[3013] The "soft clothing" of Matt. xi. 8, where the Peshito and the "Ancient Recension" have the same word as appears here. Cureton renders it "silk," but remarks: "It would appear to be cotton or muslin, lana xylina, not bombycina." [The word clothing, with the Peshito and, should be credited to the translator.]
[3014] The text has not ***, but it is best to supply it.--Tr.
[3015] Cureton gives "chains," which in his notes he changes to "silks," or "muslins," adopting, with C., the reading *** instead of the *** of the printed text. Mos. Chor. calls Aggæus "un fabricant de coiffures de soie," according to the translation of Florival; or "quendam serici opificem," according to Whiston. It may be added that the word *** is doubtless the same as our "silk," which is only a form of Sericum, an adjective from Seres, the people whose country was the native home of the silk-worm.--Tr.
[3016] These terms could only have been used here in the sense of the Law of Moses and the Gospel. If by the Acts of the Apostles is meant the work of Luke, this passage seems to show that the compiler of this account of Addæus wrote some years subsequently to the events which he relates, or that it has been added by a later interpolator. For at the earlier period of Addæus' ministry no other part of the New Testament was written than the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, which is probably the Gospel here meant.
[3017] Or "Ditornon." The reading of the ms. is not clear. It seems that it ought to be Diatessaron, which Tatian has the Syrian compiled from the four Gospels about the middle of the second century. This was in general use at Edessa up to the fourth century, and Ephraem Syrus wrote a commentary on it. If this be so, we have here a later interpolation. [The translator says (of Ditornon and Diatess.): "The two words would differ but slightly in the mode of writing." He also corrects Cureton, who calls Tatian "the Syrian:" it should be "the Assyrian."]
[3018] Lit. "the hand of priesthood:" and so passim.--Tr.
[3019] Strabo, de Persis, b. xv. (ch. iii.): "They sacrifice to fire and to water."
[3020] See his letter in Mos. Chor., infra.
[3021] Dio Cassius, liv. 8: "Augustus fixed as the boundaries of the empire of the Romans the Tigris and Euphrates."
[3022] See it also, with some variations, in Mos. Chor., infra.
[3023] It was Pilate's duty, as governor of Judea, to send an account to the Roman Government of what had occurred in respect to Jesus; and his having done so is mentioned by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and several other writers.
[3024] The word is evidently misspelt. The name intended may have been confounded with that of the Albinus who was made governor of Judea at a later period by Nero, a.d. 62. The same person is referred to, in the Exit of Mary, infra: "Sabinus, the governor who had been appointed by the Emperor Tiberius; and even as far as the river Euphrates the governor Sabinus had authority." The person meant can only be Vitellius, who was then governor of Syria, who removed Pilate from the administration of Judea, sending Marcellus in his stead, and ordered him to appear before Tiberius at Rome. The emperor died before he reached Rome.
[3025] No mention is made by historians of any war with Spain. But about this time Vitellius, mentioned in the preceding note, was mixed up with the wars of the Parthians and Hiberians; and, as Hiberi is a name common to Spaniards, as well as Hiberians, the apparent error may have arisen in translating the letter out of Latin into Syriac.
[3026] Baronius says Pilate violated the law by crucifying our Lord so soon after sentence had been passed, whereas a delay of ten days was required by a law passed in the reign of Tiberius.
[3027] Tiberius is said by Tertullian (Apol., 5) to have referred to the senate the question of admitting Christ among the gods. This has been interpolated into the epistle of Tiberius to Abgar as given in Moses Chor., B. ii. c. 33. He also adds another letter from Abgar in reply to this.
[3028] This word has been so much distorted and disfigured by the transcribers, that I am unable to recognise what is the place intended.--Cureton.
[3029] This word may be read Ortyka, and may be intended for Ortygia near Syracuse, which was not far from the island of Capreæ, where Tiberius then resided, seldom leaving it to go farther than to the neighbouring coast of Campania.
