Kebra Nagast

The Kebra Nagast (also Kebra Negast ) or Glory of Kings of Ethiopia is a report authored in Ge'ez of the origins of the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia. The existing text was written in the 13th century AD and is considered by many Ethiopian Christians and Rastafarians as secured representation. The book not only reports on how the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon met with him begat Menelik and how the Ark came with Menelik to Ethiopia, but also how the Ethiopians from the worship of the sun, moon and stars to worship the " Lord God of Israel " went over.

Content

The Kebra Nagast is divided into 117 chapters and appears already during a single reading as a composite work. It is written in the form of a debate, the 318 "orthodox fathers " of the First Council of Nicaea. This church fathers ask the question: " What is the glory of kings? ". One, Gregor, responds with a speech (chapters 3-17 ), which ends with the statement that a copy of the glory of God was made by Moses, and is preserved in the ark.

Domitius, at the beginning of this section as " Archbishop of Rome " (ie Konstantin Opel ) introduced and referred to at the end than that of Antioch. This person may be identified with the Patriarch of Antioch may Domnus II, who was deposed at the Second Council of Ephesus. Then reads the archbishop Domitius from a book, which he in the Church " Sophia " ( possibly the Hagia Sophia meant ) had found. This part (chapters 19-94 ), the story of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, Menelik, and the story of how the Ark of the Covenant came to Ethiopia, called David Allen Hubbard, professor of Old Testament at the evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary in California, as the central portion of the work.

Although the author of this final output Gregor Gregor Thaumaturgus who lived before the Council in the third century, equates, have the time and allusions to Gregory's 15 years of imprisonment by the king of Armenia rather towards Gregor the Illuminator.

Queen Makeda learns by Tamrin, a dealer from their kingdom, on the King Solomon's wisdom and travels to Jerusalem to visit him. She is bound by his level of education and knowledge, and explains: ". From now on I will no longer worship the sun, but the Creator of the sun, the God of Israel " (Chapter 28). The night before their journey home, Solomon succeeds by a trick, to sleep with her. He gives her a ring so that her child could identify themselves to him. After their departure, Solomon 's dream, as the sun leaves Israel (Chapter 30).

On the way back Makeda birth to Menelik (Chapter 32).

With 22 years of Menelik travels over Gaza to Jerusalem to receive the blessings of Solomon. He reveals himself as his son by means of the ring. Overjoyed by this reunion Menelik Solomon tries to convince her to stay there and to follow him on the throne. Menelik but insists to return to his mother in Ethiopia. King Solomon decides to give him a company of first-born sons of the elders of his kingdom along the way. The young men who are to accompany him, are upset to have to leave Jerusalem, and smuggled the Ark out of the temple and Solomon's kingdom (chapters 45-48 ), without Menelik finds out about this. He had just asked Solomon to a single tassel of the cover of the ark, and Solomon had given him the whole cloth.

During the journey home Menelik learns that the Ark of the Covenant is with him, and Solomon noticed their disappearance. The King tries to follow Menelik, but his son will be flown in a magical way home, before he can leave his kingdom. King Solomon then searches solace with his wife, the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt. They led him to worship the idols of their country (Chapter 64).

After a question of the 318 bishops of the council, Domitius continues (Chapter 66-83 ) with a paraphrase of the biblical story and tells of Menelik's arrival in Axum, where he is feasted and Makeda cedes its throne to him. Menelik then uses the Ark of the Covenant in some campaigns, and " no one could defeat him; On the contrary, anyone who attacked him, was defeated "(Chapter 94).

The book found by Domitius therefore has documented not only the obtaining possession of the Ark of the Covenant, but also explains the origin of the Solomonic dynasty from the first-born son of Solomon. Domitius therefore praises the book (Chapter 95), and Gregor then holds a long speech with prophetic content (Chapter 95-112 ). Hubbard calls " patristic collection of prophecies ." " Without a doubt, the chapters were written 102-115 as a polemic, if not the gospel, against the Jews. In these chapters, an attempt is made with the help of the Old Testament parables and proof texts, the messianic determination of Jesus to prove the validity of the Ethiopian mode of worship and the spiritual supremacy of Ethiopia over Israel. "(P. 39) Hubbard speculates that this excerpt from the Old Testament is as old as Frumentius, who had converted to Christianity, the Kingdom of Aksum.

The Kebra Nagast concludes with the prophecy that the strength of Rome will fade behind the power of Ethiopia, and describes how the king Ella Asbeha is brought under control by the Jews in Nagran and his son Gabra Maskal his heir determined (Chapter 117).

Origins

Noted The most editions attached colophon that the Kebra Nagast initially written in Coptic, then in the year of grace 409 (equivalent to the Christian calendar in 1225 ) by Ethiopian clerics during the term of office of Abuna Giyorgis into Arabic and, ultimately, at the behest of the governor Ya ' ibika Igzi ' was translated into Ge'ez. Starting from this colophon have Conti Rossini, Littmann, Cerulli, inter alia, the period of formation restricted to the years 1314 to 1321 to 1322.

