Between Heretics and Jews: Inventing Jewish Identities in Ethiopia

The Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jews, have suffered from a negative or complete misrepresentation in the written and oral sources of pre-modern Ethiopia. The term “Jew” was deliberately chosen to stigmatize heretic groups, or any other group deviating from the normative church doctrine. Often no diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entangled Religions - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer
Main Author: Sophia Dege-Müller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: CERES / KHK Bochum 2018-04-01
Subjects:
Ethiopian Jews
Ethiopian Christianity
oral traditions and legends
anti-Jewish polemics
Online Access:https://er.ceres.rub.de/index.php/ER/article/view/865
Description
Summary:The Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jews, have suffered from a negative or complete misrepresentation in the written and oral sources of pre-modern Ethiopia. The term “Jew” was deliberately chosen to stigmatize heretic groups, or any other group deviating from the normative church doctrine. Often no difference was made between Jewish groups or heretic Christians; they were marginalized and persecuted in the harshest way. The article illustrates how Jews are featured in the Ethiopian sources, the apparent patterns in this usage, and the polemic language chosen to describe these people.
ISSN:2363-6696

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