The Biblical Ethiopians

Often, those who attempt to establish the table of nations do not provide a direct account, but rather use a religious, metaphorical or cryptic language, while focusing solely on modern societies and cultures. The problem with such an approach is that it creates contradictions because it fails to take account of ancient history, and, to some extent renders a misleading account of God's Word. But The Lord urges people to examine their past in order to build a collective memory that will help guide us into the future and strengthen our relationship with Him.

Isaiah 46:8-9 "Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors! Remember what happened long ago..."
Job 8:8 "Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers."

The following is intended to help you understand and realize that if you keep reading the Bible from the perspective of modern migratory societies, not taking into account ancient history, your understanding of God's Word may be entirely flawed. The preservation, study and teaching of ancient historical sources and evidence are biblical prescriptions.

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish priest, scholar and historian born in 37 A.D., made the following statements, claiming that some historical names had been altered. This reinforces the hypothesis that the narrative may have changed in an earlier version of human history, and that certain truths had been suppressed before the first century:

The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus; seizing upon all that was on its sea-coasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping it as their own. Some indeed of its names are utterly vanished away; others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be discovered; yet a few there are which have kept their denominations entire. |Flavius Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews — Book I, Chap. 6:2|

Cush, son of Ham, is traditionally regarded as the ancestor of the Cushites or Ethiopians, and his descendants lived in a land known as the land of Cush.

The word Kush/Cusch has two meanings: It can be translated either as ‘bow’ or as ‘land of burnt-faced peoples or the homeland of dark people.’

In some versions of the Bible, ‘Kush’ is translated as ‘Ethiopia’. Brieftly, the term "Ethiopian" is derived from the Greek name Αἰθιοπία (Aithiopia) which comes from Αἰθίοψ (Aithíops) that is a composition of two Greek words: αἴθω (aíthō,) "burned" + ὤψ (ṓps) "face"; and is correctly translated into a noun as "burned faced" and into an adjective as "red-brown". From Homer's time, the exonym was used to refer to the dark-skinned people living in regions below the Sahara and in what was then known as Nubia.

However, in biblical times, the terms ‘Kush’’, ‘Kushite’ or ‘Ethiopian’ used in the Hebrew Bible did not refer to the inhabitants of the country now known as Ethiopia, but sometimes to black skin, sometimes to black Africa, more specifically Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa.

Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"

Cush begat Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raemah, Sabtecah and Nimrod.

According to the official account, most of his descendants settled east of the Red Sea and occupied Petra Arabia and Felix Arabia to the south-east of the Red Sea, i.e. present-day Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman. Yet there are early maps that situate most of Kusch's descendants in sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of his son Saba ( shown below is a map published by cartographer Rob Wilkinson on 11 April 1818).

Why such confusion? How then will the average reader be able to discern the true identity of the Cuschites/Ethiopians?

When we examine ancient maps dating from the Middle Ages, it becomes clear that most of sub-Saharan Africa, including the Congo Basin, East Africa and part of southern Africa, was known as Ethiopia or "Ethiopia Sub Egypto”.

If at the time the first Bible (of Gutenberg) was written in 1455, Ethiopia referred to the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa on geographical maps, it implies that the biblical Ethiopians do not generally refer to those who occupy the country that today bears the name Ethiopia, nor does the biblical term Ethiopia refer to the modern country that bears that name, but rather to the black population who mainly inhabited the following regions:

Congo Basin, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe. But also neighbouring countries such as Congo Brazzavile, Cameroon, Gabon, South Africa and South Sudan.

Ex-Abyssinia is not biblical Ethiopia

Note that the country that now bears the biblical name Ethiopia was formerly known as Abyssinia throughout the Middle Ages. It wasn't until 1932 that Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) was renamed "Bank of Ethiopia" after being indemnified by Emperor Haile Selassie. And in 1945, after regaining its independence and taking part in the founding of the United Nations, Abyssinia was officially registered as Ethiopia, making the name Abyssinia obsolete

We must then understand that when the Bible and the Scriptures speak of Ethiopia, they are not referring exclusively to ex-Abyssinia, but rather to the whole of sub-Saharan and South Africa. Therefore it is historically erroneous and biblically misleading to teach that only modern Ethiopians are “biblical Ethiopians”.

