Ethiopian Church Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... Church , one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches . Christianity was introduced into Ethiopia in the 4th cent. by St Frumentius (q.v.) and Edesius of Tyre, and in the early 6th cent. the kingdom of Axum in N. Ethiopia became an important Christian power. The advent of Islam led to the decline of the Ethiopian kingdom from the 7th cent. and to its isolation from the rest of the Christian world. After the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty (claiming descent from the Queen of Sheba and Solomon ) in 1270 , the Church was revitalized by the reforms...
Ethiopian Orthodox Church Reference library
Encyclopedia of Africa
... Orthodox Church Formerly the established Christian church of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a branch of Christianity native to the East African nation of Ethiopia , where it has played a central role in the culture of the Amhara and Tigre peoples. Although the church no longer wields the power it once held, it continues to have significant influence in Ethiopia. Scholars are uncertain about the origins of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. One traditional story states that two brothers from Tyre, in modern Lebanon, Christianized Ethiopia...
Ethiopian Orthodox Church Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... Orthodox Church . The monophysite national church of Ethiopia. The Church entertains legends of its origin in the preaching of Matthew or the eunuch of Acts 8. 26–39, but the planting of Christianity in the country actually dates from the 4th-cent. work of Frumentius at the royal court. Frumentius was consecrated the first Abuna (patriarch) by Athanasius of Alexandria ( c. 340 ), thus establishing the dependence of the Church on the Church of Egypt. It became isolated from the rest of Christendom by the Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th...
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Reference library
John Binns
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
... Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches . Although the Ethiopia eunuch of Acts 8 came from Meroe in modern Sudan rather than modern Ethiopia, Christianity was brought to Ethiopia at an early date and communities had been established before the 4th cent., when the Syrian Frumentius , who with his brother Aedesius, had been shipwrecked and taken to Axum, was consecrated as the first abp of Ethiopia by Athanasius of Alexandria, in the reign of King Ezana (Aizanas) ( c . 335–65 ), probably...
Ethiopian Church
The Bible in the Eastern Churches Reference library
George Bebawi
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bible
... The Bible in the Eastern Churches George Bebawi It is important to remember the two communities of eastern Christianity, the Chalcedonian and the non-Chalcedonian Orthodox churches. Greek, Russian, Romanian, Coptic, Syrian, Indian, Armenian, and Ethiopian churches form the bulk of eastern Christians. This is not the place to discuss the old Christological debate, which destroyed the Eastern Communion and has remained a living problem since the fifth century. Christology is the main dividing line between the two bodies. Biblical studies and...
37 The History of the Book in Sub-Saharan Africa Reference library
Andrew Vlies
The Oxford Companion to the Book
...and persists as a liturgical language in the Ethiopian Coptic Church, include *translations from Greek and Arabic and an Old Testament with 81 books (to the Catholic Bible’s 45 and the Protestant tradition’s 39). Most early Ethiopian MSS are theological treatises (e.g. The Interpretation of Divinity ), lives of saints, and royal chronicles ( Kebra-Negast , Lives of the Kings ), although religious poetry and hymns developed in the 14 th century. Amharic, the language of the common people rather than the Church and its scribal culture, grew in importance...
Transitions and Trajectories: Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire Reference library
Barbara Geller
Oxford History of the Biblical World
...the brother of Jesus and the leader of the Jerusalem church, represented the other in maintaining that the Jewish law in its entirety remained valid. By the second century, the majority of Christians were non-Jews, and the church adopted the Pauline position that the law was no longer a vehicle for salvation. Jewish Christians, diverse groups who followed Jewish law and accepted Jesus as the resurrected Messiah, were condemned by both the church fathers and the rabbis. At a time when the emerging church and the emerging synagogue engaged in a rigorous process...
Acts Reference library
Loveday Alexander and Loveday Alexander
The Oxford Bible Commentary
... means ‘down to’ or ‘to meet’). Even the timing of this journey is miraculous: just at that moment ( kai idou , lit. and behold, 27), Philip's path crosses the route of the Ethiopian pilgrim, heading west to strike the coast road towards Egypt. What is the significance of this figure? Later tradition identified the eunuch as the first Gentile convert, and the founder of the Ethiopian church (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.1.13), but this does not seem quite to fit Luke's plot, with its elaborate buildup to the conversion of Cornelius in ch. 10 . Luke lays more...
Text in Context Reference library
Oxford Bible Atlas (4 ed.)
