He too, with the same ordination which he had received from him, made Priests and Guides in the whole of this country of Mesopotamia. For they also, in like manner as Addæus the apostle, held fast his word, and listened to and received it, as good and faithful successors of the apostle of the adorable Christ. But silver and gold he took not from any man, nor did the gifts of the princes come near him: for, instead of receiving gold and silver, he himself enriched the Church of Christ with the souls of believers.
Moreover, as regards the entire state [3045] of the men and the women, they were chaste and circumspect, and holy and pure: for they lived like anchorites [3046] and chastely, without spot--in circumspect watchfulness touching the ministry, in their sympathy [3047] toward the poor, in their visitations to the sick: for their footsteps were fraught with praise from those who saw them, and their conduct was arrayed in commendation from strangers--so that even the priests of the house of [3048] Nebu and Bel divided the honour with them at all times, by reason of their dignified aspect, their truthful words, their frankness of speech arising from their noble nature, which was neither subservient through covetousness nor in bondage under the fear of blame. For there was no one who saw them that did not run to meet them, that he might salute them respectfully, because the very sight of them shed peace upon the beholden: for just like a net [3049] were their words of gentleness spread over the contumacious, and they entered within the fold of truth and verity. For there was no man who saw them that was ashamed of them, because they did nothing that was not accordant with rectitude and propriety. And in consequence of these things their bearing was fearless as they published their teaching to all men. For, whatsoever they said to others and enjoined on them, they themselves exhibited in practice in their own persons; and the hearers, who saw that their actions went along with their words, without much persuasion became their disciples, and confessed the King Christ, praising God for having turned them towards Him.
And some years after the death of Abgar the king, there arose one of his contumacious [3050] sons, who was not favourable to peace; and he sent word to Aggæus, as he was sitting in the church: Make me a headband of gold, such as thou usedst to make for my fathers in former times. Aggæus sent to him: I will not give up the ministry of Christ, which was committed to me by the disciple of Christ, and make a headband of wickedness. And, when he saw that he did not comply, he sent and brake his legs [3051] as he was sitting in the church expounding. And as he was dying he adjured Palut and Abshelama: In this house, for whose truth's sake, lo! I am dying, lay me and bury me. And, even as he had adjured them, so did they lay him--inside the middle door of the church, between the men and the women. And there was great and bitter mourning in all the church, and in all the city--over and above the anguish and the mourning which there had been within the church, such as had been the mourning when Addæus the apostle himself died.
And, [3052] in consequence of his dying suddenly and quickly at the breaking of his legs, he was not able to lay his hand upon Palut. Palut went to Antioch, and received ordination to the priesthood from Serapion bishop of Antioch; by which Serapion himself also ordination had been received from Zephyrinus bishop of the city of Rome, in the succession of the ordination to the priesthood from Simon Cephas, who had received it from our Lord, and was bishop there in Rome twenty-five years in the days of the Cæsar who reigned there thirteen years.
------------------------
And, according to the custom which exists in the kingdom of Abgar the king, and in all kingdoms, that whatsoever the king commands and whatsoever is spoken in his presence is committed to writing and deposited among the records, so also did Labubna, [3053] son of Senac, son of Ebedshaddai, the king's scribe, write these things also relating to Addæus the apostle from the beginning to the end, whilst Hanan also the Tabularius, a sharir of the kings, set-to his hand in witness, and deposited the writing among the records of the kings, where the ordinances and laws are deposited, and where the contracts of the buyers and sellers are kept with care, without any negligence whatever.
Here endeth the teaching of Addæus the apostle, which he proclaimed in Edessa, the faithful city of Abgar, the faithful king.
------------------------
[2960] This fragment, extending to the lacuna on p. 658, is contained in the ms. No. 14,654, at fol. 33. It consists of one leaf only, and is part of a volume of fragments, of which the age is certainly not later than the beginning of the fifth century.
[2961] See note 1 on p. 653.--Tr.
