A Deep Investigation Into Scripture, Power, and the African Origins the West Prefers We Forget
By InnerKwest Editorial Desk | November 13, 2025
I. The Quiet Earthquake Behind the Announcement
Last week’s declaration that U.S. bishops plan to “update language and clarify meaning” in the Bible for modern American audiences should have been breaking news.
Instead, it slipped quietly into religious newsletters and diocesan bulletins.
But make no mistake:
When a powerful institution alters Scripture, the world should stop and pay attention.
Because this is not merely translation.
This is not a linguistic update.
This is a centuries-old pattern repeating itself:
- Control the text
- Control the theology
- Control the people
- Control the politics
The Catholic Church knows this history intimately — because it wrote most of it.
II. The Bible Has Never Been a Neutral Book
For the last 1,700 years, Scripture has been shaped by:
- Roman emperors
- Medieval popes
- European monarchs
- Colonial administrators
- Missionaries carrying both cross and conquest
- American denominational committees
- Political agendas dressed as doctrinal clarity
Every “official” Bible we have today was curated through power, not purity.
Books were removed.
Books were added.
Words were modified.
Verses were reinterpreted.
Entire doctrines were reshaped to match political needs of the era.
The Bible has been a spiritual guide for billions —
but it has also been an instrument of empire.
Which is why this new American revision cannot be viewed in isolation.
It is part of a longer story — one that begins on the African continent.
III. Africa: The Part of the Bible’s History the West Tried to Erase
Long before Rome, Europe, or America had a Bible, Africa had:
- Ancient Hebrew communities
- Early Christian monasteries
- Textual traditions flowing directly from Judaism
- The oldest known biblical canon
- A spiritual lineage untouched by European politics
And no place embodies this truth more than Ethiopia.
IV. Ethiopia: The Uncolonized Guardian of the Oldest Biblical Tradition
Ethiopia is not a peripheral character in biblical history.
Ethiopia is the forgotten backbone of the biblical world.
1. The Only African Nation to Defeat a European Empire
In 1896, at the Battle of Adwa, Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II:
- Crushed the invading Italian army
- Captured over 5,000 Italian soldiers
- Forced Europe to accept Ethiopian sovereignty
- Became a global symbol of African resilience
Europe could redraw borders across the continent,
but Ethiopia stood unbroken.
This matters because:
A nation that could not be colonized could not have its Scripture colonized either.
While Europe reshaped Christianity to fit empire,
Ethiopia preserved its canon independently.
2. Ethiopia’s Bible is Older Than the Western Bible
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church holds:
- The Book of Enoch
- Jubilees
- 1, 2, and 3 Meqabyan (not the European Maccabees)
- A 81-book canon predating Vatican choices
- Texts removed by Rome but preserved in Africa
- Manuscripts in Ge’ez older than many Latin equivalents
Western institutions know this — but rarely acknowledge it.
Why?
Because it dismantles the myth that the Vatican owns biblical authority.
3. Ethiopia’s Jews: The Oldest Living Israelite Tradition
The Beta Israel community of Ethiopia represents one of the earliest Jewish traditions on earth.
Their lineage existed:
- Before European Jewry
- Before Ashkenazi and Sephardi branches
- Before rabbinic expansions in Europe
- Before Catholic and Protestant interpretations
Ethiopian Jews maintained:
- Pre-rabbinic purity laws
- Ancient agrarian traditions
- Hebrew liturgical structures
- Ritual practices that match older biblical eras
For decades, the West dismissed them as “lost tribes” or “primitive.”
Then history corrected the lie.
V. The 1980s: When the World Learned Ethiopia Was the Source, Not the Student
In the early 1980s, a group of Ethiopian Jews fled war and famine on foot —
crossing the Sahara Desert with little more than faith and ancestral memory.
Israeli scouts found them in Sudan and realized the truth:
These were not converts.
These were not imitators.
