Abgar, and that in his own time they were still kept there written in Syriac, the language of the country from which they were translated into Greek. Nonetheless Pope Gelasius was right to reject the letter from our Lord to Abgar as apocryphal 4. Granted that the letters were indeed found in the archives in the city of Edessa; but we must not place our trust too readily in the beginnings of Churches; everyone enhances their history as best they can, quite unscrupulously forging documents in such cases when they have no genuine ones.

3 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.13.1-22 (2:40-45).

4 In “Books to be accepted and rejected: Roman Council or Decree held by Pope Gelasius and bishops ca. 496" (PL 59:180).

Memoirs of Literature - Review of Ittigius (1722)
Memoirs of Literature: Containing a Large Account of Many Valuable Books, Letters and Dissertations Upon Several Subjects, Miscellaneous Observations, Etc, Volume 1 of 8
Michael de la Roche
http://books.google.com/books?id=vFEJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA165

Theophili Sigefridi Bayeri Regiomontani: Historia osrhoëna et edessena ex nvmis illvstrata, in qua, Edessae vrbis, Osrhoëni regni, Abgarorum regum, praefectorum Graecorum, Arabum, Persarum, comitum Francorum, successiones, fata, res aliae memorabiles, a prima origene vrbis ad extrema fere tempora explicantur (1734)
https://books.google.com/books?id=t70pAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95
Theophilus Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Siegfried_Bayer

Introduction to the NT - (Vol 2 Part 1 4th ed) (1793-English)
Johann David Michaelis
http://books.google.com/books?id=9WAUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA29

Ante-Nicene Christian Library (1871)
Appendix to Syriac Documents
Stewart Dingwall Fordyce Salmond
https://books.google.com/books?id=HmZKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA154

The Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ (1903)
By James De Quincey Donehoo
https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-ENAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA472

Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01,
by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970)
https://archive.org/details/segal1970edessa01/page/n73/mode/2up

Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism (1992)
Eusebius and Syriac Christianity
Sebastian Brock
https://books.google.com/books?id=jVyzbHAJ_hAC&pg=PA213

The Sociologogy of MMT and the Conversions of King Agbarus and Queen Helen of Adiabene (1992)
Robert Eisenman
https://roberteisenman.com/articles/mmt_agbarus.pdf

James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1997)
"Judas the brother of James and the conversion of King Agbar".
Robert Eisenman
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AVWU87C/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 (2004)

Wiki on Eisenman

Robert Eisenman suggests Queen Helena as one of the wives of King Abgar V, who allotted her the lands of Adiabene.[12] Professor Eisenman derived this association from Movses Khorenatsi mentioning the same famine relief to Judaea as does Flavius Josephus:

As to the first of Abgar’s wives, named Helena... She went away to Jerusalem in the time of Claudius, during the famine which Agabus had predicted; with all her treasures she bought in Egypt an immense quantity of corn, which she distributed amongst the poor, a fact to which Josephus testifies. Helena’s tomb, a truly remarkable one, is still to be seen before the gate of Jerusalem.[13]

Professor Eisenman goes on to equate King Abgarus V with the Agabus in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 11:27-30), because Agabus was identified with the same famine relief as Queen Helena. By necessity Eisenman then equates the biblical Antioch Orontes with Antioch Edessa, indicating that Paul the Apostle and Barnabas went to Edessa.[14]

13 Movses Khorenatsi. "History of Armenia" . In Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James; Coxe, Arthur Cleveland; Schaff, Philip (eds.). Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Vol. VIII. Translated by Pratten, Benjamin Plummer. Chapter 10. .
14 Eisenman 1992, p. 1.

Authenticity of the Abgar documents and the letter of Jesus (2005)
Barbara Thiering
https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2a7325630bdc250160186992fa23f81e3/avs
Also on Yahoogroups discussions in email archives.

Yannick Clément on the Letters Between Jesus and King Abgar (2014)
https://shroudstory.com/2014/01/06/yannick-clment-on-the-letters-between-jesus-and-king-abgar/
(their authenticity was already questioned by Jerome and Augustine in the 4th-5th century, and was rejected by Decretum Gelasium as apocrypha) ... Eusebius asserts that the correspondence between Jesus and Abgar is genuine. Only later it has been discounted by Jerome and Augustine, on the basis that no authentic writings of the Savior would have been preserved in the Apostolic Church.

The Tradition of the Image of Edessa (2016)
by Mark Guscin
https://books.google.com/books?id=wSX5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA10

A Man for the Times: Jesus and the Abgar Correspondence in Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History *
James Corke-Webster

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/abs/man-for-the-times-jesus-and-the-abgar-correspondence-in-

eusebius-of-caesareas-ecclesiastical-history/

Tellingly, the story is found, neither in the 4th-cent. writings of Ephrem, who lived in Edessa for ten years near the end of his life (though there is an oblique reference to the city being blessed by the Son through the hand of his disciple), nor in the mid-6th-cent. Chronicle of Edessa, which drew on the town archives in which the Abgar document was apparently stored. There is also no material record of Christianity for 2nd- or 3rd-cents. Syria. See Brock, Sebastian, “Eusebius and Syriac Christianity,” in Eusebius, Christianity and Judaism (ed. Attridge, Harold and Hata, Gohei; Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992) 212–34, at 221–29 Google Scholar.

