A Terse Note on a Ge’ez Jeremian Scroll Textual Variant

Originally Published in 2020

Addendum:

I long ago downloaded the Amharic Bible app from the Apple Store not knowing or caring from whence it came (John 3:8). I knew there was this automatic annoying message when you copy-and-paste the text that reads “Wongel Advocate” and has a shibboleth or two. But I had never looked deeper… till today. I wanted to attribute them properly as I found an interesting variant in their Jeremiah 13:23 that reminded me of this old article of mine that I presented at the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies.

WongelAdvocate is a website of Living Word Gospel Ministry (LWGM). LWGM is a resource for believers and church leaders in Ethiopia, we are committed to provide free bibles and other resources.

The Amharic Bible database was created from HTML file found at Bible.org. The Tigrigna Bible content was typed by volunteers and was provided to us by geezexperience.com in XML.

The conversion and storage of the content in a database makes it very useful for making the Bible available in different formats online for Ethiopian users. We have created this database and made it available through this website and on Android and iPhone apps. Both the Tigrigna and Amharic iPhone apps include AUDIO. These apps are absolutely free and will not contain and (sic) advertisement pop-ups - our motto is God’s Word: Freely you received, Freely give (Mat 10:8)

Everything here sounds so innocuous, pero like…

1. This verse was the most frequent one my alma mater Pepperdine University impressed upon us, and so I hold it near-and-dear to my heart of flesh that earnestly seeks yahweh’s fingerprints

2. I had to handtype this quote because their webpage blocks copying-and-pasting the About section. If any of you are sleuths, please track down the origin of LWGM. I found branches in South Sudan and Nigeria, and clearly this is an Ethiopian one, but not their ultimate origin. From the evidence, I suspect they are Tigrayan supremacist separatists and spooks, cybersecurity experts with direct connections to the TPLF. Their associated X accounts are: OMNA Tigray, TigraiHUB, Tigray Action Committee, Tigray Youth Network, United Tegaru CA, Tigray Adey, and Stand with Tigray. Dear reader, you be the judge.

3. Nevertheless, this is an incredible ministry, and I am thankful. I just hope I haven’t aided and abetted any war crimes of theirs.

የኀድግኑ ዘይት ጾታሞ፡ ወነምርኒ ኀበሪሁ? ትክሉ አንትሙ ገበረ ሠናይ እስመ ተምህርክሙ ገቢረ እኩየ። (Jeremiah 13:23)

This variant excludes Ethiopia and Kush altogether. Instead, it has, “can oil take away its kind? and the tiger/leopard it’s stripes/color/kind?” What conclusion can we draw from this gaping departure from the Biblical Hebrew and the Old Greek? God knows. My educated guess is that an Ethiopian scribe took offense to this verse which clearly descriptively denigrates our dark skin as a mashal for ever-recalcitrant Israel.

Most if not all references to Ethiopia / Kush in scripture are offensive. As they should be! We are not the heroes. We are the villains. God, and God alone, is the hero of scripture (Psalm 14:2,3; 53:2,3). Let that sink into our thick skulls, till we are less offended by Phrenology than our own sins that accuse us before the terrible throne of the author of life.

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Introduction

In a time when more and more Ethiopian and Eritrean faithful and laity of the English speaking diasporas (i.e. North America, United Kingdom, Oceania, South Africa etc.) are calling for an English translation of the Ge’ez Bible, it is still difficult for clergy, let alone parishioners, to access a Ge’ez Bible, let alone a translation thereof into the Anglo-Saxon tongue. 

I have in my possession a complete Ge’ez Newer Testament (NT) and a Ge’ez Older Testament (OT) with eight books (Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth) and the Book of Jubilees published and printed by the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) in 1955 in the year of mercy, according to the Ge’ez Calendar, in Asmera, Eritrea. This was the time of the first Ethiopian-born blessed and holy Head of the Archbishops Aba Basliyos. I was told these texts were hand-delivered to Merkato (the grand bazaar) of Adees Abeba, Ethiopia riding on the back of a camel. 

I also have a complete Ge’ez NT published in 2009 in the year of mercy, from the Holy Synod of the EOTC, under the patronage of the sixth blessed and holy Head of the Archbishops of Ethiopia Aba Matiyas. With the online and open-source stepbible you can get Ge’ez Psalms and Proverbs, although the former are often sold separately at almost every EOTC parish I’ve been to (either by itself, or side-by-side with Amharic). And yet, the number one preserver of the Ge’ez Bible (if it can be spoken of as a single entity) are the blessed, tireless, and decentralized abinet memhiran.

