The Ethiopean Bible Resource post. The Protestant & Catholic Bible are those of the slavers, slave owners, and imperial invaders.
This is a resource post to add to the tool kit of things we can use.
Subscriptions are free.
The African diaspora churches almost all use the Bibles of the slavers, slaveowners, and imperalist invaders of Africa.
Before the slave trade the only Christians in Subsahara Africa were the Ethiopians.
The various other Protestant Bibles and Catholic Bibles first showed up with slave traders and later with Europeans invading and conquering Africa. These were the Bibles used by missionaries and imperialists to destroy the local indigenous religions.
The Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Myanmar, and Indians have their ancient temples and customs. The Japanese can talk of temples that have been in existence for over a thousand years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Treasures_of_Japan_(temples)
The Protestant and Catholic Bibles are unAfrican.
These are the Bibles of the white supremacists occupiers of Africa, the white supremacist slave traders, the white supremacist slave owners.
Before the slave traders, and the imperialists invading Subsahara Africa, there was only the Ethiopian Bible.
We need to make it very clear to Africans that the Bibles of these homophobic churches are the Bibles of those who bought their ancestors, who worked them to death, who decimated the religions of Africa.
The introduction of the topic of Ethiopian Bible into discussion among Christians not only offers the opportunity to disrupt Christianity, but also prevent alliances between different Christian groups. Church with the Ethiopian Bible can’t be a member of a Baptist convention.
The Book of Enoch is in the Ethiopian Bible.
We need to find a way of injecting it into Christian discussion and debate.
Ethiopian Bible resources.
Before we can run this campaign we will need to have some Ethiopian Bible resources.
We will want English translations and illustrated or historical Ethiopian manuscripts.
This is some background information. It is about the ancient texts in Ge’ez much older than texts in the West and much closer to early Christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_into_Ge%CA%BDez
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Resources.
This is a webpage by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is their view of what composes the Bible, it doesn’t have links to the books in the Bible. It is their official position.
The Holy Scriptures are one of the two great foundations of the faith and here is what our church holds and teaches concerning it. The word of God is not contained in the Bible alone, it is to be found in tradition as well. The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God who is the author of the Old and New Testaments containing nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. But God’s word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition. We receive the one and other with equal veneration.
https://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/canonical/books.html
A version in Amharic is available at this page. All the books are downloadable pdfs with some illustrations.
https://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/amharic/holybooks/
Images of ancient Bibles have credibility. Some sources.
Some older manuscripts are to be found here.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethiopian_manuscripts
At the Library of Congress they have the pages of an Ethiopian Gospels written in the 14th century.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_13018/?st=pdf&pdfPage=1
Showing images of these old Bibles in Ge’ez gives the Ethiopian Bible an ancient and honorable status despite the Western Christians attempts to desparge it.
A bilingual edition.
You can download a bilingual copy at the Internet Archive. It has the English version, the Amharic version in the Roman alphabet, and the Amharic in the Ethiopian alphabet. You can download it as a pdf, or in other formats. It is 3754 pages however, because it is in big print.
https://archive.org/details/GeezTRIOctateuchFIXEDWeirdUnicodeMixIpod
I need a better downloadable source.
Book of Enoch in English.
This is a translation published in 1883, with a 53 page introduction to give background history. You can download it as a pdf.
https://archive.org/details/bookofenochproph00laur/page/n53/mode/2up
However, there books that can be purchased. You don’t have to purchase them, you can just share links.
I don’ know who the translator here is, so look at it with caution.
Be careful if you are looking for the 88 book Ethiopian Bible that you don’t mistake a Protestant or Catholic Bible translated into Amharic or Ge’ez for it. Even though the Ethiopians have been Christians since ancient times, Americans think that the Ethiopian Christianity is not good enough.
When looking for neutral academic videos on the Ethiopian Bible I wasn’t able to find one on YouTube.
You can order the Ethiopian Bible online.
