Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	judge_n	king_n	ruth_n	1,639	5	10.6479	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49450	A new history of Ethiopia being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John : in four books ... : illustrated with copper plates / by ... Job Ludolphus ... ; made English, by J.P., Gent.; Historia Aethiopica. English	Ludolf, Hiob, 1624-1704.; J. P., Gent.	1682 (1682)	Wing L3468; ESTC R9778	257,513	339

has written a certain Ethiopic Martyrologie who asserts That Frumentius otherwise Abba-Salama was the Author of the first Translation but before I see it I will not undertake to affirm it converted or a very short time after and not in the time of the Apostles as some have reported and brought to perfection by several because the more rare and difficult words such as are the names of Gemms are not all alike in all the Books For example the Topaz in the 118 Psalm 127 Verse is call'd Pazjon in Job 28.19 Tankar in Revelations the 21.20 Warauri and so in many other words the same difference is observ'd But for the New Testament they have it Translated from the Authentic Greek Text tho as yet it has not bin brought into Europe pure and intire For the Roman Edition is printed from a lame imperfect Copy so that I was forc'd to fill up the Gapps which Tesfa-Tzejon had left from the Greek and Latin Exemplars This was observ'd by some Learned Men but not understanding the Cause it made them think that the Ethiopic Version had bin drawn from the Vulgar Latin Perhaps they did not understand these following Ethiopic Lines These Acts of the Apostles for the most part were translated at Rome out of the Latin and Greek for want of the Ethiopic Origiginal For what we have added or omitted we begg your pardon and request of You to mend what is amiss More then this the Publisher of the Book beggs pardon and excuses the defect of the Edition in regard of the ignorant Assistants which he had to help him Fathers and Brethren be pleas'd not to interpret amiss the faults of this Edition for they who Compos'd it could not read and for our selves we know not how to compose So then we help'd them and they assisted us as the blind leads the blind and therefore we desire you to pardon us and them This Excuse he also repeats in other places as being conscious of its being defective in several other places Nevertheless the same Edition was afterwards printed in England as an addition to that famous Poly Glotton of which there is no other reason to be given but that there was no other to be procur'd However they enjoy the holy Scripture entire and reck'n as many Books as we do tho they divide them after another manner For they distinguish the Old Testament which contains 46 Books into four Principal parts to which they joyn certain other Books of a different Argument consulting more perhaps the Convenience of the Volumes then the Dignity of the Matter They also mix the Apocryphal with the Canonical whether out of Carelesness or Ignorance is uncertain And as for Gregory he plainly confess'd he had never heard of any such word as Apocrypha The first Tome is call'd Oreth or the Law and the Octateuch for it contains Eight Books which are call'd 1. Zasteret or the Creation call'd also by another name Kadami Aret or the First Book of the Law or Zaledate or the Generation or Genesis 2. Zatzat Exodus 3 Zalewawejan of the Levites 4. Zahuelekue or Numbers 5. Zadabetra of the Tabernacle 6. Ejashu Joshua 7. Masafenet of the Dukes 8. Rute Ruth The Other Tome is call'd Nagaste or Kings and is divided into Thirteen Books 9 10. 1 Samuel or Samuel 2. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 11 12. Ebrewejen of the Hebrews II. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 13 14. Hatzutzan Of the Lesser or Inferior II. Thus they seem to understand the Greek word Paralipopomena 15 16. Ezra or Ezra II. 17. Tobed Tobia 18. Judic Judith 19. Ester Ester 20. Jjob Job 21. Masmare Of the Psalmes The Third Tome is call'd Salomon and contains Five Books 22. Maste the Proverbs 23. Maqebeb The Sermon Properly a Circle or an Assembly of Men Assembled together in a Ring 24. Mahaleja Mahuleje the Song of Songs 25. Tobeb the Book of Wisdom 26. Sirach Sirach The Fourth Tome is call'd Nabijat or the Prophets and contains Eighteen Books 27. Esjajas Isaiah 28 29. Eremjas Tanbitu Wakkakibu The Prophesie of Jeremie and his Lamentations 30. Baruch 31. Ezechiel 32. Daniel The next that follow as among us are Nesan Nabjat or the Minor Prophets 33. Hoseas 34. Joel 35. Amos. 36. Obadijah 37. Jonas 38. Michejas or Micah 39. Nahum 40. Habacuc 41. Sophonijas 42. Hag. or Hagjah 43. Zacharias 44. Malaqijas To these they add 45. Maqabejan the two Books of Maccabees Of all which there are at Rome in Manuscript the 1. Pentateuch 2. Joshuah 3. Judges 4. Ruth 5. Four Books of Kings 6. Isaiah In Print are Extant 1. The four first Chapters of Genesis 2. The Book of Ruth 3. The Psalter 4. The Song of Songs 5. Joel 6. Jonas 7. Sophoniah 8. Malachi With the Hymns of the Old Testament The New Testament contains Four and twenty Books and is also divided into Four parts of which the first is call'd Wenghel or the Evangel comprehending the Four