Letters Between King Abgar the Toparch and Jesus

Of the early Christian writings we have, few are as valuable to understanding early Christianity as the writings of Eusebius. Born around 260 A.D., he compiled the first comprehensive history of the early church.

Among the documents he had were two letters he retrieved from the Record Office at Edessa among the public documents. He translated them from the original Syriac (Aramaic).

First Letter:


Abgar Uchama the Toparch to Jesus, who has appeared as a gracious saviour in the the region of Jerusalem--greeting.

I have heard about you and about the cures you perform without drugs or herbs. If report is true, you make the blind see again and the lame walk about; you cleanse lepers, expel unclean spirits and demons, cure those suffering from chronic and painful diseases, and raise the dead. When I heard all this about you, I concluded that one of two things must be true--either you are God and came down from heaven to do these things, or you are God's Son doing them. Accordingly, I am writing to beg you to come to me, whatever the inconvenience, and cure the disorder from which I suffer. I may add that I understand the Jews are treating you with contempt and desire to injure you: my city is very small, but highly esteemed, adequate for both of us.


Second Letter:


Jesus's Reply to the Toparch Abgar by the Courier Ananias

Blessed are you who believed in me without having seen me! For it is written of me that those who have seen me will not believe in me, and that those who have not seen will believe and live. As to your request that I should come to you, I must complete all that I was sent to do here, and on completing it must at once be taken up to the One who sent me. When I have been taken up I will send you one of my disciples to cure your disorder and bring life to you and those with you.


Eusebius records that in fulfillment of this promise, Thomas sent to Abgar the disciple Thaddaeus, one of the seventy. When Abgar confessed that he "believed in [Jesus] and in His Father," Thaddaes replied, "For that reason I lay my hands on you in His name." Agbar was instantly cured. For the full account, see Eusebius, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965) 66-70.

As a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings

In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, the Lord looks over Jerusalem and laments, "O Jerusalem, jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (v. 37).

The Lord had, throughout the centuries, sought to gather his people "even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." What does this mean? A similar image is used in the 61st Psalm: "I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah." (v. 4). As used in this psalm, the covert of the Lord's wings is a synonym for the temple. New Oxford Annotated Bible 827 (3rd ed. 2001). It could be that in looking over Jerusalem, the Lord wept over the fact that the Jews had constantly turned away from the greatest blessings he offered them: the blessings of the fulness of the priesthood, the blessings of the temple. See Doctrine and Covenants 84:19-27.

ex-e-gete \ek-sə-jēt\ n (ca. 1736) : one who practices exegesis, the process of explaining or critically interpreting a text

In naming this blog the "exegete post", I fear I am running the risk of trying to sound intellectual. The trust is, I learned this word as I was trying to come up with a name for the blog, and its only purpose is to push the limits of my understanding of the scriptures.

I invite anyone interested to join me in what I hope turns into an ongoing dialogue about the interpretation and application of scripture. Please email me any ideas or insights you have, so I can post them on the blog. The only rule is to cite the source of any evidence you rely on, particularly when you appeal to a classical language.