MELC 396 A: Intermediate Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

The Ethiopic Bible and Ethiopic Literature: The First 1500 Years

• Introduction to the Gә‘әz language and its unique writing system
• From stone inscriptions to parchment book making
• The Ethiopian Bible and apocryphal texts in Ethiopic
  • The “purity” of the Ethiopian Bible: Giyorgis Saglawi’s Argument
  • The Theory of Hebraic Elements
• Biblical translation and the development of Ethiopian Biblical Canon
  • The Book of Enoch and Jubilees
  • Paralipomena of Jeremiah
  • The Apocalypse of Ezra
  • The Ethiopian Maccabees
  • The Book of the Covenant (Testamentum Domini)
• Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal texts
  • Ascension of Isaiah
  • Shepherd of Hermas
  • Apocalypse of Peter
  • Apocalypse of Methodius and Kebra Nagast
  • Book of the Rooster
• Royal chronicles and historical texts
• Legal and wisdom literature
• Hagiographies and Miracles
  • Ethiopic Hagiographies
  • The Book of the Miracles of Mary
  • Nagara Maryam
• Hymnography, Effigies and Liturgical Texts
  • St. Yared and Yaredic Hymns
  • Giyorgis Saglawi and his liturgical texts