ethiopia and christianity

[randomlyblanks]

What are the ties to Ethiopia? I know that The Ark of the Covenant is claimed to be there. Also I've heard that Mary was Ethiopian. Where'd all this come from? Any merit to it?

[Boris B]

Ethiopia is fairly close to the ancient land of Judea - a short trip across the Red Sea. There are a lot of Ethiopian Jews, and they are not recent immigrants by any means (I'd guess how long they've been there, but I'd be wrong). Anyway, the point is that Ethiopia has long been something of a melting pot, located as it is near a lot of important (and ancient) shipping lanes, giving it easy access to Egypt, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Mecca - a surprising number of really important civilizations.

That's all I really know on the subject.

[Beruang]

I asked an Africanist this once, and she said one of the evangelists went there and founded a church. I forget which one.

Perhaps a related question: are the Ethiopian Christians related to the Copts?



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"The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured." Walter Lord

[Arnold Winkelried]

I've read various snippets about christian/jewish worship in Ethiopia. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will correct my errors, but I remember the following trivia:

The biblical "Queen of Sheba" returned to Ethiopia a believer in the god of the Ancient Testament. In Matthew's gospel Jesus says something about her great faith. According to some (ethiopian?) texts, the son of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant back to a church in Ethiopia.

The apostle of St. Matthew is said to have converted some Ethiopians to Christianity.

Then St. Frumentius helped convert many more Ethiopians to Christianity, sometime in the 4th century A.D. (which would make the Ethiopian Christian church older than many of the European churches.)

[Boris B]

http://i-cias.com/e.o/coptic_c.htm
That link talks about the Copts and their Egyptian and Ethiopian branches. One thing I didn't realize: Copts have their own pope. So now when somebody say, the Pope is in town, say, "Which pope? The Pope of Rome or the Pope of Alexandria?" The Eastern Orthodox folks have the same kind of thing but I think he's a Patriarch.

[Markxxx]

Actually the Ethiopian Church broke with the Copts. Now they are about 40% of the population of Ethiopia and about 50% of Eritrea. Soon the Muslims will eclipse Christianity in both countries.

Most likely it'll go the way of Christian Egyptians.

[thirdwarning]

I thought it was Thomas who went to Africa. Of course, that's off the top of my head, so...
Also, isn't there a connection in there somewhere with Simon of Cyrene? (He carried the cross for Jesus.)
Wasn't it Philip who taught the Ethiopian eunuch about how the prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus? I remember they sat in the chariot together and read it.

[torq]

Yes, it was Philip in the chariot with the eunuch (or maybe it was Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the knife).

[RobRoy]

Not to rant, but when the revisionist thing comes up, and the example of Ethiopia, it really points out how it's revisionist EUROPEAN history that is really out to lunch. Ethiopia has a very long history, which interlaces with that of Persia, the Hebrews, Egypt and Islam.

The Falashim Jews trace their ancestry to Moses back so far they don't even celebrate Channuka - it happened after they left. At first that was the "proof" they weren't Jews, then some other evidence came to light and the fact that they didn't celebrate it was the "proof" that their ancient claims were true.

Ethiopians were praised by Herodotus as the most beautiful people he had ever seen (think super model Iman).

They were one of the early converts to Christianity and it's hold out for a long time in the area.

A great culture that in America is depicted as a bunch of starving people without a history...sad.

[RobRoy]

I'm not sure on this one, but I think Haile Salasse was the end of the longest reigning dynasty in the world?

[curwin]

This was something that really bothered me from that 1984 song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All". It was the British precursor to "We Are the World".

Why in the world should the Ethiopians who aren't Christian need to know it's Christmas? It seemed like they were focusing more on that than on their lack of food.

[APB]

Originally posted by curwin
This was something that really bothered me from that 1984 song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All". It was the British precursor to "We Are the World".

Why in the world should the Ethiopians who aren't Christian need to know it's Christmas? It seemed like they were focusing more on that than on their lack of food.

What made it really insensitive was that, as Ethiopia still uses the Julian calendar, it wasn't their Christmas time.

[Irishman]

Curwin, the non-christians need to know it's Christmas time because they need to be converted to christianity and "saved". Nevermind that they're starving.

But as was pointed out, many of the Ethiopians are christians.

[Ivar]

[i]
Ethiopians were praised by Herodotus as the most beautiful people he had ever seen (think super model Iman).

[/B]

Iman is Somali, not Ethiopian, but definitely beautiful.

[Tamerlane]

RobRoy:

I'm not sure on this one, but I think Haile Selassie was the end of the longest reigning dynasty in the world?

