Monday, August 20, 2007
In Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius recounts a supposed correspondence between Jesus and King Agbarus of Edessa, taken from public records from Edessa, extant in Eusebius' time. The king, apparently stricken with disease, called upon Jesus to come to Edessa in order to heal him.
Agbarus, prince of Edessa, sends greeting to Jesus the excellent Savior, who has appeared in the borders of Jerusalem. I have heard the reports respecting thee and they cures, as performed by thee without medicines and without the use of herbs. For as it is said, thou causest the blind to see again, the lame to walk, and thou cleansest the lepers . . . And hearing all these things of thee, I conclude in my mind one of two things: either that thou art God, and having descended from heaven, doest these things, or else doing them, thou art the son of God. Therefore, now I have written and besought thee to visit me, and to heal the disease with which I am afflicted.
Jesus' response:
Blessed art thou, O Agbarus, who, without seeing, hast believed in me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe, that they who have not seen, may believe and live. But in regards to what thou hast written, that I should come to thee, it is necessary that I should fulfill all things here for which I have been sent. And after this fulfillment, thus to be received again by Him that sent me. . . . I will send to thee a certain one of my disciples, that he may heal they affliction, and give life to thee and to those who are with thee.
It is an interesting story and, prima facie, there is no reason to discount it outright, as much of what Jesus did probably didn't make it into the NT. Wikipedia has a detailed entry on the subject here (with the usual caveats about Wikipedia). The are a number of things scholars would do to determine the veracity of this testimony, such analyzing the period composition style of the letters, but I have some off-the-cuff analysis.
1. The story first appears with Eusebius, at a very late date.
2. It is unlikely that the king of a land hundreds of miles away would hear about an upstart prophet in a backwater Roman province. It is even more unlikely when you consider that it is supposed to have occurred early in Jesus' ministry (29 AD).
3. Jesus' is response seems overly elaborate, wordy, and self-referential, which is out of character for him. Further, both letters seemingly have phrases lifted practically verbatim from the Gospels.
In Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10, where we have the story of a centurion who sent messengers to fetch to Jesus to heal his servant, Jesus' first response was simple, "I will go and heal him.” And then upon hearing the centurions full message (“Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed..."), Jesus tells a parable to the others present and then his direct response is, again, simple, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.”
He didn't refer to his reputation or his mission to one who already knew, but dealt with the situation at hand, only making an aside that was an expository lesson related to what was happening. Though Jesus does refer to himself and his mission in the Gospels, it is usually brief and then connected to some larger message, such as prophecy or a parable.