Chapter 22 Where can I find the fifth part of glory? -5

4.Farasa priest Rafael Hadani told me in an interview in Jerusalem that when a "foreign king" demolished the temples of the Egyptians on a massive scale, he left behind the one his ancestors had built "in Aswan" Jewish Temple: He did not tear down our temples.The Egyptians, seeing that only the Jewish temple was not destroyed, suspected that we were on the side of the invaders.It was for this reason that the Egyptians turned against us, destroyed our temples, and we had to flee. A foreign king did invade Egypt in 525 BC, and did tear down many temples.His name was Cambyses, and he was the ruler of the expanding Persian Empire founded by his father Cyrus the Great.There is a record about Cambises in the Elfatan papyrus:

After Cambises invaded Egypt, he discovered this (Jewish) temple. They (the Persians) destroyed all the temples in Egypt, but no one damaged this one. The Persian occupation of Egypt lasted until the end of the 5th century BC.During this period, the Jews of El Fattan and the Persians worked closely together.The Jewish temple on the island was not demolished until after the Persian protection had been completely driven out.Therefore, the folklore told by Rafael Hadani has solid historical basis. 5.Hadani also said that the Falasha especially worship Tana Cheeks Island.I have heard that the Ark of the Covenant was delivered to this same island in the 5th century BC.Not only that, Memir Fiseha, a Christian priest I interviewed on this island, also told me that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in "a tent" on the island for 800 years before being sent to the city of Axum.I am not surprised that the Ark of the Covenant was concealed by a tent (or Tabernacle) on the island of Tana Cheeks.If my theory is correct, then the Jews who brought the Ark to the island must have had their temple on the island of El Fatan recently destroyed, and they should also know that Solomon's Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadne Scattered burnt history.They probably made a decision to abandon the official temple forever and return to the pure tradition of wandering in the wilderness, when the Ark of the Covenant was kept in a tent.

6.Last but not least: Rafael Hadani told me that before arriving in Ethiopia, the ancestors of the Falasha passed not only through Aswan (that is, El Fatan) but also through Moro, "living there for a while. not for a long time". In January 1990, when I interviewed Farasa priest Solomon Alem in the village of Amber Bor, he also mentioned the names of these two places.After more than 1,500 years of being buried in history, the ruins of Morrow finally reappeared in 1772.Is this also a coincidence?Who discovered the ruins of Morrow?None other than the Scottish explorer James Bruce (see his Journey to the Source of the Nile, 1768-1773, Edinburgh, 1790, Vol. 4, pp. 538-539).

fugitive land All this, I felt, made it very clear that I was on the right track.It was my old friend James Bruce who discovered the ruins of the ancient Moreau, which aroused my enthusiasm to speed up the process of investigation. I can conclude that the purpose of the Scottish explorer's epic trip to Ethiopia was to find the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant (see Chapter 7 of this book).Therefore, it is too reasonable that he found the ruins of Morrow City in the legend.Back then, the Ark of the Covenant passed through the city of Moro on its way to Ethiopia. However, did the Ark of the Covenant really pass by Moreau?In my opinion, there is still a crucial question that has not been satisfactorily answered: Why did the Jews of El Fatan Island migrate southward with the Ark of the Covenant after they left the island?Why don't they go north (for example to Israel)?

I've found roughly a few answers to this question, each with some merit: First of all, in the 5th century BC, the Jews in Jerusalem had become accustomed to living without the Ark of the Covenant.Solomon's Temple no longer exists, and a new Temple (the Second Temple) has been erected.What's more, there are still a group of highly vigilant priests who manage the Second Temple, and they will naturally not welcome those competitors from Elfatan. Likewise, the Jews of El Fattan would have felt out of place in the theological climate provided by fifth-century BC Jerusalem.Religious thought has advanced, and people no longer think that God is a half-god, so they no longer think that God lives "between the two cherubim"; was abandoned.

Therefore, the return of the Ark will raise many potentially catastrophic problems.The Jewish priests of El Fattan knew well that to avoid these difficulties, they should stay away from Jerusalem.But where to go?They obviously couldn't stay in Egypt, because the Egyptians had already opposed them everywhere and demolished their temples.Similarly, leaving Egypt from the north of Egypt, the road is not safe.Therefore, the only reasonable way out is to go south. It is not for nothing that the governors of Aswan and Elfatan are also known as the "Gate Governors of the Southern Kingdoms".In order to move the Ark to a safe place, these Jews only need to open this invisible "gate" and directly enter the "Southern Kingdoms", which are collectively called "Ethiopia". "Ethiopia" is a Greek word meaning "burned face," and at the time referred to all the regions inhabited by dark-skinned people.

