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Gueze – 'Ethiopian': the Counterfeit Millennium

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

[ Posted On: 2007-09-08 ]

That which is crooked cannot be made straight – Ecclessiastes – ch. 1:15

Numerous oppressed Kushitic Ethiopian peoples of Abyssinia, Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidamas, Shekachos, Afars, and others must bear in mind the aforementioned Biblical excerpt these days, when the Tigray-led Abyssinian dictatorial and inhuman government will be launching on September 11, 2007 the disreputable festivals of the Fake Millennium of Ignorance.

The false Millennium that the dictatorial gang of murderous tyrant Zenawi and the Amhara Kinijit accomplices want to celebrate is the commemoration of the Abyssinian ignorance, an ultimate corroboration of the paradoxical way the Axumite kingdom of Abyssinia adhered to a Christian heresy.

Gueze – 'Ethiopian' Millennium: ignored by Abyssinia's oppressed Ethiopian majority

Although the erratic Gueze Millennium is a matter of complete indifference, disregard, and contempt for the highly cultured Kushitic Ethiopian nations of Abyssinia, it is essential for them to know all the details hidden behind the apparent oddity that their cruel and alien tyrants perniciously want to celebrate.

In fact, the Amhara and the Tigray Abyssinians have nothing to celebrate more than their ignorance, and the barbaric way by which they stick to their semi-forgotten, tedious and nonsensical traditions.

The oppressed Kushitic Ethiopian peoples who struggle in order to get rid of the Abyssinian tyranny have to know the fragmentary and inconsistent way by which the Abyssinian heretic Christianity has been formed.

Amhara Abyssinians' culture is incomprehensible to them already!

Sidamas, Oromos, Ogadenis, Shekachos, Afars, Gambellas and all the other oppressed peoples of Abyssinia reflect far more authentic and far more original cultures than the patchy – scrappy christening of Axumite Abyssinia that the murderous and inhuman Amhara and Tigray dictatorial elites have long tried to project and impose on them as supposedly superior culture.

Ultimate proof of the Amhara feeling of national and cultural inferiority towards the Kushitic Ethiopian peoples is the cruel system of oppression and culture eradication that they deployed all possible efforts and methods in order to implement; the Amharas could not afford to live peacefully next to subjugated people of higher and absolutely original culture, as they know – deep inside themselves – that their own traditions are incomprehensible to themselves.

In the article 'The Bogus-Ethiopian Millennium of Ignorance and Aberration' (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=36993), we specified that the correct name for this 'millennium' is Gueze Millennium, we highlighted issues related to the Christianization of Axumite Abyssinia, the Abyssinian royal propaganda, and the reasons of the usurpation of the name of Ethiopia in the aftermath of King Ezanas' invasion of Ethiopia and destruction of Meroe; we also underscored the Abyssinian Church's dependence on Coptic Alexandria on all matters, mostly spiritual. In the present article, we will analyze the reasons of the 7-year divergence between the Gueze and the Gregorian Calendars. It is all related to considerations of calendars, eras, and paschal computations.

Ancient Calendars, the Roman Calendar, and Sosigenes of Alexandria

At the times of the Late Antiquity, in the Mediterranean world there were three highly accredited calendars, namely the Babylonian (descendant of the Sumerian calendar, and basic contributor to the Hebrew Biblical calendar), the Egyptian and the Greek. Pliny the Elder, the Great Roman erudite scholar, attempted (Historia Naturalis, XVIII, 210) to promote the (modified by Julius Caesar) Roman calendar at the same level, as a 'fourth calendar'. In fact, when Julius Caesar sojourned in Egypt, striking an ill-fated alliance with Cleopatra, demanded from the great astronomer Sosigenes to readjust the traditional Roman calendar (in Latin: Sosigene perito scientiae eius adhibito).

The ordinary year in the traditional Roman calendar comprised 12 months that totaled 355 days. Then, an Intercalary month was inserted between February and March; the Mensis Intercalaris had 27 days, and it was inserted after the 23rd or 24th day of February, with the last 5 days of February being identified as the last days of the Intercalary. The problem of the calendar being dramatically drift out of the alignment with the tropical year in case of intercalation omitted, as it happened at the times of the Second Punic War and the Roman Civil War, provoked what the Roman historiographers described as 'years of confusion'.

