السيرة
The story of the letters exchanged between the Lord Jesus Christ and King Abgar V the Black (Ukkāmā), king of Edessa he sent an embassy to Sabinus, the Roman governor of Eleutheropolis in Palestine; and as his envoys passed through Jerusalem, they learned that a new prophet was healing the sick. At once they thought of their king, who was afflicted with leprosy, and they carried this glad news back to him. Since the king was unable to go to Jerusalem himself, he sent his messengers to the Lord Jesus Christ bearing a letter in which he declared his faith in Him, asking Him to accept an invitation to visit his small but pleasant little city, and to heal him if He so willed.
One of the envoys, named Hannan (Ananias), was a painter who wished to paint a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he was unable to do so because of the awesome majesty of His countenance. Yet the Lord washed His face, and in a miraculous manner imprinted His features upon a linen cloth with which He had wiped His face, and gave it to him.
Evagrius relates that this miraculous image saved Edessa when Khosrau besieged it in the year 540 A.D.
It is said that the Arabs seized it at the conquest of Edessa and demanded for it a vast sum from the Roman Emperor. An Arab Christian writer named Abū Naṣr Yaḥyā records that he saw it with his own eyes in the Church of Hagia Sophia in the year 1058 A.D.
It is also said that the Lord Jesus Christ sent a letter to the king assuring him that after His ascension He would send one of His apostles to preach and to heal him. This was fulfilled when Addai, one of the seventy apostles according to Syriac tradition, went to Edessa to heal the king and to preach the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the memoirs of the Spanish nun Etheria, who visited Egypt, the Holy Land, Edessa, Asia Minor, and Constantinople at the end of the fourth century, it is recorded that the letter sent by the Lord Jesus Christ was written in Syriac on parchment and preserved at Edessa, and that several copies were made of it which bore power to heal the sick.
The text of the two letters exchanged between the Lord Jesus Christ and King Abgar:
The historian Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, a man of the fourth century, records in his book "The Ecclesiastical History" that he found the two letters preserved in the official public archives, and that he translated them from the Syriac language from the original itself:
First: the text of the letter that King Abgar sent to the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem by the hand of Hannan (Ananias):
Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the good Saviour who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting.
I have heard the reports of thee and of thy cures as performed by thee without medicines or herbs. For it is said that thou makest the blind to see and the lame to walk, that thou cleansest lepers and castest out unclean spirits and demons, and that thou healest those afflicted with lingering diseases, and raisest the dead.
And having heard all these things concerning thee, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either thou art God, and having come down from heaven thou doest these things, or else thou, who doest these things, art the Son of God.
I have therefore written to thee to ask thee to take the trouble to come to me and heal the disease which I have. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against thee and are plotting to injure thee. But I have a city, very small indeed, yet beautiful, which is large enough for us both.]
Second: the text of the reply of the Lord Jesus Christ to King Abgar:
[Blessed art thou who hast believed in me without having seen me (John 20:29 (John 20:29)). For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved (Isaiah 6:9 (Isaiah 6:9); Jeremiah 5:21 (Jeremiah 5:21); Exodus 12:2 (Exodus 12:2); Romans 11:7 (Romans 11:7)). But concerning that which thou hast written to me, that I should come to thee: it is necessary for me to fulfil here all the things for which I was sent, and after I have fulfilled them, to ascend again to Him who sent me. But after my ascension I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy disease and give life to thee and to those who are with thee.]
* Note: The story of King Abgar, his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the letters exchanged between them stands in need of scholarly historical verification, and its authenticity has not been established