These Jewish fugitives went to Ethiopia, which by no means meant that they were venturing in the dreaded "terra incognita" (Latin: unknown land - translator's note).On the contrary, there is direct evidence that some members of the Jewish community participated in military adventures in the southern states as early as the sixth century BC.Not only that, but I found several well-documented precedents of the historical migration of Gentiles to Ethiopia, not necessarily all Jewish, but in large numbers, all from the Aswan region, and in the "South Nations" settled.For example, Herodotus, the "Father of History", once recorded that taking a boat along the Nile River and passing through the island of Elefantan and then going forward for four days, the river would become impassable:

So you have to go ashore and walk along the river bank for 40 days, because there are sharp rocks in the Nile River, and there are many hidden reefs, and ships cannot pass at all.After trekking all over the country, you board the boat again and walk on the river for another 12 days, then you arrive at a large city called Morrow.It is said that this city is the mother of all Ethiopia... From this city, take a boat for the same distance (that is, the distance from Elfatan to the mother city of Ethiopia), and you will arrive at the "Fleeing City". The land of the deserters"...the so-called "fugitives" were 240,000 Egyptian soldiers during the time of King Psammetichus who rebelled against the Egyptians and sided with the Ethiopians.After these peoples settled among the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians were gradually civilized because they learned the manners of the Egyptians.Therefore, the land through which the Nile flows for four months by water and by land after it leaves Egypt is a known country.If you add them up, you will find that traveling along the Nile for four months from El Fatan will reach the "land of the fugitives" I have just mentioned. (Herodotus: "History", D. Green English translation, University of Chicago Press, 1988 edition, pp. 142-143)

As I said before, the large number of "runaway" immigrants from El Fatan were not necessarily all Jewish.I have found no evidence to the contrary.However, Herodotus made it very clear that the great flight took place in the time of Pharaoh Sametikus II (595-589 BC).Thus, I read from an impeccable source that "the Jews were sent as reinforcements to the army of Sametikus when the pharaoh was fighting against the king of Ethiopia" (B. He was especially pleased when he read the "Letters of Aristides" quoted in Fatan's Archives, p. 8 of that book).On the basis of this well-documented historical fact, it does not seem unreasonable to say that "these fugitives may have included some Jews".

Another aspect of Herodotus' account that interests me is that it specifically mentions Moreau.According to Rafael Hadani, the priest of Falasha, the ancestors of the Falasha people passed through the city of Moro before entering Ethiopia.Not only that, but Herodotus also described in considerable detail that it took a full 56 days to sail from Moro to reach the place where the "fugitives" lived.If they sailed along the Atbara River, those travelers could have reached the border of modern Ethiopia, and possibly even crossed it.The Atbara River joins the Nile north of Moro City, while the Tekeze River joins the Atbara River.

Herodotus’ account was written in the 5th century BC, so it can be said: In the 5th century BC, if a group of Jews carrying the ark of the covenant planned to flee from Elfatan Island to the south, they might pass through The "known country" has reached Lake Tana in Ethiopia.Not only that, but based on simple logical reasoning, it can also be known that the Abyssinian Plateau is likely to be the destination that attracts them because of its cool climate and abundant rainfall, and in their eyes, compared with the desert of Sudan, there The verdant mountains of the city must have been like an Eden. beyond the cush river Was it possible that the fugitives from El Fatan knew of this "garden beyond the wilderness" in advance?Is it possible that, in their flight to the south, they not only passed through the "known country," but made