The exact scientific study of the text were encountered Arabic traces, which probably indicate an Arabic original. For an older Coptic version there is no clear evidence, and the existence of such a version is doubted by many scholars. On the other hand, the numerous Bible quotes are not in the text of a resolution adopted Arabic original, but from Ethiopian versions of the Bible that were either copied or transferred from memory. These passages indicate in use and interpretation of influences patristic sources such as Gregory of Nyssa.

Hubbard describes in detail the numerous presumably used by the author of the Kebra Nagast sources. These include not only the two Testaments of the Bible (even if the Old Testament was used compared to the New Testament to a greater extent ), but also rabbinic sources, apocryphal works (especially the Ethiopian Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees ) and the Syrian Book of treasure Cove and influenced by the works he Book of Adam and Eve and Book of the Bee.

Early European translations

One of the first collections of documents on Ethiopia emerged from the letter cisco Álvares, the official envoy of King Manuel I in the court of David II, under the Ambassador Don Rodrigo de Lima. In the papers of these embassy there is also a representation of the Emperor of Ethiopia, and a description - in Portuguese - the habits of the Ethiopians with the title truthful report from the kingdom of Prester John of India, which was printed in 1540.

More information about Arab appending the original tales of the Kebra Nagast were recorded by the Jesuit priest Manoel de Almeida (1580-1646) in his Historia de Etiopía. However, this seems never to have been published in full. Almeida had come as an envoy to Ethiopia and possessed thanks to its excellent knowledge of the language plenty of ways to gather information about the Kebra Nagast firsthand. His manuscript is therefore of great value. His brother Apollinare also came as an envoy to the country and was stoned to death along with his two companions in Tigray to death.

In the first quarter of the 16th century published PN Godinho some traditions about King Solomon and his son Menelik who came from out of the Kebra Nagast. For more information on the contents of the Kebra Nagast were given by Baltazar Téllez (1595-1675), the author of the Historia General de Etiopía Alta ( Coimbra, 1660). The sources of his work were the stories of Manoel Almeida, Alfonso Méndez and Jerónimo Lobo.

Beginnings of modern research

It was not until James Bruce, the famous Scottish explorer, at the end of the 18th century published his travelogue in search of the source of the Nile, reached some information on the content of the Kebra Nagast to the ears of many European scholars and theologians. When Bruce left Gondar, gave him the mighty Indians aces ( Regent ) of the Emperor Tekle Haymanot II, Ras Mikael Sehul, some of the most valuable Ethiopian manuscripts along the way, including a copy of the Kebra Nagast. In the third edition of his travels in search of the sources of the Nile, published a description of the contents of the original manuscript. In his time came these documents in the possession of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Although August Dillmann created a content summary of the Kebra Nagast and published the colophon, long time there was not an essential part in the original language, before Francis Praetorius Chapters 19 to 32 brought out in Latin translation. However, it took another 35 years until the publication of the entire text by Carl Bezold, 1905 ( with explanation ). The first English translation was created by EA Wallis Budge and appeared in two editions in 1922 and 1932.

Dr. Bernard Leeman, whose reasoning is generally not recognized, claims that the Kebra Nagast consists of two main documents. This therefore originate from the time of King Solomon ( about 950 BC ) and the eve of the invasion of King Kaleb of Axum in the Himyarite Yemen ( about 520 AD). His arguments for the earlier date are: ( i) the Kebra Nagast quoted from the oldest according to current knowledge points of the Torah ( including the Holiness Code ( Lev 17,26 EU) ); while in Deuteronomy (which according to many scholars came much later ) written down laws not be mentioned; ( ii ) it contains the only detailed account of both the fate of the Ark of the Covenant as well as the disappearance of the high priest of Judah under Solomon's reign; ( iii ) the ancient notation for the Ark of the Covenant in this document; ( iv ) lack of references to the later history of the Old Testament; (v ) the Ge'ez text has an exceptionally inaccurate geography, according to the Leeman only makes sense if one assumes places on the Arabian Peninsula and not in Palestine. In addition, Leeman based on evidence published by Chaim Rabin, implying that an old Hebrew-speaking population between Medina and Yemen lived. As further evidence Leeman Roger Schneider, after which Queens of Sheba ruled around 700 BC by a Hebrew- Sabaean population near Mek'ele serves.

Sources

Bibliography

• Bezold, Carl: Kebra Negast: The glory of the kings, Munich 1909.
• Budge, EA Wallis: The Queen of Sheba and her only son Menelik, London 1932.
• Leeman, Bernard: Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship. Queensland Academic Press, Westbrook 2005. ISBN 0-9758022-0-8