Bible Study In Amharic =link= Page

Selam sat on the edge of her narrow bed in her Washington, D.C., apartment, the thin January light struggling through the frost-covered window. In her hands, she held two Bibles. One was a large, worn leather volume in Amharic, its pages soft as old cloth. The other was a crisp, new English Bible, a gift from her coworker, Sarah.

Selam wanted to say, But will they understand the poetry of the Psalms in Amharic? Will they know that when we say ‘God is my shepherd,’ the word in my language also means ‘the one who guides me through the high passes’?

Selam continued, her voice growing stronger. "My grandmother used to say, 'God did not write his name in marble. He wrote it in a tent of skin.' In Amharic, the Word becoming flesh is not a mystery to solve. It is a neighbor to welcome. God did not send a book. He sent a body. He sefera —he pitched his tent—right here, in our mess, our loneliness, our foreignness." bible study in amharic

The room was silent. The retired teacher leaned forward.

Selam walked home that night under a cold, brilliant sky. The English Bible was still in her bag, but so was the Amharic one—open, alive, its pages no longer a museum but a mouth. Selam sat on the edge of her narrow bed in her Washington, D

From that night on, the Wednesday Bible study became something unexpected. It was still in English. But every week, Selam would read one verse in Amharic first. Then they would listen. Then they would wonder. And together—Ethiopian and American, young and old, fluent and fumbling—they discovered that the Word of God was not bound by any single tongue.

She sighed and put the Amharic Bible on her shelf. She would go to the study. She would be polite. The other was a crisp, new English Bible,

Everyone turned. Sarah smiled. "Of course, Selam."