ዘወረደ

he who came down

ሃሌ ሃሌ ሉያ

hallelujah (the halle part is said twice)

ዘወረደ እምላዕሉ አይሁድ ሰቀሉ ወሚመ ኢያእመሩ እግዚአ ኵሉ ዘየሐዩ በቃሉ

ze’werede imla3lu ayhud seqelu we’meeme ee’yaimeru igzeea kwlu ze’yehayu be’qalu

the judahites crucified he who came down to them; they did not know that he is the lord of all who gives life with his word

sung by Master of the Wise Ones Tibeb

in Houston, TX in 2016.

This is the opening chant to the tsome dgwa; either one of the four seasons of the church calendar in the dgwa hymnal of St. Jared the Aksumite, or a stand alone hymnal, according to the traditional scholars of the EOTC.

St. Jared is always drawing upon scripture when he sings his spiritual songs, and so I dug into my bible to find the reference for this phrase Lord of All. It seemed both familiar and strange at the same time. I had to resolve this cognitive dissonance of mine.

I found the Old Greek phrase kyrios panton (and sometimes reversed as panton kyrios the way we find both Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ) in Galatians, Romans, and the Acts of the Apostles.

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all (Gal. 4:1)

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. (Rom. 10:12)

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) (Acts 10:36)

The context in Galatians refers to us as heirs of God through Christ who replaces the Torah which acted as our nanny till daddy came home. The context in Romans and Acts fits better with the hymn of St. Jared. I could find no direct Biblical Hebrew equivalent for this phrase (comment below if you know of any).

Have a blessed Great Fast! Crawl, walk, run, do whatever you can do, in conversation with your spiritual father. And remember to keep your eyes on your plate, because the first rule about fasting club is that we do not talk about fasting club.