The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century
Sidney H.
Griffith
Institute of Christian Oriental Research
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2003
Vol. 6, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv6n2griffith
Sidney H. GRIFFITH
The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol6/HV6N2Griffith.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2003
vol 6
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Addai
Edessa
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1. Prolegomena
[1] Perhaps
in the waning years of the fourth century, but more probably in
the first decades of the fifth century, as we will argue below,
a now anonymous writer working in Edessa, and using the city's
archives, as he claims, put together a remarkable narrative
which he called The Teaching of Addai the Apostle
(malpānùtâ d'Aday shlîhâ).
The text was first published and translated into
English by George Phillips, The Doctrine of Addai, the
Apostle, Now First Edited in a Complete Form in the Original
Syriac (London: Trübner & Co., 1876). It is
now also available, in Phillips’ edition, but with a new
English version , in George Howard (trans.), The Teaching of
Addai (SBL Texts and Translations, 16, Early Christian
Literature Series, 4; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981).
For further information about the text and its manuscript
witnesses, see A. Desreumaux, “La Doctrine
d’Addaï; essai de classement des témoins
syriaques et grecs,” Augustinianum 23
(1983), pp. 181-186. See also Alain Desreumaux,
Histoire du roi Abgar et de Jésus (Paris:
Brepols, 1993).
At the end of the work the
author says that he used records written by the scribe
Labûbna, the son of Senaq, the son of Abshadar, as his
source, and that Hannān, the royal
archivist, had testified to their accuracy.
See Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
lii-liii; 105-107. In this and all succeeding citations
of the text, the first set of numerals (Roman) indicates the
pages of Phillips’ edition of the Syriac text, numbered
by Syriac characters, as reprinted by Howard; the second set of
numerals (Arabic) indicates the differently numbered pages of
Howard’s translation.
In his work
the author undertook not only to tell the story of the coming
of Christianity to Edessa, and to demonstrate its apostolic
origins, but, perhaps even more importantly for his own
purposes, he provided a profile of the doctrine that he
represented as the Christian kerygma originally preached in
Edessa. One may see in this enterprise an apologetic, and
perhaps even a polemical agenda, pertinent to the author's own
time and place.
[2] The
Doctrina Addai, as this work has come to be known among
modern scholars, has attracted an enormous amount of academic
attention, from the late nineteenth century when the text was
first published, until now. Therefore, to study it, and
to recall the history of scholarship associated with it, is to
remind oneself of the historiography not particularly of the
author's time, but to become aware of the concerns over the
last century of the most prominent western scholars of
Syriac. Because of their work, one is now in a position
to change the point of view somewhat, and to examine the
Doctrina Addai not so much with an interest in its more
intriguing historical components, but from the perspective of
the integral narrative, with a view to discerning, if we can,
the purposes and concerns of its now unknown author.
2. The Literary Profile of the Doctrina
Addai
[3] For most
commentators the Doctrina Addai is primarily associated
with the legend of King Abgar V, 'the Black', (4 B.C. - 7 A.D.
& 13 A.D. - 50 A.D.) of Edessa, who is said to have sent
envoys to Palestine with a letter for Jesus at the time of his
passion, asking him to come to Edessa to heal the king of an
illness. According to the story, Jesus then responded
with a message of his own in which he promised to send a
disciple to Edessa after his ascension into heaven, to heal
Abgar and to preach the Gospel in his kingdom.
For an overview of the scholarly status
quaestionis see H.J.W. Drijvers, “The Abgar
Legend,” in Wilhelm Schneemelcher (ed.), New Testament
Apocrypha (rev. ed.; R. McL. Wilson (trans.); Louisville:
Westminster / John Knox Press, 1991), pp. 492-499.
This much
the Doctrina Addai has in common with a report included
by Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339) in his Ecclesiastical
History.
Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History, I, 13.
As a result, much of the scholarly
discussion of the Doctrina has focused on a comparison
of the two narratives, and speculations about their common
source in a Syriac document kept in the archives of Edessa,
from where both Eusebius and the author of the Doctrina
say their information ultimately comes.
For a discussion of this issue, and a review of the
pertinent scholarship, see Sebastian Brock, “Eusebius and
Syriac Christianity,” in Harold W. Attridge & Gohei
Hata (eds.), Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992), pp. 212-234.
But the fact
is that the account of the correspondence between Jesus and
King Abgar is a relatively small part of the actual narrative
in the Doctrina. Nevertheless, scholars have
persisted in viewing it as the heart of the piece, around which
later accretions have accumulated. In part, one suspects
that the persistence of this view has been the result of a
scholarly preoccupation, since the days of Walter Bauer, with
the modern question about the actual origins of Christianity in
Edessa.
See Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in
Earliest Christianity (2nd ed., R.A. Kraft &
G. Kroedel (trans.); Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), pp.
1-43.
Scholars before the time of Bauer, who wrote the
first edition of his book in 1934, had already set this agenda
in the late nineteenth century; they were interested
principally in the account of the Abgar/Jesus correspondence
and in the story of the image of Christ, which the Syriac text
says was painted by Hannān, the
archivist who, according to the narrative, accompanied Abgar's
emissaries to Palestine.
See, e.g., L.-J. Tixeront, Les origins de
l’église d’Édesse et la
légende d’Abgar; étude critique suivie de
deux textes orientaux inédits (Paris: Maisonneuve,
1888); Ernst von Dobschütz, Christusbilder;
Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende (Leipzig: Hinrichs,
1899); idem, “Der Briefwechsel zwischen Abgar und
Jesus,” Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche
Theologie 43 (1900), pp. 422-486.
While the author of the
Doctrina, as we have it in its fullest form, was himself
certainly interested in these issues too, one hopes to be able
to show that his intention in composing his work was to use
these traditions, together with several others current in the
Syriac-speaking milieu of his day, to make an altogether
different point about Edessan Christianity. The thesis
defended here is that the author wanted to put forward a
paradigm of normative Edessan Christianity, supported by the
local ecclesiastical and historical lore, which he hoped would
play an authoritative role in the largely Christological
controversies of his own day. On this reading, the most
important part of the Doctrina Addai appears then not to
be the Abgar legend itself, with its several sub-plots, but the
textually longer, narratively more central accounts of Addai's
sermons and speeches, which are presented as accomplishing the
delivery of the Christian kerygma in Edessa in the first
instance.
