Bible translations into Geʽez
Topic: Religion
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Bible translations into Geʽez, an ancient South Semitic language of the Ethiopian branch, date back to the 6th century at least, making them one of the world's oldest Bible translations.[1][2]
Translations of the Bible in Ge'ez, in a predecessor of the Ge'ez script which did not possess vowels, were created between the 5th and 7th century,[2] soon after the Christianization of Ethiopia in the 4th century.[3] The milestones of the modern editions were the Roman edition of the New Testament in 1548 edited by Tasfa Seyon, which is the editio princeps,[4] and the critical edition of the New Testament by Thomas P. Platt in 1830 (his edition of the Geʽez four Gospels was first published in 1826[4]).[5]
The Garima Gospels are the oldest translation of the Bible in Ge'ez and the world's earliest complete illustrated Christian manuscript.[6] Monastic tradition holds that they were composed close to the year 500,[7] a date supported by recent radiocarbon analysis; samples from Garima 2 proposed a date of c. 390–570, while counterpart dating of samples from Garima 1 proposed a date of c. 530–660.[8]
The Garima Gospels is also thought to be the oldest surviving Geʽez manuscript.[9][10]
Ge'ez Bible manuscripts existed until at least the late 17th century.[11]
In 2009, the Ethiopian Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church associated themselves with the Bible Society of Ethiopia to produce a printed version of the Bible in Ge'ez. The New Testament was released in 2017.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "A New Translation for one of the World's Oldest Scriptures" (in en-GB). 2017-12-08. https://scottishbiblesociety.org/2017/12/geez-new-testament-ethiopia-new-translation-one-worlds-oldest-scriptures/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Geʿez language" (in en). https://www.britannica.com/topic/Geez-language.
- ↑ "African Christianity in Ethiopia". https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acet/hd_acet.htm.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Zuurmond, Rochus (2013). "Chapter Nine - Ethiopic version of the New Testament". in Ehrman, Bart D. (in en). The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis.. New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents, volume 42 (2nd ed.). BRILL. pp. 249. doi:10.1163/9789004236554. ISBN 978-90-04-23604-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=guYq9rohFQ8C&q=Testamentum+Novum+1548+tasfa&pg=PA249.
- ↑ "Information and Notes". https://www.tau.ac.il/~hacohen/NT/Information.html.
- ↑ "Ethiopian Bible is the oldest and complete bible on earth.". 31 August 2016. http://www.ancient-origine.com/ethiopian-bible-oldest-complete-bible-earth/.
- ↑ Taylor, Jerome (6 July 2010). "Unearthed, the ancient texts that tell story of Christianity". The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/unearthed-the-ancient-texts-that-tell-story-of-christianity-2019188.html.
- ↑ Bausi, Alessandro (5 November 2013). "Ethiopia and the Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity: The Garimā Gospels in Context" (Summary of conference proceedings). Ethiopian Heritage Fund. p. 2. http://www.ethiopianheritagefund.org/document-page-2.
- ↑ Bailey, Martin (2010-07-14). "Discovery of earliest illustrated manuscript". Theartnewspaper.com. https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2010/07/discovery-of-earliest-illuminated.html.
- ↑ "The Arts Newspaper June 2010 – Abuna Garima Gospels". Ethiopianheritagefund.org. http://ethiopianheritagefund.org/artsNewspaper.html.
- ↑ "Ethiopic Bible". https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ethiopic-bible.
Further reading
- Piovanelli, Pierluigi. "Aksum and the Bible: Old Assumptions and New Perspectives." Aethiopica 21 (2018): 7-27. Open access
- Mikre-Sellassie, G.A. (2000-07-01). "The Early Translation of the Bible into Ethiopic/Geez" (in en). The Bible Translator 51 (3): 302–316. doi:10.1177/026009350005100302. ISSN 2051-6770.
- Bausi, Alessandro (1999). "Un nuovo studio sulla versione etiopica della Bibbia" (in it). Rassegna di Studi Etiopici XLIII: 5–19. https://www.academia.edu/1613058.
- Hannah, Darrell. "The Vorlage of the Ethiopic Version of the Epistula Apostolorum: Greek or Arabic?." Beyond Canon: Early Christianity and the Ethiopic Textual Tradition (2020): 97ff.
- LEFEVRE, RENATO (1969). "Documenti e Notizie Su Tasfā Ṣeyon e la Sua Attività Romana Nel Sec. Xvi" (in it). Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 24: 74–133. ISSN 0390-0096.
- Knibb, Michael A. 2000. Translating the Bible: The Ethiopic Version of the Old Testament, by Michael A. Knibb. The Schweich Lectures for 1995. New York: Oxford University Press for the British Academy.
- Ullendorff, Edward, Ethiopia and the Bible: The Schweich Lectures (Oxford: British Academy, 1968) ISBN:0-19-726076-4
- Zuurmond, Rochus. "The Ethiopic Version of the New Testament." The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis (1995): 142–56.
External links
- (in gez) Testamentum Nouum cum epistola Pauli ad Hebreos tantum, cum concordantijs euangelistarum Eusebij & numeratione omnium verborum eorundem. Missale cum benedictione incensi ceræ ... Chaldea, quæ omnia frater Petrus Ethyops ... imprimi curauit. National Central Library of Rome. 1548. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_KPNa9Mc5gjYC.
- Platt, Thomas Pell, ed (1830) (in gez). Novum Testamentum Domini Nostri et Servatoris Jesu Christi aethiopice. University of Michigan. Impressit R. Watts. https://archive.org/details/novumtestamentu00platgoog.
- VETERIS TESTAMENTI AETHIOPICA, Ran HaCohen's text digitization of Augustus Dillmann's edited OT
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