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Memoirs of Edessa and Other Ancient Syriac Documents
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[2904] Book I. chapter the thirteenth.—Tr.
[2905] Properly Urrhoi, or Orrhoi (***). It seems probable that the word is connected with Osrhoene, the name of the province in which Edessa held an important place, the correct form of which is supposed to be Orrhoene. The name Edessa (***) occurs only once in these Documents, viz., in the “Acts of Sharbil,” sub init.—Tr.
[2906] “By this title all the toparchs of Edessa were called, just as the Roman emperors were called Cæsars, the kings of Egypt Pharaohs or Ptolemies, the kings of Syria Antiochi.” Assem., Bibl. Or., vol. i. p. 261. Assemani adds: “Abgar in Syriac means lame.” Moses of Chorene, however, with more probability, derives it from the Armenian Avag-aïr, “grand homme, à cause de sa grande mansuétude et de sa sagesse, et de plus, à cause de sa taille.” See below the extract from his History of Armenia, book ii. ch. 26.
[2907] Eusebius has δι᾽ ἐπιστοληφόρου.
See note on ταχυδρόμου, on next page.—Tr.
[2908] Lit. “deemed him worthy of.”—Tr.
[2909] Gr. σωτηρίαν: and so the Syriac word, meaning “life,” is generally to be translated in this collection.—Tr.
[2910] Syr. “near to him;” Gr. τῶν προσηκόντων.
[2911] His real name was Judas Thomas: see p. 8.
[2912] The name is taken from Eusebius, but in the original Syriac treatises, which follow, he is called Addæus.
[2913] In The Teaching of the Apostles he is said to have been one of the “seventy two apostles.” His name, like that of Thomas, seems to have been the very common one, Judas.
[2914] These were kept in the archives of the kingdom, which were transferred by Abgar from Nisibis to Edessa when he made it the capital of his dominions. See Moses Chor. B. ii. ch. 27, infra. The archives appear to have been still kept at Edessa in a.d. 550. [Compare this fact with Tertullian’s statement, vol. iii. p. 164.]
[2915] The kingdom of Edessa was brought to an end and entirely subjected to the Romans in a.d. 217 or 218.
[2916] The extract from the archives was probably made by Sextus Julius Africanus, and copied by Eusebius from his Chronographia.
[2917] Gr. τόπαρχος.
[2918] Called Hanan in the original Syriac document; and so in Moses Chor.; Eusebius has ᾽Ανανίας, which is copied here.
[2919] Gr. ταχυδρόμου. But the post held by Hananias must have been one of more dignity than that of a courier. He was probably a Secretary of State. In The Acts of Addæus (infra) he is called, in connection with the name Tabularius, a sharir, or confidential servant.
It would seem that Tabularius has been confounded with Tabellarius, a letter-carrier.—Tr.
[2920] Or “Abgar Uchomo.” The epithet was peculiar to this King Abgar. He was the fourteenth king: the eleventh was called Abgar Sumoco, or “the Red.”
The occasion of the name “Black” is doubtful: it can hardly have arisen from the fact that Abgar was suffering, as Cedrenus asserts, from the black leprosy.—Tr.
[2921] “Head,” or “chief.”—Tr.
[2922] Comp. Matt. iv. 24; “And His fame went throughout all Syria,” etc. See also Moses Chor. B. ii. c. 30.
[2923] Gr. ἀντιγραφέντα, “written in reply.”
[2924] [John 9.39; 20.29,31; Hab. 1.5; Isa. 52.15; 53.1]
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