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Doctrine of Addai Manuscript
Doctrine of Addai, a Syrian manuscript
A Syrian manuscript, the Doctrine of Addai, fills in some useful historical gaps. Abgar V of Edessa In this document, which mentions the Abgar letter, the servent of Abgar, Ananias, painted a portrait of Jesus 'with choice pigments.' A later document, the Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, written in the early part of the sixth century, provides another legendary element. It suggests that the image was formed when Jesus wiped his face on the linen cloth and it refers to the Edessa Cloth as a tetradiplon. Historians assume that this is all legend. But from this material they gather three very important clues: - The cloth arrived in Edessa.
- The image on the cloth is recognized to be unique in that the images were described as painted with choice pigments or formed when Jesus wiped his face on the linen cloth.
- The cloth is described as a tetradiplon, which means doubled in fours. When folded thus, only the face from the Shroud will be visible.
Edessa, City of Doctrine of Addai and the Early History of the Shroud Regardless of how the image-bearing cloth arrived in Edessa, it was discovered in the early sixth century concealed behind some stones above one of the city gates. It was a practice in ancient cities of this area to mount a stone tile with a picture of some favored deity above the city’s main gate. It may be that the Image of Edessa was simply stored behind such a tile as suggested by some Byzantine iconography. It could well have been that because of severe floods, to which Edessa was very prone; the cloth was placed high in the city’s walls for protection. There is also the very real possibility that it was hidden to protect it from invaders or to protect it during times of Christian persecutions. We know that during the many persecutions of the first three centuries, valuable relics, writings, and ceremonial items of the church were routinely destroyed. There is evidence of local persecutions in Edessa as early as the latter part of the first century and of Roman persecutions that persisted until the time of Emperor Constantine. If, in fact, the cloth was taken to Edessa in the earlier part of the first century, it might have been hidden for protection as early as the reign of Ma’nu VI, Abgar’s son, who is thought to have reverted to paganism. What is not legend, nor speculation, is that the cloth, with an image of what was then believed to be a true and miraculous facial image of Jesus described as a divinely wrought image and an 'image not made by hand' was found in the walls of the city in the sixth century. During repairs of the city walls in 525 CE, or more likely, during a Persian invasion of the city in 544 CE, the cloth was rediscovered and placed in a church built especially for it. It was, to the people of Edessa, the lost cloth of the "legend." In the late sixth century, Evagrius Scholasticus’ Ecclesiastical History mentions that Edessa was protected by a 'divinely wrought portrait' (acheiropoietis) sent by Jesus to Abgar. In 730 CE, St. John Damascene in On Holy Images describes the cloth as a himation, which is translated as an oblong cloth or grave cloth. This may be the first mention, among extant documents, of it being a grave cloth. "
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