Today I bring you another Ethiopian tale, this time another version of the Dormition narrative. If you are familiar with this story, you’ll see some of the same aspects in this text. This was originally published by my favorite 19th/20th century scholar, E. A. Wallis Budge. I find it truly amazing the amount of work …
Continue reading “The History of the Death of the Virgin Mary as told by Saint John”
With the feast of the Annunciation coming up on March 25, I wanted to do a quick post regarding the Annunciation, but present it from the Islamic point of view, particularly how it is portrayed in the Quran, as well as non-canonical Christian texts. When I read through the Quran a few years ago, I …
Continue reading “The Annunciation, through the lens of Islam and non-Canonical Texts”
A few months ago I posted about the Nativity of the Theotokos and references two source materials, the Protoevangelium of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I will do the same for the feast day for the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, which is on November 21. This feast date commemorates Mary entering …
Continue reading “The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple”
If you like the North African magic that appeared in the “Book of Mary’s Repose” and the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ“, you’re going to love this. I recently obtained an English translation of the text known as “The Prayer of Mary At Bartos.” The booklet I received is just the text with no commentary or history, thus …
September 8 is the feast day of the Nativity of the Theotokos. I realized I never shared the story of the event before, so I will present it here. This is from the Protoevangelium of James, a second century text. I have referenced this text before for other aspects, but never the first part. Here …
Three years ago I wrote about the oldest known Dormition story titled “The Book of Mary’s Repose” and had did a review of the Ge’ez version (see post #1 here). Recently I found an old book published by my favorite early 20th century translator, E.A. Wallis Budge, titled “History of the Blessed Virgin Mary“, which …
Sorry for the month long departure. I try to post at least twice a month however Lent / Pascha season had my attention, but now I am back with another Theotokos Ethiopian short story. This story is another incession story, this time involving a pregnant woman. The English translation is provided by E. A. Wallis …
Continue reading “The Virgin Mary and the Woman who was about to bring forth”
I am digging back into the Ethiopian tradition with this short tale about the Theotokos and her encounter with an Egyptian Priest named John Bakansi (at least that is how it’s translated). It has an odd turn of events, and I’m always up for quirky tales. What I really like about this short story is …
Continue reading “The Virgin Mary and the Egyptian Priest John”
The past month or so I have been doing a deep dive into the Quran and really enjoy comparing the aspects of various figures in there with their Christian / Jewish counterparts, particularly that of Jesus / Isa. I had a previous blog post (link HERE) that mentions the crucifixion body swap that appears in …
Now here is something a bit different! Cannibals have made their way into the apocrypha throughout the years (believe it or not!). This particular tale I am sharing with you comes from the Ethiopic tradition and features Our Lady interacting with a cannibal. This story is a well known tale in the Ethiopic apocrypha but …
Continue reading “The Virgin Mary and the Cannibal of Qemer”
Culmination of Wisdom