Evangelists 1. Matthew 2. Mark 3. Luke and 4. John The second the Gober or the Acts viz. of the Apostles The third call'd Paulus comprehends the 14 Epistles of St. Paul 6. To the Romans 7. To the Corinthians II. 8. To the Galathians 10. To the Ephesians 11. To the Philippians 12. To the Colossians 13 14. To the Thessalonians 15 16. To Timothy II. 17. To Titus 18. To Philemon 19. To the Hebrews The fourth Hakreja or the Apostle containing the Seven Books of 20. St. James 21 22. St. Peter II. 23 24 25. St. John III. 26. St. Jude To which they add as a Supplement the Vision of John sirnam'd Abukalamsis A word corrupted out of the Greek Apocalypsis which they ignorantly took for the Sirname of St. John as compounded of the Arabic word Abu Kalamsis Here we are to observe that in the written Eastern Copies the Epistles of St. Paul are found single by themselves and this is the reason that in the Roman Copy of the Ethiopic New Testament they were Printed apart and not in the Order by us observ'd To the New Testament they generally annex a Volume which they call according to the Greek word Synodum or the Book of Synods It contains those most ancient Constitutions which are call'd the Constitutions of the Apostles in their Language Tazazate Precepts or Canons being an Explanation of the Primitive Rites and Ceremonies written by the Industry of St. Clement but they are very much different from those that are dispers'd among Us under the name of the Apostles These the Habessines divide into eight parts adding withall to the Canonical Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as it were certain Novels as if they were of the same Authority and the most absolute Pandects of Christianity Hence it was that King David said to Alvaresius That he had Fourscore and one Books of Sacred Scripture that is to say Six and forty of

The next is Drubbing if the Crime be not Capital The punishment of the Nobility is Exilement into the Zanic Lake or into their high and steep Rocks which are in a manner like Ilands from whence however they frequently escape by reason that the People are easily corrupted by Bribery Homicides are deliver'd up to the next of (l) A Custome still us'd in Persia as you may read in Tavernier and Olearius Kin to the Party murder'd at whose free will it is to pardon the Malefactors sell them to forraign Merchants or put them to what death they please If the Homicide escape unknown the Inhabitants of the place and all the Neighbourhood are oblig'd to pay a Fine by which means many Murthers are either prevented or discover'd Most certainly the Law of Like for Like was always and still is accompted the most just and plainest among several Nations Hence that of Moses An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But because there is not the same use of all members among men some men according to their various Callings having more use of one Member than another some being better able to lose their Hands than their Leggs others the●r Leggs than their Hands therefore among the Civiliz'd Nations this Law grew out of custome And it seems unjust to surrender the Offender to the Malice and Fury of the Offended Party when they may have unbyass'd Judges to give Sentence without Favour or Affection The End of the Second Book OF THE Ecclesiastical Affairs OF THE ABISSINES BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the ancient Religion of the Abissines and their Judaic Rites The Ecclesiastical History of the Abissines corrupt and why The first Relation of Matthew the Armenian false Tzagazaabus's Confession as little to be credited Those of the Fathers and Tellezius more certain Ecclesiastical History commended The Tradition of some concerning the Original of the Judaic Rites Circumcision us'd by many How it differs from the Judaic No piece of holy Worship among the Habessines Females circumcis'd Why the Abissines abstain from Swines Flesh The Various Customs of Nations concerning Meats The Sabboth observ'd in the Primitive Church Different from the Lords Day and how Whether lawful to marry a Brothers Wife They abstain from the shrunck sinew What to be thought of Candaces Eunuch Menihelec's Posterity revolted from the true Religion Claudius disclaims the Judaic Religion NOw we proceed to the Ecclesiastical History of the Habessinians then which there is not any other more corrupt For whatever we find scatter'd in our Relations were neither collected out of the Books which are publickly authentic in Habessinia nor taken from the report of any persons there skill'd in the Ecclesiastical Affairs of that Country but partly ill related through the Rashness of the Writers themselves partly by the same persons or others ill understood through their ignorance of the Ethiopic Language The first Relation concerning the Religion of the Habessines was set forth by Damianus a Goez a noble Lusitanian from the Report of Matthew the Armenian First Ethiopic Embassador to Emanuel King of Portugal which Narrative of his (a) In a little Treatise often quoted Of the Embassie of the Great Emperor of the Indians contains many things ambiguous many other things altogether false Insomuch that Tzagazaabus the second Habessinian Embassador plainly tax'd