Probably not, although that's certainly the legend. Haile Selassie's family line can be traced back, at best, to Yehuno Amlak, who founded that dynastic line in 1270 A.D. ( so it's still pretty old ). Directly he traces back to Menelik, King of the province of Shoa who seized the Imperial throne in 1889 ( there was an interregnum 1777-1855 - the <i>Zamana Masafent</i>, or "Age of Princes". Subsequently different regional princes seized power). The claim is that Yehuno Amlak was actually the "restorer" of a dynasty that dated back to the biblical Solomon, but that's really more deliberately manufactured fable than fact. Yehuno Amlak was in fact a usurper and needed to buoy his position. A noble descent is a pretty handy way to do so :D . A similar tact was taken by the 16th century Persian dynasty of the Safavids that attempted to link themselves back to the Achaemenids ( who Alexander the Great conquered back in the 4th century B.C. ).

- Tamerlane

[blainer]

My parents lived in Ethiopia for 5 years. They have posters all over the house that claim, "Ethiopia: The Oldest Christian Empire in the World." I don't know why.

TAMERLANE: Haile Selassie also claimed to be a direct descendant of Solomon and Sheba, for what it's worth.

[tomndebb]

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Ethiopia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05566a.htm) suffers from both a Eurocentic bias and the absence of any scholarship that has come to light since it was written over 80 years ago, but it does have a fairly extensive section on the development of the Monophysite Christian Church in Ethiopia. (Further subject to its pre-Vatican II pro-Catholic bias, of course.)

[Alessan]

Just for the record, the Jewish community in Ethiopia no longer exists, at least not in any practical sense.

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html

It's an interesting story.

[dqa]

Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909
But, deprived of religious instruction, the Ethiopian people mingle with their Christianity many practices which are often opposed to the teaching of the Gospel; some of these seem to have a Jewish origin, such, for instance, as the keeping of the Sabbath, the distinction of animals as clean and unclean, and the custom of marrying a widow to the nearest relative of her deceased husband.

I have heard that the Christian community in Ethiopia is more Jewish in its practice than anywhere else in the world, and likewise the Jewish community there practices a more Christian version of its rituals than found elsewhere. Tried to find a good cite for this, but it may be that it refers only to the Falas Mora, not the Jewish community throughout the country.

An excellent autobiography on growing up in Ethiopia is Notes from the Hyena's Belly (http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mezlekia-notes.html), which includes several anecdotes about Christian belief and practice there.

[Cardinal]

I think that the point in "Do They Know it's Christmas?" was that there were so many people who were having such a hard time that they might not have the time to consider that it was Christmas time.

Except that apparently it wasn't in Ethiopia.

I also seriously doubt that a song written by Bob Geldof (right?) and sung by people like Boy George and George Michael had any sort of evangelistic overtones, Irishman.

[Johanna]

I remember reading about an ancient religion of Ethiopia that survived in only a few villages in a remote rural area. A religion that was similar to Judaism in some respects but came from a non-Jewish origin. Graham Hancock wrote about it in The Sign and the Seal. I can't remember the name of that religion or any details about it, but Hancock thought it had picked up influences from Judaism over the years as it existed in areas where Jews also lived. I would go to the library and look it up, but the library's closed for the night right now. Hancock's main investigation was whether the Ark of the Covenant really existed in Ethiopia (they didn't let him look at it, duh, of course), but this was an interesting sideline: a tiny remote ancient religion that no one had ever heard of.

[Johanna]

I did some poking around with Google, and found the answer: the religion is called Qemant (http://www.imageyenation.com/Naza/Lesson3.html). They were not completely unknown, as Frederick C. Gamst published a study of them in 1969 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881330477/102-1210548-0247338). No doubt Hancock drew upon this book for his research. They are considered a pagan group that absorbed Mosaic elements from their Jewish neighbors. They prefer to worship outdoors in sacred groves. They have a tradition that the founder of their religion brought it to Ethiopia from Canaan, which dovetails with certain passages in Genesis.

[JillGat]

Originally posted by RobRoy
I'm not sure on this one, but I think Haile Salasse was the end of the longest reigning dynasty in the world?

Jah, Rastafari!

[Captain Amazing]

Originally posted by thirdwarning
Wasn't it Philip who taught the Ethiopian eunuch about how the prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus? I remember they sat in the chariot together and read it.

Of course, the Ethiopian in the bible wasn't really Ethiopian. When the bible talks about Ethiopia in the bible, it's really talking about the Kingdom of Nubia, which is in what's now Sudan.

[Captain Amazing]

Originally posted by Captain Amazing
When the bible talks about Ethiopia in the bible,

That sentence fragment has been brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.