[3030] Lit. "the other villages." So, in several passages of these Documents, "the rest of the other--." The habit of including two or more distinguished nations under a class to which only one of them belongs was not unknown among classical writers also: as when, e.g., Thucydides speaks of the Peloponnesian war as the most remarkable of all the wars that preceded it. Milton's imitation, "The fairest of her daughters, Eve" [Paradise Lost, iv. 324], is well known.--Tr.
[3031] The *** (and) seems to have been altered into *** (of).--Wright. Perhaps "of" is the better reading.--Tr.
[3032] It is plain from the context here, as well as wherever it occurs in these early Syriac Documents, that this title (or that of Guide alone) is precisely the same as that of Bishop, although the Greek word episkopos had not yet obtained in the East. The first mention we find of the title Bishop (in these pages) is in the Acts of Sharbil about a.d. 105-112, where Barsamya is called "the Bishop of the Christians," although he is more generally designated as here. It is also found in the Teaching Simon Cephas, sub fin., which seems to have been written early in the second century or at the end of the first. The passage in the Teaching of Addæus, p. 665, infra, where it occurs, was interpolated at a much later period. [The parenthetic words of this note are supplied by the translator.]
[3033] Perhaps Philotas.
[3034] Perhaps the same as Izates: see Jos., Antiq., xx. ii. 1, 4; Tac., Ann., xii. 14.
[3035] This seems to be the person spoken of by Moses Chor., B. ii. c. 30, under the name "Mar-Ihap, prince d'Aghtznik," as one of the envoys sent by Abgar to Marinus.
[3036] Tacitus writes this name Sinnaces: see Ann., vi. 31, 32.
[3037] Patricius.
[3038] These are given at pp. 673 sqq., infra.
[3039] Quoted in the Epistle of Addæus, infra.
[3040] Probably "wicked," the meaning being that all such wandering is wilful. Cureton makes "hateful" the predicate: "error is abominable in its paths."--Tr.
[3041] One leaf apparently is lost from the ms. in this place. What follows appears to be part of the reply of those addressed--their "testimony concerning the teaching set forth in their preaching."--Tr.
[3042] The reference seems to be to Matt. x. 7-10.
[3043] May. The death of Addæus occurred before that of Abgar, which took place a.d. 45. It would appear, therefore, that his ministry at Edessa lasted about ten or eleven years.
[3044] Compare the Teaching of the Apostles, Ord. xviii. p. 669, infra.
[3045] This seems to apply to those who especially belonged to the ministry of the Church. This is the only passage in the Documents in which women are spoken of as connected with the ministry.--Tr. [The estate of deaconesses was of Apostolic foundation. Rom. xvi. i.]
[3046] The reference is only to their purity of life. It is not implied that they lived in seclusion.--Tr.
[3047] Lit. "their burden-bearing."--Tr.
[3048] Or "belonging to."--Tr.
[3049] An allusion to Matt. iv. 19: "I will make you fishers of men."
[3050] i.e., refusing to accept Christianity: as a few lines before.--Tr. The person referred to would seem to be the second of the two sons of Abgar called Maanu, who succeeded his brother Maanu, and reigned fourteen years--from a.d. 52 to a.d. 65, according to Dionysius as cited by Assemani.
[3051] This ignominious mode of execution, which was employed in the case of the two thieves at Calvary, seems to have been of Roman origin. The object of the king in putting Aggæus to this kind of death was, probably, to degrade and disgrace him.
[3052] This paragraph is a barefaced interpolation made by some ignorant person much later, who is also responsible for the additions to the Martyrdom of Sharbil, and to that of Barsamya. For this Palut was made Elder by Addæus himself, at the time that Aggæus was appointed Bishop, or Guide and Ruler. This took place even before the death of Abgar, who died a.d. 45; whereas Serapion did not become bishop of Antioch till the beginning of the third century, if, as is here stated, he was consecrated by Zephyrinus, who did not become Bishop of Rome till a.d. 201.