[4] The
outline which one finds at the beginning of the work in the St.
Petersburg manuscript is the best one to follow in constructing
a table of contents. It begins abruptly, listing the
three main moments of the narrative:
when Abgar, the king, the son of Ma'nû, the king,
sent the letter to Jerusalem, to our Lord;
when Addai, the apostle, came to Edessa/Urhāy, and
what he said in the announcement of his kerygma;
the instructions he gave when he was leaving this world,
to those who had received the hand of the priesthood from
him.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. i &
3.
[5]
Following the third moment of the narrative, the account of
Addai's instructions to his Edessene followers, the author
provides a brief, concluding recital of developments in the
church of Edessa after the time of Addai. Finally, at the
very end, there is the notice about Labûbna, the king's
scribe (sāprâ dmalkâ), "the one writing
down these things of Addai, the apostle," and Hannān, the king's trustworthy archivist
(
tabûlārâ
sharîrâ dmalkâ), who "set down the hand
of witness."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. liii
& 107. Labûbna was mentioned earlier in the
narrative, among the nobles of the city, on pp. xviii &
37. Hannān, the archivist,
has a prominent part in the legend of King Abgar’s
embassy to Jesus.
A. When Abgar sent the letter
[6] The
Syriac narrative explains that in the year 343 of the Greeks,
or 31-32 A.D., in the reign of Emperor Tiberius (14-37 A.D.),
King Abgar sent two of his nobles, plus his archivist
(
tabûlārâ /
tabularius), Hannān, to the
Roman governor in Eleutheropolis in Palestine on routine
business. On their way back home they had taken the road
to Jerusalem when they encountered crowds of people going to
the city to see the Messiah. They joined them.
Hannān wrote down everything they
saw, including the notice that the Jews were plotting what to
do to him, "seeing that some of the multitude of their people
were acknowledging him."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. ii
& 5.
When this report was given
to Abgar, he is the one who makes the first of a number of
Christological statements that appear in the text. He
says, "These powers are not of men but of God. For there
is no one who can revivify the dead, except God alone."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
iii & 7.
[7] Abgar
decides to send a letter to Jesus by the hand of Hannān. The text explains that the king
took this action rather than to go to Jerusalem himself, lest
he precipitate an international incident by trespassing into
the territory of the Romans. The letter arrives in
Jerusalem and is read to Jesus on the 12th of Nisan, in the
house of Gamaliel. In the letter Abgar asks Jesus to come
to Edessa, where the king will give him refuge from the Jews,
so that he might also cure Abgar of an illness. Again,
there is a Christological statement; the king says, "When I
heard of the great wonders which you do, I decided either that
you are God, in that you have come down from heaven and have
done these things, or that you are the Son of God because you
are doing all these things."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
iii-iv; 7-9.
In reply, Jesus sends the
message that after his ascension he will send one of his
disciples to heal Abgar, to convert his people, and to bless
his city.
[8] Finally,
as the encounter between Abgar's emissaries and Jesus
concludes, Hannān paints a portrait
of him and brings it back to Abgar, who enshrines it in one of
his palaces.
While this report has been the subject of
much scholarly discussion, to pursue it here would be beside
the point. See now Han J.W. Drijvers, “The Image of
Edessa in the Syriac Tradition,” in H.L. Kessler & G.
Wolf (eds.), The Holy Face and the Paradox of
Representation (Villa Spelman Colloquia, Florence, 1996,
vol. 6; Bologna: Nuova Alfa, 1998), pp. 13-31.
B. When Addai Came to Edessa
[9]
According to the narrative, after Jesus' ascension into heaven,
Judas Thomas sent Addai, "one of the seventy-two apostles to
Abgar."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. v
& 11. See Luke 10:1, where, in many ancient MSS the
number 72 appears, while modern Bibles often mention only 70,
following other MSS. Throughout the Doctrina
Addai, Addai is called shlîhâ, ‘the apostle’. The
term is not used in its technical sense, refering to the twelve
apostles, and Paul, but in the etymological use of 'envoy' or
'messenger.'
When Addai arrived, "he dwelt in the
house of Tobia, the son of Tobia the Jew, who was from
Palestine."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. v
& 11.
[10] Once
Addai was recognized in Edessa, by the miracles he performed,
as the man whom Jesus promised to send, he was introduced to
Abgar. In virtue of the miracles performed, the king
expressed his own faith. But first he reiterates to Addai
his reason for not himself traveling to Palestine to see
Jesus. He says, "because that kingdom belongs to the
Romans I have respect for the covenant of peace which was
established by me as by my forefathers with our lord Caesar
Tiberius."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. vi
& 13. Presumably the arrangement which allowed Edessa
to live under Roman hegemony between the years 212/213 and
242/243 is here being projected back to the time of King Abgar
V. See Millar, Roman Near East, pp. 472-481.
Then, when Addai speaks of Christ's
economy of salvation, Abgar replies, "Indeed, I believe in him
and in his Father."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
vii & 15.
The king then invites Addai to
teach. The apostle asks for a general assembly of all the
people, at which, he says,
[I will proclaim to you] how and why he diminished himself,
abased his exalted divinity by the body which he took, was
crucified, went down to the house of the dead, broke through
the barrier which had never been broken through before and
gave life to the dead by being himself killed. He
descended alone, but ascended with many to his glorious
Father, with whom he was from eternity in one exalted
godhead.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
viii & 17.
[11]
Addai then delivers two addresses, which, for convenience, I
designate as: the catechizing of Abgar; and the address to the
people of Edessa. Because of the easy availability of the
text, we may here, in outline fashion, simply call attention to
the highlights of these addresses.
i. The Catechizing of Abgar
[12]
Addai tells the story of Protonike and the discovery of the
true cross in Jerusalem.
See S. Heid, "Zur frühen Protonike- und
Kyriakoslegendt," Analecta Bollandiana 109 (1991), pp.
73-108; Jan Willem Drijvers, Helena Augusta: The Mother of
Constantine the Great and her Finding of the True Cross
(Leiden: Brill, 1992); idem, “ The Protonike
Legend and the Doctrina Addai,” Studia
Patristica 33 (1996), pp. 517-523; idem, “The
Protonike Legend, the Doctrina Addai and Bishop Rabbula
of Edessa,” Vigiliae Christianae 51 (1997),
pp. 288-315; idem, “Promoting Jerusalem: Cyril and
the True Cross,” in Jan Willem Drijvers & John W.
