Month: November 2024

Categories
Ethiopian Orthodox Church

The Cave of Treasures

“But when God made Adam go out of the Garden, He did not place him on the border of it northward, lest he should draw near to the sea of water, and he and Eve wash themselves in it, be cleansed from their sins, forget the transgression they had committed, and be no longer reminded of it in the thought of their punishment.

Then again, as to the southern side of the Garden, God was not pleased to let Adam dwell there; because, when the wind blew from the north, it would bring him, on that southern side, the delicious smell of the trees of the garden. Wherefore God did not put Adam there, lest he should smell the sweet smell of those trees, forget this transgression, and find consolation for what he had done, take delight in the smell of the trees, and not be cleansed from his transgression.

Again, also, because God is merciful and of great pity, and governs all things in a way He alone knows – He made our father Adam dwell in the western border of the Garden, because on that side the earth is very broad. And God commanded him to dwell there in a cave in a rock – the Cave of Treasures below the Garden.”

From the Ethiopic “Book of Adam and Eve”(Gedle Adam), Book I Chapter I, translation by Rev, S. C. Malan, London.

Categories
Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

Cultural Sayings of His Majesty

“The other cultural sayings His Majesty often repeated were ‘Ke ras belay nefas’ (no one more important than yourself) or ‘Ha le fe semayu new’, which is an example of sem ena work (wax and gold). The denotative (or wax) translation of the saying “Ha le fe semayu new” is that the sky has passed by. The connotative (or gold) translation is that the character Ha ሀ (which appears first on the Ethiopic alphabet chart) is greater in value than the character Fe ፈ (which appears twenty-fifth) because of the order in which each character appears. The Ethiopic alphabet has thirty-three basic characters, each of which has seven forms depending on which vowel is pronounced in the syllable. Therefore, we are to conclude not only that Ha is more important than Fe but also that in life, we should see all things as related and relative. If you are last on the list, you might think that being first is greater. While your position in the alphabet (or life) is obviously relevant, it does not determine everything about you or how important or not important you are—most of life depends on how you perceive something and how much you allow it to impact you in positive or negative terms.”
(Taken from “It was Only Yesterday”, Hannah Mariam
Meherete-Selassie, 2018)
ከራስ ፡ በላይ ፡ ነፋስ ። (litt. “The wind is above the head/self”)
ሀለፈ ፡ ሰማዩ ። (litt. “The heaven has passed away”, but also “Ha is the heaven of Fe”)
Categories
Haile Selassie I - Testimonies

M.Mansfield, Majority Leader of US Senate – 1963

Senate of U.S., Washington, 2nd of October 1963

“It is a great honour and privilege to welcome to the Senate an outstanding Head of State from the great continent of Africa. He governs a nation which is among the oldest, in a historic sense, in the world. It is also among the newest in its dynamic search for a more satisfying participation for all its people in the main-stream of progress in the second half of the 20th century.

The man whom I am to present to the Senate is the Emperor of an ancient land. He is also an exceptional international statesman whose constructive outlook has made a profound impression upon the contemporary councils of the world.

This man has been a living part of the great events of our times. He has experienced these events personally, and He has experienced them as the personification of a peaceful nation, determined to live its own life and to work out its own way of life. He and His nation were both caught up in the feaful tragedies, the high hopes, the illusions, and disillusions – in short, in the cataclysmic upheavals – of a globe in massive transition since the end of World War I. He has suffered much. He has risen above suffering with the wisdom which suffering alone brings; and he has triumphed, not in arrogance, not in vengeance, not in pride. His has been the enduring triumph of humility and a deep human understanding.

The Senate will remember his lonely appearance at the League of Nations in 1936. He spoke, then, from his heart, not only to save his people from invasion, but also to arrest the course of self-destruction upon which a smug, a glib, and an indifferent world was embarked. He was listened to, but He was not heeded. He was persuasive, but the nations of the world were not persuaded. And a few years later the smug, glib and indifferent world began to crumble about those who did not heed, who were not persuaded.

Once again, on Friday, our distinguished visitor will go to address the nations of the world, assembled in the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations. The times are different now; the faces are different; even the nations are different than they were when He appeared in Geneva almost 28 years ago. One would hope – and I am sure that it is a well-founded hope – that His words, enriched by these decades of tragedy and triumph and by profound personal experience, will find in that great assemblage of the world a deep response of heart and mind.”