These were the descendants of the oldest Israelites alive.
This led to:
- Operation Moses (1984–85)
- Operation Joshua (1985)
- Operation Solomon (1991)
During Operation Solomon alone:
- 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted in 36 hours
- Entire planes stripped of seats to fit more passengers
- Infants delivered in the sky
- The largest humanitarian airlift of African people in history
The world was forced to acknowledge:
Africa didn’t receive the Bible.
Africa preserved the Bible.
Africa carried the Bible.
Africa kept the Bible when Europe altered it.
VI. So Why Are American Bishops Changing the Bible Now?
The public reasons always sound noble:
- “Modernizing language”
- “Improving clarity”
- “Enhancing readability”
- “Pastoral considerations”
But the real reasons are deeper.
1. Cultural Control
America is experiencing seismic cultural conflict:
- Gender debates
- Declining church attendance
- Shifts in politics
- Rising secularism
Rewriting Scripture = rewriting influence.
2. Institutional Survival
The Church faces a generational crisis.
Younger Americans are leaving.
Updating language is a survival tactic.
3. Political Positioning
Every word changed shapes debates on:
- Marriage
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Immigration
- Justice
- Patriotism
Small modifications have big consequences.
4. Narrative Ownership
For centuries, controlling Scripture has meant controlling:
- Law
- Morality
- Education
- Governance
Today is no different.
VII. The Manipulation of Scripture Is Not New — But It Is Newly Exposed
Every major biblical translation has been shaped by power:
- The Latin Vulgate (empire consolidation)
- King James Version (British imperial theology)
- American Standard Version (U.S. religious nationalism)
- NIV/ESV revisions (modern evangelical politics)
- Vatican II translations (post-war global repositioning)
Now American bishops prepare another.
But unlike previous eras, the public now has:
- African manuscripts
- Ethiopian canon access
- Digital archives
- Historical scholarship
- Linguistic comparisons
- Global conversations
- A truth-telling generation
The monopoly is broken.
**VIII. The World Must Ask:
Who Gave Rome or America the Right to Edit a Text That Didn’t Originate With Them?**
Rome didn’t write the Bible.
Europe didn’t write the Bible.
America didn’t write the Bible.
The Bible emerged from:
- African lands
- Afro-Asiatic languages
- Semitic and Cushitic lineages
- Ge’ez, Hebrew, and Aramaic roots
- Ethiopian and Near Eastern spiritual traditions
The earliest believers did not look like medieval Europeans.
They looked like people you would still find in Ethiopia today.
So when U.S. bishops update Scripture,
it is not an act of clarification —
it is an act of ownership.
And ownership of a text that predates your institution is always an act of power.
IX. Why This Matters for Africa and the Diaspora
Because for centuries, Scripture was used to:
- Justify colonialism
- Support slavery
- Enforce segregation
- Undermine African identity
- Attack African spirituality
- Silence African scholarship
- Redirect spiritual authority from Africa to Europe
Today’s revisions risk repeating this history under softer language.
Africa deserves to reclaim its narrative.
The Diaspora deserves to reclaim its spiritual lineage.
The world deserves truth without empire’s fingerprints.
X. InnerKwest’s Position
Let it be known without ambiguity:
We are not attacking faith.
We are challenging those who believe they own it.
African voices must be included.
Ethiopian sources must be central.
Historical truth must be upheld.
And any institution altering Scripture must be held to account.
XI. Closing — The Bible Will Survive. The Question Is: Will the Truth?
Institutions rise.
Institutions fall.
Empires come.
Empires go.
But the Scriptures — the true Scriptures — have survived every editor, every conqueror, and every political agenda.
The challenge of our generation is not preserving the Bible.
It is preserving honesty about the Bible.
As U.S. bishops sharpen their editorial pens once more,
InnerKwest stands watch —
unbought, uncolonized, and unafraid.
Because in times like these,
silence is complicity.
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