Watt, (eds.), Portraits of Spiritual Authority: Religious
Power in Early Christianity, Byzantium and the Christian
Orient (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 79-95. See also Han
J.W. Drijvers & Jan Willem Drijvers, The Finding of the
True Cross; the Judas Kyriakos Legend in Syriac (CSCO, vol.
565, Subs. 93; Louvain: Peeters, 1997).
There are several important
elements to highlight in the narrative, from the perspective of
the literary outline of the Doctrina Addai as a
whole:
Addai tells the story as an example of what has been done
for people "like you", who "believed in the Messiah, that he
is the Son of the living God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. x
& 21.
Protonike is the wife of Claudius; she was converted in
Rome by Simon, who worked signs and miracles in Jesus'
name. She joined "with those who were followers of
Simon, and held him in great honor."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. x
& 21.
When Protonike came to Jerusalem, she met Jacob, "who was
made administrator (mdabbrānâ) and prefect
(pāqûdâ) in the church built for us
there," and "she received him with great joy, just as she had
Simon Kepha."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xi
& 23.
"Show me Golgotha where the Messiah was crucified, the
wood of his cross on which he was hung by the Jews, and the
grave where he was laid."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xi
& 23.
They are under the
control of the Jews, who will not let the Christians have
access to them. "They persecute us that we not preach
or proclaim in the name of the Messiah. Often also they
confine us in prison."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xi
& 23.
Three crosses produced; death of Protonike's daughter;
revived when wood of the third cross touches her. As
for Protonike, "She glorified the Messiah and believed
concerning him, that he is the Son of the living
God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xv
& 31.
Protonike gave the cross to Jacob; commanded that "an
especially great edifice be built over Golgotha where he was
crucified and over the tomb where he was laid."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xv
& 31.
The crowd of Jews and Pagans who had been happy and
cheerful at the beginning of this affair became very sad at
the end of it.
Back in Rome, "When Caesar heard of it, he commanded all
the Jews to leave the country of Italy. ... She also gave a
recital of this matter before Simon Kepha."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvi & 33.
ii. Address to the People of Edessa
[13]
Abgar instructs Addai to address all the people, "that they
might know that the Son of God is God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvii & 35.
The people
are summoned, with their leaders, who are named. There
are three sections in the address which one may summarize under
the headings: Christology; personal testimony; and an
exhortation against paganism.
a. Christology
[14]
Addai begins his address with the affirmation that "I am a
disciple of Jesus the Messiah ... the son of God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvix & 39.
He goes on to speak of how Jesus "abased the greatness of his
exalted divinity, he who had been with his Father from the
beginning."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvix & 39.
A little further on he says of the Messiah
that "although his appearance was human, his power, intellect,
and authority were divine as he himself said to us."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xx
& 41.
Addai's Christology then leads to his profession of Trinitarian
faith:
We herald and proclaim this Jesus the Messiah, we glorify his
Father with him, and we extol and worship the Spirit of his
divinity, because thus we were commanded by him to baptize
and purge those who believe in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xx
& 41.
Addai claims that this faith fulfills the Israelite
prophecies of old, and he claims that "if I speak that which is
not written in the Prophets, the Jews who are among you and who
hear me will not receive it."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xx
& 41.
In a very telling
phrase, Addai then says that the faith that he preaches is:
"that God was crucified for all people."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxi & 43.
b. Personal Testimony
[15]
Addai aligns himself with the apostles, who knew only "the
language of the Hebrews," but who now announce Christ in all
languages. And he says, "I am from Paneas, from the place
where the Jordan river flows forth."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxi & 43.
c. Exhortation against Paganism
[16]
Addai's attack against paganism is fairly standard. God,
who is Christ, is the "Lord of created things." He "was before
worlds and creations, whose nature is incomprehensible being
invisible, who is sanctified with his Father in high places
above, since he is Lord and God from eternity."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxv & 51.
He "is
the God of the Jews who crucified him."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxix & 59.
[17]
Addai recalls the blessing for Edessa that was contained in
Jesus' message to Abgar: "Because you have thus believed in me,
may the city in which you dwell be blessed and may the enemy
never prevail over it." A little further along he says,
"You are a blessed land according to the will of the Lord
Messiah."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxx & 61. See also ibid, pp. iv & 9.
[18] At
the end of the address, the people and Abgar and his nobles all
profess their faith. The king bids Addai to build a
church.
C. Addai's Instructions for the Church in
Edessa
[19] In
this final section of the work, the author sets out Addai's
arrangements for the church in Edessa, and his inauguration of
a local hierarchy. He describes Abgar's message to
Emperor Tiberius, and Addai's arrangements for the
evangelization of Assyria, as well as how it came about, after
Addai's death, that the hierarchy of Edessa became suffragan to
Antioch, and ultimately to be in communion with the see of
Rome.
The consolidation of Christianity involved the conversion
of the pagans, and "even the Jews who were learned in the Law
and the Prophets, who traded in silk, submitted and became
followers and confessed that the Messiah is the Son of the
living God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxiv & 69.
Addai selected Aggai, Palut, Abshelama, and Barsamya as
his associates in ministry.
"Every day many people would gather to come for the
prayer of the liturgy (lslûtâ dteshmeshtâ) and for
the Old Covenant and the New of the Diatessaron."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxvi & 73.
Orientals in the disguise of merchants came over into the
territory of the Romans in order to see the signs which Addai
was doing. Abgar wrote to Narses, King of the
Assyrians, about Addai's mission.
The text makes it clear that this Assyria is
outside of the territory of the Romans (bêt
rhômāyyê), while the author calls its
inhabitants ‘orientals’ (madn.hāyyê). See Howard, The
Teaching of Addai, pp. 74 & 75. It seems probable
therefore that the Assyria of which he speaks is in the
territory under Persian hegemony, which may or may not be the
province of Adiabene. See Millar, The Roman Near
East, pp. 100-101. In any event, the Narses/Narsai
named here is most likely to be the Persian king who in the
year 294 succeeded to the throne of Bahrâm III. See
Desreumaux, Histoire du roi Abgar, p. 98, n. 155 &
p. 126.