their way to a special land, because there lived their kindred, and the people of their religion? people? In the course of my research I did find evidence that it is entirely possible that the Jews may have entered Abyssinia even before the 5th century BC. Part of this evidence comes from the Bible.Although I know that the use of "Ethiopia" in the "Bible" does not necessarily refer to the country with this name now, but I also know that when this word is used in the "Bible", sometimes it may indeed refer to the predecessor of modern Ethiopia. As I said before, "Ethiopia" is a Greek word meaning "burned face".In some of the earliest Greek versions of the Bible, the Hebrew word "Cush" was translated "Ethiopia" and (as one eminent authority points out) used to mean "Egypt." The entire Nile Valley region south of the country, including Nubia and Abyssinia" (E. Uhlendorf: "Ethiopia and (Bible >", p. 6). Ethiopia may refer to Abyssinia in the strict sense, or it may not. Similarly, the place name "Cush" revived in some English translations of the Bible has the same meaning: it may refer to Abyssinia in the strict sense. Signia, maybe not. In the face of this situation, I think it is worth mentioning at least one point: a reliable ancient version of "Numbers" says that Moses married an "Ethiopian woman" as his wife (see "Old Testament Numbers" Chapter 12, verse 1, in the Chinese version of the "Bible" reads "Moses married a Cushite woman"——Translator's Note).There is also a curious testimony by the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus (which is consistent with some Jewish legends), which emphasizes that the Prophet Moses was in "Ethiopia" between the ages of 40 and 80 Lived there for a while (see Josephus: Jewish Monuments, London 1978, Vol. 4, pp. 269-275). "Ethiopia al-Cush" is also mentioned in some passages in the Bible, but many of them have nothing to do with my investigation.Some of it, however, was fascinating, and led me to the possibility that the biblical writers had not Nubia or any part of the Sudan in mind, but that mountainous land in the Horn of Africa, where we Call it "Ethiopia" today. One of these verses, which I am already familiar with, is in Genesis 2, which speaks of the rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden: "The name of the second river is Gihon, which encircles all Ethiopia. "(See verse 13, Chinese "Bible" translates "Ethiopia" as "Cush"——Translator's Note) Looking at the map, I immediately knew that the Blue Nile was very similar to this Gihon River (Gihon): it Running down from Lake Tana, the course of the river forms a great ring, indeed "around the whole of Ethiopia."Not only that, but I knew before this: the two streams that are considered the source of this great river are called "Giyon" by the Ethiopians themselves today. Another interesting passage is in the 68th chapter of "Old Testament Psalms". J. D. Levinson, an associate professor of "Hebrew Bible" at the University of Chicago School of Divinity, believes that "it is one of the oldest poems in Israel." one".The hymn includes cryptic allusions to the Ark and makes a curious prophecy: "Ethiopia will soon stretch out her hands to God." (See verse 31, translated as "Cushites" Raise your hands in haste and pray"—Translator's Note) I can't help but wonder why Ethiopia is being held in such high regard as a potential candidate to convert to the religion of Israel? Unfortunately, there are no words in this hymn that can help me answer this question.However, from a later passage written by the prophet Amos (whose mission was 783-743 B.C.), it is seen that a momentous event took place in Cush, Ethiopia, which made this distant country The inhabitants of Israel are listed together with the Israelites as "God's chosen people".There are 3 English translations of the same passage (i.e. Amos 9:7) that can be used to illustrate what I mean: "Men of Israel," said the LORD, "do I not regard you as the Cushites?" (Chinese version of the "Bible" translation) Are ye not as children of Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord． (Translation of the King James Version of the Bible) Are no you and the Cushites all the same to me, son of Israel? -it is Yahweh who speaks． (Translation