In Psalm 87:4, it is written that like the Egyptians and Philistines, the cushites were born in Zion.

Psaumes 87:4 "I will mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me—along with Philistia, Tyre, and Cush—when I say, ‘This one was born in Zion.”

If Misraim represents Egypt, Nimrod (son of Cush) represents Babylon, Canaan represents the Philistines, Puth represents Tyre, and Cush represents Ethiopia, then Psalm 87:4 is implying that Mount Zion is in Africa!

To read more about Mount Zion click the button below. .

Mount Zion

Here's an excerpt from “The Histories: The Jews - Book 5 Chap. 2” by Cornelius Tacitus (56 - 120 A.D.), Roman orator and politician considered the greatest Roman historian, in which he asserts that the Judeans (Jews) who populated Judea originated from ancient Ethiopia.

Others assert that in the reign of Isis the overflowing population of Egypt, led by Hierosolymus and Judas, discharged itself into the neighboring countries. Many, again, say that they were a race of Ethiopian origin, who in the time of king Cepheus were driven by fear and hatred of their neighbors to seek a new dwelling-place.

Abd Allah Mohammed Al-Idrissi, the greatest geographer and cartographer of the Middle Ages, toured the world and observed the indigenous populations. In 1154, he was able to write the world's first geography with detailed descriptions. His works are preserved in the most prestigious libraries, such as Oxford's Bodleian Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Interestingly, in his maps, he indicated that Jews populated the southern regions below the Sahara desert, including all of West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa:

Senegambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Liberia, Malia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, South Sudan, South Africa, Angola, Congo Basin (DRC), Congo Brazzavile, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Here's a quote from what Al-Idrissi wrote in his book entitled “Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne”, on page 4 of the chapter 'Premier Climat - Première Section', referring to the sub-Saharan regions and Central Africa.

"The inhabitants are traveling merchants and obey the prince of Tacrour. To the south of Barisa is the country of Lamlam, distant about 10 days. The inhabitants of Barisa, Silla, Tacrour and Ghana make forays into the Lamlam , reduce the inhabitants to captivity, transport them to their own country, and sell them to the merchants, who come there and send them elsewhere. big as villages. One of them is called Mallel, and the other Daw. They are distant from each other by 4 days. According to what the people of this region report, the inhabitants are Jews, but for the most part they are steeped in impiety and ignorance. When they have reached the age of puberty, they brand their faces and temples with fire. These are signs that serve to make them recognised. All the dwellings of their country are built on the banks of a river which throws into the Nile. Beyond the Lamlam, to the south, there is no inhabited country. That of Lamlam touches on the western side to Magzara, to the east to Wangara, to the north to the country of Ghana, to the south to deserts. The language of the inhabitants of Lamlam differs from that of the Magzarians and that of the Ghanaians."

Here are more statements made by Al-Idrissi in which he asserts that the Jews populated the empire of Kanem or Cânem (the Camnouria), part of the region formerly known as Nigritie. Cânem included at various times what is today southern Chad, northern Cameroon, northeastern Nigeria, eastern Niger and southern Libya.

"“[There used to be] remarkable towns and residences in Camnouria, belonging to the Negroes, but the Zaghawa and Lamtouna of the desert, who inhabited both sides of this country (I mean Kamnouria), conquered it, exterminated most of the inhabitants and dispersed the rest. The inhabitants of Camnouria, according to the report of the merchants, claim to be Jews. Their religion is a confused mixture of all things; they are nothing and have no fixed beliefs; they have no king themselves and do not obey a foreign king, but are the playthings of all the neighboring tribes. In the past, there were two flourishing towns in Camnouria, one known as Camnouri, the other Naghîra. Both were densely populated, with chiefs and shaikhs administering affairs and dispensing justice in criminal cases and disputes; but in time, these institutions were lost, and discord prevailed among them; Incursions from neighboring towns desolated the country, and the inhabitants fled, seeking refuge in the mountains or dispersing into the deserts, falling under the yoke of their neighbors or placing themselves under their protection, so that only a small number of individuals belonging to the Camnourians remain, living, scattered in these deserts or on the shore, on dairy and fish. They lead a hard life, having barely enough to live on, and wandering ceaselessly...” |Deuxième Climat - Première Section pg 35-36|

Al-Idrissi also mentioned the following about Jews exiled to the Rif in southern Egypt, which was also called “Aethiopia sub Aegypto” or “Aegypto”.