Abgar wrote a letter to Tiberius against the Jews for
their role in the death of Jesus. Tiberius answers,
denouncing Pilate, promising punitive action, declaring the
Jews should have worshipped Jesus, commending Abgar for
having done well. Aristides, Tiberius' ambassador in
Osrohoene reports to the emperor, who orders the execution of
some Jewish leaders.
When Addai ages, Aggai is appointed in his place as
administrator and prefect (mdabbrānâ
wpāqûdâ)
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xl
& 81.
of the church in Edessa,
Palut, a deacon, becomes a presbyter, and Abshelama, a
scribe, becomes deacon.
Addai's farewell discourse to the hierarchs: "make the
path and road smooth in a rough place, between the crucifying
Jews and the erring pagans;" "Beware, therefore, of the
crucifiers and do not be friends with them, lest you be
responsible with those whose hands are full of the blood of
the Messiah." "Beware of the Pagans." "Do not be
investigators into secret things nor inquisitors of hidden
things." "Do not be respecters of persons."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xli & 83 – xlv & 91.
About the scriptures:
As for the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel, which you
read daily before the people, and the Letters of Paul,
which Simon Peter sent to us from the city of Rome, and
the Acts of the Twelve Apostles, which John the son of
Zebedee sent to us from Ephesus, read these books in the
churches of the Messiah. Do not again read along
with these any other since no longer is there any other
in which the truth you possess is written.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xlvi & 93.
Response of Aggai, Palut, and Abshelama: "We will flee
from the worship of things made and created which our fathers
worshiped. Moreover, we will not take part with the
crucifying Jews."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xlvii & 95 – xlviii & 97.
Death of Addai.
D. Developments after the time of Addai
[20]
Burial of Addai "in a great sepulchre of adorned
sculpture." Yearly memorial.
Aggai made priests and leaders in all the district of
Mesopotamia.
Rebellious son of Abgar breaks Aggai's legs for refusing
request.
"Because he died speedily and rapidly at the breaking of
his legs he was unable to lay his hand upon Palut.
Palut himself went to Antioch and received ordination to the
priesthood from Serapion, Bishop of Antioch. Serapion
himself, Bishop of Antioch, had also received ordination from
Zephyrinus, Bishop of the city of Rome from the succession of
ordination to the priesthood of Simon Peter who received it
from our Lord, and who had been Bishop there in Rome
twenty-five years in the days of Caesar who reigned there
thirteen years."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
lii & 105. Howard notes that contrary to
Cureton’s text, Phillips’ text speaks of Zephyrinus
as Bishop of the City of Antioch. See ibid., p.
110, n. 42.
3. The Narrative Themes of the Doctrina
Addai
[21] The
topical outline of the full text of the Doctrina, as we
have it in the St. Petersburg manuscript, highlights a number
of important themes which in the ensemble may be taken to
compose a historical and creedal view of the faith in early
Christian Edessa as the author of the work intended to
represent it, and as he supposed it to have been.
Furthermore, taking one's cue from the prominence in the text
of Addai's speeches, it seems clear that from the author's
point of view they make up the center-piece of the
composition. On this understanding, the Abgar story and
its several features, while contributing important historical
details, nevertheless functions primarily as a framework story
for the main narrative. It provides a readily
recognizable, literary and legendary Sitz im Leben for the
speeches and their themes, and at the same time it makes
certain claims for historical legitimacy which would have been
readily recognized by the work's intended audience.
On the varying uses of the Abgar story in
Syriac historiography see L. van Rompay, “Jacob of Edessa
and the Early History of Edessa,” in G.J. Reinink &
A.C. Klugkist (eds.), After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity
and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Professor Han
J.W. Drijvers (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 89; Leuven:
Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, 1999), esp.
pp. 279-281.
[22] The
major themes in the speeches may the most easily be reviewed
under the following headings: the Roman connection, the program
of church order, the adversaries of record, the Christological
profile, and the moral imperatives that are commended.
A. The Roman Connection
[23] The
'Roman connection' is a theme that will not escape even the
most casual reader of the Doctrina Addai. It has
both civil and ecclesiastical dimensions. From the civil
perspective, the King Abgar of the narrative is portrayed as
serving in the capacity of a client king under the rule of the
Roman emperor Tiberius, and his associate and successor,
Claudius. This motif appears both in the frame story, and
in the Protonike legend, featured as part of Addai's
catechizing of Abgar.
See Howard, The Teaching of Addai,
pp. i & 3, vi & 13, x & 21, xvi & 33, xxxviii
– xxxix & 77-79.
It also appears in the story of the
exchange of letters between King Abgar and Emperor Tiberius
about the punishment of the Jews for Christ's
crucifixion.
See Howard, The Teaching of Addai,
pp. xxxvii & 75 – xl & 81.
While these narrative components of the
Doctrina Addai present a number of chronological and
historical difficulties for the modern scholar, it nevertheless
clearly seems to be the original author's intention to point to
Edessa's continuing political loyalty to the imperium
romanum from the earliest times. In this connection
one recalls the ever present challenge of the Persian threat in
the Aramean environs of Edessa. This circumstance is evoked in
the narrative by the mention of Narses/Narsai, "king of the
Assyrians," whose subjects are said to have come into the
territory of the Romans "to see the signs which Addai was
working;" according to the story, the king asked Abgar for a
report, and the Edessan king sent him a written account of
them, at which the 'Assyrian' was amazed.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxvii & 75. See n. 56 above.
[24] On
the hypothesis that the author's real, political interest here
is to assert Edessa's historical loyalty to Rome, continuing up
to his own day, during the reign of the eastern emperor
Theodosius II (408-450), as will be suggested below, one
notices a number of anachronistic features in the telling,
which may point more closely to his own time, when the capital
of the eastern empire was actually in 'New Rome',
Constantinople. One notices, for example, that
Narses/Narsai, the 'Assyrian' king mentioned in the text,
actually reigned in the third century and was not a
contemporary of either Tiberius or Claudius.