Categories
Ethiopia - Land, People and Customs

14 Provinces of Imperial Ethiopia

Imperial Ethiopia was divided into 14 provinces on territorial and historic basis, not ethnic or racial as today.
The 14 provinces were:
Arsi አርሲ
Begemder በጌምድር
Gamo-Gofa ጋሞ ጎፋ
Gojjam ጎጃም
Harerge ሐረርጌ
Bale ባሌ
Illubabor ኢሉባቦር
Kaffa ካፋ
Shewa ሸዋ
Sidamo ሲዳሞ
Tigray ትግራይ
Wellega ወለጋ
Wello ወሎ
Ertra (Eritrea) ኤርትራ
Categories
Haile Selassie I - Anecdotes

The Testament of War (1935)

“In accordance with tradition, the emperor made his last will and testament before going to war. If he should die in battle, Haile Selassie instructed that the empress and his children should be taken to the British embassy, where they would seek asylum. The senior commanders and officers were to regroup in an unoccupied part of Ethiopia and choose a leader from among their number, who would assume overall command. The intention was that they should then continue their brave struggle. If Ethiopia should lose her independence, patriotic forces in the country should start a guerrilla war against the occupiers and do everything they could to ensure that the nation regained its sovereignty as quickly as possible. The whole world should be informed about the country’s fate and the crime of the Italian war of aggression. Haile Selassie’s will was entrusted to Etshege Basileos, the senior abbot of the monastery of Debre Libanos, for safe keeping.”
(Taken from “King of Kings”, Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haus Publishing, 2015 p. 116)
Categories
Haile Selassie I - Prophecy

Christ Must Return in 2000 Years

“The Bible says that Christ must return after 2000 years”. This teaching was repeatedly expressed by Bob Marley in several interviews, and it is often criticized by the enemies of Rastafari faith as a false statement, as they cannot find it written anywhere in the Holy Scripture. As always happens, the mind of this people is without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, without knowledge of the Ethiopian tradition and without Apostolic intelligence of interpretation, and they cannot see and respect the wisdom of a true Prophet, that indeed, with high consciousness, spoke the biblical truth that is hidden in the pages of the Scripture, and that only Rasta must reveal to the people in this time.

As we learn from the Ethiopian traditional Book of “Gedle Adam” (The Combat of Adam), Christ had to born 5500 years after the creation of Adam:

” ‘The Word will again save thee when the five years and a half are fulfilled’. (…) Then God in His Mercy for Adam, made in His own image and likeness, explained to him that these were 5000 and 500 years, and how One would then come and save him and his seed”.

(Gedle Adam Book I, Chapter III)

1000 years were thus interpreted as one day in the language of God, as it was written by the Apostle Peter:

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3,8)

Therefore the history of creation is compared to the week of creation, and 7 days corresponds to 7 millenniums. The 1st millennium is the Sunday, as 1st day of Creation. The 6th millennium (5000-6000 considering the Creation of Adam, 500 B.C. – 500 A.D. considering the Birth of Christ), in which Christ was born, was the 6th day of Creation, i.e. Friday, the day in which Adam was created, and also the day in which he ate the forbidden fruit and died: therefore in that day Christ had to suffer and die for the sake of Adam to expiate his sin, and in that 6th millennium Incarnation had to happen, when God dressed the flesh of Adam.

Now we know that Christ died on Friday, slept the sleep of death on the day of Sabbath within the Sepulchre, and rose again on Sunday. The Sabbath of His death corresponds to the 7th millennium (500 A.D. – 1500 A.D.) a period of time that is historically named “Middle Age”, characterized by ascetic attitude and social closure, that had to be a time of transition. The Sunday of Resurrection corresponds to the 8th millennium (1500 A.D. – 2500 A.D) that is what is historically named “Modern Era”, and that starts, for the academics, with the colonial journey of Colombo in 1492 A.D..

This 8th Millennium, New Sunday of the Resurrection, must be the ultimate millennium of history, as it was in the beginning (Sunday) so shall it be in the end (Sunday). In this final millennium Christ must return in His Second Coming, in Risen State, as He returned from death in that same day, after the Friday of His sacrifice, then 2 days after, that also means 2000 years after His First Coming.

That’s why the Holy Liturgy of the Ethiopian Church (Qeddasie) says in the Anaphora of St. Athanasius, 61, about the Sunday:

“Oh, this day is the ultimate that lasts for ever”

And in the footnote of this verse, in the official english translation published by the Ethiopian Church in 1959, written by Rev. Marcos Daoud, we read:

“The tradition is that Christ’s second advent will be on Sunday”.

Also David, in the Psalm 11, whose title is “Concerning the 8th Epoch”, states in reference to the 8th day:

‘I will rise now’ said Egziabhier ::

That’s why His Majesty was crowned on Sunday, and manifested His royal ministry in the 8th millennium of Sunday, exactly 400 hundred years after the colonial journey of Colombo, because in this time both Christ and the Anti-Christ must operate upon the earth.