of the Jerusalem Bible) Are not you Israelites like Cushites to me? says the Lord． (Translation of the New English Bible) I know that there is another way to understand this verse, that is: the children of Israel are no longer qualified for the Lord to continue to treat them specially.In my opinion, understanding this scripture from this angle makes its meaning much more open, but it still needs to be carefully considered. Is it possible that at the time of Amos's prophecies in the eighth century BC, a group of Hebrew immigrants had already traveled south through Egypt and into the plateau of Abyssinia?I admit: this speculation is extremely bold, and there is no evidence.But it is an undeniable fact (not only Thus, that region persisted in that belief well into the 20th century).That area is of course within the Tana Lake District, which has been home to the Falasha since very remote antiquity. The next passage in the Bible that caught my attention was in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah, which was written between 640 BC and 622 BC, during the reign of King Josiah period.I find it helpful to put together three English translations of the same passage.This sentence (chapter 3:10) is quoting what God said: Whoever prays to me, the people whom I have scattered, shall come from Come from the Cush River and offer me offerings. (The translation of the Chinese God’s Edition of the Bible, below In the first and second translations, "Cush" is translated as "Ethiopia"——Translator's Note) From beyond the river of Ethiopia my suppliers, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. (Translation of the King James Version of the Bible) From beyond the banks of the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliers will bring me offerings. (Translation of the Jerusalem Bible) From beyond the rivers of Cush my suppliers of the Disper-sion shall bring me tribute. (Translation of the New English Bible) There is no doubt that this passage was written before 622 BC, long before the Israelites were exiled from Babylon and their Exodus from Egypt.Therefore, we are justified in asking the following two questions: 1.What event did Zephaniah refer to by "dispersion"? 2.When he thought of those who called upon God to offer offerings to God "from beyond the river of Ethiopia," what part of it did the place-name "Cush" written in the Bible refer to? To answer the first question, I must draw a conclusion: the "dispersion" spoken of by the prophet Zephaniah was some kind of voluntary immigration, because before the time of Zephaniah, there was no forced Hebrew The "dispersion" of Jerusalem. As for the answer to the second question, readers probably remember that the place name "Cush" used in the Bible refers to "the entire Nile Valley area south of Egypt, including Nubia and Abyssinia".However, the passage quoted above contains an inherent evidence that helps us narrow down the area Zephaniah refers to.The proof of this is in the sentence translated as "outside the river from Ethiopia" (the "river" here is plural in the original text - Translator's Note). Since more than one river is mentioned here, the Nile Valley, which lies far south of Morrow, can be excluded.However, there is the Atbara River to the east of Moro City, and the Tekeze River to the east; the south of the city (roughly parallel to the Atbara River) is the Abyssinian Plateau. Blue Nile.These must all be "Ethiopian rivers," and Lake Tana lies to the south of them.It can be seen that when Zephaniah wrote this confusing scripture, the prophet may have thought of the traditional settlement area of ​​the Falasha people.This possibility cannot be completely ruled out. I used the computer to search the electronic version of the "King James King James Bible", and found that apart from the above two places, the phrase "Ethiopia (Cush) beyond the river" only appeared in one other place in the entire "Bible".Therefore, I feel even more that my inference may be correct.This one is in Chapter 18, Section 1-2 of "Old Testament Isaiah". The "King James King James Version" translated it as follows: Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulbrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people Terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation met out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! (Alas, the land under the shadow of its wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: it sends its messengers on the waters, in paddle boats; saying: "Go, swift messengers, to the tall smooth people thither, to a people that has been dreaded from the beginning until now; the nation is punished and trampled down, and rivers are raging in its land!") This passage is rich and memorable, and two other translations of it add further meaning to it: Country of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush, who send ambassadors by sea, in papyrus skiffs over the waters. Go, swift messengers to a people tall and bronzed, to a nation always feared, a people mighty and masterful, In the country criss-crossed with rivers. (The Jerusalem Bible) (Countries with rustling wings beyond the rivers of Cush, send messengers across the sea in papyrus boats. Go, swift messengers, to tall, bronze-skinned people, to a land always dreadful country, to a mighty and proud people, whose country is criss-crossed by rivers.) There is a land of sailing ships, a land beyond the rivers of Cush which sends its envoys by the Nile, journeying on the waters in vessels of reed. Go, swift messengers, go to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and proud, whose land is scoured rivers. ("New English Bible") (There is a nation of ships, a land beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends its messengers to the Nile, in reed boats on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to the tall and smooth-skinned people, to the To a people to be feared far and near, to a mighty and proud nation whose lands are washed and devastated by rivers.) This passage is also the same as chapter 8 of Isaiah, which of course was written by Isaiah himself.This of course means that the exact date of this passage was during Isaiah's lifetime. I already know that Isaiah lived a long life and lived through the three dynasties of King Josan, King Az and King Hezekiah (740-736 BC. 737-716 BC and 716-687 BC).In fact, the prophet almost certainly lived to the time of King Manasseh, and it is now clear that Manasseh's apostasy caused the Ark to be removed from the inner sanctum of the Temple in Jerusalem.I was therefore intrigued by a very widespread ancient Jewish legend, which states that Isaiah died at the hand of Manasseh himself (see Oxford Dictionary of Christianity, p. 715; L. Kingsberg G: Tales of the Jews, Vol. 4, pp. 278-279). Even more interesting is the prophet's description of the mysterious land "beyond the rivers of Cush." The King James Version of the Bible states that Isaiah cursed the land; some more recent translations of the Bible do not convey this meaning.However, all these translations have one thing in common, that is, they all illustrate the characteristics of this land: not only is it located beyond the "rivers", but those rivers are also "raiding", "scouring" or "criss-crossing" there. This information confirms, I think, that Isaiah was referring to precisely Abyssinia, the very region where the Falasha traditionally settled.The rivers of this high country around Lake Tana are indeed "rampant" and "criss-criss" and have also washed away vast quantities of precious topsoil and devastated the land.There are several other clues in the scriptures: 1.The inhabitants of that land were said to be tall and "smooth-skinned," or, as the authoritative Jerusalem Bible translates them, a people of "bronze complexion."I think this description is easy to apply to modern Ethiopians, because their skin is a shiny dark chestnut color, which is obviously different from the skin color of "blacks", that is, the typical black people in other African countries. 2.It is rather peculiar that that land be described as "the land under the shadow of its wings," or, more directly, "the country of the rustling of its wings."I think this description most likely refers to the cloaking swarms of locusts that turn Ethiopia into a wilderness every decade or so, casting the shadows of their wings over farmers' fields and stirring up relentless scrubbing that People are creepy. 