H.I.H. Princess Aster Sellassie

On Rastafarianism: Part III
"Jah; I & I"
H.I.H. Princess Esther Sellassie Antohin,
The Imperial House of Sellassie of
The Solomonic Dynasty in
The African Diaspora
[Editor's Note: In the following series of articles by H.I.H.
Princess Esther Sellassie Antohin, of the Imperial House of
Sellassie, great granddaughter of H.I.M. Haile Sellassie I, we
continue to present her responses to some of the most frequently
asked questions on the Haile Sellassie Family Web:
www.sellassie@angelfire.com
4. What is our view of the Rasta term Jah?
One of the Biblical names of God is pronounced "Yah" in Hebrew, as in
hallelu-Yah, "praise God." The Jewish people, our brothers and
sisters, are extremely careful never to pronounce Y/H/W/H, the
Tetragrammaton, the "Four-Letter Name of God." In its place in
everyday conversation, they say the word ha-Shem, "the Name," and in
prayer and study of the Torah, they read Adonay, "my Lord." (The
English translations of the Hebrew Bible traditionally render this
Four-Letter Name of God simply "the Lord.")
Thus, it is completely proper for Ethiopianist Congregations of
Jamaica to refer to God with the culturally equivalent term, "Jah."
What is not correct is to use this term in reference to any man, even
my beloved great grandfather, H.I.M. Haile Sellassie I. "Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel: `The Lord (Y/H/W/H) God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob
hast sent me unto you. This is My name for ever, and this is My
memorial unto all generations.'" (Ex 3: 15b) Those who would
arrogantly presume to teach otherwise are in serious error: "For the
Lord (Y/H/W/H) thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God" (Dt
4: 24) And the Word of God has made it clear: "Fear God and give
glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come. Worship [only]
Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of
waters." (Rev 14: 7b) The Ethiopianist expression Jah is in every way
to be praised as equivalent to the Hebrew use of ha-Shem and the
English translation of Y/H/W/H, the Tetragrammaton, rendered by "the
Lord." And it can only correctly refer to the Lord God of Israel, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon, the Lord God
of Israel. As the guardians of the Ark of Ancient Israel, I cannot
express in words how very seriously we take this. (For additional
information on the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia, the interested
reader can consult our website:
http://sellassie.ourfamily.com/academics/orthodox.html)
I said earlier that the Jewish people are our brothers and sisters.
Let me be very specific. In the first place, my family and I are
direct descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; we are of
the seed of David and of the tribe of Judah. Most of the old nobility
of Ethiopia descend from the Jewish courtly counselors King Solomon
sent to accompany his first-born son, Menelik I, upon his return home
from Jerusalem. In the second place, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of
Israel, the Haham Bashi Ovadia Yosef, has ruled that our Ethiopian
Jewish brothers (the Falashas) are of the tribe of Dan and the
overwhelming majority of all Ethiopian Christians descend from our
very large early Jewish population. Genetically, as well as
spiritually, therefore, when you see the Jews, you see our brothers
and sisters and we love them as we love our own family. It is equally
written of all of us: "And the Lord shall scatter you among the
nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen whither
the Lord shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of
men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor
smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou
shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy
soul. When thou art in tribulation and all these things have come
upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God
and shalt be obedient unto His voice (for the Lord thy God is a
merciful God), He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor
forget the covenant of thy fathers which He swore unto them." (Dt 4:
27 – 31) The House of Sellassie stands in unbroken solidarity with
the House of Israel, the Jews, and we will defend them whenever and
wherever they are menaced or in danger. We will always remember with
brotherly love how they stood in solidarity with Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., the civil rights movement, and the political programs for
fairness in American life carried through by President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy. They are truly our brothers and sisters.
5. What is our view of the Rasta concept "I and I?"
This, of all the profound philosophical concepts of the Ethiopianist
Congregations of Jamaica (Rasta,) is by far the most genuinely
Ethiopian. The concept stands in sharp contrast to the European
Christian doctrine of "Three Persons," but is in complete agreement
with the historic non-Chalcedonian teachings of our Ethiopian
Orthodox Tawahedo Church, the only authentically African Christianity
never filtered through European thought-processes.
Hate-filled Black Militant "religious" and social movements preaching
rage and destruction against our fellow man, of whatsoever race,
contrary to all that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. throughout his life
stood for and taught, are in error when they proclaim: "Christianity
is a White man's religion." We Ethiopians are the living
contradiction to that lie. Ethiopian Christianity is indeed the only
authentically African Christianity, with no distortions by White
missionaries, and we stress that Jesus taught the Kingdom of God for
all humankind. Again and again it has been shown that any religion or
social movement based upon hatred and racism will inevitably splinter
and vanish from the stage of human history. "There are many devices
in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall
stand." (Ps 19: 21)
The universalistic Rasta message of "love and peace" for humankind
will long outlive any alternative preachment of hatred and alienation
from the totality of the children of Jah, all our fellow man.
The "I and I" concept of our Ethiopianist Congregations of Jamaica
(Rasta) is 100% Ethiopian, for it teaches Tawahedo, "Oneness, Unity."
Although the ancient Greek philosophers foreshadowed the metaphysics
of "I and I" in their extensive discourses on the Logos, European
Christianity never quite understood the sublime reality of
Tawahedo, "I and I." Western Christendom forever failed to grasp the
profound insight that that there is no discontinuity between the
physis, the "nature" of Jah (God,) the "nature" of Jesus, and
the "nature" in each and every child of Jah, adoptive sons and
daughters of the Most High. We Ethiopian Christians, throughout the
last two thousand years, have unremittingly suffered rebuke and
denouncement as so-called "Monophysite Heretics" by European
Christendom, which never took the time to distinguish the Monophysite
teaching of the Churches of the East from our own Miaphysite ("I and
I") reading of the Gospel: "I and my Father are one" (Jn 10: 30) "And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come
to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou
hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…that they all may be
one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be
one in us, that the world may believe Thou hast sent me. And the
glory which Thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one,
even as we are one: I in them and Thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me
and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me" ((Jn 17: 11, 21-23.)
Was there miaphysis, an unbroken continuity of the "divine nature" of
Jah with the "human nature" of my great grandfather, H.I.M. Haile
Sellassie I? As an ardent Christian, a true servant of the Lord and
of his people, yes, just as in each of you, children of Jah, for
truly "Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the
Eternal He is God: there is nothing else besides Him" (Dt 4: 35.)
There is only miaphysis, one "nature," in all existence and it is
God's. The Rasta concept of "I and I" captures this lofty
metaphysical truth precisely and efficiently, a spiritual insight
which leaves White Western Christendom far behind.
To be continued
Notes:
The interested reader may enter the Sellassie Community via:
http://members. linkopp.com/sellassie/list.html, "How to use the
Sellassie Website."
http://members.linkopp.com/sellassie/doc/secretar.html
http://sellassie.ourfamily.com/academics/orthodoxy.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/sellassie