Saving the Ethiopic Bible

ETHIOPIC WATCH: Ethiopian Jewry's biblical texts are disappearing. TAU is saving them. The students who have just begun their studies in the 2020-2021 academic year are all Ethiopian Israelis with Bachelor's degrees, who are eager to preserve and study their heritage (Hannah Brown, Jerusalem Post).

The program is attracting Israeli students of Ethiopian descent who are interested in studying the sacred texts of their families’ culture. These texts are written in Ge’ez (an ancient Ethiopian language) and called the Orit. The program is known as Orit Guardians. Administrators and professors hope to expand the program to include BA and PhD studies.

Congratulations to Tel Aviv University! This sounds like a fantastic program. But I hope they are give the Ethiopic Book of Enoch some attention as well. It is part of the Ethiopian biblical canon.

For another recent story about research on the Ethiopic Bible, see here. And for another on a Ge'ez language program, see here. For more on the Book of 1 Enoch (Ethiopic Enoch), see here, here, here, here, and here.

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