Garima Gospels

Two pages with illuminated Eusebian Canons from Garima 1, likely the later of the two Garima Gospels

The Garima Gospels are two Ethiopic illuminated manuscript gospel books, of which the earlier is believed to be "the most ancient Christian manuscript decorated with paintings"^[1] and the oldest surviving Ethiopian manuscript of any kind.^[2][3] Together the two manuscripts provide the major witness to the Ethiopic Version of the New Testament, and have been applied as proof texts for the creation of critical editions of the Ethiopic Gospels; by Rochus Zuurmond (Matthew, 1989; Mark 2001) and by Michael G Wechsler (John 2007). As such they represent amongst the earliest versional witnesses to the early Byzantine Text of the Gospels.

The Gospels are housed in Ethiopia's Abba Garima Monastery. They are not known ever to have left the monastery;^[2] although, as the surrounding area was occupied by Muslims from the 9th to the 14th centuries, it is possible that they may have remained hidden in a cave for centuries, and then rediscovered.^[4] The Gospels were included the catalog of an American museum exhibition that toured from 1993–96, African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, but were never actually lent to the exhibition.^[2] Long thought to date from c. 1100,radiocarbon dating conducted at Oxford University under the auspices of the Ethiopian Heritage Fund suggests they actually date from between 390 and 660, with a mid-date of around 530.^[1][4]

Tradition

Monastic tradition ascribes the gospels to Saint Abba Garima, said to have arrived in Ethiopia in 494.^[2] Abba Garima is one of the Nine Saints instrumental in evangelizing the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum and the monks regard the Gospels less as significant antiquities than as sacred relics of Abba Garima.^[2] According to tradition, Abba Garima wrote and illustrated the complete Gospels in a single day; God stopped the sun from setting until the Saint completed his work.^[3] Definitive radiocarbon tests support this traditional dating for Abba Garima 2, the earlier of the two books.^[1]

The manuscripts

There are two manuscripts, Garima 1 and Garima 2, of which Garima 2 is likely to be the earlier.

In older reference works, Garima 1 is desgnated Garima I, while Garima 2 is designated Garima III. Before recent restoration, a third, probably 14th century, gospel book had been bound with Garima 2, and this later gospel was then denoted Garima II.^[5] The restoration has separated the three books, and repaginated in the original order and volumes; relocating a number of folios and miniatures which over the centuries had been displaced between the three manuscripts. ^[6]

Garima 1 has 348 pages, opening with eleven illuminated ones, including canon tables in arcades, followed by the Gospel texts in Ge'ez. Garima 2, also in Ge'ez, is a 322-page folio written by a different scribe. It has seventeen illuminated pages, including four fine Evangelist portraits.^[4] It also has a depiction of the Temple of Solomon with a staircase of unusual form unique in Christian iconography.^{[2] [7]}

The miniatures are in a broadly Byzantine style. While the text was written in Ethiopia, some scholars have maintained that the illuminated pages may have been created in ancient Syria or Egypt; whereas Jacques Mercier now argues that both text and illuminations were produced within Ethiopia.^[1] The arcaded canon table settings include pictures of twenty birds; identification of the species depicted may eventually settle the question of where the illustrations were made.^[2] Some of the illustrations can be seen at and .

The text forms of the two manuscripts are quite different such that Garima 1 does not appear to descend directly from Garima 2, implying that the common translation from which they derive is likely to be substantially earlier still; and that consequently the Ethiopian Gospel translation may be older than previously believed.^[7]

Neither manuscript has a colophon. However, in Garima II (the gospel book formerly bound with Garima 2) there is a historical note on two intruded leaves at the end of the Gospel of Luke, referring to the repair of churches undertaken by a King Armeho; who may be identified with the King Armah of Axum, who issued coins between 600 to 640.^[5] Getatchew Haile, in translating the notes of the manuscripts, leaves open the possibility that this note may be attributed to the period of the king's reign.^[1]

The two front covers are also very old; that of Garima 1 possibly contemporary with the manuscript, which would probably make it the oldest book cover still attached to its book in the world (the 7th century St Cuthbert Gospel is the oldest European one). It is in gilt-copper with a wooden backing boards and its decoration centres on a large cross. Holes that may have been settings for gems are now empty. The cover for Garima 2 is silver and from the 10th to 12th centuries.^[2]

A 19th-century church for female pilgrims at the edge of the monastery is being renovated to house the precious manuscripts. It has small windows, which will help prevent fading. Steel bars are being inserted and the building will be protected by armed guards.^[2]