3.Finally, Isaiah also specifically mentions that the messengers from that land traveled in "papyrus boats" (or "papyrus boats", or "reed boats").And I clearly know that until today, people living in that vast inland sea—Lake Tana are still widely using papyrus and reed boats, and those boats are called "tankwas". So, on the whole, these biblical sources do lend a great deal of credibility to the idea that a settlement between Israel and the Abyssinian plateau may have been established long ago. some kind of connection.The Ethiopian wife of Moses, the "bronze complexion" of Isaiah, the "scattered" offerings of Zephaniah - who would return to Jerusalem "from beyond the Cush" It is hard not to infer that the Hebrews may have migrated to and settled in Ethiopia long before the fifth century BC. If, as I have said, the Jewish priests of El Fatan also brought the Ark of the Covenant to Tana Cheeks in the 5th century BC, then it follows that they went to this The island may already be inhabited by people of their religion who have established a secure foothold on the island. Is it immigration? Is there any evidence to support this hypothesis outside of the Bible?I have a hunch that there is such evidence.For example, my research in Ethiopia from 1989 to 1990 has discovered a possibility: from the distant ancient times until later, in an extremely long historical period, there have been continuous waves of Hebrew immigrants. Nowhere can I provide the strongest support for this statement than my interview with Muruna Masha, the high priest of the Guermantes, the "Hebrew heathen" (see Chapter 11 of this book).He told me that Anayel, the founder of the Guermantes religion, went from the "Land of Canaan" to the Lake Tana area. At that time my further studies of the religion of the Guermantes showed that it contained some peculiar mixture of pagan and Jewish customs.For example, the Judaic element is especially reflected in the strict distinction between "clean" food and "unclean" food; he also specifically mentions the "sacred grove", which is very similar to the earliest form of Judaism: He once "planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called on the name of the Lord the living God there" ("Old Testament Genesis" Chapter 21, Section 33).These tendencies probably spread widely during the early days of Israelite settlement in Canaan, and were briefly revived during the reign of King Manasseh, but were completely and permanently replaced by King Josiah in the 7th century BC. forbidden. That is to say: the Guermantes must have immigrated from Canaan to Ethiopia long ago.In contrast, the ancestors of the Farasha appear to have been later immigrants to the country.The Falasha's religion also included practices that were forbidden by King Josiah, such as burnt offerings in local sanctuaries.Without these customs, their religion would have been close to Old Testament Judaism, and in a rather pure form (without any apparently pagan beliefs, of course). The Guermantes and the Farasa are neighbors, both inhabiting the mountains and river valleys around Lake Tana, and both admit to being closely related to each other.The high priest Muruna Masha once told me that the family of the founder of the Guermante religion and the family of the founder of the Falasha religion took the "same journey" and discussed the matter of intermarriage , but ultimately failed. I later proved: such folklore does reflect the true ethnographic situation.The Farasha and Gemantes are indeed closely related: they are both sub-ethnics of the Agaw tribe in western Ethiopia, an ethnic group considered to be the oldest stratum of the Horn of Africa population.Because of this, the mother tongues of these two peoples are Agao dialects; and interestingly, their languages ​​belong to the "Cushite language group" on the branch of linguistics.Ethiopians also speak Hemit languages ​​(such as Amharic and Dinigrian), which are related to Hebrew and Arabic, but neither the Farasa nor the Gemantes speak these languages ​​(unless as a second language). This anomaly, and the reasonable inferences that follow from it, are evident in both peoples, I think.I wrote in my notebook: The first Hebrews must have started emigrating from Israel to