Forum Name: Assyrian Forums - Religion
Message URL: https://www.atour.com/cgi-bin/forums/board.cgi?forum=religion&mark=21&az=next_topic&archive=
Message ID: 0

#0, Shroud an Assyrian Relic?
Posted by Stephen1 on Aug-11-2001 at 01:26 PM

According to the Gospel of John during the final week of the life of our Lord certain Greeks approached the Apostle Phillip desiring to see Jesus (John 12:20-36). Phillip took them to the Apostle Andrew and Andrew then took them to see Jesus. Here in the Gospel account the story abruptly ends but the rest of this story is preserved in the Doctrine of Addai. These Greeks were couriers from the royal court of King Abgar, who ruled over the Assyrians from the city of Edessa, in territory that lay between that of the Roman and Parthian (or Persian) Empires. The story of Jesus, Thomas, Thaddeus and King Abgar is the story of the founding of the Christian church in Mesopotamia and the lands beyond, even as far as India and China.
The story of the conversion of King Abgar V Ukamma (who reigned over the Assyrians from 13-50 AD) at the preaching of the Apostle Saint Thaddeus is first recorded in the Ecclesiastical History written by Eusebius Pamphylius who is renown as the ‘Father of Church History’. This church history was published in the early years of the fourth century (circa 325 AD). While accumulating research for his monumental work he traveled to Edessa, one of the principle cities of the Assyrians. While there he searched the official archives of the city and discovered what he believed to be authentic documentation of the ministry of Saint Thaddeus in the court of King Abgar. These documents he personally translated from the Syriac and included in his history. Syriac is a dialect of the Aramaic language that was spoken by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Apostles. At the time of Jesus’ ministry Aramaic was, as it still is today, the language spoken by the Assyrians. According to the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew the Evangelist stories of Christ’s message of love, hope and peace and reports of his miracles in healing the diseased and infirm spread across all of Syria(Matthew 4:24). Eusebius reports that Abgar, who was dying from a horrible disease, heard of the miracles of Jesus and placed his hope in him. According to the records viewed and translated by Eusebius King Abgar wrote an epistle to Jesus saying;

Abgarus, King of Edessa, to Jesus the good Savior, who appears at Jerusalem, greetings.
I have been informed concerning you and your cures, which are performed without the use of medicines and herbs. For it is reported, that you cause the blind to see. The lame to walk, do both cleanse lepers, and cast out unclean spirits and devils. And restore them to health who have been long diseased, and raiseth up the dead; all which when I heard, I was persuaded of one of these two, viz: either that you are God himself descended from heaven, who do these things, or the son of God. On this account therefore I have wrote to you, earnestly to desire you would take the trouble of a journey hither, and cure a disease that I am under. For I hear the Jews ridicule you, and intend you mischief. My city is indeed small, but neat, and large enough for us both.

Jesus gave a verbal response to the messengers of King Abgar.

Abgarus, you are blessed, for as much as you have believed on me, whom you have not seen. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me should not believe on me, that they who have not seen might believe and live. As to that part of your letter, which relates to my giving you a visit. I must inform you, that I must fulfill all the ends of my mission in this country, and after that be received up again to him who sent me. But after my ascension I will send one of my disciples, who will cure you of your disease, and give life to you, and all that are with you.

