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

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• 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.

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In books 10 and 12, Livio 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, meaning the Land of the Jews. It is important to remember that Ethiopia today is not the same as the Ethiopia mentioned in the Bible. According to the geography of the biblical era, Ethiopia was predominantly understood to be the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. 

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Interestingly, Amos 9:7 seems to allude to an equality between The Israelites and the Ethiopians. Would the nations of the House of Judah be the populations that once inhabited the region formerly known as Ethiopia in ancient times?

• Amos 9:7 "Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me, O children of Israel?” says the LORD"

Ancient Ethiopia

When we examine ancient maps dating from the Middle Ages, we can clearly observe 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”.

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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”. 

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​​​​​​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!

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

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