A New Witness to the Insular Tradition of the Apocryphal Letter Exchange between King Abgar and Jesus Christ

This article presents the first edition and discussion of a previously unknown copy of the apocryphal letter exchange between King Abgar and Jesus Christ that is found embedded in a HibernoLatin commentary on Matthew in the manuscript Valenciennes, Bibliothèque municipale 72 (65). This copy forms part of a particular strand of the textual tradition that may be called “insular”, because its few existing early members all come from England or Ireland. What makes the newly discovered witness particularly interesting is the fact that all representatives of that “insular tradition” known before merely transmit the reply letter from Christ to Abgar, whereas here the letter from Abgar to Christ is also present. This article provides the first detailed discussion of the textual relationship between the members of the “insular tradition”. A first appendix presents many later descendants of the “insular tradition” which transmit the letter from Christ to Abgar in a form both freely modified and expanded by several additions that emphasise the healing and apotropaic power of the text. A second appendix presents a hitherto unknown Latin translation of the socalled “Epistola Abgari” recension which was previously known exclusively from Greek and Eastern sources.