In the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit One God Amen.
The word Orthodox/ኦርቶዶክስ/ came from two Greek words, ORTHOS – direct, right and DOXA – belief, religion. It is used to signify the teachings on the nature of Our Lord, Our God and Our Saviour Jesus Christ based on the expressions used by St. Athanasius and St. Cyril, pillars of our faith. Their orthodox expression is “The One Nature of God the Incarnate Logos” to describe Christ’s nature.
Tewahido /ተዋህዶ/ is a Geez /the ancient language of Ethiopia/ name used to signify the unity of God’s / the Son/ Divinity with His humanity in the body of Jesus Christ. It holds the idea that our Lady St. Virgin Mary is “Mother of God”/ Theotokos/, She gave birth to the Incarnate Logos, where the divine nature of Christ
was united hypostatically with His human nature in Her womb without confusion, without mingling, without separation, without alteration or without transmutation. Tewahido/Miaphysis/ is quite different from monophytism[1], which was taught by Eutyches claiming that the human nature of Christ was fully absorbed by His divine nature.The Tewahido teaching rejects both Apollinarius[2] and Eutyches.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, Tewahido or EOTC afterwards, is an apostolic /archaic/ Christianity unchanged nearly two millenia due to historical and geopolitical isolation. The region was cut off from the rest of the Christian world since the rise of Islam in the 7th century.
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is not Coptic– unlike what most western Christians consider, although historically it was put under The Coptic Orthodox Church jurisdiction – a form of spiritual injustice. The differences in Liturgy, Architecture, Iconography and other material and spiritual values between them are solid testimonies for this. The EOTC believe in the same pre Chalcedon , three Ecumenical Councils, as do the other Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Due to this historical relationships, the two sister Churches (Coptic and Tewahido) adhere to almost similar concept of Spirituality and Biblical Christianity. Coptic monastic patriarchs St. Antony, St. Makarius, St. Moses the black (attributed to be Ethiopian origin), St. Pauli (the first hermit) and others are well known and highly revered in Ethiopian monastic communities.
Even though many kings /St. Harbai, Emperor Johannes IV…/ tried the complete autocephally from Coptic Church, it wasn’t achieved until Emperor Haile Silasse and during St. Cyril VI as Coptic church patriarch, in 1959.
The incoming of the Nine monastic Christians from Byzantine, who arrived to Axum from Byzantine Empire in the 5th Century fleeing persecution from pro Chalcedon Christians, followed by indigenous Saints like St. Yared, St. Tekle Hymanot, St. Gebre Menfes Kidus, Abuna Ewostatius, Abuna Zena Markos, Aba Giorgis (The Ethiopian- Cyril)…etc help Tewahido to be well sustained and flourished in most parts of Ethiopia through ages.
Generally, EOTC culture is influenced by these main factors;
- Judaism, which came with the Ark of the Covenant.
- The monastic life of the Nine Saints.
- St. Yared, the great hymnist who started using 'hymn notations' - symbols analogous to 'musical notes'
- Indigenous and unique spiritual values /the underground Lalibela architectures, the seatat of Aba Georgis,’ Quine[3]’, ‘Melka Melk’[4] , ‘Andimpta’[5]. . . etc/
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity is the most conservative in culture, and the most ornamented by colorful spiritual traditions and history. EOTC is the only Church with Judaic roots transformed into Christianity by its own children without any blood spill. The Ethiopian Eunuch is among the first non-Jewish converts to embrace Christianity in 34 A.D. (Acts 8:26-40). Tewahido was accepted first in the royalty, then to the ordinary people, unlike the other Churches. Furthermore, EOTC has uniquely preserved its alphabets, its own annual calendar, Holy Land heritages, post and antediluvian scriptures, and monastic traditions.
[1] The pro-Chalcedonian Churches misunderstood the Oriental Orthodox Churches’ belief in Tewahido/Miaphysis/ as monophysites during the Church Schism at the controversial Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.
- Miaphysis = unity of humanity and divinity into one nature.
- Monophysis = claims the two natures of Christ were united at the Incarnation in such a way that one Christ was essentially divine although He assumed from the Virgin Theotokos the flesh and attributes of man.
