Onesimos Nesib
Onesimos Nesib (* around 1856 in Oromiyaa ; † June 21, 1931 at Nekemte ; actually Onesimoos Nasiib ) was an Oromo who converted to Evangelical Lutheran Christianity and translated the Bible into Oromo . His birth name was Hika ; he took the name Onesimus , after the biblical person, when he converted to Christianity.
Life
Onesimos was born near Hurumu in what is now Ethiopia and lost his father at the age of four. In 1869 he was kidnapped by slave owners and had several owners until Werner Munzinger freed him in Massaua (in today's Eritrea ). He had him educated in the Swedish Evangelical Mission Imkulu in the port city. There he proved to be a good student and was finally baptized on Easter Sunday (March 31, 1872). For further training he was sent to the Johannelunds Teologiska Högskola Theological College in Bromma , Sweden , for five years . When he returned to Massaua, he married Mehret Hailu.
He immediately tried to get back to his people, the Macha Oromo, and bypass the travel restrictions that Emperor Menelik II had imposed on foreign missionaries by going through central Sudan to Woolga . His travel company only got as far as Asosa , then they were forced to return to the border town of Famaka. There Onesimos got a fever. Therefore they had to return to Khartoum , which they reached on April 10, 1882, just as the Mahdi uprising broke out. Onesimos recovered from the illness and returned to the Imkulu mission. There he began the first of his many translations into the Oromo while waiting for further instructions. In 1886, after another attempt to contact Wollega failed, he began translating the entire Bible.
Onesimos noticed that his knowledge of his mother tongue was insufficient as he had not lived with his people since he was a child. So he sought help from Aster Ganno (1874–1964), a young Oromo whom he had brought to the Imkulu mission. Although she provided much of the material for the translation published in 1893, she received no credit for her contributions.
Only in 1904 did Onesimos return to Wollega, where he was received with great honor by Governor Dejazmach Gebre Egziabher. Unlike his predecessor, Onesimos preached to his congregation on Oromo, which the local Ethiopian Orthodox priests did not understand, and thus incurred their hostility. This, together with the esteem of the Oromo, led the priests to accuse him of having spoken blasphemously about the Virgin Mary. In May 1906 he was sentenced to exile by Abuna Mattheos on the basis of these accusations. Emperor Menelik II reversed this judgment and had Onesimos return to Nekemte , where he was no longer allowed to preach.
Although Onesimos limited his public actions in the next few years to teaching at his school in Nekemte, he continued to face threats of exile until Lij Iyasu gave him permission to preach his faith in 1916. Despite the dismissal of Emperor-designate Lij Iyasu the following year, this resolution continued to apply, and Onesimos was able to distribute and preach his translations until his death.
Onesimos nesib is in the American Prayer Book Lutheran Book of Worship as a saint , whose memorial for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America of June 21 is. For the Evangelical Lutheran commemoration of saints see Confessio Augustana , Article 21. The Mekane Yesus Church has named its theological seminary in Addis Ababa after him in his honor.
Web links
- Dirshaye Menberu: Onesimus Nesib . In: Dictionary of African Christian Biography (2005).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nesib, onesimos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nesib, Hika |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ethiopian missionary |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1856 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oromiyaa |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 21, 1931 |
| Place of death | Nekemte |