practised since they became Christians. This is possible, but there is no direct evidence that they ever were Jews (p. 294). Nor do I think this explanation necessary. A backward and almost isolated people, who receive the Old Testament as the word of God, an Eastern people surrounded (like the Jews) by unbelievers, to whom much of the Mosaic Law must seem natural, might easily evolve the idea that it applies to them too. They know nothing of the anti-Jewish struggle which forms a chapter in our early Church history, and they set great store by King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; the Negus thinks the Kings of Israel his own glorious ancestors (p. 308). I doubt if we need look further than this for the origin of their Judaizing practices. But they count St. Paul (and Hebrews) among the canonical books; they read St. Paul in their liturgy. Apparently in Ethiopia, as in some other places, he has not succeeded in making himself understood.
The Abyssinian Bible contains many strange books, more than that of the Copts (p. 265). Besides our canonical books, it has the Book of Enoch[1] (quoted in Jud. 14-15), the Book of Jubilees, fourth Book of Esdras, Ascension of Isaias,[2] Epistle of Jeremias, Apocalypse of Baruch, the Shepherd of Hermas, Apostolic Constitutions and Canons, Epistles of Clement and others.[3] It is often said that polygamy is allowed in Abyssinia. This is not true and not just to the national Church. She has exactly the same law of monogamy as have all Christians. No man can marry more than one wife at a time. What does happen is that
- ↑ This is the most famous Ethiopic Apocryphum. Bruce brought a copy of it from Abyssinia in 1773 (Fleming: Das Buck Henoch, Leipzig, 1902; R. H. Charles: The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1893).
- ↑ Dillmann: Ascensio Isaiæ (Leipzig, 1877).
- ↑ There is considerable divergence as to which books exactly are, or are not, canonical. They treat collections of Fathers, Decrees of General Councils, even civil laws, with enormous reverence, and often write them in the same book as the Old and New Testaments. Perhaps it is best to say that Copts and Abyssinians have not yet arrived at a clear idea of inspired Scripture as a distinct category, just as they are vague as to the specific idea of a Sacrament (see p. 262). Petrus Ethyops (p. 316, n. 3) published the New Testament (Rome, 1548), Ludolf the Psalter (Frankfurt, 1701); other books have been printed by various people. All these are now superseded by Dillmann's great edition of the whole Ethiopic Bible — hitherto three volumes are published (Leipzig-Berlin, 1853-1894).