[2] Apollinarius preached the Divine Nature of Christ, but did not believe in His complete human nature; he considered that the human nature of Christ was not in need of a soul and thus He was without soul because God the Logos provided the needed life. As this implied that the human nature of Christ was incomplete, the Holy Ecumenical Council of Constantinople held in 381 A.D. condemned Apollinarius and rejected his idea declaring it a heresy.
[3] Quine is a gold and wax poem of Biblical theme, where the golden message is used for praising God and His saints. It can also be used to express joy/sorrow or any feelings, for Kings, patriarchs etc.
[4] Melka Melks are praises in poem /to our Lord, our Lady, and Saints/ which start with ‘body parts’.
[5] Andimpta is a way of searching the multiple messages conveyed by Biblical teachings.
Wow... that is great! I love it.... I hope it will have good contents and enable the people around the world know about the Ethiopian Orthodox church well. Misunderstandings and prejudgments has to stop!!!! The true faith, Christianity and all the historical inputs from this Church has to shine out!!! Now in this world, internet is the main tool for any purpose, so it is a good start to see emerging blogs and websites in this Church!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much again,
yours in Christ,
Thank you brother for this wonderful information about our blessed Faith! I am always seeking to gain more knowledge about our Church and our Tradition, and this blog will be a great source of learning for me.
ReplyDeleteI have two questions:
1) Can you explain more about the Ethiopian Eunuch? You state that "The Ethiopian Eunuch is among the first non-Jewish converts to embrace Christianity." I always thought that he was the first Ethiopian Jewish convert to Christianity. Perhaps you meant "non-Jewish" in the ethnic sense?
2) I am eager to learn more about our Adimpta hermeneutical tradition. Can you give us some more information about this?
Thank you as always my dear brother. This is a great blog!!!
Selam, -GMK-
Dear GMK,
ReplyDeleteBy "non-Jewish", I want to say The Eunuch(Bakos) was not a Jew by blood, but His religion was Judaism(Believing in Yahweh - The One Living God). When St. Philip met him, he was reading the book of Isaiah which foretold the sufferings of Our Lord.
NB - The Apostles were not aware of the Redemption Plan of God towards the Gentiles, even after the Pentecost. St. Peter was insisting not to eat a meal with the gentiles, before He saw the vision to go to Cornelius the Roman Centurion.
Andimpta and Quine are Schools of Tewahido, both of which depend on the Biblical Interpretations.
The Quine is "constructing" a short rhythmical poem or a compressed sentence that conveys multiple messages as shields (wax) for the main (golden) message.
The Andimpta, however, tries to unlock the multiple messages in any Spiritual Book (Books inspired by the Holy Spirit) - The Bible, The Hymn of Mary, The Anaphoras, The Church Creeds...etc.
Both Schools need very rigorous efforts for many years to know scriptures - and only a few could attain one of them.
Unfortunately, I am not an Andimpta scholar, but I translated the following to give you an idea how it works.
Andimpta Example,
John 1:31 “….I[John] knew Him[Jesus] not…”, the Andimpta Interpretation for why John said this ...
John said I knew Him not, [Andim] for fear of the people may assume his [John’s] testimony as a kinsman favor for Jesus, which may distract men believing in Jesus. For John and Jesus are kins by blood.
[Andim] John was a hermit, but Our Lord Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Although John understood about Jesus by the Holy Spirit, he didn't know Him by his own.
[Andim] John hadn’t seen Jesus except at his mother’s funeral during his childhood. There is lore about the funeral of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. When the soldiers of Herod killed her priest husband Zachariah[during the Bethlehem carnage against Jesus], she fled to Sinai desert. Some years after their return from Egypt, the child Jesus cried bitterly, knowing the death of Elizabeth and John’s suffering in the empty wilderness. Our Lady asked Him why He cried. He told Her, “Your sister Elizabeth died and John is alone in the wilderness”. After that He commanded a bright white cloud to carry them to the place and they attended the funeral of Elizabeth. On the return Our Lady had compassion for the child and asked Her Son to bring John to their home. But Jesus told her, “This is the will of My Father to keep him in the wilderness until He will declare my name by the spirit of Elijah for the house of Jacob. I will feed and keep him here till that day”.
[Andim] John said so, to emphasize that “Although I knew Him, I came here to declare his name to the people that He is indeed the very Christ. For this reason I am sent to baptize the people with water and to teach them about Him. I came not by myself but by God’s command. I knew Him not by my own but with the sign of the Spirit descending like a white dove on Him.”