Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Legenda Abgar" in Indonesian language version.
Abgar Legend, [ab'gahr] The Abgar legend concerns a supposed exchange of letters between King Abgar V of Edessa (9—46 c.e.) and Jesus, and the subsequent evangelization of Edessa by the apostle Thaddeus
According to the legend a King Abgar (supposedly Abgar V Ukkama, Jesus's contemporary) wrote to Jesus in Jerusalem asking to be healed and inviting Jesus to visit Edessa. The text of that letter, and Jesus's reply, exist in many versions in almost all the languages of the Roman Empire, in keeping with the belief that the texts themselves had a sanctifying and protective power. The importance of this legend for the reputation of the city illustrates the central fact of the post-monarchical period: regardless of pre- Christian Edessa’s primary cultural orientation - whether it was to the East or to the West — the crucial factor in its later identity was its prominence as a center of Mesopotamian Christianity - the ‘First Christian Kingdom’ or the ‘Blessed City' - and it was this factor that preserved the name and status of Edessa through the Byzantine
Eusebius tells us that he translated the correspondence from Syriac into Greek from a Syriac original from the royal archives at Edessa.
The existence of both local chronicles is probably due to the high reputation of the archives held at Edessa. These were made famous by the reference in Eusebius to his use of the archives to discover the Abgar Legend. Whether or not Eusebius's claims were true, they were credible and stimulated the deposition of further documents, which would constitute raw material for the writing of local history (Segal 1970: 20–1).
Eusebius of Caesarea discovered two letters in the archive of Edessa, written during the last year of Jesus' life.
The story about this kingdom which Eusebius relates is as follows. King Abgar (who ruled from AD 13 to 50) was dying. Hearing of Jesus' miracles he sent for him. Jesus wrote back - this correspondence, Eusebius claims, can be found in the Edessan archives - to say that he could not come because he had been sent to the people of Israel, but he would send a disciple later. But Abgar was already blessed for having believed in him.
Abgar legend, in early Christian times, a popular myth that Jesus had an exchange of letters with King Abgar V Ukkama of Osroene, whose capital was Edessa, a Mesopotamian city on the northern fringe of the Syrian plateau.