[2962] Moses Chor says that he had been suffering seven years from a disease caught in Persia.
[2963] "The certitude."--C. [See p. 653, supra, note 6.]
[2964] Eph. ii. 14.
[2965] The vowels supplied in this word are conjectural, as is the case with most of the proper names in these Documents. Perhaps the name of this person is to be read Shalamtho, as there is a Salampsio, the wife of Phasaëlus, mentioned in Jos., Antiq., b. xviii. c. v.
[2966] Who this was, does not appear. He may have been some connection of Meherdates king of the Parthians, of whom Tacitus, Ann., xii. 12, speaks as having been entertained at Edessa by Abgar.
[2967] According to Moses Chor. b. ii. ch. xxxv., the first, or chief, wife of Abgar was Helena.
[2968] Probably one of the second rank. Tacitus, Ann., vi. 31, 32, mentions a man named Abdus, perhaps the same as this one, as possessing great authority in the Parthian kingdom. [Note 2, p. 653, supra]
[2969] Or "times."--Tr.
[2970] The remainder of "The Teaching of Addæus" is taken from another ms. of the Nitrian collection in the Brit. Mus., Cod. Add. 14,644. It is one of those which were procured in the year of the Greeks 1243 (a.d. 931) by the abbot Moses during his visit to Bagdad. It appears to be of the sixth century.
[2971] Both "for" and "willing" are conjectural, the ms. being damaged.--Wright.
[2972] Both "for" and "willing" are conjectural, the ms. being damaged.--Wright.
[2973] Possibly "earthquake," for which sense see Mich., p. 161; and so on p. 659, infra.--Tr.
[2974] Properly "miserable." Compare Rom. vii. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 19.--Tr.
[2975] Otherwise Cæsarea Paneas, or C. Philippi: now Banias.--Tr.
[2976] Cureton: "the whole object of our Lord's coming into the world was." But *** is = omnino.--Tr.
[2977] A few lines are wanting here in the ms.
[2978] The greater part of the word rendered "deaf" is conjectural.--Wright. The "your" looks as if it were impersonal: "it is useless for any one to talk to the deaf."--Tr.
[2979] "By" (***) is not in the printed text.--Tr.
[2980] Lit. "the blame in which justice is involved (prop., buried) is yours."--Tr.
[2981] Comp. Prov. xix. 25.--Tr.
[2982] "This" is doubtful.--Wright.
[2983] I have very little doubt that we should substitute ***--the earth trembled--for ***--who is from the earth.--Wright. [Words in italics are by the translator.]
[2984] Lit. "have proclaimed."--Tr.
[2985] Cureton renders: "They would not have proclaimed the desolation of their city, nor would they have divulged the affliction of their soul in crying Woe!" Dr. Wright pronounces the two words whose equivalents are given in italics to be very doubtful. Dr. Payne Smith, instead of the latter of the two (***), conjectures ***. This conjecture has been adopted. "Brought down" is lit "cause to drop."--Tr.
[2986] The ancient Syriac Gospel, Luke xxiii. 48, gives: "And all those who were assembled there, and saw that which was done, were smiting on their breast, and saying, Woe to us! what is this? Woe to us for our sins!"
[2987] i.e., Christianity.--Tr.
[2988] Or "confirmed."--Tr.
[2989] Perhaps "town" will not seem too insignificant a word if it be taken in its original sense of a fortified place, which the Syriac term also denotes. It seemed desirable to distinguish, if possible, the two words which have been rendered respectively "city" and "town" in these pages. The only exception made is in a single passage were Rome is spoken of.--Tr.