"Most of Egypt's towns and villages are in the Upper and Lower Rif. The Rif is the region south of the Nile. Most of the inhabitants of these villages are Christian Copts and Jacobites - according to one tradition, the name derives from Jacob, the biblical patriarch. A Jacobite deacon claimed that his people were descended from Jewish converts to Christianity, and another source asserts that the name comes from St. James, brother of Jesus and first bishop of Jerusalem. They have a large number of churches. They are a harmless people and live in abundance of all goods." |Deuxième Climat - Première Section pg 193|.

Ludovico di Varthema, also known as Barthema and Vertomannus (c. 1470 - 1517), was an Italian traveler, chronicler and aristocrat known for being the first non-Muslim European to enter Mecca on pilgrimage. Almost everything we know about his life comes from his own travel account, Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese, published in Rome in 1510. Here's an excerpt from what he wrote about Ethiopia and the Jews on page 22 of his book “The Travels of Ludovico de Varthema, in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, India and Ethiopia in 1503-1508.

LE CHAPITRE CONCERNANT UNE MONTAGNE HABITÉE PAR DES JUIFS.

Au bout de huit jours, nous trouvâmes une montagne qui paraissait avoir dix ou douze milles de circonférence, dans laquelle habitent quatre ou cinq mille Juifs, qui vont nus, ont une taille de cinq ou six empans, ont une voix féminine, et sont plus noirs que toute autre couleur. Ils vivent entièrement de la chair des moutons, et ne mangent rien d'autre. Ils sont circoncis, et confessent qu'ils sont Juifs; et s'ils parviennent à mettre la main sur un Maure (Arabe), ils l'écorchent vif. Au pied de ladite montagne, nous avons trouvé un réservoir d'eau, qui est de l'eau qui tombe dans la saison des pluies. Nous chargeâmes de cette eau 16 000 chameaux, ce qui déplut aux Juifs, lesquels se promenaient sur cette montagne comme des chèvres sauvages, et ne descendaient en aucun cas dans la plaine, car ils sont les ennemis mortels des Maures (Arabes).

Below is an ancient map produced by Livio Sanuto and published posthumously by his brother Giulio in 1588.

Livio Sanuto (c. 1520-1576), son of Senator Francesco Sanuto of Venice, was a cosmographer, mathematician and maker of globes. He was a member of the Lafreri school of engravers, whose work marked the transition between Ptolemy's maps and those of Mercator and Ortelius. Livio and his brother Giulio planned a massive and comprehensive atlas comprising maps and descriptions of the whole world, which they believed to be more accurate than any previously published atlas. Seeing that Africa was imperfectly described, he set to work on a book containing 12 large maps drawn by himself and engraved by his brother. For the compilation of his African maps, Sanuto relied on Gastaldi's map of 1564 and on Portuguese nautical charts for coastal mapping and information on the interior, using the accounts of Duarte Barbosa and João de Barros.

In books 10 and 12, he describes the manners and customs of Africa and provides the names of all the peoples of Ethiopia and Lower Ethiopia, referring to their territory as Judeorum Terra in Latin, meaning the Land of the Jews.

All these facts reinforce the hypothesis that the Jews who lived in Judea (Judaei), the province of ancient Rome that included the regions of Samaria and Idumaea, were of black descent.

For starters, historically, the Greeks were Romans of a sort, as they were governed by the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, and until 1700 CE, many Greeks still called themselves Romans. We all too easily forget that interbreeding or interracial marriage was an explicit part of Alexander the Great's policy; he wanted all his subjects to have Greek blood running through their veins. As a result, many first-century slaves lived in regions where they could mix freely with other racial and ethnic types.