Furthermore, in connection with what the text says about the
relationship between Tiberius and Claudius, one notices that
the author's assumption that a Caesar is subordinate to an
Augustus reflects the usages of a later time, not those of the
first century of the empire. What is even more pertinent
in connection with the text's mention of Tiberius' allusion to
"the war with the Spaniards, who have rebelled against
me,"
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. x
& 21, xxxviii & 77.
is that after the Spanish wars under Augustus,
there was no serious imperial fighting in Spain until the
Goths, Suevi and Vandals invaded the peninsula in 409.
Therefore, one might conclude on these grounds that what the
text says about Claudius should indicate a date subsequent to
the future, western emperor Constantius' operations against the
Visigoths in Spain between 414 and 416, the next campaigns in
Spain that the ancient historians mention after the time of
Augustus.
See the Spanish campaign in the fifth
century mentioned in Paulus Orosius, Orose, Histoires
(Contre les Païens) (Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lindet, ed.
& trans.; Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1991), vol. III, pp.
123-127; Hydatius, The Chronicle of Hydatius and the
Consularia Constantinopolitana: Two Contemporary Accounts of
the Final Years of the Roman Empire (R.W. Burgess, ed.
& trans.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 79-91.
When one puts this observation together
with the fact that the first mention of Spanish rebels in the
Doctrina Addai occurs in the account of the Protonike
legend, a Syriac calque on the story of the empress Helena's
finding of the true cross, and it is further taken into account
that Helena's story first circulated in Greek only in the
latter years of the fourth century,
See the studies cited in n. 34 above.
it suggests that the full
form of the Doctrina Addai could not have been composed
until well after the beginning of the fifth century.
The author wishes to thank Prof. Timothy D.
Barnes for calling these historical observations to his
attention.
As will appear below, this dating for the text accords well
with what will be suggested below, on other grounds, as the
most likely time for the production of the integral work.
But the point to be made at this juncture is simply that the
historically anachronistic features of the narrative can well
be seen to be in the service of a political ideology, namely
loyalty to the imperium romanum, as pertinent a concern
for an Edessan writer in the first half of the fifth century as
at any earlier, or later time until the Islamic conquest
removed both the Persian threat and Byzantine suzerainty from
Aramean territory in the seventh century. The details are
not in themselves what the author intends to claim
historically, although he was no doubt convinced of their
veracity. Rather, one might reasonably conclude that his
overriding intention was to cite them in support of the main
historical, political claim of his work, that Edessa had an
impressive record of loyalty to the imperium romanum, in
an area where this loyalty was not without serious political
and cultural challenge, and that its continuation in his own
time was to her ultimate benefit.
[25]
Political loyalty to the imperium romanum had not only a
civic, but also an ecclesiastical dimension in the author's
view. In the Doctrina Addai one notices this
dimension in several contexts: in the Protonike story, in
Addai's farewell address to the hierarchs who are chosen for
ecclesiastical service in Edessa, and in the final section of
the work, dealing with developments after the time of
Addai. In the Protonike story this dimension is to be
seen in Protonike's relationship with Simon Peter in
Rome. In the first place, the text says, "She became a
believer in, and a worshipper of our Lord the Messiah, giving
Him glory with those who were followers of Simon, whom she held
in great honor."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. x
& 21. My own translation of this passage accepts the
textual correction suggested in Howard, p. 117, i.e.,
mshabbhâ for
mshîhâ.
Then, on her return from Jerusalem,
"She related the things which had happened to Claudius Caesar.
... She also told Simon Peter that which had happened."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvi & 33.
In other words, what one might call the Eusebian relationship
between bishop and royalty is exemplified in the account of the
queen's behavior toward the caesar and the apostle in Rome.
[26] In
his exhortation to Aggai, Palut and Abshelama, Addai also
speaks of Simon Peter in Rome. He mentions "the Letters
of Paul, which Simon Peter sent to us from the city of
Rome."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xlvi & 93. In the same passage he also speaks of
“the Acts of the Twelve Apostles, which John the son of
Zebedee sent to us from Ephesus.”
In context, the author of the
Doctrina Addai is only insisting on the apostolic origin
of the canon of the scriptures as it was promoted in Edessa in
his own day. Nevertheless, the Roman connection, so
prominent in other parts of the text, is also in evidence
here. At another place in the same address, Addai
likewise gives advice about the appropriate behavior of the
hierarchs toward the civil authorities. He says:
As to rulers and judges who have attained to this faith, love
them, though you should be no respecter of persons in
anything. But if they go astray, rebuke them justly
that you might demonstrate the boldness of your integrity and
that they might amend their ways so as not again to be
directed by their own will.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xlv – xlvi & 91 – 93.
[27]
Again, one notices in the text the assumption of a relationship
between civil and ecclesiastical officials of a character that
the wistful ecclesiology of Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine
(c. 260 - c. 340) would commend.
See T.D. Barnes, Constantine and
Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1981).
The same model is
behind the often quoted passage from the last section of the
work, devoted to the account of developments after the time of
Addai. When one of Abgar's rebellious sons is said to
have killed Aggai, the text goes on to say:
Because he died speedily and rapidly at the breaking of his
legs he was unable to lay his hand upon Palut. Palut himself
went to Antioch and received ordination to the priesthood
from Serapion, Bishop of Antioch. Serapion himself, Bishop of
Antioch, had also received ordination from Zephyrinus, Bishop
of the city of Rome from the succession of ordination to the
priest-hood of Simon Peter who received it from our Lord, and
who had been Bishop there in Rome twenty-five years in the
days of Caesar who reigned there thirteen years.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
lii & 105. See also n. 61 above.
[28] In
addition to the clear appeal to the fourth-century
ecclesiological idea of the unbroken episcopal succession from
the time of the apostles, of which more will be said below,
this passage also presumes the early Byzantine, and the
Ephraemian, view of the dual royal and episcopal governance of
a city, in terms of its civic and spiritual interests, complete
with a case of royal coveting of episcopal wealth. What
is more, the particulars of the chain of ordinations, as Walter
Bauer showed so long ago, anachronistically presume the usages
of the author's day, rather than any earlier practice.
See Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy, pp.
17-20.
Once again, the reader's perception is that the historical
details in the narrative are subservient to the author's larger
purpose, to commend the ideal of a harmonious relationship
between Edessa's hierarchy, duly claimed to be apostolic in
origin, and the civil authority, appropriately aligned under
the Roman emperor. It reflects nothing so much as an
anachronistic retrojection into the early Christian period of
Edessa's history, of the political and ecclesiological ideas of
the kind articulated in Syriac by Ephraem the Syrian in the
second half of the fourth century, complete with the
paradigmatic role of Peter.
