{The Doct. of Addai the Apostle, with an English Translation and Notes, by G. Phillips, London, 1876). The Syriae document contains the story of the portrait, which was probably already current in the time of Eusebius. The Syiiac version of the story given by Cureton in his Ancient Syriae Documents seems to be an elaborate expansion of that of Eusebius, and to have been composed con- siderably later.
The letter of Christ to Abgar was declared by a Roman Council in 494 or 495 to be spurious. Tille- niont sought to prove the genuineness of the corre- spondence (Memoirs, i. pp. 362, 615), and similar attempts have been made by Welte {Tilbingen Quartalschr. 1842, p. 335 ff.), Rinck {Zeitschr. f. Hist. Theol. 1843, ii. pp. 3-26), Phillips (preface to The Doct. of Addai), and Cureton {Anc. Syr. Doc).
It may be assumed that the documents were forged some time before Eusebius used them. Christianity seems to have been introduced into Osrhoene during the 2nd cent. A.D. The first king known to have favoured Christianity was Abgar VIII. (bar-Manu), who reigned 176-213, and is said to have been on very intimate terms with Bardesanes, the scholarly Gnostic. A Christian church building modelled after the temple in Jeru- salem existed in Edessa some time before 202, until, according to the Edessene Chronicle, it was destroyed (middle of the 6th cent.) by flood. As Edessa grew in importance as a Christian centre, with its theological school, its ambition for dis- tinction may have led some not over-scrupulous ecclesiastic to fabricate these documents and to palm them ofi' on the too credulous authorities. The forgery may have occurred early in the 3rd cent. (Zahn), but more probably early in the 4th. The only piece of real information that has come down to us regarding the Abgar of the time of Christ is a very uncomplimentary reference in Tacitus {Ann. xii. 12. 14).
Literature.— In addition to the works already mentioned, special reference should be made to Lipsius, Die edessenuche Afjgarsagc, ISSO, where the available materials are brought under review and critically tested ; cf. also Matthes, Die edes- senische Abgarsane aitf ihre Forthildung untersuiht, 1882; Tixeron, Les origines de Ciglise d'Edesse et la Ugende d' Abgar, 18S8 ; Farrar, Clrist in Art, p. 79 f.
Albert Henry Newman. ABIA (AV of Mt F, Lk 1").— See Abijah.
ABIATHAR The son of Ahimelech, the son of
Ahitub, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli. He is mentioned in Mk 2"- * ' Have ye never read -what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him ? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shew bread ? ' The RV, however, translates, 'when Abiathar was high priest.' The reference is evidently to 1 S 21, where, according to the Hebrew text, Ahimelech "ives David the sacred bread. There is thus a discrepancy between the two passages. The facts are these : — The AV, cited above, follows the reading of A and C {M 'A^iadap toO ipx^ep^ws), RV follows that of B and N (which omit the article) and the Vulgate ('sub Abiathar principe sacer- dotum '). The clause is omitted altogether by D. In the MT of 1 S 21 and 22 and in Ps 52^ (title) the high priest is Ahimelech the son of Ahitub and the father of David's friend Abiathar. In the Greek text of all these passages, however, the name is Aiimelech. In 2 S 8" and 1 Ch 24' Ahimelech (iu 1 Ch 18^'^ Ahimelech) tlie son of Abiathar is priest along with Zadok, but it is generally supposed that Abiathar the .son of Ahimelech is meant. Ahimelech is usually held to be identical also >vith Ahijah the son of Ahitub of IS 14'-".
ABIDING
The discrepancy between Mk 2^ and 1 S 21 f. has been sought to be accounted for in several ways. It may readily be due to a mere lajpsus
being a much more familiar figure than his father, just as in Jer 2V ' Jehoiakini ' is a slip for Zede- kiah. It is not impossible that father and son may each have borne both names, according to Arab usage, Abiathar corresponding to the Arab kttnyah, and Ahimelech being the ism or lakab, or name proper. It has been suggested that the reference in St. Mark is not to 1 S 21 at all, but to some later unrecorded incident, such as might have occurred during the flight from Absalom. But this is very improbable.* T. H. Weik.
ABIDING.— Of the three possible renderings of the Greek /toK^ and /i^vu, 'remaining, to remain,' 'dwelling, to dwell,' 'abiding, to abide,' the last is the most satisfactory. The first has the advantage of being akin to the Greek in deriva- tion, but it is too passive in its sense, and in so far as it includes the conception of expectation it is misleading ; the second is too local, and is rather the fitting rendering of /taroiKla, KaroiK^oi ; the last is an adequate though not a perfect rendering. 'Mansions' (RVm 'abiding-places') is the stately rendering (AV and RV), through the Vulg. maiisioncs, of the noun in Jn 14- ; but it be- comes impossible in v.=' of the same chapter when the translators fall back on 'abode.' Further, in the English of to-day ' mansion ' suggests merely a building, and that of an ostentatious type. Tfhe Scottish 'manse,' self-contained, modest, and secure, would be a nearly exact equivalent if it carried with it more than the idea of a dwelling- house ; yet neither it nor ' mansion ' has any corre- spondent verb.