After the falling of the tower of Babel, mankind was scattered in confusion for many centuries, because of their inability to communicate correctly and clearly. That’s why the Tower of Babel is called by the Ethiopian Bible as Zerut ዝሩት, i.e. “Diaspora”.
From the lineage of Nimrod the Ethiopian, the builder of the Tower of Babel, came Melchizedek, that is also from the descent of Sem son of Noah the Ethiopian. Although in the Letter to Hebrew chapter 7 Melchizedek is said to be “without father and without mother”, because of his state of mystic deification and the absence in the books of Moses of any genealogy before his appearance, Ethiopian tradition knows exactly his origin and life.
From the Ethiopian Synaxaryum (Miyazia 6; Pagumen 3) we know that after the Flood, Melchizedek and Sem, guided by an angel of God, buried the corpse of Adam – brought into the Ark by Noah – within the “Golgotha” or “Place of the Skull”, where Christ had to be crucified, to baptize with His own blood and water the body of Adam, lying within the soil.
The Tomb of Adam became the temple where Melchizedek ministered His priesthood, and around that place he founded Jerusalem. “Salem” was the name of His wife, that He immortalized by the name of the city. Iyerusaliem ኢየሩሳሌም is interpreted as Iyor Selam ኢዮር ሰላም, being “Iyor” the name of one of the seven heavens, and eartly Jerusalem is just a reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem. Another interpretation is Yrieeyu Selam ይሬእዩ ሰላም “They see peace”, to which Christ seem to refer when speaking to the incredolous city:
“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” (Luke 19,42)
When Abraham met Melchizedek, and gave him a tribute, then Melchisedek was recognized in his royalty, the same royal order of the Ethiopian Monarchy. In fact, the son of Melchizedek Etiel was sent by his father to settle at the source of the Nile: he was the first one to be called “Ethiops” and he was the progenitor of the Ethiopian people and kings until Agabos and his daugther Makeda Queen of Sheba, who married Salomon. Etièl is what the Greek mythology has re-elaborated in the character of “Atlas”, the Ethiopian King holding the whole world.
While the Ethiopian Synaxaryum declares Melchezedek as son of Shem through Kainan (Pagumen 3), the Ethiopian Andemtà of the Psalm 109 (110) says that he is a prophet from Kam. Therefore, he is half Semitic (predominant) and half Hamitic, as it is the genealogy of Christ Himself, having fathers from Sem and mothers from Kam. In fact, it is written that Melchizedek is “made like unto the Son of God“.
In this way, he sets the same racial standard of Ethiopian people as original people, having inside the whole genetical spectrum of Noah, from his Blessing (Shem) to his Curse (Ham). That’s why Emperor Haile Selassie I said about Ethiopia:
“Her culture and social structure were founded in the mingling of her original culture and civilization with the Hamitic and Semitic migrations into Africa from the Arabian peninsula, and, in fact, today, our language, Amharic, is a member of that large family of Hamitic and Semitic tongues and. therefore, intimately related to Hebrew and Arabic.” (Selected Speeches p. 113)
(Artwork by Ras Abba Yehuda)
