PREFACE.

Christ had written a letter to Abgar, it would have been a part of sacred Scripture, and placed at the head of the New Testament; etc. The arguments on which the decree of Gelasius was founded, A.D. 494, against the genuineness of the work rest mainly on the letter of our Lord. Happily for me, it is no part of my duty to answer the arguments which have been advanced against the supposed letter. According to the St. Petersburg MS., and in this it is supported by the Armenian version, the reply of our Lord was merely a verbal message, returned through Hannan to Abgar. He said to Hannan, “Go and say to thy lord,” etc. As a further proof that it could have been only a verbal message, it is expressly stated in p. 5 of the translation that Hannan related to Abgar everything which he had heard from Jesus, as His words were put by him in writing. If there be reasons why our Lord did not write a letter, there can be none against a verbal message. This mode of reply was consistent with what our Lord did on other occasions. It was a verbal reply to the question of John the Baptist, which He sent through His messengers (Luke vii. 22). That the reply of our Lord was a written letter is, therefore, an error, and the error was committed by Eusebius. It is not difficult to explain how Eusebius fell into this mistake. He knew that the reply was in writing, and kept in the archives, and he supposed that our Lord Himself had put it in writing, whereas it was done by Hannan.