the Hebrew, into African Arabic.1 In a letter dated Tetuan, December 1847, Dr. Thomson applied to the Bible Society for assistance in this undertaking, but it does not appear that his appeal has been successful. A portion of St. Luke was printed by the Bible Society in Berber. THE Carshun, or Arabic in Syriac characters, is used (chiefly by members of the Syrian churches) in Mesopotamia as far as Bagdad, in Mount Lebanon, at Aleppo, and in many other parts of Syria. It has been calculated that the number of individuals who speak Arabic, but use the Syriac character, is about one million. A diglot edition of the New Testament, in which the Syriac Peshito and the Carshun from the Arabic text of Erpenius, were ranged in parallel columns, was published in 1703 at Rome, at the press of the College de Propaganda Fide, for the use of the Maronite Christians. Dr. Pinkerton forwarded a copy of this edition from Malta to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1819. About eight years later, the Society undertook a new edition, and there being no suitable type in England, it was printed at Paris. M. de Quatremère and the Baron de Sacy were the editors. An edition of the Carshun alone, and another edition of the Syriac and Carshun, in parallel columns, left the press in 1828. 1 A portion of this fragment is given above as a specimen, with the corresponding passage from the Arabic Scriptures, published by the Bible Society. ETHIOPIC. SPECIMEN, FROM ST. JOHN, CHAP. I. v. 1 to 14. ቀደሚሁ ፡ ቃል ፡ ውእቱ ፡ ወውእቱ፡ቃል፡ኀበ፡እግዚአብሔር፡ ውእቱ፡ ወእግዚአብ ሔር፡ውአቱ፡ቃል፡፡ወዝንቱ፡ እምቀደሙ፡ኀበ : እግዚአብሔር ፡ ውእቱ ፡፡ ኵሉ፡ቦ ቱ፡ኮነ፡ወዘእንበሌሁሰ አልቦ፡ዘኮነ፡ ወኢምንትኒ፡ሽምዘኮነ ፡፡ ቦቱ ፡ ሕይወት ፡ ው አቱ፡ወሕይወት†፡ብርሃኑ፡ለአቧለ፡እመሕያው፡ውአቱ፡፡ወብርሃንሰ ፡ ዘውስተ፡ጽል መት፡ያበርህ፡ወያርኢ፡ወጽልመትኒ፡ኢይረክቦ፡፡ወሀሎ፡አሐዴ፡ብአሲ፡ዘተፈነወ ፡ እምንበ ፡ እግዚአብሔር፡ዘስሙ፡ሐንስ ፡፡ ወውአቱ፡መጽአ፡ለስምዕ፡ሰማዕተ፡ይ ኩን፡በአንተ፡ብርሃን፡ከመ፡ኵሉ፡ይእመን፡ቦቱ፡፡ወለሊሁሰ፡ኢኮነ፡ብርሃነ፡ደእ ሙ፡ሰማዕተ፡ይኩን፡በአንተ፡ብርሃን፡፡ዘውእቱ፡ብርሃነ፡ጽድቅ፡ዘያበርህ፡ለኵሉ፡ ሰብእ፡ዘይመጽእ ፡ ውስተ ፡ ዓለም ፡፡ ወውስተ ፡ ዓለም ፡ ሀሎ፡ወዓለምኒ፡ቦቱ፡ኮነ፡ ወዓለምሰ፡ኢያእመሮ ፡፡ ውስተ ፡ ዚአሁ ፡ መጽአ፡ወሊአሁሰ፡ተወክፍዎ፡፡ወለ እለሰ፡ተወክፍዎ፡ወሀቦሙ፡ሥልጣነ ፡ ውሉደ፡እግዚአብሔር፡ይኩኑ፡ለአለ፡አም ኑ፡በስሙ፡አለ፡ኢኮኑ፡እምነ፡ዘደም፡ወኢእምፈቃደ ፡ ፍትወት ፡ ዘሥጋ ፡ ወኢእም ሥምረተ ፡ ብእሲ፡አላ፡እምእግዚአብሔር ፡ ተወልዴ ፡፡ወውአቱ፡ቃል፡ሥጋ፡ኮነ፡ወ ንደረ፡ላዕሌነ፡ወርኢነ፡ስብሓቲሁ ፡ ከመ ፡ ስብሓተ፡አሐዴ ፡ ዋሕድ ፡ ለአቡሁ ፡ ዘምሉ እ፡ጸጋ፡ወሞገሰ፡ወጽድቀ፡፡ I. GEOGRAPHICAL PREDOMINANCE OF THE Language. ETHIOPIC is called by the Abyssinians Lisana Gheez or language of the free-born, because it was anciently the only vernacular dialect of all Abyssinia. About A.D. 1300, a family from the province of Amhara obtained possession of the government, and since that period Amharic has been the language of the capital and the court, while Ethiopic has become exclusively the ecclesiastical and written language of the country. As no measurements or surveys have been taken of Abyssinia, it is difficult to estimate its precise extent. It formed part of the ancient Ethiopia, and the Arabian geographers first distinguished it by the name of Abyssinia (from Habesch, mixture or confusion), to indicate the supposed Arabic origin of the inhabitants, and their subsequent mixture with African tribes. Abyssinia probably includes about 200,000 English square miles; it stretches from 9° to 15° 40' north latitude, and from 36° east longitude to the Red Sea. Its probable amount of population has been estimated, though with little certainty, at 4,500,000. II.CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE. The dialect of the Himyarite Arabs, the 'Oμnpîraι of Ptolemy, still spoken under the name of Ekhkili on the southern coast of Arabia, is the parent dialect of the Ethiopic. Inscriptions in this ancient dialect, of which the characters bear a striking resemblance to the Ethiopic, have been discovered in South Arabia, by Lieutenant Wellsted and others, and seem to show, by the coincidence of some letters in them with the system of writing in Sanscrit inscriptions of the time of Asochus, that the Ethiopic system of writing and of syllabification came originally from India. The Ethiopic possesses many of the characteristics of a genuine Shemitic tongue. It has ten conjugations of verbs, formed upon the same system as those of Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. In each conjugation there are two tenses, the preterite and the future; there are two genders, masculine and feminine, but no dual number. As might be expected from its origin, Ethiopic bears a close affinity to Arabic. According to Gesenius, about one third of its roots and primitive words exist in Arabic, and a large proportion of the remainder in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. The Eunuch of Candace reading the prophet Isaiah seems to establish this affinity of the Ethiopic with the Hebrew. Ludolf, who first made the Ethiopic language accurately known in Europe, says, that "it approaches nearest the Arabic, of which it seems a kind of production, as being comprehended almost within the same grammatical rules, the same forms of conjugations, the same forms of plurals, both