The Mysterious Ethiopian Bible: Exploring the Secrets

the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian Queen's servant in Acts 8 26-39 is often considered the beginning of Christianity in Ethiopia another church tradition however attributes the evangelization of Ethiopia to an apostle unknown to us today according to the ecclesiastical history of refinius during the time of Constantine the Great two young men freminius and Odysseus preached in the Ethiopian capital of Aksum after the royal family accepted the faith freminius met with the bishop athanasius who gave him the necessary assistance and the title of Bishop of the Ethiopian Church the Ethiopian Bible has a long and complicated history that dates back to ancient times the origins of the Ethiopian Orthodox church and its scriptures can be traced back to the 4th Century A.D when Christianity was first introduced to the region the Bible used by these early Christians in Ethiopia was written in the ancient jeez language which was the language of the Ethiopian people at the time Christianity spread rapidly in the country during his visit in the middle of the 6th Century the Egyptian traveler Monk and historian Cosmos indicoplasties wrote that Ethiopia was a Christian country this was due to the ruler's predisposition towards Christianity and the numerous Christian immigrants who sought refuge in Ethiopia for the most part these were monophysites who condemned at the Council of calcedon in 451 were forced to leave Byzantium nine of these settlers translated liturgical literature built churches founded monasteries and laid the foundations of the Ethiopian Church monastic tradition attributes the gospels of the Ethiopian Church to Saint abigirima who was one of the nine migrants over the centuries the Church of Ethiopia has developed a unique version of Christianity that incorporates elements of local culture and traditions it also covers additional texts such as the pseudo-epigraphs which are not considered part of the Canon of other Christian traditions today the ancient Bible is still widely used by the Ethiopian Orthodox church and is considered an important part of the country's cultural and religious heritage how is the Ethiopian Bible different from others one of the main differences is that it includes several additional books that are not considered part of the Canon of most Christian churches these books are known as the pseudo-epigraphs or Apocrypha and have the First Book of Enoch jubilees the wisdom of sirach and others they were included in the ancient scriptures because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church considered them important and contained very valuable information another difference is that the Ethiopian Bible was written in G's an ancient language spoken in Ethiopia that is not used in other parts of the world it is because of this fact that it is not widely available and it has been difficult for people who do not speak the language to access the information in it this is one of the factors that helped preserve it in its original form to this day the Ethiopian Bible also offers some differences in the interpretations of some events compared to other versions of the Bible an interesting fact is that it differs not only in the additional texts it has but also in the Canon itself the Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is slightly different from that of other Christian traditions for example a narrow version contains 81 books 27 books in the New Testament all the Old Testament books that are in the Septuagint the apocryphal Enoch jubilees the books of Ezra and three books of Maccabees the expanded ethiopic Canon contains the listed books together with four books of the Synod of church practices two books of The Testament and the ethiopic versions of the Epistle of Clement and the didascalia what does the Ethiopian Bible say about Jesus as far as Jesus Christ is concerned the main story is presented which is also found in other Christian Bibles the main difference as we have already said is in the interpretation of some events the story of Jesus and the ethiopic scriptures begins with the prophecy of his coming into the world and continues with the accounts of his birth life teaching Miracles death and Resurrection the Ethiopian Church believes that Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God the second person of the Holy Trinity and the savior of mankind the Ethiopian Church accepts that Jesus is fully God and fully human emphasizing his divinity more than his Humanity it also emphasizes the role of the Virgin Mary in the Life of Christ as well as the importance of prayer and fasting in following Jesus how come no one is talking about the ancient Ethiopian Bible that has all the original Scrolls yes it is indeed only in recent years that this ancient Bible has become more widely discussed but the Ethiopian church does not possess the original Scrolls of the Bible which are believed to have been written on parchment or Papyrus and have not survived to this day it preserves copies and translations of the original texts which are still considered sacred and authoritative today it is believed that the Ethiopian Bible is not as well known in the west and among non-ethopian communities due to the lack of translations into other languages and the fact that the Ethiopian church is relatively small isolated Community compared to other Christian denominations in addition it has its own unique liturgical and spiritual practices that are almost unknown to foreigners another reason for the obscurity of this scripture is the additional texts included in it which are known as pseudo-epigraphs and are considered non-canonical by most other Christian Traditions however in recent years interest in the ethiopic Bible and its unique features has grown while efforts have been made to make it more accessible to a wider audience through translation and scholarly research written in the ancient dead language of Ethiopia