Ethiopia long ago.I think the process started as early as the 10th century BC (maybe even earlier).When these immigrants arrived in Tana Lake District.It is quite possible to find oneself already among the earliest and most ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia, such as the Agaos, and to intermarry with them, thus gradually losing their own national identity.But at the same time, they also spread the Jewish belief and culture they brought to the local residents. In this way, around the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC, there may no longer be "Hebrews" in Ethiopia, but only "Hebrewized" or "Jewish" peoples.For various reasons, they are considered native Ethiopians; of course they also speak the native language of Ethiopia (while Hebrew is long forgotten).The modern descendants of these "Hebrewized" or "Jewified" peoples are the Guermantes and the Falashas, ​​the black Jews of Ethiopia; A native Cushtic language.What about the "Semitic"-speaking peoples of Ethiopia, such as the Amharas, who held political leadership and practiced Christianity? It is almost certain that their ancestors, as ethnologists believe, were the inhabitants of Sabaean and southern Arabia, and they came to the Ethiopian plateau with the wave of migration in relatively recent periods.By the time these Saba settlers arrived, some form of Judaism might have been established among the true Agaos, and their culture was thus gradually "Judaized," while the Abyssinian Therefore, Christianity still has the peculiar "Old Testament" features, so that the factors of Judaism survived, Balthazar Thales, a Portuguese Jesuit monk in the 17th century, wrote: "Jews have existed in Ethiopia from the beginning." I think his judgment is closer to the historical fact than some modern scholars think, and those modern scholars Arguing that Judaism arrived in Ethiopia relatively late, they seem to have completely missed all the evidence to the contrary of their prejudices. The Mysterious "BR Man" Although I have solved a large number of problems that have not been satisfactorily explained until now, it is still clear to me that there is a potential weakness in the theory I have scribbled out in my notebook: Doesn't the theory only reflect my own theory? Guessing, instead of reflecting historical facts? It is true that the Judaism of the Falasha was indeed ancient in its form; it is also true that the religion of the Gemantes contained many elements of the Hebrew religion; Also of Judaic origin, and thus always perplexing.But on the basis of all this, must it be concluded that there was already an influx of immigrants into Ethiopia in the centuries before the fifth century B.C.?I think the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Tana Chicos from the island of El Fatan in Upper Egypt in the 5th century BC.If I'm right, and if that area had indeed been previously settled by Hebrews, it should come as no surprise that Ethiopia (rather than any other country) was chosen as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. But are my views correct? The evidence I have gathered so far in support of this evolving theory takes two distinct forms: First, social and ethnographic data on the Farasa and Guermantes, including Their religion, folklore and their relationship with each other; second, the clues scattered throughout the Old Testament, they all seem to prove that Hebrew immigrants continued to flow into Abyssinia in the 5th century BC.However, if such ethnic migrations did occur in history, wouldn't there be evidence for them outside of the Bible, beyond the differences in the cultures of the Falashas and Guermantes? Although the impression materials I have collected have quite strongly supported my theory, I still need to find real archaeological and written evidence to finally confirm that: Hebrew immigrants had settled in Ethiopia before the 5th century BC up. I have never found such evidence, and I know that I am now swimming upstream against a current of academic opinion in order to find them.Still, I reached out to academia to see if I was missing something important. Not long after, I received in the mail a paper by the Frenchman Jacqueline Birenney, published in 1989 by the