Abinet literally means fatherhood, and figuratively refers to the traditional schools of the EOTC that were the defacto kindergartens and universities of Ethiopia for eons. Students, of all ages, gather around a master of a certain field or multiple fields of EOTC education. My parents, who were born and raised in the 1950s and 1960s Ethiopia attest to learning how to read and write by recitation of the Ge’ez Bible (1 John, Gospel of John, Psalms) in three different melodies. Various students spend 1-5 years here, in a purely humanities education setting lacking STEM. This was normal procedure prior to the violent overthrow of the Christian monarchy by the State Socialists in 1975. Most stop at this stage, advanced students continue, and the most advanced become abinet memhiran—masters of traditional schooling. These masters sit in the wenber (chair, throne, see) as they instruct two to two-hundred students. Without a microphone, they implement instruction effectively through a system comparable to the mentor-mentee relationships of the Japanese senpai-kohai, and the Italian Montessori Method.

The role of digwa, aqwaqwam, and qidasé can be explored in other papers at greater length. In short, they are the traditional schools of non-eucharistic and eucharistic liturgies. Qiné means submission to God, and the holy ones he reflects his glory upon, through poetry. This poetry has strict rules for meter, singing, and mystery. Meter means the flow of the words and the levels of entendre. Singing means verifying the poem is chantable. Mystery means the Christian content is a tour de force. Various students and teachers specialize in different aspects, the complete poet masters all three. The liturgies are exercises in rote memorization, whereas this poetry has the greatest room for creative maneuvering and individual artistic expression. And qiné is the prerequisite to entering trgwamé wemetshaft. Literally, interpretation and writings or exegesis and scriptures, this is the EOTC school of biblical exegesis. If your practical and theoretical learning of Ge’ez passes the test, you may enter.

As the two historic schools that most influenced the EOTC, and indeed Christendom writ large, are called the School of Antioch and the School of Alexandria, this school may rightly be called the School of Aksum. Leeqe Leeqawint Yaréd Kasa was trained in Aksum for eight years before he began teaching at Kesaté Birhan Aba Selama Theological College in Meqele for nearly fifty years till the present. Aksum is the city, but it is also the city-state that represents the Christianity of the Horn of Africa. Due to the scarcity of physible resources, biblical exegesis has been mostly practiced daily by mouth and by ear. Those who had access to handwritten and sribed scrolls and goat-skin bound manuscripts used them sparingly, and now printing of stronger bound books is becoming more prevalent. 

Rarely, if ever, does one school site, let alone one teacher or one student or one lay person, have a complete set (eighty-one) of the Ge’ez Bible. Teacher and student megaduo Memhir Kiflegeeyorgees Weldeab and Aleqa Keedaneweld Kiflé famously hunted down the Scroll of Ezekiel, and the biblical exegesis thereof, so that they can gift its at-the-time missing wisdom to the EOTC. Their labor of love eventually lead to the EOTC Holy Synod’s Ezekiel published in 2010 in the year of mercy. Another of the major prophets, Jeremiah had his scroll and interpretation thereof published in 1997 in the year of mercy. It reads, 

Texts

“prophecy of jeremiah

this reading (recitation) and interpretation came down and descended from prior fathers (with one more meaning)

this is published (and printed), for the first time, after being seen and examined by the (standing) conference of masters”

Ezekielian Scroll & Interpretation

The Jeremian Scroll Textual Variant in question is as follows.

፳፫ ፤ የኀድግኑ ፡ ዘይት ፡ ጾታሞ ፡ ወነምርሂ ፡ ኅብሪሁ ፡ ትክሉኑ ፡ አንትሙ ፡ ገቢረ ፡ ሠናይ ፣

ዘይት ፡ ጥመቱን ፣ ነምርም ፡ ዝንጕርጕርነቱን ፡ ይተዋልን ፣ እናንተስ ፡ በጎ ፡ ሥራ ፡ መሥራት ፡ ይቻላችኋልን፤ አንድም ፡ እመ ፡ የኀድግ ፡ ዘይት ፡ ጥመቱን ፡ ነምር ፡ ዝንጕርጕርነቱን ፡ ቢተው ፡ በጎ ፡ ሥራ ፡ መሥራት ፡ ይቻላችኋልን ፣ እሱም ፡ አይተው ፡ እናንተም ፡ አትመልሱ ፡ ሲል ፡ ነው ፤ ይህን ፡ ባለው ፡ አብነት ፣ ይክልኑ ፡ ገብር ፡ ኢትዮጵያዊ ፡ ወልጦ ፡ ኅበሪሁ ፡ ይላል ፤ የኢትዮጵያ ፡ አገልጋይ ፡ መልኩን ፡ መለወጥ ፡ ይቻለዋልን ፣ እናንተስ ፡ በጎ ፡ ሥራ ፡ መሥራት ፡ ይቻላችኋልን ፤ አንድም ፡ እመ ፡ ይዌልጥ ፣ አገልጋይ ፡ መልኩን ፡ ቢለውጥ ፡ በጎ ፡ መሥራት ፡ ይቻላችኋልን ፣ እሱም ፡ አይለውጥ ፣ እናንተም ፡ አትሠሩ ፤

እስመ ፡ ትምህርክሙ ፡  እኩየ ፣

ክፋቱን ፡ ክጥንጥ ፡ ጀምሮ ፡ ተምራችሁታልና ፡ ስለተማራችሁት ፤

Translation

(Verse) 23: were oil to abandon mystery, and the leopard to abandon color (spottedness), would you all be able to do good deeds? and this means, the oil will not abandon mystery, the leopard will not abandon its spottedness, and you all will not return (to the lord). setting this as an example, it says, can the ethiopian slave change his color (image)? and can you all do good deeds? and this means, were the slave (servant) to change his image, would you all be able to do good deeds? he will not change, and you all will not be worked on. since time immemorial you all have learned evil, and since you have learned it.

