CUSH KUSH ETHIOPIA

"Perhaps a certain part of Arabia bordering on the eastern shores of the Red Sea was in the most ancient times called Ethiopia , in that it was occupied for a long while by the descendants of Ham; but the Ethiopia of the Scriptures was in Africa south of Egypt. It is a country referred to by the Psalmist when he says (xlvii.31) 'Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God;' by Isaiah when he speaks of 'Ethiopia and Sabea,' (xliii.3), of the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature,' (xlv.14); by Jeremiah when he speaks (xlvi.9) of 'Ethiopians and Lydians that handle and bend the bow;' by Daniel when he speaks (xi.43) of 'the Lydians and the Ethiopians;' by Nahum when he speaks (iii.9) of 'Ethiopia and Egypt ;' by Zephaniah when he speaks (iii.10) of suppliants 'beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;' and by Luke when he speaks (Acts v.iii.27) of 'a man of Ethiopia;' and 'Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.' "These holy men do not refer to an 'Ethiopia' in Arabia, but to that of Africa. It is very true that the term 'Ethiopia' was sometimes used in a loose and a wide sense, implying an indefinitely extended country in the extreme south, southeast, and southwest; but it always signified the geographical parallels or southern belt inhabited by Hamitic Cishites. Herodotus says:... "'Where the meridian declines toward the setting sun , is the Ethiopian country, the extreme limits of habitation.' This determines what country Herodotus meant by the term 'Ethiopia ', so frequently used in his invaluable history. He means Africa . "William Whiston, A.M., in his 'Dissertation iii.' on the traditional account given by Tacitus of the origin of the Jews and the founding of the City of Jerusalem , quotes Tacitus: 'Some say they were a people that were very numerous in Egypt under the reign of Isis, and that the Egyptians got free from that burden by sending them into the adjoining countries, under their captains Hierosolymus and Judas. The greater part say, they were those Ethiopians, whom fear and hatred obliged to change their habitations in the reign of King Cepheus.' "In commenting on this passage from Tacitus, Mr. Whitson says : 'One would wonder how Tacitus, or any heathen, could suppose the African Ethiopians under Cepheus, who are known to be blacks, could be the parents of the Jews who are known to be whites.' Here Mr. Whitson incidentally gives direct testimony that Ethiopia was in Africa as it is today, and that the Ethiopians over whom king Cepheus reigned 'are known to be black.'* "But higher authority still is that of the prophet Ezekiel , (xxix.10): 'I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia,' Cush. Here Ezekiel , inspired of God, locates the land of Ethiopia in Africa to the south of Egypt. When we remember that Mizraim and Cush were brothers, we can understand why he adjacent countries of Egypt and Ethiopia are so frequently mentioned and classed together by the prophets: for Mizraim is the Hebrew for Egypt , and Cush for Ethiopia." *["Josephus's Works, vol. 1. p. 47. Ithaca: 1848.] P.30-32, "The Cushite," THE CUSHITE, OR, THE DESCENDANTS OF HAM: AS FOUND IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES AND IN THE WRITINGS OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS AND POETS FROM NOAH TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA, by Rufus Lewis Perry, D.D., Ph.D. (1893)