Chronicle of Edessa

The Chronicle of Edessa is a record of the history of Edessa written in the mid 6th century in Syriac language.

Description

The Chronicle of Edessa is generally agreed to have been written around 540-550 CE.[lower-alpha 1] The Chronicle primarily used old Edessan royal archives as its source, as well as some more recent church records,[1] and accordingly is thought to be historically reliable.[2][3][4]

It is extant in only a single manuscript, Vatican Syriac 163.[5] This manuscript was acquired by Giuseppe Simone Assemani during a trip to the Near East from 1715-1717 CE taken at the request of Pope Clement XI.[5]

The Chronicle begins with a record of a flood during the reign of Abgar VIII in November 201 CE which damaged a Christian church building in Edessa.[6][7] This is the earliest mention of a building dedicated exclusively to Christian worship,[8] as well as one of few records of Christianity in Edessa at this time.[9][7] Also, unlike other Syriac literature, the Chronicle does not contain any legends of the Apostle Thaddeus.[3][4]

Published editions

Syriac

  • "Vatican Syriac 163" (PDF). Bringham Young University. 2004. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  • Guidi, Ignatius, ed. (1903). Chronica minora. Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium. Leipzig/Paris: Harrassowitz. p. 1-13. Retrieved 26 December 2017.

English

  • Cowper, Benjamin Harris (1865). "The Chronicle of Edessa". Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record. 5 (9): 28-45. (Transcription by Robert Pearse)

Notes

  1. ↑ mid 6th century (Ferguson 1999, p. 267), 540 CE (Palmer 1999, p. 421), 550 CE (Schnabel 2004, p. 899; Yamauchi 1983, p. 85). Samuel, Santiago & Thiagarajan (2008) claim without explanation that it was written in 590 CE (p. 97).

Citations

References

  • Baum, Wilhelm; Winkler, Dietmar W. (2003). The Church of the East: A Concise History. London-New York: Routledge-Curzon.
  • Ferguson, Everett (1999). Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity. Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity. Vol. 4. Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0-8153-3071-4.
  • Frenschkowski, Marco (2015). "Christianity". In Stausberg, M.; Vevaina, Y.S.D.; Tessmann, A. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion. Wiley. p. 457ff. ISBN 978-1-118-78627-7.
  • Myers, S.E. (2010). Spirit Epicleses in the Acts of Thomas. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. Coronet Books Incorporated. ISBN 978-3-16-149472-7.
  • Palmer, Andrew (1999). "Edessa". In Bowersock, G.W.; Brown, P.; Grabar, O. Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. Harvard University Press Refer. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-674-51173-6.
  • Samuel, G.J.; Santiago, J.B.; Thiagarajan, P. (2008). Early Christianity in India: (with parallel developments in other parts of Asia). Madras, India: Institute of Asian Studies. ISBN 978-81-87892-40-3.
  • Schnabel, Eckhard J. (2004). Early Christian Mission: Jesus and the Twelve. Early Christian Mission. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-1-84474-045-1.
  • Teixidor, J. (2015). The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7139-1.
  • Yamauchi, E.M. (1983). Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences. Twin brooks series. Baker Book House. ISBN 978-0-8010-9919-9.

Further reading

  • Brock, Sebastian P. (2011) [1991]. "Chronicle of Edessa". In Daniel, Elton. Encyclopædia Iranica. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
  • Witakowski, W. (1984). "Chronicles of Edessa". Orientalia Suecana. 33: 487-498.
  • Kazhdan, A. P., ed. (1991). "Chronicle of Edessa". The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
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