“Chapter 32. The Reception of the Books of Kings in Ethiopia”

International audience As early as the mid-fourth century, Ethiopia’s rulers adopted the Christian faith and encouraged its spread. Soon after the conversion, the Bible was translated in Geʿez or Ethiopic. The books of Kings were copied and commented on by monks and clerics. The most outstanding example of their reception of is the Kebra Nagaśt (Glory of Kings or Nobility of Kings). This work, considered the masterpiece of Ethiopian literature, is a complex narrative elaborated with biblical, parabiblical, and legendary materials. Its centerpiece is the passage from the books of Kings about the meeting of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon (1 Kgs 10:1–13), which has been greatly amplified and magnified. This chapter describes the translation process of the books of Kings, their place in the Ethiopic Bible, and their reception in Ethiopia from late antiquity to the present, focusing on the Kebra Nagaśt.