In this connection see the following studies
by Sidney H. Griffith, “Ephraem, the Deacon of Edessa,
and the Church of the Empire,” in T. Halton & J.
Williman, (eds.), Diakonia: Essays in Honor of Robert T.
Meyer(Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1986), pp. 22-52;
“Ephraem the Syrian’s Hymns ‘Against
Julian’: Meditations on History and Imperial
Power,” Vigiliae Christianae 41 (1987), p.
238-266; “Setting Right the Church of Syria: Saint
Ephraem’s Hymns against Heresies,” in Wm.E.
Klingshirn & Mark Vessey (eds.), The Limits of Ancient
Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in
Honor of R.A. Markus (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan
Press, 1999), pp. 97-114.
It is hard to avoid the
conclusion that the author of the full form of the Doctrina
Addai composed a work, into which he incorporated earlier
legendary traditions, for the purpose of making a historical
and doctrinal claim in his own day.
[29] The
earlier legendary traditions, like the story of the Abgar/Jesus
correspondence, the account of how Edessa acquired a famous
image of Christ, the veneration of which was becoming
increasingly popular in the fifth century, and the claim of
apostolic succession for her hierarchy, all went together to
supply the credentials for the authenticity of Edessa's
historical epithet, "the Blessed City (mdintâ
mbarrabtâ)," a title which the author of the
Doctrina Addai suggests was due to Christ's own prayer
for the city, included in his letter to King Abgar, "As for
your city, may it be blessed and may no enemy ever again rule
over it."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. iv
& 9.
In his work, for reasons pertinent to
the conditions of his own time, and by means of the themes that
he highlights, the author of the Doctrina Addai proposes
a paradigm of Christian thought which he anachronistically
represents as corresponding to the city's ancient faith, in
reward for which she first received the promise of the Lord's
blessing.
B. Church Order
[30] The
elements of church order highlighted in the narrative, which
seem to have been included to testify to Edessa's
ecclesiastical legitimacy in the church of the Roman empire,
are the aforementioned participation in the apostolic
succession, signified by the tradition of the laying-on of
hands reaching back to Simon Peter, the espousal of Nicene
faith by a constant affirmation in the narrative of the
divinity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God the Father,
warranted by miracles, and the firm affirmation of the full
canon of the Old and the New Testaments.
See the passage quoted above at n. 59.
The profile
of 'orthodoxy' which these standards demarcate is entirely
conformable with that one espoused by Ephraem the Syrian in
Nisibis and Edessa in the second half of the fourth
century.
See Sidney H. Griffith, “The Marks of
the ‘True Church’ according to Ephraem’s
Hymns Against Heresies,” in Reinink &
Klugkist, After Bardaisan, pp. 125-140.
[31] In
connection with the author's concern for the text of the
scriptures being read at the liturgy in Edessa, one notices
especially the following report about the services in the
church Addai is said to have built at the bidding of King
Abgar. The text says, "Every day many people used to
assemble to come to the prayer of the liturgy and to the Old
Testament and the New [Testament] of the Diatessaron."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. 72
& 73.
It is the mention of the Diatessaron that catches one's
attention in the present context. In the first half of
the fifth century, particularly during the reign of Bishop
Rabbula of Edessa (411/2-435), a campaign was waged in the city
to ban the reading of the Diatessaron and to replace it with
the Peshitta version of the Gospels.
See M. Black, “Rabbula of Edessa and
the Peshitta,” Bulletin of the John Rylands
Library 33 (1951), pp. 203-210.
The author
of the Doctrina Addai anachronistically represents the
reading of the Diatessaron in the liturgy as dating from the
time of Addai and the establishment of Christianity in
Edessa. Therefore, it is hard to avoid the conclusion
that in this connection he is taking a position in the
controversy about the Diatessaron, alleging its historical
authority, at the very time of his writing.
C. The Adversaries of Record
[32] Even
the hurried review of the contents of the Doctrina Addai
that we have been able to include in the present article makes
it clear that in the narrative as a whole, but particularly in
the sermons and speeches of Addai, the Jews and Pagans are
major adversaries. These were the perennial, literary
adversaries of the Christian preachers in Late Antiquity, never
more so than in the fourth and fifth centuries. They were
also the common adversaries of writers in all the language
communities of the Christians at the time, and, as such, the
stereotypical charges lodged against them often lacked more
specific definition.
[33] Nebo
and Bel are the pagan gods most frequently mentioned in the
Doctrina Addai, and they were indeed "the main gods of
Edessa,"
H.J.W. Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at
Edessa (Leiden: Brill, 1980), p. 40.
against whose cult the Christian writers of
the fourth and fifth centuries inveighed the most
insistently. The text also mentions other deities
worshipped in Edessa and in neighboring, Syriac-speaking
locales. In his general instruction to the people of the
city, Addai said:
I see that this city is filled with paganism which is
contrary to God. Who is this [man-] made idol
Nebo which you worship, and Bel which you honor?
Behold there are those among you who worship Bath
Nical, like the inhabitants of Haran your neighbors,
and Taratha, like the inhabitants of Mabug, and the
Eagle, like the Arabs, and the sun and the moon, like
the rest of the inhabitants of Haran who are like
you.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxiv & 49.
[34] What
is striking in this portrait of pagan religion at Edessa is its
local accuracy; it also calls attention to the continuing
appeal of what one might call the 'Persian tilt' in Edessan
politics, in that the indigenous cults may be thought to have
favored the Persian suzerainty under which they had flourished
before the establishment of Christianity in the city under
Roman auspices, as the author of the Doctrina Addai
wanted to claim.
For the associations of these cults see
Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs, pp. 40-75.
In the fourth and early fifth centuries
these cults were still exercising both their religious and
their political influence.
[35] From
a local perspective, the group of non-Christian, or
semi-Christian adversaries over whose claims the author seems
most interested to prevail were the Manichaeans.
Professor Han J.W. Drijvers has already amply shown this
dimension of the work.
See in particular Drijvers, “The Abgar
Legend,” and Han J.W. Drijvers, “Facts and Problems
in Early Syriac-Speaking Christianity,” The Second
Century 2 (1982), pp. 157-175.