Expert opinion

The Garima Gospels first became known outside Ethiopia in 1950, when Beatrice Playne, a British art historian visited the monastery. Since women are not allowed inside the monastery, the monks courteously carried several manuscripts outside for her to view. She wrote that, "there were several illuminated manuscripts whose ornamental headings struck me as Syrian in style."^[8] In the 1960s Frenchman Jules Leroy examined the manuscripts and proposed that they dated from c. 1100.^[2] Until recently, few other outside scholars had seen the manuscripts.^[2]

The two Garima Gospels became known to bibilical scholars through microfilm photographs collected by Donald M Davies; who realised that they represented a much earlier text than that of any other surviving Ethiopian manuscript. He dated all three Garima gospel books (including Garima II then bound with Garima 2) to the 8th-10th centuries. ^[5] Following Davies, and using his photographs, the Garima Gospels formed the base text used by Rochus Zuurmond in his preparation of a critical text for the Ethiopic Gospels; choosing Garima 1 as his primary proof text. Garima 1 and Garima 2 form together Zuurmond's class 'Aa' text or Versio Antiqua, which he states as being "a type which might be more or less the original", in that no other Ethiopic manuscript could be envisaged as conveying substantial information about the original translation. Zuurmond dated all three Garima gospel books later than Davies had done "In my opinion they cannot be safely dated later than the 13th century, but are probably one or two centuries earlier". In categorising the text witnessed in Garima 1 and Garima 2, Zuurmond states that it has the characteristics of a "free translation" retaining idiomatic Ge'ez syntax and grammar; while often betraying a limited expertise in Greek vocabulary; later Ethiopic manuscripts (and following them, previous printed Ethiopic editions) often tending have a more literal and accurate rendering of Greek word order and terminology. Nevertheless, he classifies the Garima texts as "Early Byzantine"; while emphasising that, especially in the Gospel of John, its readings often appear to witness a version of the Byzantine Text that differs from the later Majority Text; "In about half my sample cases Eth goes against the Ethiopic equivalent of the Greek Majority Text".^[9]

Jacques Mercier a French expert in Ethiopian art, examined the manuscripts at the monastery; and, because the manuscripts were deteriorating to the point where they crumbled every time they were examined, he was permitted in 2000 to take two small detached fragments of parchment to the Oxford University Research Laboratory for Archaeology. One sample from an evangelist page in Garima 2 was dated to 330–540; and the other, from a different canon table page but not definitely a different manuscript, to 430–650.^[10] Based on stylistic aspects of the work, Mercier then estimated that the two gospels dated from c. 600, a judgment which had previously been proposed by Marilyn Heldman in the catalog to the 1993 Exhibition African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia.^[10]

Mercier's proposal of a much earlier date for the Garima Gospels was taken into account in the revision of Zuurmond's work undertaken by Curt Niccum in 2013. Niccum accepts Mercier's carbon-dating of the Garima Gospels to the sixth century, noting that this is consistent with the observation by Michael Knibb that the text of Ge'ez Gospel inscriptions dating from around 525 agree exactly with the corresponding texts in the Garima Gospels. He concludes that "more and more evidence points to a considerably earlier period of translation"; arguing that most of the work of translating the New Testament must have been completed in Axum before the end of the fourth century. ^[11]

In November 2013, a two-day conference was held at the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies at Oxford, sponsored by the Ethiopian Heritage Fund, with the title "Ethiopia and the Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity: The Garima Gospels in Context".^[1] During restoration work further sample fragments had been collected under controlled conditions from text and illustrated pages of bothe manuscripts; as a result of which Jacques Mercier was able to report definitive radio-carbon datings of the two Garima Gospels; 390 to 570 for Garima 2, and 530 to 660 for Garima 1.^[4] These dating ranges would suggest that the Garima 2 manuscript is highly likely to be earlier than the Syriac illustrated Rabbula Gospels now in the collection of the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy and explicitly dated to 586.^[1] Mercier proposed the Cotton Genesis, Vienna Genesis and Rossano Gospels as comparable (though undated) illuminated manuscripts.^[4] Otherwise papers presented at the conference included the first full published translation by Getatchew Haile of the various historical notes found in the two gospel books; together with various iconographic and palaeographic studies, including a paper from Jacques Mercier arguing that the common grid of scored lines underlying both illustrations and text demonstrates that both were executed in Ethiopia, and that consequently a school of painting and a workshop for the production of manuscripts must have been active in the Kingdom of Axum in Late Antiquity.^[4]

See also

• Purple parchment

References

External links

• Mediaevalist.net
• photos of the Gospels
• Photos of the Gospels and Monastery.