While Jesus' teachings are so much more important than what he looked like, I have found it interesting and affirming to find out that science is confirming that Jesus was Black...

[especially if "Black" is defined as it in the United States to refer to people who have 1 drop of 'black blood' and may look as white as a Scandinavian person or as dark as the darkest Sudanese.]


Given that February is considered by some to be "Black History month" in the United States, [though I feel every month is Black history month], I would like to provide some additional information on Ethiopians and Christianity in Ethiopia:

"The Amhara are a Semitic people whose ancestors probably came from what is modern-day Yemen. Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia and of the previous Amhara Abyssinian Empire, is home for many Amhara but actually an enclave within the land of the Oromo peoples.

History: According to their traditions they trace their roots to Menelik I, the child born of the queen of Sheba and King Solomon. It is thought that the Sabaean (Sheban) people began to settle on the west coast of the Red Sea, from their home in southern Arabia, about 1000 BC. Menelik I was the first of the Solomonic line of rulers of Ethiopia that ended only with the deposing of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

By about 1500 BC their civilization became the Axum Empire, based on a mixture of the early Sabaean culture and the prior Cushitic culture. The ruins of the ancient city of Axum can still be seen in Tigray Province. Except for a few notable exceptions, the Amhara have been the dominant people group in Ethiopia history. The strength of their culture is shown in this influence though they number only 15 million of the estimated 53 million population of modern Ethiopia.

Identity:   The Amhara appear to be descended from the same people group as the Tigray-Tigrinya people. Their Sabaean ancestors came to the highlands of what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia from the Arabian peninsula. The two peoples were united over the centuries in the Amhara-Tigray empire, called Abyssinia, from the name for a group of the Tigray people at that time, the Habash. They claim close ties with the Jews, having adopted many cultural values and religious beliefs from them.

The basic ancestry of the Amhara is Semitic, as is their language. But they intermarried and absorbed some of the Cushitic peoples who preceded them in this area. There was a strong Oromo strain in the royal family and nobles. The Amhara features are similar to the southern Arabs, olive to brown skin, with Caucasian features and dark circles around the eyes. The name comes from the word amari, meaning "pleasing, agreeable, beautiful and gracious."

Language: Amharic, the language of the Amhara, shows its Semitic origin both in its alphabet and words shared with Hebrew and Arabic. Amharic is descended from Ge'ez, a language extinct since the middle ages. Ge'ez developed from the original Sabaean language, changing through the influence of the non-Semitic languages of the earlier peoples.   The Bible is still read in Ge'ez in the Coptic Church. A modern translation is available now in Amharic.

Amharic is the language of culture and education, spoken by millions of other Ethiopians and Eritreans as a second language. The fidel alphabet of Ge'ez, used to write Amharic and its sister languages Tigre and Tigrinya, is based on ancient Phoenician, adapted in the form of the Sabaean alphabet...

Religion: The focal point of Amhara culture is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC). The EOC is an ancient indigenous Christian church which began in the 4th century AD. The EOC was heavily influenced by Syrian Christianity from its earliest times. The initial witness was brought by two shipwrecked boys from Syria. Later, nine monks came from Syria to teach the young church. They established monasteries and translated the Bible into Ge'ez, the ancient language in use at that time.   

click here for more information on the Amharic people of Ethiopia.


PS. Last fall I attended a traditional wedding ceremony in Pittsburgh, Pennsyslvania for a couple who were both born in Ethiopia...The overwhelming majority of the people there were from Ethiopia [I was told that people had traveled from all parts of the eastern, and mideastern part of the United States and elsewhere to attend this wedding]. The men wore Western suits and the women wore traditional Ethiopian dresses and head scarfs such as I associated with Biblical stories. But if these women had worn 'regular' American clothes, I would have automatically thought they were brown skinned, light brown skinned, or fair skinned African Americans...

One difference that I noted, however, was that the vast majority of the Ethiopian women had shoulder length straight [or sraigthened] black hair while in some areas of the USA a number of African American women wear their hair in extention braids, afros, or have their hair cut short and styled.[not to mention that some African American women have dyed their hair blond and I saw not one Ethiopian woman with blond hair]... Yet.

Ms. Azizi