Is the Legend True? Did Jesus Write a Letter to King Abgar ? (2018)
Thomas L. McDonald -
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/is-the-legend-true-did-jesus-write-a-letter-to-king-abgar

Do We Have Any of Jesus' Writings? (The Answer May Surprise You!) (2021)
Bart Ehrman
https://ehrmanblog.org/do-we-have-any-of-jesus-writings-the-answer-may-surprise-you/

Bibsonomy - 10 publications (see below)
https://www.bibsonomy.org/user/avs/Abgarlegende

Private videos mentioned on Shroud site by Daniel Robert Porter
https://shroudstory.com/2014/01/06/yannick-clment-on-the-letters-between-jesus-and-king-abgar/
New Testament Yale – Colossians and Ephesians*
Dale Martin, Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University (first watch 1. New Testament Yale- Introduction)
youtube - _zgPy5bHzSo
youtube - rA8IxpY4zik

Steven Avery · Apr 22, 2021

Abgar Legend
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgar_Legend

Abgar V
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgar_V
Note:

Robert Eisenman (b.1937)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Eisenman
https://robertheisenman.com/
https://www.huffpost.com/author/robert-eisenman

Thaddeus of Edessa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_of_Edessa

Steven Avery · Apr 22, 2021

The Legend of Abgar and Jesus, Part I: Introduction
December 11th, 2020
Valerie A. Abrahamsen,
Note: A version of this post originally appeared in Abrahamsen, Goddess and God, pages 86-94.
https://www.wisdomwordsppf.org/2020/12/11/the-legend-of-abgar-and-jesus-part-i-introduction/
The Legend of Abgar and Jesus, Part II: The Philippian Correspondence
https://www.wisdomwordsppf.org/2020...-jesus-part-ii-the-philippian-correspondence/

This tends to be a more hostile to Christianity bibliography, Walter Bauer and Han Drijvers (not here) are, in a Andrew S. Jacobs review of Mirkovics, placing the letter as orthodox propaganda.

Resources

“Abgar, Legend of,” in F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Abrahamsen, Valerie A. Goddess and God: A Holy Tension in the First Christian Centuries. Marco Polo Monographs 10. Warren Center, PA: Shangri-La Publications, 2006.

Abrahamsen, Valerie A. The Rock Reliefs and the Cult of Diana at Philippi. Harvard University dissertation, 1986; Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, Inc., 1986.

“Addai,” in F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Bauer, Walter. “The Abgar Legend,” in Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, eds., New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. I, 438. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963.

Bauer, Walter. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, ed. Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Krodel. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971; German original, Rechtglaubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1934.

Betz, Hans Dieter. “Magic: Magic in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” in Mircea Eliade, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 9, 93-97. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987.

Enslin, M.S. “Abgarus, Epistles of Christ and,” in Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I, 5. New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962.

“Etheria, Pilgrimage of,” in F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 473. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Feissel, Denis. Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de Macédoine du IIIe au VIe siècle. Athens and Paris: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique Supplement 8, 1983.

Howard, George, trans. The Teaching of Addai. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981.

Jones, Christopher. “The Letters of Abgar V,” https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/the-letters-of-abgar-v/; accessed 12/10/20.

McVey, Kathleen E. “Abgar, Epistle of Christ to,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 1, 12. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Picard, Charles. “Un texte nouveau de la correspondance entre Abgar D’Osroène et Jésus-Christ gravé sur une porte de ville, à Philippes (Macédoine),” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 44 (1920) 41-69.

Youtrie, Herbert C. “A Gothenburg Papyrus and the Letter to Abgar,” Harvard Theological Review 23 (1930) 302.

Steven Avery · Apr 22, 2021

Barbara Thiering - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

================================

Der Briefwechsel zwischen Abgar und Jesus
E. Dobschütz. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, (1900)
https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/27d750745fd3ed8e793c255b06217d800/avs

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Steven Avery · Sep 28, 2025

List of Acknowledged (Mis)Use/Forgery Accusations Against Eusebius
Secret Alias

List of Acknowledged (Mis)Use/Forgery Accusations Against Eusebius - Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

3) Abgar–Jesus correspondence (Edessa)

Allegation: The famous exchange of letters between King Abgar V and Jesus—first quoted fully by Eusebius (HE 1.13)—is a fourth-century fabrication that Eusebius publicized (not necessarily authored). A common hypothesis (since Bauer) is that Bishop Kune (Qūnē) of Edessa forged it to give Edessa apostolic prestige. Walter Bauer’s classic thesis (Orthodoxy/Heresy) as developed by later scholars; Alexander Mirković’s monograph; J. Corke-Webster (HTR) reviews the dossier and notes the “Kune” hypothesis; surveys continue to treat the letters as legendary. Corke-Webster (HTR 2017) and discussion of the Kune-forgery hypothesis; Mirković, Prelude to Constantine; Bauer’s Edessa chapter (English notes). Counter-weights: Traditional defenses (going back to Schaff, etc.) argue Eusebius found a Syriac dossier (later witnessed in the Doctrine of Addai) and was credulous, not complicit.

