The sun., 1900-05-08
THE KPHKsUs LETTER or JESUS.
Tho well-known Letter to kins Absar Of
Edes,s. OF which an Inscription was SAID
10 Re Recently Discovered. Pronounced
Cnauthentic . Thousand Years Ago.

ested In the report which came from Rome that
at recent archaeological meeting held In that
/ city Prof Bohrmann OF Vienna read paper
upon Greek inscription which has been found
In the remain, of the great palace OF Ephesu@ IN
/ Asia Minor This report has been excellent food
for all sorts of writers, and the most surpr- Ing
statements have gone the rounds OF the press
! There seem, no valid reason to doubt that the
! Inscription dates from the time Of the NTH cen
! tury The statement Of Mr. Murray OF the
/ British Museum may we'll be relied upon. Bat
! this does not BY any means prove that the
! documents are what they pnrpor tobe Ii Is
natural that In Rome the wish should be father
/ TO the thought. and any evidence be- accepted
! which deals with the early history Of the
! Church without much questioning Us 10 its
| scientific yane. ltwas only last yeaI that an
| Eastern Patriarch living in Rome. lgnatus
! Ephraem ii Rahinnni. published series Of
, Church statutes which he had found in an Old
! Syriac manuscript and which lie believed had
| come down To u- from the time Of the Apos-
! ties themselves. Scholar. soon saw that the
| document did not antedate the tith or sixth
| century.
| The cabed report tells us that the inscr pl ion
| is composed In Doric Greek and coniaius the
! correspondence which is supposed to have
| passed between Jesus and u certain Abgar.
| King Of Edessa There is no reason to doubt
| that the inscription is in Greek. That is what
one would expect To find in EphrSus Ono can
| doubt whether the Dorc dialect OF the Greek
was still used at the time In Ephesus. but that
| II OF minor importance Every scholar will
| concede that We have hers translations only of
| the supposed correspondence ADgar would
have written in Syrtac OF ia AramIean Jesus
would have answered in Arnmran. OF. perhaps,
the scribe would have translated the answer
into Syriac. These letters were current all over
the Eastern Church We have versions OF them
in Syrlac. Greek. Latin. Armenian, Arabic,
Coptc. etc. The question Il. however. whether
We have any warrant for suppo,ing the letters
to he genuine
The facts are these, There existed in north
western Nesopotainia II little kingdom called
Osrhoene, bounded on tho west by the Eu-
pirates. on the north bv the Armenian noun
iains, on the east by NisibiS and on the south
by the Great Desert Its chief city was Edessa.
II must have been place oi some Importance,
as the small state was able to uphold lis inde-
pendence from about 1872 Is &. 10 2ic a ID
Before one Of its Kings accepted Christianity as
the State religion Odessa was stronghold of
pagansm. The ponds are stll 10 be seen in
which the sacred fish were worshpped and
these ponds are still held in veneration by the
Nohamm.dans thouoh the,. b.I,ay. rim, ,b,.,,
were loid ont hy Abraham In odd,rou to th.
Ash th. SIM moon and siors U.,a ,hia,,s
of worship Iu,er un Id...o hacams IL
yrrst centr. of Christian iuhu.ur, Ous of
Ia. earliest and stronu.st churches was
founded here The ci,, WAS Intimately cnuuect.d
with tho Syriac christian Church d,ring ;,s
mos, eouri.biuy perlod ltvas here Tim, some
of I'm. great Fathers liv.d and vhar, .orly
Christian science had n ho,u. Ih. h,,iunin,s
of Christianity i'm Odessa ,re Tins lu..d nv tho
Church historian Eusebius OF IN. fourth century.
when IN, diyiu. nsturs of oir Saviour and
Lord Jesus Christ WAS puhlish.d abrn,d
among nil men hy reason of I'm. vond.rf,,
mighty works which A. yrouyht and mvriad.
even from countries remote. from IN. land oC
,JIdea. who were afflicted with sicknssses and
diseases of every kind we're coming to Him in
the hone OF being healed King Abvar also WIN
was renowned for hi, yalor among IN. pations
ON the ea,t aide of the Euphratcs had hi. bodv
afflicted with n severe diseas. of s,ch a Kind a.
there is no cure for II among men a.
Tthereforel sen, Ia Jesus a letter or r.ousst hv
the hand Of a man OF his own and entreated Him
10 come and heal him of his disease our 81,
yIour however at Tn. time Inn, IA. l.d Hin, d,d
NOT comply With his reatIe.t yet Le d.emsd hin,
worthy of A reply .Nou have in vri,,sn
document, the evidence of these things which
is taken from the Book nf Rscord. which ia a.,
Ld,s,a. for nj that Tins. the Kr,dou, ,,..
sull standing. .... Copyor the leitervhicb
WAS written from KIM. ,hyar Ia .Ia.us mud .,,,
10 Him, bv I'm, Lnud of uan,uios TN. T,h,,,,rir.
TO Jerusalem, .Abgar kkama ,hief of the
Country 10 Jesus. IN. guod debyar.r uho has
apu.ar.d jn the Couutry Of .Iaru.sl.,n p..,.
have heard about Thee md sbou, the cnr..
which ar. wrought Lv Thy hands ui,h,,,
medicine and herb, for a, If I. r.nor,,d Tbon
makpst the blind TO set. and ,h. lama IA ,,iL.
and Thou clean,e.t the leuer, and Thou ,ast..,
out unclean spirits and devils and Thou b.als.,
those yho are rorm.uted " ith lingering dis..s..
and Thou rui,ast ,h,. dead And uh.n heard
these things about Ih.e | sattl.d il, my mind
one OF Two thing, Either Thou ART God Whn
being com. down from Heaven a., ,h"s,
thiuxe, or that Thou art the Son of God and
does, these things. On hi, nccount ,bsr.,ors
have Written To reor-si of Thea TINT rb,,,
wouldst trouble ,,elrtocomatou, and o,r,
this disease which have. for | bav. .l.,, boo,a
that the Ieys muru,lr apainst 'rh.. .ndui.L,.
do Thee harm Bit I bav. a ,J,, ,,al "a
beautiful which is enouyh for ,v,o ,o,,,. =,
those things which were written from Jesus hv
the hand of llnnauia, Ia. Tabulariu. ~
Abgar. the Chief of the Country, .p,a.sss 10 ~,
that hath believed in Me not b,yi,, .,.r Na
and IN -. who bay. nor s.,so Na ,hav uiu ~.
lieye and be sav.d Hut ,orohirc nhn, 49,,