After the Passion, Glorious Resurrection and Ascension of Christ our Redeemer, St. Thomas, moved by the power of the Holy Spirit commissioned St. Thaddeus (called Addai in Syriac) to go and preach the Holy Gospel to King Abgar and to the Assyrian people. Later, according to the Early Church Fathers, St. Thomas also went and preached to the Assyrians and the Persians. After suffering martyrdom in India his relics were brought to Edessa and were venerated there for centuries in that St. Thomas, along with Thaddeus and Mari, was one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Assyrian Church of the East.
About a century after Eusebius’ work was published an Assyrian Christian wrote the complete story of Saint Thaddeus, King Abgar and the coming of Christianity to the Assyrians in a magnificent book entitled The Doctrine of Addai (written circa 375-400 AD).
Obeying the call of the Holy Spirit spoken through St. Thomas, Thaddeus (Addai in Syriac) and Mari who were from the seventy disciples of Christ (Luke 10:1) traveled to Assyria. There they resided with Tobias the Hebrew. When the king heard that the Apostles had arrived and were residing with his Hebrew subjects and that they had already performed many miracles through divine power he sent for them. Thaddeus promptly healed King Abgar of his ailment through the power of Jesus Christ. Soon afterwards the whole city gathered before the Apostles and Thaddeus preached “the Doctrine of Addai” to them. “The Doctrine of Addai” is one of the greatest sermons ever written and is a wonderful introduction to basic Christian theology. Thaddeus taught the Assyrians that Jesus Christ is God become flesh and that he suffered for our sins on the cross. Jesus Christ conquered death, hell and sin in his resurrection and there is the promise of eternal life to all who would confess their sins and trust in the name of Jesus the Son of God. Many of the Assyrians became converted at the preaching of St. Thaddeus, this making them the oldest Christian people. Thaddeus lived among the Assyrians until his death. Even the Jews and pagans mourned the passing away of this holy man of God. His work was continued by St. Mari and St. Aggai. Several of the first bishops of the Assyrians were Hebrew Aramaic speaking Christians many of whom were related to St. Joseph the Carpenter and Saint Mary the Blessed Mother of Our Lord. The son of King Abgar renounced the faith of his father and persecuted Christians in an effort to re-establish paganism. Later King Abgar VIII (reigned over the Assyrians from 177 to 212AD), the direct descendent of Abgar V, openly professed the Christian faith and renewed the church that was established among the Assyrians by Abgar V and the apostles, through the grace of our Lord. Skeptics dismiss the story of King Abgar and the Apostles citing a lack of irrefutable evidence. Scholars are forced to admit that Abgar VIII was a Christian king due to the coins he minted showing him wearing a cross upon his crown. This proof shows that the Assyrians are the first Christian kingdom. The Assyrians were a Christian kingdom over a century before the Armenians, who often make the false claim they are the first Christians. This archeological evidence of the antiquity of the Assyrian Church is given in Ian Wilson’s The Blood and the Shroud.
Ian Wilson has discovered what he believes to be a connection between “The Doctrine of Addai” and the Shroud of Turin. “The Doctrine of Addai” mentions that a “portrait” of Christ was brought to King Abgar. Wilson believes that his relic was actually the Shroud of Jesus Christ that was folded and displayed as a portrait. He believes Mari and Thaddeus gave this image of Christ to King Abgar as a gift upon his conversion. This famous relic was called the Mandylion or The Holy Cloth of Edessa. In 943 the Greek Orthodox stole this sacred relic from the Assyrians and carried it away to Constantinople. Wilson has traced the journey of the Shroud from the land of the Assyrians to its current residence in Turin, Italy. If Wilson’s theories are correct and if the Shroud is genuine then the Assyrians are the rightful owners of the Holy Shroud and it should be promptly returned to the Assyrian community.
According to ancient tradition the Apostles Thaddeus and Mari also composed the Divine Liturgy entitled “The Order of the Hallowing of the Blessed Apostles Mar Addai and Mar Mari” for the Assyrian people. Scholars agree that this liturgy is the most ancient liturgy still in use in the world. In reference to the Liturgy of Addai and Mari, Peter Hofrichter wrote in Pro Oriente Syriac Dialogue: first Non-Official consultation On Dialogue Within the Syriac Tradition that; “Catholic and Orthodox Christians should be extremely thankful to the “Church of the East” for having saved an original and authentic tradition totally displaced and forgotten in all other branches of Christianity”. The Church established by St. Thaddeus and St. Thomas later divided into the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of the East. The Church of the East with a fervent zeal carried the Gospel message to Mongolia, China and India. The Syrian Orthodox carried the Gospel as far south as Ethiopia. Both churches produced great theologians, artists, scientists, medical doctors, musicians and scholars who have greatly enriched the universal Church.


For additional information:


Rev. S. Dinka The Teaching of Addai the Apostle
George Howard trans. The Teaching of Addai (Scholars Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1981)
Ian Wilson The Blood and the Shroud:New Evidence that the World’s Most Sacred Relic is Real (The Free Press, New York 1998)
Ian Wilson The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? (Image Books, 1979)
Solomon J. Schepps The Lost Books of the Bible (Bell Publishing Company, New York 1979)
Ian Wilson and Barrie Schwortz The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence (Barnes and Nobles, New York 2000)
Catholic Encyclopedia: Doctrine of Addai https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05088a.htm
Eusebius Pamphylius The Ecclessiatical History
Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325: Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 8: Ancient Syriac Documents (Hendrickson Publishers 1994)

Stephen Andrew Missick