Chronicle of Edessa explained

Chronicle of Edessa should not be confused with Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa.

The Chronicle of Edessa (la|Chronicon Edessenum) is an anonymous history of the city of Edessa written in the mid-6th century in the Syriac language. "Chronicle of Edessa" is a conventional title; in the manuscript it is titled Histories of Events in Brief (Syriac: ܬܫ̈ܥܝܬܐ ܕܣܘܥܪ̈ܢܐ ܐܝܟ ܕܒܦܣܝ̈ܩܬܐ, Tašʿyātā d-suʿrāne a(y)k da-b-pāsiqātā).

The Chronicle of Edessa is generally agreed to have been written around . The Chronicle primarily used old Edessan royal archives as its source, as well as some more recent church records, and accordingly is thought to be historically reliable. It may make use of a lost history of Persia.

It is extant only in an abbreviated version in a single manuscript, Vatican Syriac 163 (Vat. Syr. 163). This manuscript, from the Syrian Convent of Our Lady in the Wadi El Natrun, was acquired by Giuseppe Simone Assemani during a trip to the Near East from 1715 to 1717 taken at the request of Pope Clement XI. Some excerpts of the lost full version of the text—sometimes called the Original Chronicle of Edessa—are preserved in other Syriac chronicles.

The Chronicle covers the period from the founding of the kingdom of Osrhoene in until 540, but few events are recorded before the 3rd century. The Chronicle picks up with a record of a flood of the river Daysan during the reign of Abgar VIII in November 201, which damaged a Christian church building in Edessa. This is the earliest mention of a building dedicated exclusively to Christian worship, as well as one of few records of Christianity in Edessa at this time. Unlike other Syriac literature, the Chronicle does not contain any legends of the Apostle Thaddeus.

Published editions

Syriac

• Web site: 2004 . Vatican Syriac 163 . Brigham Young University . 26 December 2017 . .
• Book: Guidi . Ignatius . 1903 . Chronica minora . Leipzig/Paris . Harrassowitz . Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium . 1 . 1–13 . 26 December 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171106192919/https://cpart.mi.byu.edu/home/sec/digital-texts/chronicles/chronicle-of-edessa/ . 6 November 2017 . dead .

English

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

References

• Book: Baum. Wilhelm. Wilhelm Baum (historian). Winkler. Dietmar W.. The Church of the East: A Concise History. 2003. London-New York. Routledge-Curzon. 9781134430192.
• Encyclopedia: F. L. Cross . E. A. Livingstone . F. L. . E. A. . Cross . Livingstone . Chronicon Edessenum (Edessene Chronicle) . The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church . 3rd rev. . Oxford University Press . 2009 . 2005 . https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001/acref-9780192802903-e-1427?rskey=yZ5Yuy. 9780192802903 . Chronicon Edessenum .
• Book: Ferguson, Everett . Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity . Garland Pub. . Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity . 4 . 1999 . 978-0-8153-3071-4 .
• Book: Frenschkowski, Marco . Christianity . 457ff . Stausberg . M. . Vevaina . Y.S.D. . Tessmann . A. . The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism . Wiley . Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion . 2015 . 978-1-118-78627-7 . https://books.google.com/books?id=cm_-CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA464 .
  • Book: Myers, S.E. . Spirit Epicleses in the Acts of Thomas . Coronet Books Incorporated . Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament . 2010 . 978-3-16-149472-7 .
• Encyclopedia: Palmer . Andrew . 1999 . Edessa . Bowersock . G.W. . Brown . P. . Grabar . O. . Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World . Belknap Press of Harvard University Press . Harvard University Press Refer . 978-0-674-51173-6 . https://books.google.com/books?id=c788wWR_bLwC&pg=PA421 . 421 . registration .
• Book: 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 . 978-81-87892-40-3 .
• Book: Schnabel, Eckhard J. . Early Christian Mission: Jesus and the Twelve . InterVarsity Press . Early Christian Mission . 2004 . 978-1-84474-045-1 .
• Book: Teixidor, J. . The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East . Princeton University Press . Princeton Legacy Library . 2015 . 978-1-4008-7139-1 .
  • Book: Yamauchi, E.M. . Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences . Baker Book House . Twin brooks series . 1983 . 978-0-8010-9919-9 .

Further reading

• Encyclopedia: Brock . Sebastian P. . 2011 . 1991 . Chronicle of Edessa . Daniel . Elton . Encyclopædia Iranica . Winona Lake, IN . Eisenbrauns . http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chronicle-of-edessa-a-short-local-history-of-edessa-modern-urfa-written-in-syriac-by-an-anonymous-author-and-covering-c.
• Encyclopedia: Ginkel . Jan van . Chronicon Edessenum . . Graeme . Dunphy . Cristian . Bratu . 2016 . Brill. 10.1163/2213-2139_emc_SIM_00506 .
• Witakowski . Witold . 1984 . Chronicles of Edessa . Orientalia Suecana . 33 . 487–498.