geez it is nearly 800 years older than the King James version it is the world's first Illustrated Christian Bible and was discovered in a remote Ethiopian monastery the incredible gospels are called garima after a monk who arrived in the African country in the 5th Century according to an ancient legend Abba garima arrived from Constantinople in 494 and managed to copy the gospels in one day with God's help as God delayed the setting of The Sun let's take a look into these ancient writings and see what one of the first still untouched Bibles contains the Old Testament of the Ethiopian Bible includes the books of the pentateuch which tell about the creation of the world and the history of the Israelites as well as about the laws given to them by God it also includes historical books wisdom books and prophetic books that contain poetry wisdom literature and teachings on how to live well according to the recorded words of the prophets the New Testament of the ethiopic Bible includes the gospels which tell of the life teachings Miracles death and resurrection of Jesus The Acts of the Apostles which tell the story of the early Christian Church the Epistles which contain teachings and guidance of the early Christian communities and the revelation of John which contains a vision of the end times and the final Triumph of God two manuscripts exist garima 1 and garima 2 of which garima 2 is probably the earlier they are so named in honor of Saint Abba garima who as we said earlier is credited with the gospel garima 1 has 348 preserved Pages which begin with 11 Illustrated canonical tables in arcades followed by the gospel texts in G's the Ethiopian language of the Kingdom of Aksum from the 4th to the 7th Century which became and Remains the religious language of the Ethiopian Church garima 2 also in Jesus is a Tome of 322 pages it has 17 Illustrated Pages including four fine portraits of evangelists preceding the respective gospels and a separate portrait of eusebius of caesarea preceding his canonical tables the portraits of Matthew Luke and John are presented frontally and are barely perceptibly different but that of Mark which represent him in profile on the Episcopal Throne of Alexandria another Illustrated page depicts Solomon's Temple and perhaps the Fountain of Life with an unusual shaped staircase unique to Christian iconography the Miniatures are in a widespread Byzantine Style and stylistically correspond to the dating of the 6th century while the text is certainly written in Ethiopia some Scholars such as Marilyn heldman argue that The Illustrated pages may have been imported in finished form from ancient Syria or Egypt while Jacques Mercier argues that both the text and the illustrations were undoubtedly made in Ethiopia the texts of the two manuscripts differ and garima 1 does not appear to derive directly from grima 2 suggesting that the common translation from which they derive is likely to be considerably earlier therefore the ethiopic translation of the Gospel may be older than thought garima one's cover is the original making it the oldest cover in the world still attached to its book it is followed by the gospel of Saint Cuthbert from the 7th century the cover is made of copper and has gilding with a wooden backing and its decoration is centered with a large cross poles that may have been made for Jewels are now empty the incredible Relic is kept in the garima monastery near adwa in the north of the country which is located in the Tigre region at an altitude of 7 000 meters the survival of the Gospel is amazing considering that the country was subjected to Muslim Invasion Italian invasion and a fire in the 1930s which destroyed the Church of the monastery the exact story of finding the Ethiopian gospel is not clear but it is known that the Bible was discovered by chance Travelers in the 1950s who took pictures of it later these served for the detailed examination and study of the book as well as the establishment of its great value carbon dating gives dates between the years 330 and 650 which tantalizingly coincides with the date ABA garima arrived in the country even if he did not complete the task in one day as tradition has it the evidence suggests that it is quite possible that he held in his hands the first volume of the ancient Bible Blair Pride of the Ethiopian Heritage fund stated in an interview Ethiopia has been overlooked as a source of these fantastic things many of these old Christian relics can only be reached by hiking and climbing to remote monasteries as roads in these mountainous areas are limited the garima gospels have been kept in a high and dry place which has helped preserve them all these years and they are kept in the dark so the colors look fresh the pages were crudely stitched in a 1960s restoration some of them wouldn't even turn and were falling apart for us this was the most amazing of all our projects and the patriarch the head of the Ethiopian church had to give his permission we are currently undertaking other programs for the restoration of wall paintings and religious texts what more of our history is hidden in the hard to reach corners of Ethiopia we can only guess one thing is for sure follow the channel of Consciousness because in it you will find more such little-known but very important knowledge support us by subscribing to the channel and sharing this video

Channel: Consciousness

Views: 794,301

Keywords: the oldest bible in the world, the hidden teachings, jesus, bible, jesus teachings, spirituality, wisdom, Bible, church, Jesus, bible discoveries, bible archaeological discoveries, ancient bible discoveries, new bible archeology discoveries, biblical archaeological discoveries, archaeological discoveries, recent archaeological discoveries, ethiopian bible, Geez, the history of the Israelites, Garima, Mysterious Ethiopian Bible, Exploring the Secrets, ethiopian orthodox, old testament

Id: Ppvh5tzrgc4

Length: 12min 27sec (747 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023