University of the Humanities of Strasbourg.This paper was sent to me by a professor of Egyptology at a prestigious university in England.Introducing the paper he wrote: I would like to say a little about this copy: it is a paper by Jacqueline Bilenni, which was presented at a recent academic conference in Strasbourg. Frankly speaking, from an academic point of view, I think her views are overdone; she is certainly competent and very knowledgeable about the Arabic documents she studies, but her views on ancient Arabic dates and sources of scriptures are unrealistic (Among us, there are not a few such scholars).Although this article is very interesting, I am afraid that it is more fiction than history. (I recall Piston slamming this article at a recent Arab Studies colloquium. He was a brilliant scholar, very clear-headed, though as fallible as we are.) 我自然想知道，这位教授为什么会认为这篇论文可能与我目前的考察有关，它的作者精通"古代阿拉伯文献"。然而，我请人把这篇论文译成了英文之后，便明白了教授的用意，也理解了正统学者反对雅克琳·比伦尼的观点的原因。 归纳这篇内容复杂的论文的基本观点，它的最主要观点就是：那些研究埃塞俄比亚与南阿拉伯的历史关系的学者完全错了。文章指出，南阿拉伯的影响绝不是（像他们以前认为的那样）从也门进入埃塞俄比亚的，实际上，这种影响的方向恰恰相反。换句话说，种种影响是从埃塞俄比亚传入南阿拉伯的： 塞巴人……先到了埃塞俄比亚的提格雷地区，然后沿着红海沿岸进入了也门……这个结论虽然与所有已被公认的观点截然相反，但它是对史实的惟一解释，也是惟一正确的解释。 接着，比伦尼继续论证：塞巴人的原始故乡在阿拉伯西北部，但他们后来大量移民埃塞俄比亚（"通过哈玛特河床及沿着尼罗河"）。历史上曾出现过两次移民潮：第一次在公元前690年前后；第二次在公元前590年前后。他们为什么要迁移呢？第一次是为了不臣服于侵略他们的亚述国王西拿基立，第二次是为了不臣服于占领他们国土的巴比伦国王尼布甲尼撒。 这篇论文其实并不像听上去那样牵强：西拿基立和尼布甲尼撒分别发动的侵略战争，并不仅仅限于对耶路撒冷的那些著名进攻，实际上他们还向阿拉伯西北部进军，并且在那里确实遇到了塞巴人的部族并赶走了他们。对这段历史我已经大部分了解。不过，对比伦尼其余的观点，我却无法进行减否，那就是：那些逃亡的塞巴人沿着尼罗河谷抵达埃塞俄比亚，然后渡过红海，继续向也门迁移。 这种看法尽管很有趣，但它还不是这篇论文与我的考察相关的核心重点。有一点引起了我的关注，并最终使我相信自己的思路是正确的：比伦尼分析了在埃塞俄比亚发现的塞巴人的一段铭文，其年代属于公元前6世纪。语言学家R·施奈德尔在一篇不太引人注意的论著里翻译了这段铭文，那部论著的题目是《埃塞俄比亚的语言学文献》。这段铭文是一位塞巴君主的话，他自称"高贵的国王兼战士"，并说他建立的帝国在埃塞俄比亚北部和西部，统治着"达马塔人、塞巴人及BR人，既有黑人，亦有白人"。比伦尼问道："BR人"究竟是谁？ R·施奈德尔没敢做出任何阐释……但在亚述人的那些铭文里，"Abirus"这个字却可能来自希伯来语……在塞巴人的第二次移民潮当中，自然也有希伯来人，那次移民潮开始于尼布甲尼撒第一次攻陷耶路撒冷、然后将当地人放逐到巴比伦的时候，即在公元前5％年。也是这个尼布甲尼撒，同时还在公元前599-598年间进攻了阿拉伯人……"BR人"就是随着塞巴人第二次移民潮进入埃塞俄比亚的"希伯来人。这就解释了埃塞俄比亚何以存在着法拉沙人，他们虽是黑种人，却又是犹太人。……他们是公元前6世纪到达埃塞俄比亚的"希伯来人"的后裔。 比伦尼根本没有考虑到的一点是："BR人"这个字，是"希伯来人"（即ABIRUS）这个字的早期标准写法，那时埃塞俄比亚文字里还没有元音。这些希伯来人可能在塞巴人之前就移民到埃塞俄比亚了。她只做出了简单的推断：由于提到"BR人"的那段铭文的年代是公元前6世纪，所以他们必定是在那个世纪移民埃塞俄比亚的。 然而，根据我的考察，我现在已经可以相当有把握地认为：塞巴人当年移民时侵占了"BR人"的土地并统治了他们，而在那个日期之前很久，这些"BR人"就已经定居在埃塞俄比亚了。不仅如此，当时（和以后）"BR人"的数量还在不断增加，因为更多的小批希伯来移民一直在经过尼罗河谷地进入埃塞俄比亚。 以上的观点仍然属于理论范围；不过，雅克琳·比伦尼给我的这份礼物的意义却在于：她使我注意到了在埃塞俄比亚存在着考古及文字证据，它们都属于公元前6世纪，都证明了当时那里存在一个名叫"BR人"的民族。学术界也许会对究竟谁是"BR人"争论个没完没了，但我已经对以下的史实毫不怀疑了： ——他们就是希伯来人，他们在移民埃塞俄比亚的早期阶段尚未与当地的阿皋人融为一体，没有失去自己的民族身份。 ——他们所崇拜的神名叫"YHWH"。 ——后来到了公元前5世纪，耶和华的约柜从埃勒法坦岛被带到了埃塞俄比亚，这的确可以说：约柜被送到了一个完全能被接纳的、恰当的安放地。 厄运礼拜堂 我已经没有多少剩下的事情要做了。我做了这番长期的、迂回曲折的历史考察，其目的就是想让自己相信一点：埃塞俄比亚人说失踪的约柜就在他们国家，这可能确实是真的。 我现在已经完成了这个考察。我也很清楚，学者们或许会对我的这些发现提出质疑，会对我从中引出的结论提出质疑。不过，我在1989-1990年间所做的考察，其目的本来就不是为了获得"专家"和"权威"们的赞同。相反，我当时想达到的是一种内在的目标，而对其中发现的所有证据和所有论点进行审查，我就是惟一的裁判和最后仲裁者。 核心的问题已经十分清楚：我必须到提格雷省的古城阿克苏姆去一趟，到据说安放着约柜的那个礼拜堂去一趟。我将不得不准备去做一次实际的冒险，准备去克服自己深深的精神不安，因为我想到这将把自己交到"提格雷人民解放阵线"手里。他们是反政府的武装叛军，并且很有理由憎恨我，因为我迄今仍然和政府保持着良好关系，而他们则要用鲜血来推翻的也正是这个政府。 我一直不准备接受这样的冒险，一直没有奋力去战胜自己的恐惧，除非我事先确信：这种冒险使我踏上的险途既不愚蠢，且不是出于堂·吉诃德式的狂想，而是可以被我信赖并为之全力投入的追踪考察。 我现在真的相信，约柜在阿克苏姆城的可能性极大。因此，我准备全力投入考察的这个最后阶段，即冒着由此引来的全部风险、危险和困难，到"埃塞俄比亚的这座圣城"去。 我并不是轻松地做出这个决定的。相反，在以前的几个月里，我曾经决定竭力寻找各种借口，为放弃我这个完全是赌运气的计划开脱。但是，我不仅没有找到这种借口，反而发现了越来越多的线索，它们都似乎无一例外地指向了阿克苏姆。 我曾经寻找过约柜的其他安放地，但那些传说中所说的地点，却没有一处存在半点可能性c我曾经想证明约柜已经被毁掉了，但不存在任何有关证据。我曾经想证明《国王的光荣》关于所罗门、示巴女王及门涅利克的记载是假的，却反倒发现这些说法可能是对史实的一种复杂隐喻。约柜当然可能不是在所罗门时代被带进埃塞俄比亚的，但也完全可能出现另一种情况：约柜在后来被带进了埃塞俄比亚，即在尼罗河上游埃勒法坦岛的那座犹太神庙被毁之后。 所以说，无论学术界的看法如何，我毕竟已经知道我已经沿着自己的这条思路，走到了终点，我已经无法再转向其他结论，无法再回避那个最终的清算了：如果我想保持自己目标的前后统一，如果我不想日后感到羞耻和愧悔，那么，我现在就必须做出最大的努力，争取到阿克苏姆城去一趟——无论我将冒什么样的风险，无论我心中自私与怯懦的魔鬼如何作祟。 这虽然是一句老生常谈，也许是人类所知道的一句最古老的老生常谈，但在我看来，真正的困难并不在于我到阿克苏姆圣城去，而在于我如何设法到那里去；真正的困难并不是我应当在那里找到约柜，而是我应当在自己心中找到足够的勇气，去做这次尝试。 在我眼里，我远远不是披挂着闪亮铠甲的亚瑟王传奇故事里的骑士。尽管如此，在我生命的这个瞬间，我却毫不困难地理解了这个传奇故事里的高文爵士。在即将踏上去格林圣堂的路，即将面对途中等待他的那些危险时，高文爵士决定不听那个扈从诱人的劝告。那扈从想说服他放弃追寻圣杯，并警告他说： "你若到那里去就会被杀死……因此，高贵的高文爵士啊……还是去走另一条路，到更遥远的地区去吧！以上帝的名义到那里去，基督保佑你走好运！我将再回到家里，信守庄严的誓言，以上帝和他的圣徒的名义，始终保守你这个秘密，绝不向任何人提起你曾转变了方向。"（《高文与绿衣骑士传奇》，英国企鹅书局，1974年伦敦英译版，第100页） 高文权衡了自己的处境之后，回答道： "老兄，你希望我一切顺利，我也相信你会忠实地为我把这个秘密锁在你心里。但无论你如何保持沉默，我若像你说的那样，不去这个地方而逃走，那我便成了一个胆小的骑士，没有别的借口……我一定要去格林圣堂，去面对命运的安排。" 现在我也下了这样的决心，尽管不像高文那样富于骑士气概。我一定要到我自己的那座"厄运礼拜堂"去，去看看命运将带给我什么。也像高文爵士一样，我知道自己必须在新年期间完成那次旅行，因为那个庄严的主显节很快就要到了。