Zusammenfassung
The present article proposes a redating of the apocryphon known under the title Epistula Abgari, which, for more than a century, has been regarded as the latest and the most developed version of the Abgar Legend. This study distinguishes different redactions of the apocryphon and argues for an earlier date, around the sixth century, for the compilation of the earliest redaction. It provides an analysis of the literary history of the Edessan Image of Christ in the Byzantine and Syriac environments (proving a new approach to a famous passage of the Hymn of the Great Church of Urha), and a study of the terminology applied to this very icon in the Early Christian literature.
