Table Of ContentJewish Cultural Elements in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo
Church
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
55
Series Editors
George Anton Kiraz
István Perczel
Lorenzo Perrone
Samuel Rubenson
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies brings to the scholarly world the
underrepresented field of Eastern Christianity. This series consists
of monographs, edited collections, texts and translations of the
documents of Eastern Christianity, as well as studies of topics
relevant to the world of historic Orthodoxy and early Christianity.
Jewish Cultural Elements in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo
Church
Afework Hailu
gp
2020
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2020 ܘ 1
ISBN 978-1-4632-0717-5 ISSN 1539-1507
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A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is available
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Printed in the United States of America
in loving memory of
gašše/Hailu Beyene,
and
ətete/Aregash Bekalu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ............................................................................... xi
Acronyms and Abbreviations ........................................................... xiii
Transliteration ..................................................................................... xv
Gə‘əz – Amharic (‘Fidel’) characters .......................................... xv
General ........................................................................................ xv
Labiovelars .................................................................................. xv
Vowels (first to seventh order respectively) ..............................xvi
Introduction .......................................................................................... 1
Part I. Studies on the ‘Judaic Heritage’ of the Ethiopian Church ..... 17
Chapter 1. ‘Jewish’ And ‘Judaic’ Elements In Ethiopia ...................... 19
Early Reflections and Literature on ‘Judaic-Hebraic’
Ethiopian Culture .............................................................. 19
Non-Ethiopian References and Related Literature .................. 19
Medieval and Later European Accounts ................................... 22
Developments in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries ....27
Travellers’ Impressions of the Betä Ǝsra’el (Ethiopian Jews) .... 31
Literature and Academic Perspectives ....................................... 34
Conclusion .................................................................................. 43
Chapter 2. The ‘Judaic’ Identity Of Aksum: Jewish Impact Prior
to the Fourth Century CE? ......................................................... 45
The Immigration Hypothesis .................................................... 45
‘Jews from Egypt’ to Aksum ..................................................... 46
South Arabian ‘Jewish Settlers’ in Aksum ................................ 48
‘Hebrew’ Loanwords in Ethiopic............................................... 61
The Identity of Ethiopic Bible Translators ...............................72
Conclusion ................................................................................. 80
vii
viii JEWISH CULTURAL ELEMENTS
Part II. ‘Judaic’ Reverberations in the Ancient Ethiopian Church ... 83
Chapter 3. Aksum and the Introduction of Christianity: ‘Jewish’
and ‘Old Testament’ Heritages .................................................. 85
Pre-Christian Aksum: setting a historical context as a
critique of the ‘Judaic foundation’ of the EOC ................ 85
The ‘Adulis Inscription’ ............................................................. 93
እግዚአ ሰማይ (‘Ǝgzi’a Sämay’): the ‘Lord of Heaven’ ................. 96
Establishment and Consolidation of Christianity in Ethiopia 102
The impact of the Old Testament on the Aksumite Church .. 115
Conclusion ................................................................................ 137
Chapter 4. From the Bible in Aksum to the ‘Tabot’ (‘Ark’) in
Lalibela: Tracing ‘Israelite’ Ethos and ‘Judaic’ Cultural
Development in the 6th Century CE ........................................ 139
Finding Jews in cosmopolitan Aksum: the religio-political
situation in and after the 6th century CE ........................ 140
The Aksumite-Ḥimyarite Jewish Relationship ....................... 142
Towards the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ ......................................... 150
After Aksum, to the Zagʷe ....................................................... 156
Circumcison among Ethiopians ................................................159
Developments of the EOC’s ‘Judaic’ cultural elements and
notes on the presence of Jews: the case of Eldad Ha-
Dani .................................................................................. 163
Queen Bani al-Hamwiyah: ‘Yodith’ the Jewess? ..................... 166
The Zagʷe’s and their ‘Judaic’ Legacies .................................... 170
Building Jerusalem in Ethiopia ..................................................175
Prayers of Haṣani Lalibäla: Tabot and the Sabbath ................ 177
The ‘Israelite’ Zagʷe Kings ........................................................183
The Last Decades of the Lasta Dynasty ................................... 186
Conclusion ................................................................................ 188
Part III. ‘Solomonic’ Identity and ‘Judaic’ Elements in the
Ethiopian Church ...................................................................... 191
Chapter 5: From ክብረ ነገሥት (Kǝbrä Nägäśt) To መጽሐፈ ብርሃን
(Mäṣḥafä Bǝrhan): Thriving ‘Judaic’ Identity in the
Ethiopian Church ..................................................................... 193
Developments of ‘Judaic’ Themes in Ethiopic Literatures
after the 13th Century ........................................................ 193
Enforcing ‘Judaic’ Heritage: Commanding the Innovation ..... 196
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
Kəbrä Nägäśt and Ethiopia’s Solomonic State: God’s Will
Done in Ethiopia .............................................................. 196
Ideas for Sabbath Observance in Canonical Books: ይቤሉ
ሐዋርያት በሲኖዶሶሙ/‘The Apostles Stated in Their
Senodos’ ........................................................................... 208
The Growth and Impact of the Betä Ǝsra’el (‘House of
Israel’), the Ethiopian Ayhud (Jews) ................................ 213
The Betä Ewosṭatewos: debates and their ‘Judaising’
Legacies ............................................................................. 219
Sabbath Observance: Two-Phase Reactions of the EOC
Scholars ............................................................................. 227
Early Anti-Sabbath Stances ...................................................... 227
ኢይስዕርዋ ሰብእ ለቀዳሚት ሰንበት (‘People Should Not Break
Sabbath’): The Council at Däbrä Məṭmaq and the
Shaping of Sabbath Tradition in the EOC ..................... 234
‘Pagan’ Implant on the ‘Judaic spirit’ of the EOC: The
Three-Concentric-Circle Church Architecture as a Case
for Reciprocal Influence ................................................. 240
Conclusion ................................................................................ 245
Chapter 6: Attempts to Delineate the Position of the Church on
‘Judaic’ Cultural Practices and Concomitant Impact ............. 247
The ‘Judaic’ Identity of the EOC at the Crossroads (15th -16th
c.) ...................................................................................... 248
Embracing ‘the Alien’: Firm Consolidation of ‘Hebraic-
Judaic’ Norms in the EOC .............................................. 249
Jesuit missionaries’ Reaction to the EOC’s ‘Judaic’
Elements, ‘Jewish Superstitions’ ...................................... 257
Choices between Amendments and Adjustments ................. 264
Not Judaic, but Israelite! The Decree of Aṣe Gälawdewos in
Defence of the EOC’s ‘Judaic’ Practices .......................... 265
Making Sense of the ‘Judaic’ Cultural Practices ...................... 273
Against Jewish Cultural Elements: Attempt to Establish the
West in the East by Eating Pork as Proof of
‘Conversion’ ..................................................................... 275
The andəmta texts: meant to be the final words? .................. 279
Biblical Andəmta and the Placating of ‘Judaic’ Tension ........ 285
Haymanotä Abäw (‘Faith of the Fathers’) and Fətḥa Nägäśt
(‘Law of the Kings’).......................................................... 292