[3053] Moses Chor., ii. 36, calls him, in the translation of Le Vaillant de Florival, "Ghéroupna, fils de l'ecrivain Apchatar;" in that of Whiston, "Lerubnas, Apsadari scribæ filius." Apchatar of the first, and Apsadar of the second, translator are evidently corruptions in the Armenian from the Adbshaddai (= Ebedshaddai) of the Syriac. Dr. Alishan, in a letter to Dr. Cureton from the Armenian Convent of St. Lazarus, Venice, says he has found an Armenianms., of probably the twelfth century, which he believes to be a translation of the present Syriac original. It is a history of Abgad and Thaddæus, written by Ghérubnia with the assistance of Ananias (= Hanan), confidant (= sharir) of King Abgar.
Syriac Calendar.
A Note by the Translator.--The following list of the Syrian names of months, in use in the empire and during the era of the Seleucidæ, several of which have been mentioned in these Documents, is taken from Caswinii Calendarium Syriacum, edited in Arabic and Latin by Volck, 1859. The later Hebrew names also are here added for comparison. It must, however, be noticed that "the years employed in the Syrian Calendar, were, at least after the incarnation, Julian years, composed of Roman months." (SeeL'Art de vérifier les dates: Paris, 1818, tom. i. p. 45.) The correspondence with the Hebrew months, therefore, is not so close as the names would indicate, since these commenced with the new moons, and an intercalary month, Veadar, following their twelfth month Adar, was added.
Month / Syrian / Hebrew
October / Tishri prior / Tishri, or Ethanim
November / Tishri posterior / Bull, or Marcheshvan
December / Canun prior / Chisleu
January / Canun posterior / Tebeth
February / Shubat / Shebat
March / Adar / Adar
April / Nisan / Nisan
May / Ajar / Zif, or Iyar
June / Chaziran / Sivan
July / Tamuz / Tammuz
August / Ab / Ab
September / Elul / Elul
Ancient Syriac Documents.
------------------------
The Teaching of the Apostles. [3054]
At that time Christ was taken up to His Father; and how the apostles received the gift of the Spirit; and the Ordinances and Laws of the Church; and whither each one of the apostles went; and from whence the countries in the territory of the Romans received the ordination to the priesthood.
In the year three hundred and [3055] thirty-nine of the kingdom of the Greeks, in the month Heziran, [3056] on the fourth [3057] day of the same, which is the first day of the week, and the end of Pentecost [3058] --on the selfsame day came the disciples from Nazareth of Galilee, where the conception of our Lord was announced, to the mount which is called that of the Place of Olives, [3059] our Lord being with them, but not being visible to them. And at the time of early dawn our Lord lifted up His hands, and laid them upon the heads of the eleven disciples, and gave to them the gift of the priesthood. And suddenly a bright cloud received Him. And they saw Him as He was going up to heaven. And He sat down on the right hand of His Father. And they praised God because they saw His ascension according as He had told them; and they rejoiced because they had received the Right Hand conferring on them the priesthood of the house of Moses and Aaron.
And from thence they went up to the city, and [3060] proceeded to an upper room--that in which our Lord had observed the passover with them, and the place where the inquiries had been made: Who it was that should betray our Lord to the crucifiers? There also were made the inquiries: [3061] How they should preach His Gospel in the world? And, as within the upper room the mystery of the body and of the blood of our Lord began to prevail in the world, so also from thence did the teaching of His preaching begin to have authority in the world.
And, when the disciples were cast into this perplexity, how they should preach His Gospel to men of strange tongues [3062] which were unknown to them, and were speaking thus to one another: Although we are confident that Christ will perform by our hands mighty works and miracles in the presence of strange peoples whose tongues we know not, and who themselves also are unversed in our tongue, yet who shall teach them and make them understand that it is by the name of Christ who was crucified that these mighty works and miracles are done?--while, I say, the disciples were occupied with these thoughts, Simon Cephas rose up, and said to them: My brethren, this matter, how we shall preach His Gospel, pertaineth not to us, but to our Lord; for He knoweth how it is possible for us to preach His Gospel in the world; and we rely on His care for us, which He promised us, saying: "When I am ascended to my Father I will send you the Spirit, the Paraclete, that He may teach you everything which it is meet for you to know, and to make known."