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Christianity
in Ethiopia
By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
When
the typical American thinks of Christianity, he or she usually visualizes
a religion of Western Europe and the New World. If we consider
the issue for a moment, however, we must realize that Christianity
is actually a Near Eastern religion. Its spread into Europe and
especially into the New World came relatively late. Indeed, Christian
missionaries were preaching in Africa, India, and even China when
the English were still mostly pagans.
Christianity
took root in Africa long before it dominated Europe. In apostolic
times, Philip converted an Ethiopian eunuch who was the treasurer
of “Candace” (Acts 8:26-40). (“Candace” is not a name but a title
given to the queens of the African monarchy of Meroe, in Nubia,
in the modern Sudan.) Presumably, he returned thereafter to his
assignment at court, perhaps founding a small Christian community
in the Sudan in the first century AD. African tradition maintains
that this eunuch–whom it knows as Qinaqis–preached in Ethiopia as
well. In the following centuries, Christian teachers and merchants
slowly entered Africa along the trade routes of the Nile valley,
the Red Sea, and North Africa, which became home to both Tertullian
and Augustine, two of the greatest early Latin Church Fathers.
In
the early fourth century, a Christian merchant named Frumentius
was captured by pirates in the Red Sea and sold into slavery to
Ezana, the pagan king of Ethiopia. As a slave at court, Frumentius
demonstrated great skill, eventually (like the biblical Joseph)
becoming an important minister of the king, who converted to Christianity
around 347 AD. Frumentius was then consecrated as the first bishop
of Ethiopia. Thus, only a few decades after the Roman emperor Constantine
embraced Christianity, Ethiopia had become a Christian kingdom.
Although full conversion took centuries, Christianity has remained
fundamental to Ethiopian identity ever since.
The
Ark of the Covenant
But
Ethiopian traditions link their country to biblical history at an
even earlier period. The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon are said
to have had a son, David Menelik. Upon the apostasy of Israel after
the death of Solomon, say the legends, Menelik was commanded by
an angel to take the Ark of the Covenant and a group of faithful
Israelite priests and flee to a new promised land, Ethiopia. Ethiopia
thus became the true Israel. Through David Menelik, medieval Christian
Ethiopian kings claimed descent from Solomon, preserving their Solomonic
dynasty until the twentieth century. The Ark of the Covenant, which
David Menelik brought to Ethiopia, is said still to exist in a church
there, from which it is carried in procession once a year, guarded
by a beautiful canopy from the gaze and touch of the profane.
Although
the links have sometimes been tenuous, Ethiopians have maintained
ties with the Coptic Church of Egypt for centuries. Nonetheless,
Ethiopian Christianity has remained independent in many ways. Like
the Egyptian Copts, Ethiopians accept a monophysite Christology
that was condemned as heretical by the forerunners of the Greek
Orthodox and the Roman Catholics in the fifth century. Ethiopian
independence is most clearly manifest in their canon of scripture.
In addition to the traditional books of the Bible, Ethiopian scripture
includes the book of Enoch. Although fragments have been found
in Aramaic in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the book of Enoch has been preserved
in its entirety only in Ethiopic manuscripts.
Christian
influence in Ethiopia manifests itself at all levels of society.
The great churches at Lalibela, for example–dating to the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries–represent a unique form of Christian architecture–churches
entirely carved from rock. Christian themes infuse Ethiopian art
in the fine metalwork of religious implements as well as in painting
and manuscript illumination. Biblical figures are often depicted
as Ethiopians, with black African features and traditional garments,
just as medieval and Renaissance Europeans painted Christ and his
apostles as northern Europeans dressed in then-contemporary clothing.
Today
there are some thirty million Ethiopian Christians throughout the
world. In Jerusalem, Ethiopian monks, priests and pilgrims are
a common sight. Tall and ruggedly handsome in their white pilgrim
robes, they can be heard singing psalms in Ethiopic and shouting
“hallelujah” in a city where they have maintained a small independent
Christian community for over a millennium and a half.
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