Bible in Ethiopia

The Ethiopic version provides a window into the state of the Greek Bible as it circulated in East Africa at the end of the fourth century. It is, therefore, an extremely important witness to the Bible's early transmission history, yet its testimony has typically been ignored or misunderstood by textual critics. This study examines the history of the book of Acts in Ethiopia and reconstructs its earliest attainable text, which is then assessed using the latest text-critical methods. It provides a solid base for interpreting the data of this key witness and lays the groundwork for future text-critical work in the Ethiopic and other early versions.

"There are not many scholars who deeply and effectively engage in Ethiopic studies. Curt Niccum is one of them. His carefully prepared edition of the book of Acts will not only enormously enrich our knowledge of the Ethiopic New Testament, but also demonstrate that the Ethiopic Bible is of more than secondary importance for the textual criticism of the Greek New Testament." -K. Martin Heide, Privatdozent, Philipps Universität Marburg, Germany "Curt Niccum, an acknowledged expert in the area of the Ethiopic New Testament, here shares with his readers the fruit of his investigations into the Ethiopic text of the book of Acts. Niccum's careful work offers a valuable and needed corrective to previous views. Textual critics and historians of Christianity in East Africa will find here much of interest." -Michael W. Holmes, Editor of 'The Apostolic Fathers' "This work constitues an enormous step forward in our knowledge of Ethiopic Acts, and one would wish that each published PhD brought the state of knowledge as much forward as this one." -Dirk Jongkind, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Volume 38.5, August 2016 "This book can be recommended on several levels. For the novice (graduate and beyond), it would provide a useful introduction to the Ethiopic version. For those already familiar with Ge'ez and Greek, it provides insight on the transcriptional/translational relationship between the two; and on an advanced level (post-graduate) the book offers Acts in Ge'ez with textual variants that help understand the textual history and relation of the Ethiopic manuscripts." -Gregory S. Paulson, Theological Book Review, Vol. 26 No.2, 2016 "Curt Niccum makes a very valuable contribution to the ongoing efforts to understand the complicated history of biblical texts in Ethiopia. .... his findings .... bear implications that go beyond the field of Ethiopic studies, as he persuasively makes the case for the incorporation of the Ethiopic version in the text-critical analysis of the Greek Testament." -Yonatan Binyam, Religion and Theology, Vol. 24, Issue 2, April 2017

Curt Niccum is Associate Professor of New Testament at Abilene Christian University, Texas. He is also Co-Director of the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT) Project.