[2990] These words are not in the letter of Christ to Abgar. They must therefore be, either a message brought by Addæus himself, or, much more probably, a later interpolation: earlier, however, than Ephraem Syrus, who alludes to them in his Testament. This notion of the immunity of the city of Edessa is referred to by several Syriac writers. Nor was it confined to the East: it obtained in very early times in our own country, where the letter of our Lord to Abgar was regarded as a charm. In a very ancient service-book of the Saxon times, preserved in the British Museum, the letter followed the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed; and an appended description of the virtues of the epistle closes with these words, according to the Latin version of Rufinus: "Si quis hanc epistolam secum habuerit, securus ambulet in pace." Jeremiah Jones, writing of the last century, says: "The common people in England have had it in their houses in many places in a frame with a picture before it: and they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard it as the word of God and the genuine epistle of Christ." Even now a similar practice is believed to linger in some districts. The story of Abgar is told in an Anglo-Saxon poem, published in Abgarus-Legenden paa Old-Engelsk by G. Stephens, Copenhagen, 1853. It consists of 204 lines, is a tolerable close rendering of Eusebius, and is ascribed by Stephens to Aelfric, archbishop of York from 1023 to 1052. Note that ambulet (above) is for ambulabit, apparently.--Tr.
[2991] See Eph. i. 18.
[2992] Lit. "obtain."--Tr.
[2993] Or "lose."--Tr.
[2994] Lit. "Spirit of holiness."--Tr.
[2995] [Isa. lii. 15.]
[2996] Prop. "lost," or "being lost," "perishing."--Tr.
[2997] Lit. "support of your head."--Tr. The word rendered "support" is not in the dictionaries, but its derivation and form are known. Mar Jacob, infra, has a similar expression: "A resting-place for the head, etc." Where, however, his word is derived from a root meaning to "prop up" (***), whereas the root of our word denotes to "bend itself," "bow down" (***), and is often used of the declining day (as Luke xxiv. 29). It is used of the bending of the head in John xix. 30. The actual leaning of the head of support is not expressed in the verb, but would naturally be inferred from it.--Tr.
[2998] Lit. "the truth of Christ is not believed in many things."--Tr.
[2999] Lit. "the Spirit of His Godhead" = His Spirit of Godhead = His divine spirit.--Tr.
[3000] Lat. "The Gospel of."--Tr.
[3001] See p. 652, note 3, supra.
[3002] Abgar had two sons of this name. This is probably the elder, who succeeded his father at Edessa, and reigned seven years. Bayer makes him the fifteenth king of Edessa.
[3003] Abgar's mother: see p. 657.
[3004] Lit. "reckoning."--Tr.
[3005] The vowels in this name are supplied from the treatise of Bardesan. Whiston, from the Armenian form, writes the name Samsagram. He was sent, together with Hanan and Maryhab, as envoy to Marinus. See Mos. Chor. B. ii. c. 30.
[3006] See Tac., Ann., xii. 12.
[3007] Lit. "stood."--Tr.
[3008] The son of Zati (see p. 663, note 7, supra).
[3009] Or "the headbands of the kings." Nothing appears to be known of the derivation of the word ***, which does not occur in the ordinary lexicons. Dr. Payne Smith has favoured the translator with the following note: "*** is evidently some kind of ornament. In Ephs. ii. 379 (in the form ***) it is an ornament worn by young people. B.A. (Bar Alii Lex. Syro-Arab.) and K. (Georgii Karmsedinoyo Lex.) render it (in the form ***) ***, which may mean a circlet of jewels.'" Cureton says: "These headbands of the king, or diadems, seem to have been made of silk or muslin scarves, like the turbans of orientals at the present day, interwoven with gold, and with figures and devices upon them, as was the case with that worn by Sharbil. See Acts of Sharbil, sub init." The art. Diadema in Dr. W. Smith's Antiqq. seems to furnish a good idea of what is intended. The ornament was probably white; and this has caused our expression to be sometimes confounded with the similar ***. See Teaching of Simon Cephas, init.--Tr.
[3010] The same name as Berosus, who is so called in the modern Persian.
[3011] These were the chief gods of Edessa, the former representing the sun, and the latter the moon.
[3012] The reference seems to be to Mark v. 15.--Tr.