Steven Avery · Sep 28, 2025

BCHF
Mentions of Turin Shroud or Image of Edessa before 400 AD?
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2917

Bring over full text

BCHF
First Century Christian Writings Missing from our Forum's Website
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=62053&hilit=shroud+abgar#p62053
For Edessa, there are apocryphal stories about Thaddeus, King Abgar, and the Mandylion (maybe Turin shroud).

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List of Acknowledged (Mis)Use/Forgery Accusations Against Eusebius - Page 3 -
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14377&start=20

Additional BCHF counterpoint:

BCHF
Mentions of Turin Shroud or Image of Edessa before 400 AD?

Mentions of Turin Shroud or Image of Edessa before 400 AD? - Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

And a resource page

Pure Bible Forum
Abgar of Edessa - correspondence with Jesus

Abgar of Edessa - correspondence with Jesus ( Shroud of Turin - Sudarium of Oveido )

There are connections with the Shroud of Turin and the Mandylion (which might be the Shroud.) While the Shroud is most assuredly authentic, that does not automatically make the Abgar letters authentic, but it is corroborative evidence.. Bart Ehrman discusses on a recent blog about Jesus and...

www.purebibleforum.com

===================================================

List of Acknowledged (Mis)Use/Forgery Accusations Against Eusebius - Page 3 -
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=196987#p196987
The RCC came in late.
Here is a larger history, the earlier years can be compared to the BCHF thread.

Otangelo Grasso
Chronological List of Pre-1356 Literature Mentioning the Shroud and Christ's Burial Cloth

Otrangelo on Academia.edu

Chronological List of Pre-1356 Literature Mentioning the Shroud and Christ's Burial Cloth

Hymn of the Pearl" (c. 200-250 CE) Source: Syriac apocryphal text Quote: "And the image of the King of kings was depicted entirely on it." Analysis: Allegorical reference to a royal image-bearing garment; theological metaphor possibly

www.academia.edu

My study page.

Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo - chronological historical lists

WIP Add Scripture Verses here Why Isn't the Shroud of Turin in the Bible (2018) Worthy Christian Forums https://www.worthychristianforums.com/topic/230342-why-isn%E2%80%99t-the-shroud-of-turin-in-the-bible/

www.purebibleforum.com

A spot for public discussion, as would be this forum, perhaps a new thread.

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The Abgar of Edessa material is fascinating.

====================

A fellow named Mark Guscin also has a paper about how the Sudarium of Oviedo got to Spain from Jerusalem in AD 700

The History Of The Sudarium Of Oviedo: How It Came From Jerusalem To Northern Spain In The Seventh Century A.D

The History Of The Sudarium Of Oviedo: How It Came From Jerusalem To Northern Spain In The Seventh Century A.D

The Oviedo Sudarium is a little known object that has been in Spain since the early seventh century. Quite apart from the debate as to whether it could be the sudarium mentioned in the gospel of John, the cloth forms part of the history of Spain and

www.academia.edu

The History Of The Sudarium Of Oviedo: How It Came From Jerusalem To Northern Spain In The Seventh Century A.D.

This youtube discusses the date issues and the proposed connection of rhe Sudarium to the shroud.
"History on the Sudarium of Ovideo with Dr. Mark Guscin"
Interview with Guy Powell

Guy R. Powell has a wide variety of Shroud-related podcasts

Season 1 - GuyRPowell - Author

The official interview page for author Guy R. Powell where you can find the latest episodes for the Backstory on the Shroud of Turin.

guypowell.com

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The gentleman I saw in person at an excellent conference presentation in Orlando almost a decade back was Russ Breault.

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Abgar of Edessa - correspondence with Jesus ( Shroud of Turin - Sudarium of Oveido )

Steven Avery

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Barbara Thiering - Wikipedia

Steven Avery

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Steven Avery

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Abgar of Edessa - correspondence with Jesus ( Shroud of Turin - Sudarium of Oveido )

Chronological List of Pre-1356 Literature Mentioning the Shroud and Christ's Burial Cloth

Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo - chronological historical lists

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The History Of The Sudarium Of Oviedo: How It Came From Jerusalem To Northern Spain In The Seventh Century A.D

Season 1 - GuyRPowell - Author