Actes 16:1 "Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father."

Let's not forget that ancient slavery was present in civilizations as far back as Mycenaean Greece, which stretched from 1750 to 1050 BC, including ancient Egypt, and the Roman Empire. During the expansion of the Roman Empire, entire populations were enslaved, as this was an important element in the development of the cities. Those enslaved were for reasons of debt, punishment for crime, prisoners of war, child slavery and children born to slaves. They were mainly used for general labor.

It should also be remembered that in the first century A.D., the modern state of Israel did not exist, nor was the term “Jew” used, and there were no Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews. But there were black Greco-Roman slaves known as Judeans or ioudaios (in Greek), i.e. those who lived in the Roman province of Judea (called Judaei) in southern Palestine. This region was once called Eretz Kna'an (the land of Canaan) and the borders were known in Jewish tradition as the “borders of those who came out of Egypt”. (Numbers 34:2, Deuteronomy 1:6-8).

Briefly, according to the historical account, all was going well in the Roman Empire and the Jews were allowed to practice their religion until 66 A.D., when a revolt broke out in Judea (Judaei).

In the year 68, the resistance in the northern part of the province was eradicated and the Romans turned their full attention to enslaving the Judeans. That same year, Emperor Nero died, creating a vacancy in Roman leadership. In the ensuing chaos, Vespasian was declared emperor and made his way back to the Imperial City. The task of leading the remaining army in the assault on the Judeans was passed to his son, Titus. The Roman legions surrounded the city and slowly began to wipe out the Judean resistance forces.

In the year 70, the attackers broke through the outer walls of the Judean cities and began to slaughter them mercilessly. The climax of the assault was the burning and destruction of the Temple. The sacred relics of the Temple were transported to Rome and displayed in exhibitions as a sign of victory celebration. The Romans killed thousands of Judeans. Of those who escaped death, some were scattered to the arenas of the Empire to be exterminated for the amusement of the public; others were deported to Egypt to work in the mines.

In the year 132, there was the Bar Kokhba revolt, a large-scale armed rebellion launched by the Judeans of Judea, under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba. This had a terrible negative effect on the Judeans population.

"The toll of the Bar Kochba uprising was devastating both on the population and on the places of habitation. The numbers of dead were awesome, while multitudes of Jews were taken captive to fill the slave markets near and far. The slave market of the Terebinth of Hebron was particularly famous as a center where Jewish slaves, sent into captivity by Hadrian were sold. So many Jewish slaves were available that, recording to one report, a Jew was sold for as little as the price of a portion of horse feed |History of Am Yisrael in Ancient Days (Hebrew, Devir), 1971, p.321.|
“Now that Betar had been captured, everything came under Human control, while Palestine [Judah] was reduced to a desolate mound. Captives were sold into slavery in numbers too great to count. First they were brought to the grand annual market at the Terebinth-Eloh tree in Hebron, or in the words of Hyranumous, to the Tent-Ohel of Abraham near Hebron. Each slave sold for the price of a horse. Those captives who were not sold there were brought to the market place in Azza [Gaza] which, because of the great multitudes of slaves who were sold there, was called Hadrian’s market place. And those who were still not sold there were herded into ships and were taken to Egypt. Many died in transit, whether by starvation or by shipwreck, while many also were killed by cruel masters”. |Munter, Primordia Eccl. Africanae, pp. 85f., 113|
Because the soldiers were now growing weary of bloodshed, and survivors appeared constantly, Caesar orders to kill only those who offered armed resistance and to take alive all the rest. (415) The troops, in addition to those covered by their orders, slaughtered the aged and infirm; people to their prime who might be useful they herded into the Temple area and shut up in the Court of the Women (lcl. (416) Caesar appointed one of his freedmen as their guard, his friend Fronto, to decide the fate appropriate to each. (417) All those who had taken part in sedition and brigandage (they informed against other) he executed. He picked out the tallest and handsomest of the lot and reserved them for the Triumph (418). Of the rest, those who were over seventeen he put in chains and sent to hard labor in Egypt while great numbers were presented by Titus to the provinces to perish in the theaters by sword or by wild beasts; those under seventeen were sold”. |Josephus, The Jewish Wars”; Book vi 9:2.|