Black Scripture Press has this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Ethiopian-Bible-Books-Missing-Protestant/dp/1962691284
However, I couldn’t find a single scholarly published Ethiopian published. There are books on the Ethiopian Bible by Christian groups who want to destroy its credibility, but not a an academic translation. Amazon doesn’t have a filter for academic publishers.
Constrasting the Ancient Ethopian churches to some of the modern Protestant churches.
Various denominations when contrasted to this ancient church, just look silly.
Sharing videos of their ancient buildings and their artifacts gives them great authority and make modern denominaions look less credible.
The Popular Singer Bob Marley converted to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley
Use of the Ethiopian book in a campaign.
The previous links and videos are ready made to be shared.
Probably 90% of American Christians don’t know that there is an Ethiopian Bible, and I am sure this applies to the African American denominations. Just sharing a video on their fantastic and ancient churches can be done and just mention in passing that they have a much different Bible. Don’t be didatic.
You can be very indirect in introducing the Ethiopian Bible. Just bring up the topic of the Ethiopian church and mention in passing that they use a much different Bible. Let the viewer go find more info on their own.
Just post links to information about the Ethiopian Bible on social media. Different links to recommend a book, show images of the illuminated manuscript. Call it the African Bible. Have short comments like, “A more ancient Bible,” “Lost Bible books,” “A more complete Bible.” They imply a challenge to the Bible used in the West.
These low key comments can get the Ethiopian Bible worked into conversatons and online discussions and not have the Ethiopian Bible rejected immediately. You can also lead to the conversation of the other Bible books that were rejected. As the numerous different Bibles with their different selections of books, the Christian might decide to know more and get interested in these other books. Inevitably it leads to some Christians accepting these books and others rejecting them. Even if the Ethiopian Bible is rejected outright, the messy origin of the Bible inject doubts into the mind of the most orthodox Christian.
If you get some rejecting comment, always make it clear that they are using the Bible of their slave owners, or slave traders, or the imperial conquerers. Work in the topic that the Protestant and Catholic Bibles are different and so why do they reject the Ethiopian Bible.
Less direct, would be the question, “Why do you doubt the judgment of the Ethiopians?”
In other cases, where you are dealing with homophobes, you can be more direct. You can point out that they are using the slave owners Bible.
You be direct and say things like, “You wear kente cloth, but use the slave owners Bible instead of the Ethiopian Bible.”
Or you can just ask, “Why aren’t you using the Ethiopian Bible?” That can lead in why they assume the Ethiopians don’t know what they are doing.
Also, point out that their Christianity is Eurocentric and not Afrocentric.
There must be many ways to use this topic from very indirect to the very indirect statements.
Don’t use the more sensational videos about the Ethiopian Bible. They can discover those on their own. These videos won’t have credibility and basically will shut down any influence you are trying to have.
These might be useful. However, offer them on social media, that you found them interesting, don’t know if they are true. There are several videos with this them of the Ethiopian Bible being banned. Videos with interesting graphics are entertaining.
Why is this especially important.
Looking at poll numbers we realize that though Christianity in general is declining, it isn’t declining in the African American community.
Further one of the major anti-Gay regions of the earth is Christian Africa. It is one of the two major homophobic areas of the earth, the other being the Muslim world of the Middle East and North Africa.
Commentary
Christians shouldn’t be surprised that when they kick us, we kick back.
Christian Gays and some other Gays should stop whining when we decide to kick back.
We need to use effective tactics. The old atheist arguments about the logical contradictions of Christianity don’t work with people who aren’t strong on logic.
The Gay communities tactic of aguing over how the Bible might be understood isn’t making a lot of progress and is inherently a losing proposition because it drags our right to exist within Chrsitianity.
We need instead go after Christianity itself and break it down. Using psychological weapons are the best, since they are totally legal and can be very effective.
It isn’t invulnerable. It just hasn’t been taken on in an effective manner.
awe-inspiring religion 💖 and interesting documentaries. Thank you.