Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 39:153 (Jan 1882)
Article: Specimens Of Ethiopic Literature
Author: George H. Schodde

BSac 39:153 (Jan 1882) p. 74

Specimens Of Ethiopic Literature

Rev. George H. Schodde

Ethiopia, although one of the earliest converts to Christianity, and in former years playing a most important role in the monophysitic church of the Orient, is to most theologians comparatively a terra incognita. Even in our day of geographical enthusiasm, when men and money are eagerly sacrificed in penetrating the realms of African barbarism, and an Oedipus for the Nile sphinx is the coming great man, there exists apparently neither in the circle of strictly scientific geographical men, nor among those who like “the man of Ethiopia” (Acts 8:26 sqq.) are seeking to unravel the mysteries of God’s word, any special interest in a country which some centuries ago stood high in the ranks of civilized and Christianized nations and which has preserved a literature well worthy of better study, recognition, and appreciation. The only excuse for this neglect can be found in the fact that the signs which Ethiopia has given of her existence in the last few decades were not such as to inspire great hopes that the country and its inhabitants could form the objects of profitable study. Both in the war between Great Britain and the Ethiopic king Theodoras, a character in his way very much like Peter the Great of Russia, and also in the numerous difficulties between Abyssinia and Egypt, the Abyssinians have played only the role of wild barbarians, with a religion which is nothing but a caricature of true Christianity. The accounts of the character of the people given us by the missionaries of the London Society and by other travellers are not flattering, and we are compelled to believe that at present the Abyssinians are not a nation to be learnt from, but one to be taught. But it was not always thus. Abyssinia is now in its political and

BSac 39:153 (Jan 1882) p. 75

religious dotage; its golden period is over. Not what it is now, but what it was in former centuries, must interest us; for there was a time when Ethiopia was a mighty power, when its Christianity was comparatively pure, and a literature flourished which must command the highest respect, especially in Christian circles, as this literature is pre-eminently of a Christian character, and written in the interests of the church. The statement of David Kay: “The literature of Abyssinia is very poor, and contains nothing of much value,”1 may be true of the literary productions since the tenth and eleventh centuries, but is decidedly false when referred to the time when that country enjoyed a vigorous Christian life. True, even the literature of that period is chiefly one of translations from Greek and possibly Coptic sources, but it contains so many wo...