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The Ethiopic version of the Lives of the Prophets, II: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Ahijah, and Joel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

In an article published un Vol. XLIII (1980) of BSOAS I reported the identification of the Ethiopic version of the Lives of Ezekiel and Daniel, and I there presented the text and an annotated translation of these two short pieces, which belong in the pseudepigraphic work known as the Lives of the Prophets. A substantial further portion of the Ethiopic version of this work was subsequently identified by MR. Roger Cowley in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and he very kindly drew this to my attention. My purpose in this article is to publish the text and a translation of this new material. Mr. Cowley has also identified a fragmentary Ethiopic text containing a Life of Job and the beginning of a Life of Moses. I hope to consider this text on a future occasion and would merely obserce here that its contents are different in character from those of the work that is conventionally known as the Lives of the Prophets. I would like to record here my very grateful thanks to Mr. Cowley for his kindness in informing me of the existence of both these texts.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1985

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References

1 ‘The Ethiopic version of the lives of the prophets: Ezekiel and Daniel’, BSOAS, XLIII, 2, 1980, 1977–206. TO the works listed in note I of that article add: Delling, G. (in collaboration with M. Maser), Bibliographie zur jüdisch-hellenistischen und intertestamentarischen Literatur 1900–1970, 2nd edition, Berlin, 1975, 172Google ScholarCharlesworth, J. H. (with the assistance of P. Dykers and M. J. H. Charlesworth), The pseudepigrapha and modern research. New Edition with a Supplement. (Society of Biblical Literature, Septuagint and Cognate Studies Series, 7S), Chico, 1981, 175–7, 299.Google Scholar

2 See Rossini, C. Conti, ‘Notice sur les manuscrits éthiopiens de la collection d'Abbadie,’ JA, x. 20, 1912, 1718Google Scholar See also d'Abbadie, A., Catalogue raisonné de manuscits éthiopiens appartenant à Antoine d' Abbadie, Paris, 1859, 194–6;Google ScholarChaîne, M., Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la collection Antoine d' Abbadie, Paris, 1912, 117. The photographs of Abbadie 195 (plates I-VI) are reproduced by kind permission of the Bibliothèque Nationale.Google Scholar

3 Torrey, C. C., The lives of the prophets: Greek text and translation (JBL Monograph Series, I), Philadelphia, 1946.Google Scholar

4 Bechmann, J.Aethiopische Lesestϋcke. Inedita Aethiopica Fϋr den Gebrauch in Universitäts Vorlesungen, Leipzig, 1893, 1013,47Google Scholar, ‘Legenden ϋber Jeremia’; cf. R., Basset, Les apocryphes éthiopiens traduits en francais. I. Le livre de Baruch et la légende de Jérémie, Paris, 1893, 45Google Scholar 25–9. In BSOAS, XLIII, p. 197, n. 4, for ‘Rϋppell II 3’ read ‘Rϋppell II 5’.

5 See Goldschmidt, L., Die abessinischen Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek zu Frankfurt am Main (Rϋppell' sche Sammlung), Berlin, 1897, 1719. The text of the Life of Jeremiah in Ms.or. II is published here by kind permission of the Library authorities.Google Scholar

6 See Dillmann, A., Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der koōniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin, 1878, 12. The text of the Life of Jeremiah in MS. Peterm.II Nachtr.42 is published here by kind permission of the Library authorities.Google Scholar

7 On the wider questions raised by this discussion see Edward, Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible (The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1967), London, 1968, 3659, especially 55–9 idem, ‘Hebrew, aramaic, and Greek: The versions underlying Ethiopic translations of Bible and intertestamental literature’, in G., Rendsburg and others (ed.), The Bible world: essays in honor of Cyrus H. Gordon, New York, 1980, 249–57.Google Scholar

8 The Arabic Life of Jeremiah in the recension published by O. Löfgren (‘An Arabic Recension of the “Vitae Prophetarum”, Orientalia Suecana 25–6, 1976/77, 77–105) is confined to verses 1–3 and is too brief to be of help.

9 Cf. Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, 55–6.

10 For the Greek texts see Torrey, The lives of the prophets; Schermann, T., Prophetarum Vita Fabulosae, Indices Apostolorum Disciplorumque Domini (Teubner Series), Leipzing, 1907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 E., Nestle, Syriac grammar (English edition, 1889).Google Scholar

12 The lives of the prophets, 14.