In 650 AD, the trans-Saharan slave trade began, and continued throughout the Middle Ages until 1500. Millions of black slaves from sub-Saharan Africa were transported across the Sahara to the eastern Arab nations and to Constantinople (the Roman Empire). The Arabs regularly acquired slaves through violent raids, then captured them and sent them on dangerous forced marches across the Sahara to slave markets in Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon and Egypt. Arab slave traders referred to these African populations as Zanj or Soudan, meaning “black”.

In 1526, the Portuguese made the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other Europeans soon followed suit. Almost half of the slaves transported to the United States and southern Europe came from two regions: Senegambia, the region comprising the Senegal River, the Gambia River and the lands between them, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; and Angola, Congo-Brazza, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. The Gambia River, which links the Atlantic to Africa, was an essential waterway for the slave trade; at its peak, around one in six West African slaves came from this region. While the other half came from the West African nation of Ghana, as well as neighboring Côte d'Ivoire, the Bay of Biafra (which included parts of today's eastern Nigeria and Cameroon), a maritime entrance to Atlantic waters on the west coast of Africa, was the center of important slave-trading operations. The descendants of those Africans who were taken into captivity today make up considerable sections of the population of the USA, Brazil and many Caribbean islands.

All these events hark back to the divine prophecies proclaimed following Israel's exodus from Egypt. While the Exodus was a divine act of grace and love, the return to Egypt was a reconsideration, a reversal of the whole Exodus process and the annulment of the blessings, should Israel disobey the Lord's covenant laws.

Deuteronomy 28:68 "The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."
"And Hashem will exile you hack to Egypt in ships by way of the Reed Sea that you once crossed and concerning which I said: You shall not see it again! And there you will be sold into servitude to your enemies for large sums of money as crafts-men. And afterwards (you will be sold) cheaply as slaves and maidservants, until you will be cheapened (and try) to sell yourselves for nothing, and no one will take you in" |Deuteronomy 28:68, paraphrase of the Aramaic translation known as “Targum Yonatan ben Uziel”|

Systematic excavations of ancient Greek sites have uncovered a plethora of sculptures dating from between 400 and 100 B.C., depicting black Greco-Roman Judeans; and more than ever before, modern times are increasingly enabling the recognition of such an important fact. This reinforces the hypothesis that the Judeans who lived in Judea (Judaei), the province of ancient Rome that included the regions of Samaria and Idumaea, were of black descent. After their deportation from Judea to Egypt, they mixed with Cusch's descendants.

Amos 9:7 "N'êtes-vous pas pour moi comme les fils des Cuschites, enfants d'Israël? dit l'Éternel."

Russian iconography, the catacombs* of Rome, as well as the backgrounds of many Orthodox and Catholic churches, feature a considerable collection of ancient sculptures and paintings that seem to represent Hebrew patriarchs and prophets of black descent. (See video below).

Catacombs are the underground cemeteries of ancient Rome, created by early Christians to bury their dead. The catacombs consist of a system of passageways, often forming labyrinths, and rectangular niches of varying size dug into the walls for burials. They were created by excavating a very soft, porous sedimentary rock called tuff. Before being exposed to air, tuff is a very malleable rock, relatively easy to excavate with hand tools. But after exposure to air, it gradually hardens. As a result, excavated passages become firm and do not collapse. There are over 60 different catacombs in Rome, most of them underground and located along the Appian Way, and nowadays, almost all the niches are open and empty, but some are still closed.

Scholars have speculated that the icons darkened over time, as a result of varnishing, candle smoke, incense burning, lead brushing and so on. Although these factors sometimes do darken paintings, in this case the characters do have distinctive features such as frizzy or curly hair and nasal structure.

You be the judge, and we encourage you to do your own research.