ADDAI, Doctrine of. - A narrative apocryphon, from the end of the 4th century or the beginning of the 5th, on the introduction of Christianity at Edessa. Written by Labubna, son of Sennak (?), in Syriac, it was translated into Armenian.

The 1st part corresponds to the legend of Abgar (v.) and to the Edessene Acts as they were preserved for us by Eusebius (Hist. ecl. I, 13), on whom it depends (against Zahn). But here Christ responds orally, not in the form of a letter, to King Abgar's invitation to come to Edessa.

The Doctrine of A. also contains, unlike Eusebius, the detail that Ananias, the king's archivist (in Eusebius: courier), would have painted a portrait of Jesus, later kept in Abgar's palace. After Jesus' ascension, the apostle Judas (also called Thomas) would have sent A. (Eusebius: Thaddaeus), one of the seventy-two (Eusebius: seventy), to Edessa to preach the Gospel there.

The 2nd part describes at length A.'s missionary activity (absent in Eusebius). It narrates, among other things, the invention of the Holy Cross made by Protonice, wife of the emperor Claudius, and how Tiberius had some Jewish leaders executed to punish them for the crucifixion of Jesus. As A.'s successors at the head of the Edessene Church are named Aggai and Palut, the latter consecrated by Serapion of Antioch. The legend of the invention of the Holy Cross by Protonice is modeled on the account of the invention by Helena, and the legend of the portrait of Jesus must be later than the Peregrinatio ad loca sancta of Egeria (ca. 393-94), who on her visit to Edessa does not yet have knowledge of it.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Syriac text published by G. Philipps, The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle, London 1876. On the legend and its literary transmission, R. A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten, II, II, 1887, p. 181 ff.; id., Die edessenische Abgarsage, Brunswick 1880; J. Tixeront, Les origines de l'église d'Edesse et la légende d'Abgar, Paris 1888; E. Amann, Les Actes de Thaddée ou Actes d'Addai, in DBs, I, coll. 510-12. On the invention of the Holy Cross (Protonice): E. Nestle, De S. Croce. Ein Beitrag zur christlichen Legendengeschichte, Berlin 1889. On the portrait of Christ: E. v. Dobschütz, Christusbilder, Leipzig 1899, pp. 102-96; P. Perdrizet, De la Véronique et de Sainte Véronique, in Seminarum Kondohovianum, 5 (1932), pp. 1-15; S. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922 (on p. 28 he informs about the Syriac and Armenian manuscripts, and on p. 98 about the legend of the invention of the Cross). The ordination of Palut is scarcely plausible: W. Bauer, Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei in ältesten Christentum, Tübingen 1934, pp. 22 ff., 25 (on p. 143 ff. he also deals with archives in the legends). On the dependence on Eusebius: E. Peterson, Elc Geig. Epigraphische, formgeschichtliche und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Göttingen 1926, p. 217 ff.

Erik Peterson

@incollection{ec1_addai_dottrina_di, author = {Peterson, Erik}, title = {Addai, dottrina di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {290--292}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/addai-dottrina-di} }

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Addai, Doctrine of

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