Ethiopianising the Devil

Ὁ μέλας in Barnabas 4

Bibliographic Data

ID19294568
AuthorsClare K Rothschild (0000-0002-6572-8604, Protected Trust Services (United Kingdom), corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume65
Issue2
Pages223-245
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Testament Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0028-6885 • E-ISSN: 1469-8145
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0028688518000395
OpenAlexW2915641231
LanguageEN
References cited14

Although interpreters refer to the association between blackness and evil in ancient texts as essentially universal, specific reference by Christians to the counter-divine with the colour epithet ὁ μέλας is new with the Epistle of Barnabas. Black is applied as an honorific to certain Egyptian deities, but it is never used in Egyptian religion with reference to the counter-divine. Furthermore, black demons proliferate in late third- and fourth-century Egyptian monastic texts, but these witnesses postdate Barnabas. The first explicit reference to the devil as black after Barnabas is in Didymus the Blind, who interprets the reference as ‘Ethiopian’. Exploring the origin and background of this nickname for the counter-divine, this essay argues that Didymus accurately apprehends Barnabas’ intention: namely, that ‘the Black One’ does not merely reflect the universal association of blackness and evil in Roman antiquity, but, rather it reflects the appropriation of an ethnic stereotype in an apocalyptic context with distinctly anti-imperial resonances

Appropriation · Art · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Epithet · Honorific · Linguistics · Literature · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Philosophy

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