Review of Acts of the Apostles, Ethiopic Version

Jean-Louis Simonet sends word that he has published a critical review of Curt Niccum’s book, The Bible in Ethiopia. The Book of Acts (2014) in J-L. Simonet, ‘Le livre des Actes dans la Bible éthiopienne. A propos d’un livre récent’ BABELAO 5 (2016), 117-125. This is available online here.

NB. The name BABELAO means « Bulletin of the Abelao », more precisely « Bulletin de l’Académie Belge pour l’Etude des Langues Anciennes et Orientales » (Bulletin of the Belgian Academy for the Study of Ancient and Oriental Languages). It is a scholarly online journal, see further here.

19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies: Ge'ez Versions of the Bible

Those who have an interest in or are conducting research on the  Classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez) versions of the Bible, early Jewish  literature or early Christian literature are herewith advised of an academic conference that will take place next year:

As part of the 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, to be held from 24-28 August, 2015, at the University of Warsaw, Poland.
Panels are being organized on ‘Critical Editions of Biblical Books’  (by Maija Priess, Hamburg), ‘Early Christian Literature Preserved in Classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez)’ (by Timothy B. Sailors, Tübingen) and ‘Literary Genres and Text Carriers in Ethiopian Manuscript Culture’ (by Alessandro Bausi, Antonella Brita and Denis Nosnitsin, Hamburg).

Descriptions of these panels can be found on the conference website, under the section ‘Classical Ethiopic’. There are also sections on Literature, Linguistics and History that may be of interest. See  http://ices19.uw.edu.pl/index.php/panelspapers/

The call for papers has been extended and is open until 15 December 2014. Paper proposals must be submitted via the official conference website: www.ices19.uw.edu.pl

Ethiopic Manuscripts of the Bible

Visiting SBL 24-139 has been a wonderful experience, hearing a survey of all the Ethiopic manuscripts which are currently housed in North America and which will be, by and by, digitized and - at least in part - accessible in the internet. Steve Delamarter from George Fox University (http://www.georgefox.edu/seminary/faculty/delamarter.html) does the main work here, substantially helped by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library: http://www.hmml.org/

The Bible in Classical Ethiopic, Ge'ez, is, despite its late appearance (most NT manuscripts date to the 12th-19th centuries, although Christianity entered Ethiopia before the 6th century), an important textual witness for two reasons: Ethiopia has been a long time virtually isolated from the Alexandrian and Byzantine mainstream Christianity, and most of the Ethiopic NT have been directly translated from the Greek.

I met Curt Niccum over there, whose edition of the Ethiopic Book of Acts will hopefully appear soon (so far, his edition proves the Book of Acts to have mostly Alexandrian, some D and some Byzantine readings).

Ethiopic Gospel of John

For those of us who like to read Ge'ez, the Ethiopic Gospel of John is now available:

Wechsler, Michael G., Evangelium Iohannis Aethiopicum, CSCO 617, Leuven: Peeters, 2005.

with an introduction, mentioning the kind of text Eth John reflects (mixed, as you might have guessed). The main corpus is a critical edited text of Eth John, based on the earliest Ethiopic MSS. Besides, an additional chapter lists minor variants, and another one has suggestions for the NA27 text, in Greek (for that, you do not need Ge'ez!).

It seems to be a thoroughly edited work, which will be very helpful in the future editions of the IGNTP / ECM Gospel of John volumes. In the foreword, he acknowledges, besides others, the help of R. Zuurmond (who edited Eth Mark & Matthew) and of God (who, according to him, seems to have been somehow involved in the production of the Greek Vorlage ...).

Anyone who wants to know more about the Ethiopic Bible: Take a look at the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol. I and II are now out (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden). Look for the article "Bible" in Vol. 1. Very helpful.