the Author of it (b) For thus he sayes in his Confession of Faith Matthew in regard he was an Armenian could not so perspicuously understand our affairs especially those that related to our Faith And therefore he reported many things to King Emanuel which are not in use among Vs Which he did not out of desire to tell an untruth because he was a good man but because he knew little concerning our Religion But in my opinion that good man Matthew spake many things which he knew much better for his ignorance Tho he himself in the Confession of his Faith which the same (c) Extant in the 2. Tom. of Spain illustrated p. 1302. Goez set forth did not much excel him either for truth or probability for which reason Tellezius not undeservedly reprehends him Certainly Gregory was very much offended with him And when he heard his following Doctrines 1. That Jesus Christ was the Son of the Father and the beginning of himself in the same manner that the Holy Ghost was the Spirit of himself and proceeded from the Father and the Son 2. That he descended into Hell where was the Soul of Adam and Christ himself which Soul of Adam Christ received from the Virgin Mary and toward the latter end of the Book That Christ descended into Hell for the Soul of Adam and not for his own 3. That the Souls of men piously deceas'd are not crucify'd in Purgatory upon the Sabaoth and Lords Day 4. That by the Decree and Commandment of Queen Maqueda the Women were also to be Circumcis'd as having a certain glandulous piece of Flesh not unfit to receive the Impression and mark of Circumcision I say when Tellezius heard these things and many other of the same mixture in no small heat and Passion he cry'd out That they were Fictions Dreams nay meer Lyes frequently repeating these words If he said this he was a Beast of the Field Yet out of these Books most of those Stories have flow'd which our Writers have made public concerning the Religion of the Abessines But the Fathers of the Society having bin conversant so long in Ethiopia and view'd the Habessine Books after several Disputations and Discourses with them have bin able to afford us more Truth whose Acts and Writings being free for the perusal of Tellezius we shall cull the choicest of his accurate Relations and what he has reported more ambiguous or more partially out of his dislike of the Alexandrian Religion we shall correct out of their own Writings or from the Discourses of Gregory himself Certainly to Christians no History can be more pleasant than that of Ecclesiastical affairs especially if we look back to the Primitive Church For whom would it not ravish into a high admiration of the wonderful Providence of God as well in founding as preserving his Church when he shall consider that it grew up and increas'd not by the Propagation of Arms or human Arts but by the Oppression of Heathenish persecution To whom can it be unpleasing to consider with a Pious Contemplation the undaunted Courage of the Martyrs the Constancy of her Doctors the Sincerity of the Christian People the Purity of the Faith the Strife of Good Works the Patience of the Weak the plainness of the Rites and Ceremonies Which when they once began to be alter'd with the reverence to the Church be it spoken then also enter'd in Pride instead of Modesty Ambition instead of Charity together with Faction and Contention As if our leisure and our Quiet were therefore granted us by Heaven to consume that time in making Scrutinies into all the misteries of

Old Testament reck'ning the Lamentations by themselves and Thirty five of the New Testament adding to the Twenty seven those Eight Books of Constitutions and Canons which the Ethiopians call Manda Abtelis the Signification of which were unknown to Gregory as being words altogether Exotic This was also the reason why Tefa-Tzejon has this Expression in the Title of the New Testament I have caus'd a New Copy to be Printed but without a Synod because he did not Print together with the said Copy those Canons and Institutions before specify'd Next to this Book which is also call'd Hadas or absolutely New the chiefest Reverence is given to the three Oecumenic Councils the Nicene Constantinopolitan and Ephesine with some other Provincial Councils which were receiv'd in the Church till the Schism of Chalcedon But we are to understand that beside the Twenty Nicene Canons always receiv'd by the Greek and Latin Church they also admit of Eighty four other Canons which are extant among the Copies in the Arabic Language And these in the foregoing Century Baptista the Jesuit Transcrib'd and brought to Rome where they were Translated into Latin They were all formerly fairly written in Parchment and by Zer-a-Jacob or Constantine Emperor of the Habassines in the year 440. sent to Jerusalem and thence brought to Rome in the year 1646. where I saw it in the Habessine House in the year 1649. It contains the following Books The Synod of the Holy Apostles for the Ordering of the Church of Christ together with all the Precepts Decrees and Canons which Clement the Disciple of Peter wrote The First Synod is that of the Council of Ancyra The Second Synod is that of the Council of Caesarea The Third the Council of Nice The Fourth