Editing Abgar V (section)

=== Critical scholarship ===
A number of contemporary scholars have suggested origins of the tradition of Abgar's conversion apart from historical record. [[Walter Bauer]] argued the legend was written without sources to reinforce [[group cohesiveness]], [[orthodoxy]], and [[apostolic succession]] against [[heretical]] [[schism]]atics.{{sfn|Bauer|1971|loc=Chapter 1}} However, several distinct sources, known to have not been in contact with one another, claimed to have seen the letters in the archives, so his claim is suspect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://newadvent.org/fathers/0859.htm|title = CHURCH FATHERS: History of Armenia (Moses of Chorene)}}</ref>

Significant advances in scholarship on the topic have been made{{sfn|Camplani|2009|p=253}} including Desreumaux's translation with commentary,<ref>Histoire du roi Abgar et de Jésus, Présentation et traduction du texte syriaque intégral de la Doctrine d’Addaï par. A. Desreumaux, Brepols, Paris 1993.</ref> M. Illert's collection of textual witnesses to the legend,<ref>M. Illert (ed.), Doctrina Addai. De imagine Edessena / Die Abgarlegende. Das Christusbild von Edessa (Fontes Christiani, 45), Brepols, Turnhout 2007</ref> and detailed studies of the ideology of the sources by Brock,<ref>S.P. Brock, Eusebius and Syriac Christianity, in H.W. Attridge-G. Hata (eds.), Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism, Brill, Leiden-New York-Köln 1992, pp. 212-234, republished in S. Brock, From Ephrem to Romanos. Interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity (Variorum Collected Studies Series, CS644), Ashgate/Variorum, Aldershot-Brookfield-Singapore- Sydney 1999, n. II.</ref> Griffith<ref name="Griffith">{{cite journal|last1=Griffith |first1=Sidney H. |title=The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century |journal=Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies |date=2003 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=269–292 |doi=10.31826/hug-2010-060111 |s2cid=212688514 |url=http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No2/HV6N2Griffith.html |access-date=25 January 2017 |issn=1097-3702 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030821112810/http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No2/HV6N2Griffith.html |archive-date=21 August 2003 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and  Mirkovic.{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004}} The majority of scholars now claim the goal of the authors and editors of texts regarding the conversion of Abgar were not so much concerned with [[historiography|historical reconstruction]] of the [[Christianisation]] of Edessa as the relationships between [[church and state]] power, based on the political and ecclesiological ideas of [[Ephraem the Syrian]].{{sfn|Camplani|2009}}{{sfn|Griffith|2003|loc=§3 and §28}}{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004}} However, the origins of the story are still far from certain,{{sfn|Mirkovic|2004|pp=2-4}} although the stories as recorded seem to have been shaped by the [[History of late ancient Christianity|controversies of the third century CE]], especially as a response to [[Bardaisan]].{{sfn|Camplani|2009}}