Dawit Amanuel (1862–1944) is noted in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n and

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

n ecclesiastical history as being the main translator of the New Testament in the Tigre language, published in 1902. (By local custom, he is properly referred to as "Dawit".) In 1877, at about the same time as his father converted from the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

to Islam, Dawit became the first evangelical believer from among the Mänsa people. Dawit was educated at Gäläb at a school run by the Swedish Evangelical Mission. There, he worked on Scripture translation, for some years together with

Tewolde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin Tewolde-Medhin Gebre-Medhin (1860–1930) was a pastor, educator and translator, originally from the town of Tseazega Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. He was ordained as a deacon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in 1872. (By local custom, he ...

. In addition to translating, Dawit began a Tigre dictionary and collected many Tigre songs and proverbs. Many of these were later published by the German scholar

Enno Littmann Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16 September 1875, Oldenburg – 4 May 1958, Tübingen) was a German orientalist. In 1906 he succeeded Theodor Nöldeke as chair of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg. Later on, he served as a profess ...

. Dawit was also active serving the church as a pastor and evangelist and was ordained in 1925. Senait Wolde Mariam showed that Dawit was not given full credit for his contributions, some Swedes being given disproportionate credit.Senait Wolde Andemariam. 2013. Who should take the credit for the Bible translation works carried out in Eritrea? ''Aethiopica'' 16: 102-129
Online access to article
/ref>

Cited references

* Arén, Gustav. 1978. Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia. Stockholm. * Littmann, Enno. (1910–15). Publications of the Princeton expedition to Abyssinia, 4 vols. in 4, Leyden. * Unseth, Peter. 2005. "Dawit Amanu’el," ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' vol. 2, edited by Siegbert Uhlig, p. 114. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
online access

References

1862 births 1944 deaths Ethiopian translators Ethiopian Lutherans Converts to Protestantism from Oriental Orthodoxy Converts to evangelical Christianity Translators of the Bible into Tigre Place of birth missing Ethiopian evangelicals {{Ethiopia-translator-stub