[work in progress]
(1) Translated / amended by Jesuits (in the 1620/30s)
Luiz de Azevedo (1573–1634) and Luís Cardeira († 1640), who also taught singing and playing of musical instruments, are among the outstanding Jesuit translators into Ge’ez and Amharic.
Source: Martínez d’Alòs-Moner,
Envoys of a Human God, p. 357-58
After the expulsion of the Jesuits, all their works in Etheiopia were burnt. It appears that only one manuscript of a Bible book in Amharic is still accessible today:
- Quatuor Libri Regum amharice [1 Kings – 2 Chronicles in Amharic]. Tr. by Luís Cardeira, SJ. Manuscript written in 1630, now located in the Roman Archive of the Society of Jesus.
[* Rijks, Catholic Bible Translations, vol. 2, p. 150]
It is unclear whether the translations of the New Testament, the Psalms and the Books of Maccabees finalized in 1628 were drafted in Amharic or whether these versions were amendments of Orthodox translations into Ge’ez (Cohen seems to be leaning towards the second possibility).
(2) 19th Century
Tr. by Giovanni Stella (CM)
La Genesi in amarico. Manuscript written in 1848, now located in the Roman Archive of the Congregatio Missionis (alias Vincentians or Lazarists). [* Rijks, p. 150]
Ed. (tr.?) by Peter Stahl (CM)
Baa’cir qa yaṭaqallala ya ‘iyasus krəstos tarik. Ed. Peter Stahl. Keren: French Mission Press, 1876.
- 2nd edition: 1889. [Copies of both editions located in the Roman Archive of the CM; Rijks, p. 150]
Tr. by N.N.
[Short Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ]. Translated by anonymous. Keren: French Mission Press, 1887.
Ed. by Jean-Baptiste Edouard Coulbeaux (CM)
Sər’ata qədasie zabieta krestian katolikawit əntaba ətyopya. Missal. Ed. by Jean-Baptiste Edouard Coulbeaux. Keren: French Mission Press, 1887.
(3) 1900 – 1974
Ed. by Joachim-Maria Esteban de Bocequillas (OFM Cap [‘Capuchins’])
Published in 1907:
Behomtna Bal Wanguia na melekt / Evangelia et Epistolae quae in Dominicis et in Festis per annum legi solent in vulgari lingua amharica [Sundays and Feastdays Gospels and Epistles]. Ed. by Joachim-Maria Esteban de Bocequillas. Rome: Typographia Polyglotta, 1907.
Je Guietatchen Je Jesous Kristos, ie Meheret Wanguiel Qeddos Matheos ende tsafow. Qeddous Johannis ende tsafow / Sanctum Jesu Christi Evangelium secundum Matthaeum et Joannem. [Gospels of Matthew and John]. Tr. by Joachim-Maria Esteban de Bocequillas. Rome: Typographia Polyglotta, 1907. [Available at Cambridge Univ. Library]
Tr. by Antonio Gasparini (FDSC [i.e.?])
[Gospel according to Matthew.] Tr. by Antonio Gasparini.
Asmara: Franciscan Press, 1940.
Tr. by Pietro Silla (Pr [Father])
[Gospel according to Matthew.] Tr. by Pietro Silla.
Asmara: Franciscan Press, 1951.
Tr. by Gebremikael Mekonnen (PR)
Je Guetachen Hemamat Mattyewos, Markos, Lukas, Johannis aratu
Wanguiehawyan Endetsafut / Passion of the Lord from the 4 Gospels.
Tr. by abba Gebremikael Mekonnen. Addis Ababa: Artistic Press, 1967.
Further reading
Rijks, Piet (ed.), Guide to Catholic Bible Translations; vol. 2: Africa. Stuttgart: World Catholic Federation for the Biblical Apostolate, 1989.
Cohen, Leonardo. “The Jesuit Missionary as Translator”, in Ethiopia and the Missions: Historical and Anthropological Insights, eds. V. Böll et al., 7-30. Münster: Lit, 2005. [Google Books]
Martínez d’Alòs-Moner, Andreu. Envoys of a Human God: The Jesuit Mission to Christian Ethiopia, 1557-1632. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2015. [See esp. table on p. 357-58; Google Books]