The Hebraic-Biblical Impact on Ethiopian Religions Revisited: With Special Emphasis on the Betä Ǝsra’el

The question of Hebraic-Biblical elements in Ethiopian religious culture has long been an important topic of discussion in the study of that country’s religious history. Nevertheless, it is certainly worthy of reexamination. In this article, I argue that in contrast to the claims that these entered became part of northern Ethiopian culture very early and, in some cases, pre-Christian (Ullendorff) and the counterclaims that they date overwhelmingly to the Middle Ages, they can be shown to have arrived or been adopted over many eras and periods as a long-term process rather than an event. Moreover, I also demonstrate that in most cases these “Judaic” features came, not directly from Jewish sources, but rather arrived through the mediation of Syriac and Arabic Christian sources. These points are illustrated through the examination of both Christian Orthodox sources as well as the literature of the Betä Ǝsra’el.