Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/86

lxxxii Eusebius, who first mentions the correspondence, says nothing of the miraculous portrait. I have no doubt the letters are spurious, but they are sufficiently ancient to deserve a place in this collection. They were incorporated in an account of the introduction of the Gospel to Edessa, part of which is preserved by Eusebius, and a further portion exists in a Syriac MS. in the British Museum. This MS. is probably of the sixth century, and among other things contains a letter which Abgar is said to have written to Tiberius, and the alleged reply of Tiberius. The document was published by Canon Cureton, and contains valuable historical matter, mixed up with fables.

(2.) The Letter of Jesus to Abgar. — This is inseparably connected with the preceding, and was probably, like it, first written in Syriac by some Edessene Christian in the third century. There is some variation in the copies of these letters, which exist in Syriac, Greek, Arabic, etc.