It remains only to say that
the concern to refute the claims of the Manichaeans in Edessa
and its environs fits well with the polemical agenda of Ephraem
in the late fourth century and with the continuing efforts to
institutionalize his ecclesiastical program in the first half
of the fifth century.
See Sidney H. Griffith, “The
‘Thorn among the Tares’: Mani and Manichaeism in
the Works of St. Ephraem the Syrian,” in M.F. Wiles and
E.J. Yarnold (eds.), Studia Patristica (vol. XXXV;
Leuven: Peeters, 2001), pp. 403-435 in press.
Nevertheless, it is important also
to take notice of the fact that the author of the Doctrina
Addai, consistent with his purpose to present his own
position as that of the first preachers of Christianity in
Edessa, does not actually name the adversaries of record
against whom the upholders of imperial orthodoxy in the
Syriac-speaking milieu in his own day argued strenuously,
namely, Marcion, Bar Daysān, and
Mani. This is the case in spite of the clearly
anachronistic, anti-Manichaean character of the legendary
claims made in the narrative about the origins of Christianity
in Edessa and about the relationship between Addai and Abgar,
so reminiscent, according to Prof. Drijvers, of the
relationship between Mani and the Persian king, Shapùr I
(241-272).
[36] The
one group against whom the author vigorously polemicizes by
name throughout the work are the Jews. On the one hand he
seems anxious to acknowledge a Jewish connection for the
earliest Christianity in Edessa; Addai first dwelt in Edessa
with Tobia, "the son of Tobia the Jew, who was from
Palestine,"
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. v
& 11.
and as a result of Addai's ministry, the text
says, "Even the Jews who were learned in the Law and the
Prophets, who traded in silk, submitted and became followers
and confessed that the Messiah is the Son of the living
God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxiv & 69.
On the other hand, throughout the
narrative the Jews are called 'Crucifiers'
(zaqôpê), and the reader is reminded that
Christ "is the God of the Jews who crucified him."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxix & 59.
In his farewell address to the hierarchs who would succeed him
Addai says, "Beware, therefore, of the crucifiers and do not be
friends with them, lest you be responsible with those whose
hands are full of the blood of the Messiah."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xliii & 87.
Notice is
taken of the action of the Roman emperor against the Jews,
credited to the intervention of King Abgar with Emperor
Tiberius by letter, "since he could not pass over into a
country of the Romans to enter Palestine and kill the Jews,
because they crucified the Messiah."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxvii & 75. See also ibid. pp. xxxviii &
77 – xxxix & 79.
[37]
There is an anachronistic quality to this pronounced
anti-Jewishness and concern about the involvement of Christians
with Jews; it's terms are reminiscent of the Adversus
Judaeos dimension of the works of many writers of the
fourth and fifth centuries, such as Cyril of Alexandria (c. 375
- 444), John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) in Antioch, or Ephraem the
Syrian (306-373) in Nisibis and in Edessa.
See Robert L. Wilken, Judaism and the
Early Christian Mind: a Study of Cyril of Alexandria’s
Exegesis and Theology (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1971); idem, John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric
and Reality in the Late Fourth Century (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983). There is as yet no
satisfactory study of Ephraem and the Jews. Look for the
forthcoming doctoral dissertation of Tina Shepherdson at Duke
University.
[38] The
text of the Doctrina Addai does not anachronistically
name any particular Christian adversaries or well known
heresiarchs from a later time. Nevertheless, the
doctrinal positions adopted throughout the work, as will be
mentioned below, make it abundantly clear that the author
intends to claim that Edessa's historical faith should
logically exclude the Christological doctrines of those who
would in any way discount the full divinity of Christ.
D. The Christological Profile
[39]
Throughout the outline of the contents of the Doctrina
Addai given above, care has been taken to quote the
sentences and phrases in which the author set down the terms of
the confession of faith in Christ that he represents as
characterizing the historical faith of the kingdom of
Edessa. Perhaps the single most important place in the
narrative to study the Christological profile of the whole
document is in the section dealing with Addai's address to the
people of Edessa. Here the Nicene character of the faith
is evident in such phrases as the one which expresses King
Abgar's wish that many of his own people will come to know
that, "the son of God is God."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xvii & 35.
But in this
connection the most striking sentence of all is surely the one
Addai utters in his address to characterize "the faith which we
preach, that God was crucified for all people."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxi & 43.
[40] It
would be difficult not to recognize in the phrase, "God was
crucified for all people," a representation of the Christology
of those whom their adversaries, after the time of the council
of Chalcedon (451), would polemically label
'Monophysites'. To put it forward as the historical faith
of Edessa suggests that the author of the Doctrina Addai
was interested in propounding the Christological view
associated with the teaching of Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) in
the context of the controversies of his own day. In
Edessan history, the period when the city's ecclesiastical
establishment notably wavered between the Christologies of
Antioch and Alexandria, but prior to when the Roman imperial
authority proposed a definitive solution to the controversy,
was the time of the reign of Bishop Rabbula (d. 436).
See Georg Günter Blum, Rabbula von
Edessa; der Christ, der Bischof, der Theologe (CSCO, vol.
300, Subs. 34; Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO,
1969); Han J.W. Drijvers, “Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa:
Spiritual Authority and Secular Power,” in J.W. Drijvers
& J.W. Watt, Portraits of Spiritual Authority, pp.
130-154. See also the study of the Syriac vita of
Rabbula by G.W. Bowersock, “The Syriac Life of Rabbula
and Syrian Hellenism,” in Tomas Hägg & Philip
Rousseau, Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late
Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000),
pp. 255-271.
Once again, what must seem an anachronism in the text suggests
the era to which it is plausible to date the composition of the
full form of the Doctrina Addai.
E. The Moral Imperatives
[41] A
noticeable theme in the narrative of the Doctrina Addai
is a pronounced concern for the proper use of wealth, or
rather, the renunciation of it by Addai and his
disciples. This concern surfaces at the very beginning of
Addai's relationship with Abgar, when the king gave orders for
silver and gold to be given to the apostle. Addai says,
"how can we receive anything which is not ours? Now
behold we have left that which is ours as we were commanded by
our Lord that we should be without purses and without
wallets."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
viii & 17.
