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The Epistles of Jesus Christ and Abgarus King of Edessa
CHAPTER II
The answer of Jesus by Ananias the footman
to Abgarus the king,
3 declining to visit Edessa.
ABGARUS, you are happy,
forasmuch as you have
believed on me, whom you
have not seen.
2 For it is written concerning
me, that those who have seen me
should not believe on me, that
they who have not seen might
believe and live.
3 As to that part of your letter,
which relates to my giving you a
visit, I must inform you, that I
must fulfil all the ends of my
mission in this country, and after
that be received up again to Him
who sent me.
4 But after my ascension I will
send one of my disciples, who will
cure your disease, and give life to
you, and all that are with you.
REFERENCES TO THE EPISTLES OF JESUS CHRIST AND ABGARUS KING OF EDESSA.
[The first writer who makes any mention of the Epistles that passed
between Jesus Christ and Abgarus, is Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, in
Palestine, who flourished in the early part of the fourth century.
For their genuineness, he appeals to the public registers and records of the
City of Edessa in Mesopotamia, where Abgarus reigned, and where he
affirms that he found them written in the Syriac language. He published a
Greek translation of them, in his Ecclesiastical History.
The learned world has been much divided on this subject; but, notwithstanding the
erudite Grabe, with Archbishop Cave, Dr, Parker, and other divines, have
strenuously contended for their admission into the canon of Scripture,
they are deemed apocryphal.
The Rev. Jeremiah Jones observes, that the common people in England have this Epistle in their houses in many
places, fixed in a frame, with the picture of Christ before it; and that
they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard it as the word of
God, and the genuine Epistle of Christ.]
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