entire and anomalous;" and he adds, that "whoever understands Arabic, may with little labour acquire the Ethiopic." Unlike all other Shemitic languages, Ethiopic and its cognate dialects are written after the European manner, from left to right. There are twenty-six consonants and seven vowel sounds; but the vowels, instead of being marked, as in Hebrew and Arabic, by points above and below the lines, are indicated by changes in the form of consonants; so that a single letter in Ethiopic is equivalent to an entire syllable. III. ETHIOPIC VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE. A very ancient Ethiopic version of the entire Scriptures, mentioned by Chrysostom in his second homily on St. John, is still extant, but when or by whom executed is unknown. It certainly was not produced later than the fourth century. By some it is attributed to Frumentius, who, about the year 330, preached Christianity in Abyssinia, and was ordained Bishop of the country by Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, whence perhaps the dependence, still subsisting, of the Church of Abyssinia on that of Egypt. In this version the books of the Old Testament appear to have been mainly translated from the Septuagint; in the Gospels, the translator seems to have availed himself of various MSS., and some peculiar readings occur: considered as a whole, however, this version may be said to correspond pretty closely with the Alexandrine family of MSS., as might, indeed, have been expected from the proximity of the countries and the connection between the two churches; for the Coptic Patriarch of Egypt is the head of the Abyssinian Church, and the Abuna or resident Bishop of Abyssinia is always appointed by him. The Epistles and Book of Revelation belonging to this version are unhappily very paraphrastic; in other respects the Ethiopic New Testament is of considerable use in biblical criticism, as it shows the state of the text at a very early period. The entire Ethiopic Bible has never yet been printed. The Psalter, through some mistake erroneously entitled a Chaldee Psalter, was published by John Potken at Rome in 1513; and again, in 1657, it appeared in the London Polyglot with various readings and notes by Dr. Edmund Castell. In 1701 another edition of the Psalter was edited by Ludolf, the celebrated Ethiopic scholar. In 1548 the New Testament in Ethiopic was printed for the first time at Rome, by some Abyssinian priests. This edition, afterwards reprinted in the London Polyglot, is very inaccurate; the MSS. used on the occasion were old and mutilated, and the editors filled up the chasms that occurred in the text by translating from the Vulgate. The subject of printing this ancient version was first brought before the Bible Society by a communication transmitted through the Edinburgh Bible Society, from the Rev. George Paxton of Edinburgh, concerning the spiritual state of the Abyssinians, and the scarcity of copies of Scripture among them. The British and Foreign Bible Society accordingly, in 1815, gave an edition of the Psalter, accurately printed from Ludolf's edition, to Abyssinia; and as no correct printed edition had been ever issued of the New Testament, strenuous efforts were made to obtain authentic MSS. The only Ethiopic MS. of importance at that period, easily accessible in England, was a MS. of the Gospel of St. John, brought from India by Dr. Buchanan, and deposited at Cambridge. This was found on collation to differ from the printed copy in almost every verse, and its readings were evidently more accurate than those of the printed edition. With the view of inspecting other MSS., Mr. Thomas Pell Platt visited Paris in 1822, and collated the valuable MSS. belonging to the Royal Library; and in 1826, the Four Gospels were completed, under his editorial care. They were printed from a fount of types cast at the expense of the Bible Society, from the matrices which had been presented by Ludolf, in 1700, to the Frankfort Library. The entire New Testament was published in 1830. In this edition, no one MS. was exclusively followed. The plan adopted by the editor, Mr. Platt, was, as he himself informs us, first to prepare a correct copy from a MS. of undoubted value, leaving considerable space between the lines; other MSS. were then carefully collated with the copy, and every variety of reading that occurred was inserted, in the space left for the purpose, beneath the corresponding words of the copy. Afterwards, these readings were subjected to a rigid examination; the reading which afforded the strongest marks of being genuine was retained, and the others were expunged. We are indebted to the Abyssinian Church, not only for the ancient and valuable version of Scripture just described, but also for curious apocryphal writings, such as the Book of Enoch, the Book of Adam, the Ascension of Isaiah, etc., which have been found in no other Church; their date and