Sir, I read the following statement at this web site:
https://www.gospelgazette.com/gazette/2001/dec/page2.htm
“Therefore, Ethiopia was at peace with the Roman Empire when in Acts Eight the treasurer of Ethiopia (either as a Gentile proselyte to Judaism or a Jew whose ancestors sought refuge or business interests in Ethiopia) traveled to Jerusalem for worship. Especially the great contributions of the Grecian and Roman empires to the so-called civilized world (e.g., law and order, highways, universal language, common monetary system, postal service, etc.) permitted introduction of the Gospel in not only Palestine, but in Europe, Asia and Africa. The background lying behind Acts 8:26-28 when brought to light makes the study of that passage more rewarding.”
I may have read it wrong, but to me, this statement implies that the Grecian and Roman empires contributed innovations of all types to Africa. This statement is perplexing to me, since in my research, I’m uncovering evidence that people of African nations founded and established Greek and Roman cities, and that it is Greek and Roman language that is based on African languages. Are these statements true? Please refer me to sources. Thank you, Doretha Riley
Biblical history primarily pertains to a piece of real estate often referred to as the Fertile Crescent, which extended from the Persian Gulf west to the Mediterranean Sea and south to Egypt. The shape of this land is crescent or rainbow in general appearance, arched in the middle. The Fertile Crescent was well watered with the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers (as well as other smaller rivers). North of the Fertile Crescent are high mountains, and south of the Fertile Crescent is desert. A number of countries occupied and occupy this area of land: Persian (Iran), Babylon and Assyria (Iraq), Syria, Lebanon and Palestine (an area rather than a single country), etc. Biblical history includes besides the Fertile Crescent Italy, Greece and Turkey as well as Mediterranean islands plus Egypt and Ethiopia. In succession, the Fertile Crescent as well as Turkey (Asia Minor), Greece, Italy and Egypt were dominated by or affected by the following empires: Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, Roman. Each of these empires left some lasting affect, some of which were unintentionally helpful to the spread of the Gospel and the early church (Christianity). The Medes and Persians developed a sort of pony express for rapid mail delivery throughout their kingdom. The Greeks left behind a universally known language (to enable people of different native languages to communicate). The Romans built 50,000 miles of primary highways throughout their empire, augmented with 200,000 miles of secondary roads. Virtually any historical resource that addresses these kingdoms that also appear in biblical history will mention the information just noted.
I am not aware of what was occurring parallel to the ages mentioned above in areas outside of inclusion in biblical history (e.g., Africa beyond Ethiopia, Asia, South America, North America, etc.). The Roman Empire stopped in Africa at southern Egypt, having warred with Ethiopia when Ethiopia attempted to push Roman occupation from Egypt. Ethiopia unable to push Roman occupation from Egypt, though trying twice, made peace with the Romans. Consequently, because Rome did not desire to extend itself beyond Egypt into Africa, Ethiopia became the portal for trade between Africa and the Roman Empire. This proved to be financially advantageous to Ethiopia and Rome.
Regarding languages, the Bible and modern science concludes that all human languages have a common parent language, and that the various languages are not only thereby related, but the feed off each other. Because of the commonality in even what appear to be drastically dissimilar languages, an unknown language can be learned by comparison with other languages and common elements in human language.