Nevertheless, the text is careful to
point out that Abgar made large monetary gifts to support the
building of the church in Edessa and the ministries of Addai
and his disciples.
See Howard, The Teaching of Addai,
pp. xxxii & 65.
In his address to his disciples,
Addai reminded them that they should have no other occupation
than the service of the Lord, and that they should not "love
the profits of this world."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxvi & 73.
But the narrative reports
that in their ministries, in addition to their faithfulness to
their ecclesiastical duties, the disciples "made visitations of
alms to the sick and to the well according to Addai's teaching
to them."
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xxxvi & 73.
At the end of Addai's life, the king
sent him rich garments for his burial clothes, but Addai sent
back the message: "During my life I took nothing from you; I
will not deny in myself the word of the Messiah who said to me,
'Take nothing from any man, and acquire nothing in this
world.'"
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
xlviii & 97.
Finally, the Doctrina Addai
leaves the following portrait of Addai and his followers:
He did not take silver or gold from any man. The
gifts of princes came no where near him. For in
place of gold and silver, he enriched Christ's church
with the souls of the believers. The whole status
of
the men and women was: they were splendidly chaste,
they were pure and holy, they were living singly and
chastely, without defilement, splendidly [engaged] in
the watchfulness of the liturgy, in taking on the
burden
of the poor, in visiting the sick.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. l
& 101. The translation given here differs
considerably in nuance from Howard’s.
[42] This
passage reflects the ideal view of church life as it was
normally put forward in the fourth and fifth centuries in the
Syriac-speaking milieux. In particular, it echoes the
ascetical language so prominent in the works of the classical
writers, such as Aphrahat and Ephraem,
See Sidney H. Griffith, “Asceticism in
the Church of Syria: the Hermeneutics of Early Syrian
Monasticism,” in Vincent L. Wimbush & Richard
Valantasis (eds.), Asceticism (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995), pp. 220-245.
as well as the
emphasis on the care of the poor and the sick, evident in
certain hagiographical texts of the fifth century.
See Han J.W. Drijvers, “The Man of God
of Edessa, Bishop Rabbula, and the Urban Poor: Church and
Society in the Fifth Century,” Journal of Early
Christian Studies 4 (1996), pp. 235-248.
[43] In
addition to the maintenance of the poor and the sick, the one
expenditure of wealth of which the Doctrina Addai
clearly approves is the building of churches. In the
account of the Protonike legend a favorable mention is made of
the "especially great edifice" that the queen gave orders to be
built over Golgotha and Christ's tomb in Jerusalem.
See Howard, The Teaching of Addai,
pp. xv & 31.
And in Edessa, there is the church which Addai built with
Abgar's support. In this connection, the text suggests
that this accomplishment was only the beginning of a church
building campaign that reached well beyond the confines of the
city. It says:
Some years after the Apostle Addai had built the
church in Edessa, had provided it with everything
suitable for it, and had made many disciples from
the city's populace, he built churches in other
districts as well, both far and near. He adorned
and embellished them, set up deacons and presbyters
in them taught those who were to read the scriptures
in them, and taught the orders of the ministry
within and without.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp. xl
& 81.
History and Historiography in Late Antique
Edessa
[44] As
is abundantly clear from the bibliographical references
included in the footnotes to the present study, from the late
nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century,
virtually every historian of note who has had the occasion to
be concerned with Syrian Christianity has also tried his hand
with one or another of the problems associated with the
Doctrina Addai. But few have considered the
integral work in its fullest form. It has been the
purpose of the present essay to review the composition it its
literary integrity. In the light of the review, a number
of conclusions suggest themselves.
[45] It
seems clear that Addai's addresses and instructions are at the
heart of the narrative. Although Addai himself, along
with a number of the other dramatis personae are put
forward as historical characters, it appears that the author
expected his intended audience to recognize their names and to
know their stories from the general fund of local, Edessan,
historical lore. The historical claims he puts forward in
particular, therefore, are not immediately the historical
details of the narrative, which he takes for granted, but the
larger theological and political themes one finds developed
throughout the work. They are the themes discussed above:
the Roman and Jerusalem connections; the apostolic tradition;
the adversaries of record; the Christological profile; the
moral imperative, especially the concern for evangelical
poverty. As we have seen, these themes are clearly put
forward anachronistically from the perspective of what could
have been the case at the time of the evangelization of
Edessa. The period that in the ensemble they most
immediately suggest is the first third of the fifth century,
and perhaps, more specifically, the time of Bishop Rabbula (d.
436). For many of the same reasons alleged here, in a
recent study, Prof. Han J.W. Drijvers concludes that the bishop
himself was responsible for the work. He declares
straightforwardly, "The final version of the Doctrina
Addai probably is due to bishop Rabbula."
H.J.W. Drijvers, “The Image of
Edessa,” pp. 15-16.
[46] The
major conclusion to which the present writer comes is that the
Doctrina Addai in its fullest form is an integral work,
with a definite set of ideas to commend, in the service of a
line of thinking that is at once political and religious, civil
and ecclesiastical. The author puts it forward, not
without apologetical and polemical intent, as a paradigm of
right thinking for the Edessan milieu; he rightly calls it
'teaching' or 'doctrine' (malpānûtâ),
and not 'history' (tash'îtâ). He
represents the several themes of the work as the component
parts of an Edessan profile of the Christian faith that in his
opinion goes back to the origins of Christianity in that
city. For this purpose he utilizes pre-existing material,
including the locally well known stories of Abgar and
Protonike, finally alleging that the whole work, including
Addai's sermons and instructions, have all along been preserved
in Edessa's royal archive, in a copy written by the legendary
scribe, Labûbna, and vouched for by the legendary
archivist, Hannān.
Howard, The Teaching of Addai, pp.
liii & 107.
A modern
reader may think of it as an historical novel composed to
promote Bishop Rabbula's agenda for the 'Church of the Empire'
in Edessa, maybe even supposing that it is an instance of
"fiction as history", to borrow Prof. Glen Bowersock's
felicitous phrase, from the title of his own study of some
earlier, not entirely dissimilar material from other, late
antique language communities.
G.W. Bowersock, Fiction as History: Nero
to Julian (Sather Classical Lectures, vol. 58;
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
But the conviction
remains that the author himself of the Doctrina Addai
intended to write the Gospel truth._______
Notes