This past week our assigned reading for class was an excerpt of the Kebra Negast. This is the text that is considered to be the documented proof of Ethiopia's ties to Israel as well as proof the the holy Ark of the Covenant is located in modern-day Ethiopia. It is in this document that we see the consummation between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel, and the assertion that Israel's true line of kings was moved to Ethiopia as a result of this. It is with this document in mind that I realize how previous stories can be distorted or twisted in order to give a religious group identity.
While the Kebra Negast is more outright in it's distortion of text to grant identity, St. Augustine's On Christian Teaching prescribes many similar types of practices that take place in the Kebra Negast. While Augustine would never advocate artificially created stories borrowing from the Bible, he does at many times seem to advocate a sort of distortion of biblical text in order to grant justification of Christianity. Whether it is assuming that reference to Israel encompasses the entire Christian people or prescribing moral relativity as a way of understanding questionable parts of the bible, Augustine does tend to twist and distort the original meaning of the text in order to serve his purposes.
In the Kebra Negast, this distortion is much more pronounced. We see an entire tale that is woven into the Bible in order to grant the Ethiopians a unique cultural identity as the "true inheritors" of Israel. While some people may find this type of behavior difficult to understand, it makes sense of one notes that Ethiopia is a lone Christian nation surrounded by Islamic states. This type of strong connection serves to strengthen the wills of both Ethiopian Jews and Christians alike.
Image above is an artist's interpretation of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon meeting.
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