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Title
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Testament of Patriarchs and a Homily
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Institution
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University Library, Cambridge
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Collection Title
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Ethiopian Manuscripts
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Creator(s)
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Unknown
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Description/Scope and Content
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This manuscript is comprised of four works, the Testament of Abraham, Testament of Isaac, Testament of Jacob (ገድለ ፡ አብርሃም, ገድለ ፡ ይስሐቅ, ገድለ ፡ ያዕቆብ), and a homily attributed to Ephrem on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt (ድርሳነ ፡ ሳራ), which in the Ethiopian tradition is almost always circulate together as a unit. Both Ethiopian Christians and Jews transmit these writings, and this manuscript, preserving a recension of the texts redacted by the latter, forms a rare example of a Beta Israel scribal work. The Testaments and the accompanying homily are each spuriously ascribed, to Athanasius and Ephrem respectively, attributions that arose in Arabic, the version from which the Ge‘ez was translated. Ultimately, these texts go back to a variety of Vorlagen, the Testaments of Isaac and Jacob originating in Coptic, the homily on Abraham and Sarah in Syriac, and the Testament of Abraham, which was probably composed during the late Second Temple Period, in Greek.
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Date
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19th cent.
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Identifier
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Or. 1878
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Language
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Ethiopic language
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Extent
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56 ff. Leaf height: 11.4 cm, width: 7.6 cm.
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Collection Type
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Special Collection
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Level of Processing
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Catalogued - FIHIRST & digitised on CUDL
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Type of Materials/Format
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Codex
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Related Collections: Types of Materials
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Islamic Manuscripts - Ethiopian Manuscripts
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Presevation/Conservation concerns
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Digitised - fragile
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Provenance
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Ethiopia
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Copyright
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Out of copyright
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Donor Information
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Donated to Cambridge University by Armbruster, C. H. (Carl Hubert), 1874-1957 on 19 August 1957
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Notes
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Binding: Leather over wooden boards with full blind decoration on both. Stitched turn-ins at head and tail of spine. Braided leather endbands. For more information contact the Near & Middle Eastern Specialist