...chapter is an elaborate attempt to ‘map’ the ancient world into which the stories of Abraham and his descendants are about to be set. (A surprising feature of the ‘Table of the Nations’ is the fact that the sons of Cush, one of the sons of Ham and often thought to represent Ethiopia, are apparently located in Arabia rather than Africa.) Much of the latter part of the Book of Joshua comprises city lists and boundary lists, purporting to be the allocations of land to the various tribes by Joshua after the land had been taken. That these lists reflect some...
9 Missionary Printing Reference library
M. Antoni J. Üçerler
The Oxford Companion to the Book
...see 46 , 47 , and 48 . 2 India The story of missionary presses begins on the west coast of India 46 years after the Portuguese first conquered and established a strategic commercial entrepôt in the port city of Goa in 1510 . João Nunes Barreto, the patriarch designate of Ethiopia, brought a printing press from Portugal to Goa on 6 September 1556 . This press was originally destined for use in Africa, but in view of strained relations between the missionaries and the Emperor of Abyssinia, it remained in Goa. One of the Jesuits who accompanied Barreto to...
Esther Reference library
Carol Meyers and Carol Meyers
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...Incident The opening four verses provide the setting for most of the book: the sumptuous court of the Persian ruler Ahasuerus (Xerxes), the only historical figure in the book. The exaggerated vastness of the kingdom (‘over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia’, v. 1 ) and of the initial banquet, which lasts for the improbably long period of 180 days, emphasizes imperial power and thus prepares the way for the enormity of the reversal that will take place at the end of the book, when Persian political privilege becomes accessible to...
The Four Gospels in Synopsis Reference library
Henry Wansbrough
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...stories in Lk 1–2 , or Martha and Mary ( 10:38–42 ), the ten lepers ( 17:11–19 ) or the journey to Emmaus ( 24:13–32 ). Luke's skill in presenting theology by means of such dramatic scenes is thrown into relief by similar scenes in the Acts, for example the baptism of the Ethiopian ( Acts 8:26–40 ) or Saul's conversion ( Acts 9:1–9 ). Luke's characters are colourful and varied; contrast the warm family atmosphere and joy of Luke's infancy stories with Matthew's, in which no human being speaks to any other, or the three main characters of Luke's parable of...
Essay with Commentary on Post-Biblical Jewish Literature Reference library
Philip S. Alexander
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...dialogue with it. 7. There are important elements of Rewritten Bible in 1 Enoch, perhaps the single most important non-canonical Jewish text to have survived from Second Temple times. This has been preserved more or less intact only in Ge῾ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian church. The Ethiopic version, which was made probably in the sixth century ce , was derived from a Greek version that is partially extant in MS fragments and quotations. The Greek was in turn translated (possibly in the 1st cent. ce ) from an Aramaic original, substantial...
Isaiah Reference library
R. Coggins and R. Coggins
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...who had plundered them. ( Ch. 18 ) This chapter lacks the usual introduction, but its application soon becomes clear. Ethiopian dynasties ruled in Egypt from time to time, and this passage concerns them. It is highly artificial: the messengers are apparently from the Ethiopians themselves, but it is odd to describe a people to their own messengers, and no indication is given of the contents of the message or of how it might be answered. Ethiopia was a symbol of distance and strangeness ( Am 9:7 ), and that may well be part of the point here. The passage quickly...
Numbers Reference library
Terence E. Fretheim and Terence E. Fretheim
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...struggles among priestly groups (cf. num 16). Challenges to Moses as a unique spokesman for God are brought by his sister and brother (though God alone hears them, v. 2 ?). The stated basis for the challenge is that Moses had married a Cushite woman. Cush usually refers to Ethiopia (if so, this would be Moses' second wife; so the LXX), but here it probably refers to a Cush in northern Arabia ( see Hab 3:7 ). If so, she would be Zipporah, a Midianite ( 10:29; Ex 2:15–22 ). Why this issue is raised remains uncertain. If v. 1 is integral to the reason given...
1 & 2 Kings Reference library
Walter Dietrich, Walter Dietrich, and Walter Dietrich
The Oxford Bible Commentary
...Tyrians, who were far more experienced in this field, actually carried out the trade. The destination port of Ophir may have been near Aden or on the Horn of Africa. ( 10:14–29 ) The Queen of Sheba This story had great spiritual and even political after-effects all the way to Ethiopia ( Pritchard 1974 ). It essentially praises Solomon's wisdom and cleverness by making a noble and wise ruler so deeply impressed by him. The story now appears decorated with exclusive gifts, much gold, and a sermon showing that the well-travelled lady has understood several of...
Order of Ethiopia
Magdala Ethiopian treasures
