the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Ethiopians
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Ethiopians are only twice mentioned in the NT, and then in the same passage, viz. Acts 8:27, where Candace, queen of (the) Ethiopians, and her εὐνοῦχος δυνάστης are mentioned in connexion with Philip the Deacon (see articles Candace, Ethiopian Eunuch, and Philip). The word h there doubtless, as in the OT, the Greek equivalent of the Heb. Kûshî. It seems probable that Αἰθίοψ (?═ ‘Redface’) is only a Graecized form of some native word, not a proper description of their facial characteristic, but what that word was can only be conjectured. ‘Ethiopia’ in NT times would appear to mean the southern part of Egypt, now called the Sûdan, the ancient kingdom of Meroë. In earlier days Napata, a town on the Nile, somewhat north or Meroë, which was likewise on the Nile, had been the capital; but though Napata still retained some of its prestige as the sacred city, yet the seat of government had been removed to Meroë. Another kingdom, that of Axum in the mountain region of Abyssinia proper, seems to have taken its rise about the middle of the 1st cent. a.d., but that does not come into view in our present inquiry.
C. L. Feltoe.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Ethiopians'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/e/ethiopians.html. 1906-1918.