origin are unknown. The Book of Enoch is by some supposed to be the book quoted in Jude 14; and although it has no claim whatever to be placed among the books of Scripture, it has excited much interest on account of its great antiquity, for it is supposed by Dr. Laurence, who has published both the original and a translation of it, to have been written about the close of the first century. IV. RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION. From the peculiar character of the Abyssinians, and the strange mixture of Christianity, popery, and heathenism that prevails among them, few visible effects have as yet resulted from the publication of the Ethiopic Scriptures. The Scriptures have indeed been received with joy, yet little can be said as to any permanent change resulting from their perusal. "One day," said the devoted missionary, Mr. Gobat (now Bishop of Jerusalem), "I am all joy with the hope that in a short time the Abyssinian mission will be crowned with glorious success; the following day I am cast down to the very dust by the idea that all attempts will be useless: for the Abyssinians very generally yield to the truth, but it is only for a while; they cannot make up their minds to quit so much as one of their customs." Thus faith is tried for a time; yet the promise is sure, that God's word shall not return to Him void, and the day perhaps is near when "Ethiopia will stretch out her hands unto God." The Mission maintained for several years in Abyssinia was relinquished in 1842, but it is gratifying to learn that subsequent openings have occurred for the introduction of the Christian Scriptures into that benighted land. In 1856, a supply of Ethiopic Scriptures (together with Amharic) was forwarded for distribution in Abyssinia, at the instance of Bishop Gobat. TIGRÉ. SPECIMEN, FROM ST. MARK, CHAP. IX. v. 9 to 15.* 9 Wer enter worred hom ker el ambar, hu mucker hom inder hi negger er sevvi zer reiyer hom negger, shar el Wod der sevvi tennessar ker el mote. 10 Wer haz hom zer negger ov wost hom enter tiock hadda mis hadda munte marlet el tennessar ker el mote. 11 Wer tiock hu hom, Ber negger munte zer bel el sarfe tar Elias mussea fellermer. 12 Wer hu mellash wer negger hom, Elias be ack zer mussea fellermer wer hu melless coulu negger *iccar, wor comha zer ter sarf ov el Wod der sevvi ender hu carl buze er negger wer sedded hu be yelhem yeavila. 18 Mai ane zer bel kar, Elias be Ack artou *artehu, wer gevver hom zer delleyea ov hum com zu ter sarf ov hum. 14 Wer shar enter mussea ov ariot hum, hu reiyer avviea mergavier cubhe hom, wer el sarfetart enter tiock mis hom. 15 Wer shar shar coulu souart, shar enter reiyer hom ler hum ter gurrem hom, wer weiyer ov hum ignersar *idnersar hum. † A term synonymous, or differing in orthography. ON THE TIGRÉ VERSION. IN connection with the Ethiopic version of Scripture, that in Tigré requires consideration, for Tigré is little else than vulgar Ethiopic. The province of Tigré is the most important of the three divisions (Tigré, Amhara, and Shoa) of Abyssinia. It lies directly north of Amhara, from which it is separated by the Tacazze, the largest tributary of the Nile. It has the form of an irregular trapezium, and comprises about four degrees of latitude, and as many of longitude. During Mr. Jowett's residence in Egypt, in 1819, he superintended a translation of part of the New Testament into the vernacular of this extensive province. The person whom he employed to effect this translation was an Englishman, named Nathanael Pearce, a man of very eccentric character, but of extraordinary attainments in the dialects of the country. He had acquired varied and extensive information by constant wanderings through various countries; he had roamed through Russia and China; he had lived as a Mussulman in Arabia, and afterwards, for fourteen years, had resided as a Christian and a warrior in Abyssinia. He translated St. Mark and St. John; but as, owing to his restless habits, he had never acquired skill in writing the Ethiopic character, he was obliged to write his translation in Roman characters. He regulated the orthography by his ear, spelling every word according to the sound. His MS. is in the possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society; it has never been published, and its comparative value is still unascertained. In 1831, part of St. Luke was translated by Mr. Kugler, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, and on his death the work was continued by Mr. Isenberg of the same Society. Competent native assistance was obtained, but it does not appear that any part of this version has been committed to the press. The natives employed in this work translated from the Ethiopic Scriptures, and their translation was afterwards revised and corrected by the missionaries from the Greek original. * From the Tigré Version by Mr. Pearce, copied from the Appendix to a Catalogue of Ethiopic |