THE READERS FOR WHOM MATTHEW WROTE HIS GOSPEL. 187 



dismissed. Assuming that it is a Church that through the Apostle 

 sends greetings to other Churches, it is asserted that it is not a 

 Christian community in the historic Babylon on the banks of the 

 Euphrates, but the Church of Kome that is intended. Except in 

 the Eevelation of St. John no trace is to be found in Apostolic or 

 post-Apostolic times of Babylon being a pseudonym for Eome. 

 Babylon was an important city, important enough for Trajan to 

 recross the Tigris to besiege and capture it, about sixty years after 

 the probable date of this Epistle. There must then have been a 

 regular Christian Church in Babylon not later than a.d. 60, over 

 which the Apostle Peter was presiding, accompanied by Mark. 

 As the various Jewish communities in Babylonia maintained a 

 close intercourse with each other, it may be assumed as likely 

 that Churches would be set up in other Jewisli centres, as 

 Nahardea and Sura. 



In Christian tradition another city, Edessa, claims precedence 

 even of Babylon. According to the well-known legend, the king 

 of Edessa, Abgar, sent a letter to our Lord praying Him to come 

 and heal him. In the answer which our Lord sent, He promised 

 to send one of His disciples after His Ascension to do for him 

 w^hat he desired. He concludes with the promise: " Thy town 

 shall be blessed, and no enemy again shall have dominion over it 

 for ever." This promise was falsified when (a.d. 116) Lusius 

 Quietus captured, sacked and burned Edessa. Admitting that this 

 letter is a forgery, the promise it contains would not be forged after 

 it had already been falsified; it must have been written before 

 A.D. 116; and long enough before to have got such a hold on the 

 people, that even when events falsified it the promise was still 

 treasured. The Christian community in Edessa must have been 

 "both numerous and influential for a prophecy uttered by their 

 founder to take such a hold on the inhabitants. The legend pro- 

 ceeds to tell that after our Lord's Ascension, Thomas sent Addai 

 to heal king Abgar and evangelize Edessa. Without being com- 

 mitted to the truth of this legend, we venture to hold that 

 Christianity must have been introduced into Edessa not later 

 than A.D. 70. We are aware, that in assigning so early a date 

 to the Christianization of Edessa we are at variance with the 

 formidable authority of Dr. Burkitt, who would date that event 

 in the latter half of the second century. He arrives at this con- 

 clusion on the evidence of the epilogue to the ** Doctrine of 

 Addai," a document of uncertain age, which, assuming Addai to 

 be the founder of the Church in Edessa, gives him only one 

 successor till Palut, who, as his predecessor Aggai was martyred, 

 is ordained by Serapion, Bishop of Antioch. The Episcopate of 

 Serapion lasted from a.d. 190 to 202. There is something wrong 

 in this; either the traditional date of Addai is much too early, or 

 Palut 's connection with Serapion is a mistake, or there were more 



