Alice Bellis
Alice Ogden Bellis is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Howard University School of Divinity. She has written numerous books and articles, including the award-winning Proverbs in the Wisdom Commentary Series (Liturgical Press, 2018), Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes: Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible (Westminster/John Knox, 1994 & 2007), and an edited volume, How Plausible Is a Kushite Role in Sennacherib’s Retreat? A Conversation with Henry Aubin’s The Rescue of Jerusalem (Gorgias Press, 2019). Dr. Bellis is also an ordained Presbyterian minister who served as a pastor for 15 years before moving into academia.
Presenter at
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXV, October 8 & 9, 2022
Sharing Ethiopic Manuscripts with the World
With the return of the Benin bronzes and the drumbeat increasing for the repatriation of African artifacts and manuscripts to their homelands, universities are under pressure to study the provenance of ancient treasures for their possible return. A powerful new tool for sharing and studying ancient Ethiopic manuscripts in Western university collections is the online digital repository known as Beta Mesaheft (“House of Manuscripts” in Ethiopic), sponsored by the University of Hamburg. This talk reviews the history of the return of the ancient Ethiopic codex known as Tweed MS150 from Howard University School of Divinity and how the Beta Mesaheft program has now made the manuscripts available to anyone with a high-speed internet connection.
