city
Edessa
Şanlıurfa, Turkey
37.160, 38.796
Attested. A Christian community by the late second or early third century is well supported. The Abgar story is later legend.
A Syriac-speaking city that became an early center of Christianity east of the Euphrates. The Abgar legend, which makes the king a correspondent of Jesus, is not treated by historians as contemporary evidence.
Sources
No separate modern citation is attached to this place. The confidence note above is the atlas summary of the evidence.
Cited notes
30. Legend: King Abgar writes to Jesus, and Thaddeus is sent to Edessa (tradition, as reported by Eusebius).
Eusebius, Church History I.13 (NPNF2 1) · Verified in the source note
350. Remains of Thomas said to have been brought from India to Edessa (tradition).
NPNF2 1, note on Eusebius III.1 · Verified in the source note
400. The Doctrine of Addai says Edessa's church read 'the New of the Diatessaron' (Tatian's harmony), not the four separate gospels.
Doctrine of Addai (ANF8, Syriac Documents) · Verified in the source note
75. Mara bar Serapion, a non-Christian Syriac writer, mentions the Jews' killing of 'their Wise King' (identification with Jesus is debated; date 1st-3rd c.).
Letter of Mara bar Serapion (ANF8) · Verified in the source note
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.