Analysis

This textual tradition, even if it is still being modified in the 21^st Century, is an intertwining of Ge’ez and what academics refer to as ‘Old’ Amharic. It sounds strange to the ear of any native Amharic speaker who is not well-versed in the EOTC literature; which is to say the dominant strain of Ethiopian history, thought, and practice. There are several difficult translation choices an interpreter of this interpretation has to make. I did my best to make it not sound too obtuse, whilst still being faithful to the text. So that the text reigns above my own failures, I have left it for the informed reader to judge.

The Ge’ez tsotamo and the ‘Old’ Amharic timet are translated as mystery here. The incomparable philologer and word-sleuth Aleqa Keedaneweld, mentioned earlier, shows this word to come in both the harsh s or ts, and harsh t varieties. Prior to this paper, I have only seen it with the harsh ch sound. With the latter it is unique and means reverent, quiet, and reserved. With the harsh t or ts, it could easily be mistaken as a homophone of the variants of the word for thirst. Aleqa Keedaneweld lists this word’s definitions as: crookedness, dilly-dallying, lolly-gagging, indifference, hiddenness, disappearance, silence, mysteriousness etc. If the text is talking about regular old olive oil that you use for cooking, none of this makes sense. If the text is talking about the oil that is used for healing, protecting, and anointing (especially kings, priests, and prophets), then the element of mystery makes sense as this is the Ge’ez Rite way of saying sacramental.

The Ge’ez hbree and the Amharic zngwurgwurnet are translated as color and spottedness respectively. Nemr is translated as leopard. There are no tigers indigenous to Africa, but the word nebr is used in Amharic today to refer to them. Amharic does not distinguish betwixt tigers, cheetahs, and leopards. This word could have been translated as any of the above, but leopards are most common in Ethiopia, and leopard is the standard received English translation of this word in this passage. The shift from m to b should confuse only the most casual of observers. Hbree comes from a root that means fellowship and unity. When one thing, kind, or person gets together or connects with another. Color comes from this. Zngwurgwurnet is an onomatopoeia that refers to different kinds in the same place. This paper’s initial spark was hearing the Amharic saying “yeinat hod zngwurgwur new” “a mother’s stomach is spotted” in the context of a brother and sister, of the same two parents, whose skin shades and tones occupy opposite ends of the spectrum. Then, rereading and rehearing Jeremiah across several available translations. 

In one of the andmtas, color and spottedness are complemented by the word image, and the Ge’ez word for slave and the Amharic word for servant. And abinet makes another appearance, this time meaning example and illustration. Image makes no significant difference here, but it helps clarify the functional meaning of what has already been explained. There is some unchanging and constant element within oil and leopards. The addressees of Scripture are being hyperbolically rebuked and admonished by comparison because of the degree of their disobedience to the God who selected Jeremiah to be his spokesman and mouthpiece. The interpreters do two funny things. 

First, they add the word slave to Ethiopian (כושי kushite), in order to explain away what they perceive as colorism in the Hebrew Bible. No way all Ethiopians are dark-skinned. Just the slaves. Secondly, they immediately change slave to servant to soften and sanitize the practice of slavery for the sake of politeness. This is proto-political-correctness. The issue with the former is that kushite and ethiopian do not match up exactly with the borders of the Ethiopian nation-state from the 1800s to the 1980s, let alone the Ethiopian nation-state after the departure of Eritrea. Ethiopian and kushite are generic terms, that were likely used derogatorily similar to but not as powerfully as the n-word, describing disparate Black peoples of the Horn of Africa, Nubia, and Upper Egypt. The Hebrew Bible often mentions these peoples in hyperbole. A reworking of Psalm 68(69):31 could say “even those far-off blacks over yonder will worship eloheeym yhwh, one day.”

Conclusion

Politeness and wokeness aside, whichever way you cut this cookie, this parable is an edifying story. There is a word-of-life, or a life-giving message, meant to build the reciter and the hearer by swinging the double-edged sword that slices and slashes at the egos of both unto repentance; turning back to the Lord. We have to be open to being worked on, formed, and manipulated like play-doh. The length of our resume of evil would overshadow the legendary hair of Rapunzel. And yet, we are still breathing. Some of us, are black and still breathing. There are still opportunities for good deeds.