The first Christian Church was established in the city of Edessa, Syria. It was established as a result of correspondence between the King of Edessa, who was suffering from illness, and Jesus, whose fame as a healer had become well known in Syria. The story of how this Church came to be was recorded in an ancient document known as The Doctrine of Addai. Addai was the first of the Apostles to actually found a Christian Church. It is accepted that the name Addai is the Aramaic equivalent of Thaddeus.

This information became available for the first time following the discoveries of ancient manuscripts at the monastery of Saint Mary Deipara, in the Nitrian desert of Egypt, in 1842, and another from the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, in 1892. The manuscripts from the Nitrian Collection were published by Willian Cureton. Cureton was born in 1808. After completing his graduate studies, he was appointed the Under-Librarian of the Bodleian Library, in 1834. He continued in this post until 1837 when he was called to the British Museum as Assistant-Keeper of the Manuscripts. In 1841, the British Museum received the Nitrian Collection of Syriac Manuscripts. This event provided Cureton with the research materials that would be used to check all later translations. Upon the arrival of the manuscripts, he threw himself heart and soul into the study of the Syriac language and literature. After classifying the documents, collating and arranging the fragments and loose leaves of which the Nitrian Collection consisted, he drew up a brief summary of his findings. Cureton concluded that, in the Nitrian Collection, he had the genuine Epistles of St. Ignatius in their original form; that the previously known texts had been much altered and interpolated; and that all others ascribed to that Father were very much suspect.

In 1858, he discovered a manuscript dating to the latter half of the fifth century. This manuscript was the remains of an ancient recension of the Syriac Gospels, differing notably from the ordinary Peshitta version. The Nitrian Collection was ultimately named the Curetonian Manuscripts in honor of the efforts William Cureton expended in meticulously organizing and translating these precious documents into the English language. His devotion to bringing the true origins of Biblical history to light led Dr. Cureton to actively promote, if not found, the Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts, of which he was the honorary secretary until the year 1850. After his death in 1864, his colleagues compiled and published his book, Ancient Syriac Documents. In this book the foundation is laid for the emergence of Syriac Biblical research.