that there were Christian sects here
when Rome was still pagan.
"...and to be sure there were some Christian sects
in Ethiopia as far back as the first century AD."
(Acts 8:26-40
1599 Geneva Bible
26 [a]Then the Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the South unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is waste.
27 And he arose and went on: and behold, a certain Eunuch of Ethiopia, Candace the Queen of the Ethiopians’ [b]chief Governor, who had the rule of all her treasure, and came to Jerusalem to worship.
28 And as he returned sitting in his chariot, he read Isaiah the Prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to yonder chariot.
30 And Philip ran thither, and heard him read the Prophet Isaiah, and said, But understandest thou what thou readest?
31 And he said, How can I, except I had [c]a guide? And he desired Philip, that he would come up and sit with him.
32 [d]Now the place of the Scripture which he read, was this, He was lead as a sheep to the slaughter: and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth.
33 In his [e]humility his judgment hath been exalted: but who shall declare his [f]generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
34 Then the Eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the Prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the Eunuch said, See, here is wate r: what doth let me to be baptized?
37 [g]And Philip said unto him, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Then he answered, and said, [h]I believe that that Jesus Christ is that Son of God.
38 Then he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch, and he baptized him.
39 And as soon as they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more: so he went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip was found at Azotus, and he walked to and fro preaching in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
Footnotes
a) Acts 8:26 Christ who calleth freely whom he listeth, doth now use Philip who thought on no such matter, to instruct and baptize the Eunuch at unawares, and by this means extendeth the limits of his kingdom even into Ethiopia.
b) Acts 8:27 A man of great wealth and authority with Candaces: Now this word Candaces is a common name to all the Queens of Ethiopia.
c) Acts 8:31 To show me the way how to understand it.
d) Acts 8:32 Those things which seem most to come by chance or fortune (as men term it) are governed by the secret providence of God.
e) Acts 8:33 The Hebrew text readeth it thus, Out of a narrow strait, and out of judgment was he taken: whereby the narrow strait, he meaneth the grave and the very bands of death, and by judgment, the punishment which was laid upon him, and the miserable state which Christ took upon him for our sakes, in bearing his Father’s wrath.
f ) Acts 8:33 How long his age shall last: for Christ having once risen from the dead, dieth no more, Rom. 6:9.
g) Acts 8:37 Profession of faith is requisite in baptizing of them which are of years, and therefore it is evident that we are not then first ingrafted into Christ, when we are baptized, but being already ingrafted are then confirmed.
h) Acts 8:37 The sum of the confession which is necessary for baptism.
In the King James Version and the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version, the Ethiopian says, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (verse 37), but this is omitted in most modern versions.
(It's in my 1560 Geneva Bible, as well as my Mendenhall reference bible, so all of that plus what we'll see what Irenaeus wrote in 180 AD? I'd go with it.)
"D.A. Hubbard suggests that confession is "not supported in the better manuscripts [i.e. the Alexandrian text-type])", although the Ethiopian is still "one of the outstanding converts in Acts."[3"
(Well who better than a white, 20th century American evangelical to try and minimize the importance of a Black African convert? You study this stuff enough you see it popping up everywhere, and its just sickening.)
'The latter argument could be more palpable if we accept some theologian claim that St. Mark was in fact preaching in Ethiopia around the first half of the 1st century AD."
"Church Father St. Irenaeus of Lyons
(Saw and heard Polycarp, who saw John the Evangelist. Pretty close to the source is kinda the point here)
"in his book Adversus haereses (Against the Heresies, an early anti-Gnostic theological work) 3:12:8 (180 AD), wrote regarding the Ethiopian eunuch, "This man (Simeon Bachos the Eunuch) was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by the prophets, but that the Son of this (God) had already made (His) appearance in human flesh, and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him." In Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition he was referred to as Bachos and is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the name Simeon also called the Black, a name used in Acts 13:1.[4][page needed][5])
'The latter argument could be more palpable if we accept some theologian claim that St. Mark was in fact preaching in Ethiopia around the first half of the 1st century AD." If we are not satisfied with this thesis, however, we may want to validate our argument based on some history and geography pertaining to the birthplace of Christ and the beginnings of Christianity in Rome and Ethiopia. If we accept that Rome became Christian in 312 AD and Ethiopia in 350 AD, the historical and geographical facts will not match. Ethiopia is closer to Bethlehem and Nazareth than Rome is and major religions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam juxtaposed in Ethiopia. This never happened in the European context. Moreover, when the first Christian sects appeared in Ethiopia, Rome still professed paganism and it is for this simple reason that we must put the horse before the cart and not vice versa."
(And what Irenaeus wrote in 180 AD
(stated above)
simply backs that up.)
So all of that?
Plus:
The fact that they built Stone churches.
"In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, some 645 km from Addis Ababa, eleven medieval monolithic churches were carved out of rock. Their building is attributed to King Lalibela who set out to construct in the 12th century a ‘New Jerusalem’, after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to the holy Land. Lalibela flourished after the decline of the Aksum Empire."
In what is still the most remote of locations.
.jpg)
"...is a monolithic church located in the Hawzen woreda of the Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is situated at a height of 2,580 meters (8,460 ft)[and has to be climbed on foot to reach. It is notable for its dome and wall paintings dating back to the 5th century and its architecture
The fact that they
built monasteries in Rock cliffs
in what are still
extremely remote areas.
"the oldest monastery of Ethiopia,
and the most inaccessible in the world."
The fact that they Started coping over scripture
on animal skins and
teaching the populace to read and write
and giving scripture to the populace
(Via the monasteries)
on the same subject matter:
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
"they knew
what was to come
(Because Enoch saw our times)
which is
the days we are seeing right now."
All roads lead to Rome my ass.
Don't come yappin that nonsense to me.
You'll get an earful.
Revisiting Ethiopian Civilization
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
No comments:
Post a Comment