Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/85

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, this head I have inserted in the text a few small items not included by Dr. Tischendorf in his volume. Very little need be said about them after the remarks prefixed to them (pp. 217, 218).

(1.) Letter of Abgar to Jesus. — This Abgar, was Abgar Uchomo, or Uchama, king of Edessa, who began to reign in A.D. 2, and reigned nearly forty years. There is a long account of him in Bayer's "Historia Osrhoena et Edessena," and a number of references in ancient writers, who record the tradition with which this letter is connected. The tradition appears with considerable variety of detail, but its general purport is that Abgar was afflicted with a disease which his physicians could not cure, and that having heard of the miracles of Christ, he sent him the letter to ask him to come and heal him. According to one version of the story our Lord not only sent back the reply ascribed to him, but His own portrait, imprinted upon a towel or cloth. Subsequently, they say, Thaddæus or Addi, one of our Saviour's disciples, went to Edessa, cured Abgar, preached the Gospel to him, and baptized him.