Garima Gospels

Judith McKenzie was Professor of the Archaeology of Late Antique Egypt and the Holy Land at the University of Oxford. Her monographs include The Architecture of Petra (1990), The Art and Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt (2007), and Life in a Cave in Petra with the Bdoul (published posthumously in 2022). In 2012, she founded the Manar al-Athar Digital Archive (https://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk), based at the University of Oxford, where her photographs of Petra may be viewed and studied.Francis Watson holds a Research Chair in Biblical Interpretation in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University. His research interests are canonical and non-canonical gospels and their early reception; recent books include Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective (2014) and The Fourfold Gospel (2016). He is editor of the journal New Testament Studies, and Principal Investigator on the ‘Fourfold Gospel and its Rivals’ project (2012–17).Michael Gervers is professor of medieval history at the University of Toronto. He teaches a course on the history of Ethiopia and has recently introduced the study of Old Ethiopic (Ge‘ez) language to the curriculum. His maintains an extensive photographic repertory of Ethiopian art and culture http://ethiopia.deeds.utoronto.ca.

‘The meticulous scholarship in evidence throughout The Garima Gospels is worthy of the series in which it appears. Lavishly illustrated volume, with its 268 colour pictures and fifty-two full-page plates.J. K. Elliott, TLS 2 June 2017‘Judith McKenzie (with her colleagues) takes the reader through this scholarly fest with a sure touch and with justified enthusiasm. Here is the evidence for a spread of a late classical art with deep roots in the great Hellenistic cities of the East – most notably Alexandria – for whose existence she has long been a passionate advocate.’Peter Brown, NYRB May 2017'It's not every day that scholars discover new Bible Manuscripts from the ancient world. It's ever rarer to discover new ones endowed with luxurious painted images. Yet this is precisely what has happened over the past decade thanks to groundbreaking research into three ancient codices from Ethiopia.'To put the discovery in perspective, the Abba Garima manuscripts are among the very oldest illustrated Gospels in the world.'Although the three manuscripts show abundant parallels to the arts of the wider late antique world, they also demonstrate in dazzling fashion the vitality of local culture in Ethiopia itself. In fact, their beauty and sophistication suggest that these were not the first fruits of a tradition about to bloom, but the mature efforts of a tradition that had already been flowering for generations. We owe McKenzie, Watson, and their team a great debt for making these codices accessible to the general public. Their fine volume will hopefully serve as a stimulus for further research on ancient Ethiopia more broadly, a great crossroads of culture whose significance to world history we are only beginning to appreciate.'Christian C. Sahner, Research Fellow in History, St John's College, University of Cambridge, Marginalia March 2017'A magnificent study.'Christopher Howse, The Telegraph December 2016'The group of early Christian illuminated manuscripts known as the Garima Gospels -- written in an old Ethiopic translation of the Bible -- are among the very earliest and most important illustrated Christian books. They have never been published in a properly illustrated edition before, nor with a sound scholarly introduction and discussion such as presented here. Judith McKenzie and Francis Watson's remarkable publication of Michael Gervers' photographs is not only the first fundamental presentation of this immensely important set of visual and textual materials, but it is also a record of the state of the manuscript at the moment of its discovery by contemporary scholarship. The volume is a landmark in early Christian studies and in late antique art history.'Jas Elsner, Professor of Late Antique Art, University of Oxford'How many movable objects have been in use ever since late Antiquity, in the same place they were produced? The battered and well-thumbed Garima Gospels may never have left the sequestered Ethiopian monastery where they still reside -- and which no woman may enter. The English artist Beatrice Playne first noticed them in 1948 (they were carried out for her to inspect). She perceptively compared them with the Syriac Rabbula Gospels of 586 in Florence. Now Judith McKenzie has taken the lead in publishing and discussing all the illustrated folios for the first time, while Francis Watson's analysis of the canon tables drives home the point that images should not be studied in isolation from the texts they adorn. This attractive and learned book will at last ignite informed debate about one of the most important manuscripts to have survived from Antiquity.'Garth Fowden, Professor of Abrahamic Faiths, University of Cambridge

• Preface by Michael GerversAcknowledgements by Judith McKenzieAbbreviationsMapsGENERAL INTRODUCTION by Judith McKenzieTranslation of Biblical TextsIllustrated Biblical ManuscriptsThe Four Gospel Collection and the Eusebian Canon TablesThe Present Study SummaryPART I THE GARIMA GOSPEL BOOKS1. THE WORLD OF THE GARIMA GOSPELS by Judith McKenzie and Miranda WilliamsEthiopian Trade and Technological DevelopmentsArrival of Christianity in EthiopiaConstruction of ChurchesThe Aksumite Kingdom as a Regional PowerEthiopians in Jerusalem and PalestineAlexandria and Late Antique Egyptian ArtConclusion2. THE DISCOVERY AND STUDY OF THE GARIMA GOSPELS by Judith McKenzieThe Garima Gospel CodicesThe Discovery and Publication of the Illuminated PagesDocumentation and Analysis of the Texts of the Garima GospelsA Re-evaluation of the Chronology and the Carbon-14 Dates3. THE MANUSCRIPTS by Judith McKenzieBindingsCoversDetermining Which Illuminated Pages Belong to Which ManuscriptAbba Garima I Illuminated PagesAbba Garima III Position and Order of the Decorated PagesDistribution of the Canon TablesProduction of the Illuminated Pages and TextsPlace of ProductionPART II IMAGES, ORIGINS, AND MEANINGS by Judith McKenzie4. THE PORTRAITS OF THE EVANGELISTSMarkStanding Evangelists (Matthew, Luke, and John) and a Saint (?Eusebius)Conclusion5. ILLUMINATED FRAMESOrigins of Canon Table FramesAbba Garima III FramesAbba Garima I FramesBirds, Plants, and Fruit BowlsAbba Garima I and III: Two Schools of PaintingAbba Garima II: A Third School of PaintingRelationship of the Abba Garima I and III Frames to Other FramesLater Ethiopian Frames and the Legacy of the Schools of Abba Garima I and IIIConclusionsAdditional Note: The Garima Birds by Linda Macaulay6. BUILDINGS: ORIGINS AND MEANINGSThe Jerusalem Temple Image in Abba Garima IIICircular Pavilion (Tholos) in Abba Garima ITholoi in Carolingian, Greek, Armenian, and Georgian Gospel BooksTholoi in Later Ethiopian Manuscripts and Their MeaningMeaning of the Decoration on the FramesConclusionPlatesPART III TEXT AND IMAGE by Francis Watson7. EUSEBIUS TRANSFORMEDThe Eusebian CanonsThe Eusebius PortraitThe Preface On the Agreement of the Four GospelsThe Letter to Carpianus: Abba Garima IThe Letter to Carpianus: Abba Garima II and III8. THE CANON TABLE SEQUENCEPages One and Two: Canons IIIPage Three: Canons IIIIVPages Four and Five: Canons VVIIPages Six to Eight: Canons VIIXThe Four Pillared Structure (Tholos)The Renewed TempleThe Ring9. THE FOUR EVANGELISTS: TEXTS AND PORTRAITSThe Enumerated TextChapters and TitlesMatthewMarkLukeJohn10. TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND DATEThe Textual History of the Geez GospelsOn Text-forms and Time-framesThe Textual MilieuParallel TranslationsAppendix I. The Foliation and Content of the Garima Gospels by Matthew CrawfordAppendix II. John Chrysostom and the Preface of Ps-Ammonius, translations by Francis WatsonAppendix III. Eusebius Letter to Carpianus: Greek and Geez, translations by Francis WatsonGlossaryBibliographyIllustration CreditsIndex