Julius Caesar had no other chance to solve the problem except his sojourn in Alexandria; Sosigenes' contribution was adopted as Julian Calendar in the year 709 'ab urbe condita', from the foundation of the city, which is 45 BCE. The 'Julian' year is 365.25 days long, which means a leap day is added to February every four years. The reform was not that easy, as Sosigenes had to calculate how to catch up with the tropical year; to do so, 46 BCE became a very, very long year of …. 445 days! And it was called the 'last year of the confusion'.

We will not refer to the Gregorian calendar within the context of this article, as it is mostly unrelated; we want only to mention that today's most widely used calendar, elaborated by the Calabrian Italian Aloysio Lilio, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582, is due to two reasons. The Julian Calendar proved to be slightly longer than the tropical calendar, and the lunar calendar that was used to compute the Easter holiday also proved to be somewhat mistaken. The Gregorian year is 364.2425 days long, which means 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. Days have been dropped through the adoption of the Gregorian calendar to synchronize with the tropical years, and it was approved that Julian leap days would be omitted in century years that are not divisible by 400 (such as 1900, 2100, etc).

The Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Calendars

In use since at least 2550 BCE, the Egyptian calendar institutionalized a year that was 365 days long, being divided into 12 months of 30 days each, and 5 additional days added at the end of each year as an extra month. As the Egyptians early realized the discrepancies of their solar (civil) and lunar (religious) calendars, they instituted the prevalence of the Sopdet calendar whereby the heliacal rising of Sopdet (Sirius) coincided with the Nile inundation. The solar (civil) was therefore left throughout millennia without rectification, and it was truly a 'wandering' calendar.

As Sirius' rising returned precisely to the same point in the calendar every 1460 years (Sopdet cycle), the difference between the tropical and the civil calendars was 365 days in 1460 years, or to put it otherwise 1 day in 4 years. As we know, thanks to the Roman Grammarian Censorinus, that the Egyptian New Year, and the heliacal rising of Sirius fell on July 20 in the Julian Calendar in 139 CE, we can establish a correlation between the two calendars, and we can calculate that the previous occasions on which this occurred were 1322 BCE, 2782 BCE and 4242 BCE. The two latter dates have been accepted - by different modern Egyptologists each - as possible dates for the invention of the Egyptian calendar. The Egyptian calendar involved three seasons of four months each, namely Akhet (Inundation), Peret (Growth – identified with Winter), and Shemmu (Harvest – identified with Summer).

In addition, we know that the Egyptians used the equation of 309 synodic months (also called lunations – the period that includes the moon's extra movement until it reaches the new position of the Earth with respect to the Sun) to 9125 days (or 25 years) to establish their lunar calendar.

Corrections have been made at last in the Egyptian solar – wandering – calendar in 238 BCE when in the light of studies carried out by Alexandrian scholars, Ptolemy III Euergetes (246- 222 BCE) decreed that every fourth year should be 366 days long (“for a one-day feast of the Benefactor Gods to be added every four years to the five additional days before the new year”: within the famous Canopus Decree issued on 7th March 238 BCE; for the Greek text, OGIS 56, see: http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/main?url=oi%3Fikey%3D218980%26bookid%3D371%26caller%3Dgis%26region%3D11). The reform fixed the beginning of the year (1st of Thoth) on 21-23 October. However, this reform was not implemented, due to reactions of political character, until the introduction of the Alexandrian calendar by Octavian Augustus in 26 BCE. This calendar was later called Coptic.

Augustus' changes were practically speaking the same as those initiated by the astronomers of Ptolemy III; except, this time they fixed the Julian equivalents of the reformed Egyptian year to those of the wandering year of 25 BCE. As a matter of fact, the beginning of the year (1 Thoth) was fixed on 29th August, or on 30th August in the year before the Julian leap years.