of Gangra The Fifth of Antiochia The Sixth of Laodicea The Seventh of Sardis Afterwards follow the Acts of 318 Orthodox Holy Fathers Then a Treatise of the Sabboth Compos'd by Retud-Halmanor Next a Declaration of the Doctrine of the Law by Constitutions and Exhortations Lastly a Decree and Canon of Penitence The Book was written at Axuma with a Preface of the Kings written dated from Shewa Adjoyning to this Book are the Liturgy or the Publick Prayers for the Use of the whole Ethiopic Church They call it Kanono Kedasi the Canon of the Eucharist as being the Rule of Administration and of all the other Liturgies They are Printed in the Roman Copy of the New Testament before the Epistles of St. Paul but intermixed with Foreign Insertions For there we find it written concerning the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son which latter proceeding neither the Greeks nor Ethiopians admit Besides this General Liturgy they have several other Liturgies which are appropriated for several Holydaies Kedasi Za-gezen the Liturgy of our Lord. Kedasi Za-Ghezeten the Liturgy of our Lady Kedasi Za-Warjat the Liturgy of the Apostles Kedasi Zawedus Martium the Liturgy of St. Mark Which Inscriptions have deceiv'd some Learned Men who have branded them with the Characters either of Apocryphal or false Titl'd for that they were not call'd so by the Composers of them both the Text it self and the Name of the Author sometimes added to the Title demonstratively evince as for Example The Liturgy of our Lady Mary which Abba Cyriacus Metropolitan of the Province of Behens compos'd Of this Nature they have also sundry other Manuscript Liturgies which the Ethiopians call Equtet Korban or the Thanksgiving of Oblation It being their Custom to use Eucharistical Prayers and Homilies in the Administration of the Sacrament But their Symbolic Book or Compendium of the whole Habessine Religion is call'd Hajma Monoto-Abaw The Faith or Religion of the Fathers of which Tellez writes That it is a Book among them almost of great Authority and Credit as being as it were a Library of the Fathers it being Collected out of the Homilies of St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Cyril St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril as also Ephrem the Syrian and the St. Gregories of which there are Four whom they acknowledge and highly esteem Gregory of Neo-Cesarea the Wonder-worker Gregory Nazianzene Gregory Nyssene and Gregory the Armenian Tellez adds St. Austin but of that I very much doubt the Truth the Writings and Names of the Latin Fathers being utterly unknown to the Abessines And indeed had that Book been Compos'd out of the Writings of the Fathers above-mention'd it might have been easily admitted by the Jesuits as an equal Judge between both Parties in their Disputes concerning the two Natures in Christ They have besides these several other Books that treat upon Sacred Subjects as Books of Martyrs and Lives of Saints which are call'd Synaksar in the Ethiopic Idiom Among the rest The History of the Fathers The Combats or Wrestlings of Martyrs The History of the Jews The Constitutions of the Christian Church A Book of Mysteries which Treats of Heresies written by St. George A Book of Epiphanius upon the same Argument The Spiritual Old Man The Harp of Praise in honour of the Trinity and the Virgin Mary Padab Tzahje The Splendor of the Sun which Treats of the Law of God Wedasi Ambatzi The Praise of God Matzehfe felsit bagzeten Marjam The Book of the Death of our Lady Mary In whose Praise and Honours there are several Hymns and Verses among which the most extoll'd is that which is call'd Organon Denghel The Virgins Musical Instrument Composed by Abba George an Abassine Doctor a Book not very ancient but in high esteem by reason of the great number of Similitudes and Allegories as also for the Elegancy of the stile and words But as to what Egidius the Capuchin writes to the famous Petreskius concerning the Prophesie of Enoch as if such a thing were extant in the Ethiopic Language in a Book call'd Matzhe Henoch the Book of Enoch the Story is altogether fabulous So soon as that noble Gentleman heard of this Book he spar'd for no Cost to get it into his hands till at length the Knavery of those he employ'd impos'd upon him another Book with a false Title The Book was afterwards lodg'd in Cardinal Mazarine's Library and the Preface Middle and End being Transcrib'd by a Friend of mine was presented to me but there was nothing in it either of Enoch or his Predictions only some few Notions there were and some very clear discourses of the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth and the Holy Trinity under the Name of one Abba-Bahaila-Michael There is another little idle and impertinent Pamphlet hardly worth taking notice of were it not so frequently currant in Europe Gregory call'd it Tzalot Betzet or a Magical Prayer and averr'd That it was not only not esteem'd but rejected in Ethiopia tho by us charily hoarded up in several Libraries It is writ with so much stupidity that you shall find therein many Prayers of the Virgin Mary to her Son stufft with monstrous words to which are attributed Vertues and Efficacies more than Divine