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?
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.
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?
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
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.)
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.
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.
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.
Yes, it was Philip in the chariot with the eunuch (or maybe it was Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the knife).
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.
I’m not sure on this one, but I think Haile Salasse was the end of the longest reigning dynasty in the world?
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.
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.
Iman is Somali, not Ethiopian, but definitely beautiful.
RobRoy:
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 
. 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
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.
The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Ethiopia 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.)
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.
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, which includes several anecdotes about Christian belief and practice there.
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.