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Memoirs of Edessa and Other Ancient Syriac Documents
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[2989] Perhaps “town” will not seem too insignificant a word if it be taken in its original sense of a fortified place, which the Syriac term also denotes. It seemed desirable to distinguish, if possible, the two words which have been rendered respectively “city” and “town” in these pages. The only exception made is in a single passage were Rome is spoken of.—Tr.
[2990] These words are not in the letter of Christ to Abgar. They must therefore be, either a message brought by Addæus himself, or, much more probably, a later interpolation: earlier, however, than Ephraem Syrus, who alludes to them in his Testament. This notion of the immunity of the city of Edessa is referred to by several Syriac writers. Nor was it confined to the East: it obtained in very early times in our own country, where the letter of our Lord to Abgar was regarded as a charm. In a very ancient service-book of the Saxon times, preserved in the British Museum, the letter followed the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed; and an appended description of the virtues of the epistle closes with these words, according to the Latin version of Rufinus: “Si quis hanc epistolam secum habuerit, securus ambulet in pace.” Jeremiah Jones, writing of the last century, says: “The common people in England have had it in their houses in many places in a frame with a picture before it: and they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard it as the word of God and the genuine epistle of Christ.” Even now a similar practice is believed to linger in some districts. The story of Abgar is told in an Anglo-Saxon poem, published in Abgarus-Legenden paa Old-Engelsk by G. Stephens, Copenhagen, 1853.
It consists of 204 lines, is a tolerable close rendering of Eusebius, and is ascribed by Stephens to Aelfric, archbishop of York from 1023 to 1052. Note that ambulet (above) is for ambulabit, apparently.—Tr.
[2991] See Eph. i. 18.
[2992] Lit. “obtain.”—Tr.
[2993] Or “lose.”—Tr.
[2994] Lit. “Spirit of holiness.”—Tr.
[2996] Prop. “lost,” or “being lost,” “perishing.”—Tr.
[2997] Lit. “support of your head.”—Tr. The word rendered “support” is not in the dictionaries, but its derivation and form are known. Mar Jacob, infra, has a similar expression: “A resting-place for the head, etc.”
Where, however, his word is derived from a root meaning to “prop up” (***), whereas the root of our word denotes to “bend itself,” “bow down” (***), and is often used of the declining day (as Luke xxiv. 29). It is used of the bending of the head in John xix. 30. The actual leaning of the head of support is not expressed in the verb, but would naturally be inferred from it.—Tr.
[2998] Lit. “the truth of Christ is not believed in many things.”—Tr.
[2999] Lit. “the Spirit of His Godhead” = His Spirit of Godhead = His divine spirit.—Tr.
[3000] Lat. “The Gospel of.”—Tr.
[3001] See p. 652, note 3, supra.
[3002] Abgar had two sons of this name. This is probably the elder, who succeeded his father at Edessa, and reigned seven years. Bayer makes him the fifteenth king of Edessa.
[3003] Abgar’s mother: see p. 657.
[3004] Lit. “reckoning.”—Tr.
[3005] The vowels in this name are supplied from the treatise of Bardesan. Whiston, from the Armenian form, writes the name Samsagram. He was sent, together with Hanan and Maryhab, as envoy to Marinus. See Mos. Chor. B. ii. c. 30.
[3006] See Tac., Ann., xii. 12.
[3007] Lit. “stood.”—Tr.
[3008] The son of Zati (see p. 663, note 7, supra).
[3009] Or “the headbands of the kings.” Nothing appears to be known of the derivation of the word ***, which does not occur in the ordinary lexicons. Dr. Payne Smith has favoured the translator with the following note: “*** is evidently some kind of ornament. In Ephs. ii. 379 (in the form ***) it is an ornament worn by young people. B.A. (Bar Alii Lex. Syro-Arab.) and K. (Georgii Karmsedinoyo Lex.) render it (in the form ***) ***, which may mean ‘a circlet of jewels.’” Cureton says: “These headbands of the king, or diadems, seem to have been made of silk or muslin scarves, like the turbans of orientals at the present day, interwoven with gold, and with figures and devices upon them, as was the case with that worn by Sharbil. See Acts of Sharbil, sub init.” The art. Diadema in Dr. W. Smith’s Antiqq. seems to furnish a good idea of what is intended. The ornament was probably white; and this has caused our expression to be sometimes confounded with the similar ***. See Teaching of Simon Cephas, init.—Tr.
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