Jesus writes a letter to King Abgarus

One of the shortest but very interesting pieces of apocrypha is the correspondence between King Abgarus and Jesus Christ. I find it fascinating that the only claimed writing from Jesus is between him and a King from Osroene. Now upon reading these two letters (one from the King, and the response from JC), you can tell it originates in legend rather than historical fact. That being said it did become quite popular in the early Christian world. So what did this say? Let’s look at the letter from King Abgarus first. I am using the M.R. James translation for this:

Abgarus Uchama the toparch to Jesus the good Saviour that hath appeared in the parts of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard concerning thee and thy cures, that they are done of thee without drugs or herbs: for, as the report goes, thou makest blind men to see again, lame to walk, and cleansest lepers, and castest out unclean spirits and devils, and those that are afflicted with long sickness thou healest, and raisest the dead. And having heard all this of thee, I had determined one of two things, either that thou art God come down from heaven, and so doest these things or art a Son of God that doest these things. Therefore now have I written and entreated thee to trouble thyself to come to me and heal the affliction which I have. or indeed I have heard that the Jews even murmur against thee and wish to do thee hurt. And I have a very little city but (and) comely (reverend), which is sufficient for us both.

So the King is requesting a visit from Jesus to help his illness. Obviously there are plenty of compliments in the letter to flatter Jesus. So does this work? Let’s see what the response was:

Blessed art thou that hast believed in me, not having seen me. For it is written concerning me that they that have seen me shall not believe in me, and that they that have not seen me shall believe and live. But concerning that which thou hast written to me, to come unto thee; it must needs be that I fulfil all things for the which I was sent here, and after fulfilling them should then be taken up unto him that sent me. And when I am taken up, I will send thee one of my disciples, to heal thine affliction and give life to thee and them that are with thee.

Jesus is quite the busy man but will send a disciple in his place. This is all that survives from the original text but over time, like all good legends, more details get added. At some point, a cloth makes its way into the story line which is very similar to the ‘veil of Veronica’ but it is a cloth of Jesus’ face pre-Passion. I will not dive into the full history (I will provide a link to a far more researched article at the end), but did want to make mention of the cloth as it is used as a relic. I find relics to be quiet fascinating even if I doubt their historical status (the early relics that is).

Another interesting point I want to make of this letter to Abgarus is that the letter has been copied throughout the years and used as an amulet. Now this is the aspect I really like about the story. So if you want to make yourself an amulet that has been used in antiquity, you can’t go wrong with this one! I would recommend using the iconography I posted above to go along with it.

For further reading of the legend, check out this excellent article: