Just as the assumption that civilisation moved from Arabia into Abyssinia is coming under increasing scrutiny, so too it becomes necessary to re-examine the theories of the Arabian origin of Judaism in the Horn of Africa. While the legends associated with the Queen of Sheba cannot commend themselves as history, the hard core of the story leaves little doubt that she existed and suggests that she was more likely to have been an African than an Arabian ruler. The story of Menelik's Hebrew escort, while devoid of historical or biblical evidence, serves to illustrate the close connection between the Old Testament and the everyday life of the country and it explains, for those who have no means to test historical accuracy, the presence of an ancient Jewish population in a predominantly Christian state.

The late President of lsrael, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, took the view that had the Falashas 'been descendants of Yemen Jews it is conceivable that they would have carried an original Jewish-Hebrew tradition that came direct from Palestine and would not have depended on the Greek text of the Septuagint', (1) which, moreover, was ostracised by the Jewish religious leadership in conformity with its opposition to Hellenism. (2) The presence of not more than a smattering of Aramaic words in the Ge'ez Bible lends weight to this argument. The Jews of Himyar were closer to their Palestinian origins and remained in touch with Judea even after its conquest by the Romans. The sheer primitiveness of Ethiopian Judaism, retaining certain elements of temple worship which were considered obsolete even in the early Axumite period, ignorant both of Hebrew and Talmud, would seem to indicate that the community received very little religious nourishment from the other side of the Red Sea.

While Professor Ullendorff is insistent that 'the frequently canvassed origin of the Falashas from the Jewish garrison at

(1)The Exiled and the Redeemed, p. 297.
(2) J. Parkes, A History of the Jewish People, p. 30.