Jewish 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 Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2 0 2 0 by Gorgias Press LLC All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2020 ܘ 1 ISBN 978-1-4632-0717-5 ISSN 1539-1507 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is available from the Library of Congress. 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