Early Ethiopian Christianity: Retrospective enquiry from the perspective of Indian Thomine tradition

Abstract

Ethiopian Christianity’s narrative is aggregately established with an explicit aversion to the account of the Ethiopian Eunuch in the Lukan Acts (Ac 8). The preceding practise neglects a cardinal record in Christian history, as arguably the Book of Acts is the basicsource for 1st century Christianity. The main arguments for this approach derive from the lack of detailed archaeological data for the existence of Christianity before the Negus Ezana. However, this also evades the reality of the Judaic-Ethiopic connections as a substantial premise for the early interaction of Christianity with Ethiopia. Document analysis complemented by the archaeology of religion and cultural historiography were used in this study. A parallel review of Indian Thomine tradition and integrated maritime connections with Aksum developed a case for the establishment of a 1st century Christian account for Ethiopia. The approach of this study entailed the perception of Ethiopian Christianity in its organic native context and not necessarily as a derivate of Christianised Syria or Egypt. Contribution: A parallel review of Indian Thomine tradition and integrated maritime connections with Aksum developed a case for the establishment of a 1st century Christian account for Ethiopia.

Keywords

• christian history
• ethiopia
• india
• thomas
• early christianity