The changes in the calendar involved changes in the era as well; we know through Dio Cassius' Roman History (51.19.6) that the Roman Senate had proclaimed the fall of Alexandria as starting point for the inhabitants of the city in their reckoning of time. This signifies the beginning of the royal year, and it shows that Octavian Augustus inaugurated an anniversary-based royal year in Egypt. This must have been the 22nd year of Cleopatra's reign, and the text of Papyrus Qxyrhynchus 12.1453 seems to corroborate this calculation; it is an annual contract for lamplighting from the 1st of Thoth (first month of the Alexandrian / Coptic calendar), which continues a contract from the previous year (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.05.0181&layout=&loc=1453).

The Coptic leap year follows the same rules as the Julian calendar; the extra month has always six days in the year before a Julian leap year. With the advent of the Gregorian calendar, the New Year Day coincided with 11th September.

The Coptic Era and other Christian Eras

With diffusion of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, it became clear that the era of ancient emperors could not represent any more the beliefs and the feelings of the increasing adepts of Christianity. New systems had to be introduced, and among the oldest systems accepted has been the Era of Martyrs (Anno Martyrum), which has also been known as Diocletian Era, because its starting point was the rise of Diocletian to the Roman throne (29 August 284). The great number of Christian martyrs executed at the times of Diocletian was the main reason behind this system's introduction. This system is still in use by the Coptic Church, and in order to obtain the Coptic year number, one has to subtract from the Julian year the number 283 (before the Julian new year) or 284 (after the Julian new year).

Other systems appeared soon, involving different eras, and causing great difficulty in homogenizing Christianity that was progressively tore up by conflicting theoretical systems, until one of them prevailed through use of the military machine of the empire, and applied unprecedented terror against the rest, characterized as heretical.

Under Constantinopolitan influence, a certain tendency prevailed in several parts of the empire to number the years 'apo kataboles kosmou' (Greek) – 'ab origine mundi' (Latin), i.e. from the beginning of the world. This had already been a tradition among Hebrews and Jews. The era was calculated as starting on 1st September, and Jesus was thought to have been born in the year 5509 of the Eastern Roman system. This system proved to be very controversial as varied Biblical sources led people to conflicting estimations; to give an example, the period between the Creation and the Flood was thought to be 1656 years (according to Hebrew Massoretic text), 1307 years (according to the Samaritan Pentateuch) or 2262 years (according to the Gueze translation of the Abyssinian Bible).

Panodorus, Annianus and Dionysius Exiguus

The tendency expanded in Egypt as well, and around the year 400 CE, Panodoros fixed the date of Creation on 29th August 5493 BCE; soon after Annianus of Alexandria rose to oppose Panodorus' calculations, criticizing him as mostly relying on secular sources. Annianus introduced another system, stipulating the Creation on 25 March 5492 BCE. What was at stake is clear, as Annianus intended to create a system interlinking the Creation, the Annunciation (Incarnation), and the Easter.

Through his groundbreaking works (of which nothing is left except discussion about them by George Syncellus in the 9th century). Annianus created the Alexandrian Christian Era with first day of the proleptic Alexandrian civil year fixed on 29th August 5493 BCE. He adjusted his system in a way to get the Creation Day 11 Paschal cycles of 532 years each before the year starting on 29th August 360. Furthermore, the latter was four 19-year cycles after the beginning of the Era of Martyrs. The former became better known as Era of Grace among the Copts and Era of Incarnation among the Abyssinians. Annianus was the first computist to recognize the 532-year cycle of Easters – a subject of the utmost importance for astronomers and mathematicians of those days.

More than 100 years after Annianus, Dionysius Exiguus decided to add 15 Metonic cycles to the existing 13 Metonic cycles of the Era of Martyrs (15x19 + 13x19: 532). Doing so in 525, he drew the conclusion that the Annunciation (Incarnation of Jesus) occurred 8 years before than in Annianus' estimations. Dionysius Exiguus was accepted as supreme authority in Easter tables, and the Inventor of the ultimate Annus Domini (AD) chronological system that all the Christians in the East and the West accepted.

Only the Coptic Church of Egypt continued using the Era of Martyrs, and the Coptic Church of Abyssinia never modified its Incarnation Era system that, due to Annianus miscalculations, left the Abyssinians 8 years behind. Dionysius Exiguus never became known in Caleb's Axum – to the detriment of the Abyssinians alone.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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