Bible translations into Geʽez, an ancient South Semitic language of the Ethiopian branch, date back to the 6th century at least, making them one of the world's oldest Bible translations.[1][2]
Translations of the Bible in Ge'ez, in a predecessor of the Ge'ez script which did not possess vowels, were created between the 5th and 7th century,[2] soon after the Christianization of Ethiopia in the 4th century.[3] The milestones of the modern editions were the Roman edition of the New Testament in 1548 edited by Tasfa Seyon, which is the editio princeps,[4] and the critical edition of the New Testament by Thomas P. Platt in 1830 (his edition of the Geʽez four Gospels was first published in 1826[4]).[5]
The Garima Gospels are the oldest translation of the Bible in Ge'ez and the world's earliest complete illustrated Christian manuscript.[6] Monastic tradition holds that they were composed close to the year 500,[7] a date supported by recent radiocarbon analysis; samples from Garima 2 proposed a date of c. 390–570, while counterpart dating of samples from Garima 1 proposed a date of c. 530–660.[8]
The Garima Gospels is also thought to be the oldest surviving Geʽez manuscript.[9][10]
Ge'ez Bible manuscripts existed until at least the late 17th century.[11]
In 2009, the Ethiopian Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church associated themselves with the Bible Society of Ethiopia to produce a printed version of the Bible in Ge'ez. The New Testament was released in 2017.[1]
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