The Doctrine of Addai is a controversial book about Saint Addai. Saint Addai, also known as Addeus, or Thaddeus, was mentioned in the Syriac document, Doctrine of Addai, as one of the 72 disciples sent out to spread the Christian faith. ...

The story of how King Abgar and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History. (i.13 and iii.1) and it was retold in elaborated form by Ephrem the Syrian. Jesus (8–2 BC/BCE to 29–36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (c. ... Ephrem the Syrian (Syriac: , ;Greek: ; Latin: Ephraem Syrus; 306–373) was a deacon, prolific Syriac language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. ...

In the origin of the legend, Eusebius had been shown documents purporting to contain the official correspondence that passed between Abgar and Jesus, and he was well enough convinced by their authenticity to quote them extensively in his ecclesiastical history. By the time the legend had returned to Syria, the purported site of the miraculous image, it had been embroidered into a tissue of miraculous happenings (Bauer 1971, ch. i): the Doctrine of Addai is full of miracles. Some people consider it to be filled with anti-semitism in the story of "Protonice" consort of Claudius, searching for the Cross, and Golgotha and the Holy Sepuchre, all of them in possession of the Jews. The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Legend of Abgar
• Doctrine of Addai (text, in English)
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Doctrine of Addai
• THE DOCTRINE OF ADDAI, THE APOSTLE, BY GEORGE PHILLIPS, D.D., PRESIDENT OF QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. London: TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 1876

Reference

• Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, 1934, (in English 1971) (On-line text)