The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
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| and since our Saviour calls this queen, 'the queen of the south' and says 'she came from the utmost parts of the earth', which descriptions agree better to this Arabia than to Egypt and Ethiopia, there is little occasion for doubting in this matter.(1) Wallis Budge, who translated the Kebra Nagast into English in 1922, also thought it was doubtful whether the queen was an Ethiopian and far more probable that her home was in south-west Arabia, but, he added, 'her ancestors may have been merely settlers in Arabia, and some of them of Ethiopian origin'. (2) It is thought that the Kebra Nagast was not transcribed from an oral source until the sixth century AD, when it was probably written in Coptic. It was translated into Arabic in the fourteenth century and soon afterwards into Ethiopic by a scholar named Isaac. In the process of establishing what has come to be regarded as the authorised version there was ample scope for introducing transformations and additions to suit the wishes of the royal dynasty and the church authorities. Although the saga does not hesitate to castigate 'the wickedness of the iniquitous Jews' and to describe them as 'the enemies of God',(3) it makes it abundantly clear that the Queen of Sheba was converted to the Mosaic faith. She said to Solomon, we are told: ... from this moment I will not worship the sun but will worship the Creator of the sun, the God of Israel. And that Tabernacle of the God of Israel shall be unto me my Lady, and unto my seed after me, and unto all my kingdoms that are under my dominion. And because of this I have found favour before thee, and before the God of Israel my Creator, who hath brought me unto thee, and hath made me to hear thy voice, and hath shown me thy face, and hath made me to understand thy commandment.(4) Such a declaration of faith by the queen who is regarded as the foundress of the nation surely helps to explain how the precepts of the Old Testament have come to occupy such a dominant position in Ethiopian life and culture. The Solomon-Sheba story is a favourite subject of Ethiopian art, reproduced in great variety in innumerable paintings which place great importance on the circumstances of the birth of (1) Antiquities of the Jews, bk 8, ch. 6. |
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