Epistola Christi ad Abgarum
- Latin
- prose
- Beatus es, qui credidisti in me, cum me ipse non videris
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The text is close to that of Rufinus, except for an addendum which is subjoined to suggest that the traveller enjoys protection by carrying a copy on one’s person. Marginal Old English glosses, many of them in the left margin of f. 12v, accompany the text: ... et saluus eris sicut scriptum qui credit in me saluus erit. Siue in domu tua siue in ciuitate tua siue in omni loco nemo inimicorum tuorum dominabitur et insidias diabuli ne timeas et carmina inimicorum tuorum distruuntur. Et omnes inimici tui expellentur a te siue a grandine siue tonitrua non noceberis et ab omni periculo liberaueris, siue in mare siue in terra siue in die siue in nocte siuei n locis obscures. Si quis hanc epistolam secum habuerit secures ambuleti n pace. Amen.. Foll., on f. 13r, by a prayer beg. Deus omnipotens et dominus noster Iesus Christu. Many other texts in this manuscript are in some way concerned with the topic of healing.
The rubric Incipit epistola saluatoris domini nostri Iesu Christi ad Aevagarum occurs, in an Irish hand, on a flyleaf of the Basel Psalter (Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS A VII 3), but what follows is a different text.
Text, with Irish preface (partly illegible). This version includes an addendum which echoes the first part of the addendum in Royal 2 A xx (... saluus erit; sic scriptum est. Qui credit in me saluus erit, though itself a partial repetition) but as it continues, largely agrees with TCD 1441.
- Latin
The original of the correspondence was probably written in Syriac, from which it was translated into Greek. In his Ecclesiastical history, Eusebius claims that he found the letters in the archives of Edessa and that the texts he includes are verbatim translations which he made from Syriac into Greek. When Rufinus rendered Eusebius’s work into Latin at the beginning of the fifth century, he also produced a relatively faithful translation of the correspondence. That different texts circulated even before Rufinus began his work is suggested by an account in the Itinerarium of Egeria, a nun from Galicia who undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land sometime in the 380s: she observes that she had found copies which were more detailed than the ones she had seen back home. Nevertheless, the Latin version that became best known tn Britain and Ireland appears to be that of Rufinus or versions which ultimately derive from it.
An Irish version of the Abgar legend, translated from the Latin Epistola ad Abgarum and found in the Leabhar Breac as a relatively distinct part of an Irish text on Christ’s household, with a variant version attached to it.
Sources
Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.
Gives the texts of Rufinus, the Irish Liber hymnorum and Royal 2 A xx.
Volume 2: Translation
Edition of the version in TCD 1441 (Liber hymnorum.), with variants from Fransiscan A 2 (F) and Royal 2 A xx (J).
Secondary sources (select)
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Eusebius included a letter by Abgar and the reply by Jesus. Rufinus’ translation of them is generally faithful to the original. Manuscript witnesses are too numerous to be listed here.