Rabin concluded that ‘Ethiopic (Ge’ez), then, must have received the word (tabut/tabot) somehow via West Arabian, through channels as yet unknown to us.’ This supports the hypothesis that the Ark itself was from West Arabia, from where it was, as narrated in the Kebra Nagast, stolen and taken to Ethiopia. It is significant that the Rwala Bedouin of Saudi Arabia not only claim Jewish ancestry but shared a long tradition with other Beduoin of carrying an Ark into battle which lasted up until the 20th century. The Kebra Nagast not only speaks of the theft of the Ark but of the founding of an Israelite kingdom in Ethiopia. Inscriptions from the Aksum area dating from at least the 7th century BCE testify that four rulers of Sheba, three of whom associated queens with their rule, reigned over a mixed population of Shebans (sb) and Hebrews (‘br), who were also referred to as the reds and the blacks, terms still used in the area respectively to denote Semitic and Cushitic speakers. Ethiopia is the only area where inscriptions have been discovered referring to ancient Hebrews, but an unstudied Hebric-Judaic remnant named Yebr (unvocalised br) still exists around Hargeisa in northern Somalia ( Dr. Bernard Leeman, Kebra Nagast, New Insights into Old Testament History).
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:41:41 +0000
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