Names and Places in the Ethiopian Book of Clement

The Ethiopian Book of Clement connects familiar biblical people with stories that extend beyond Genesis. Its account of Nimrod’s teacher Bonitor and its identification of Debre Manos with Golgotha show how the narrative develops those connections. Reading the actual passages helps distinguish what Clement says from a biblical parallel or an editor’s interpretation.

Which Book of Clement is this

The Ethiopian work, also called Qalementos, is distinct from the writings commonly known as 1 Clement and 2 Clement. It should also be distinguished from sections of the church-order collection Sinodos that sometimes carry Clement’s name. Cowley makes these distinctions in his discussion of the Ethiopian canon. Cowley, “The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today,” 1974, discussion of Clement.

Alessandro Bausi describes Qalementos as the seven-book Revelation of Peter to Clement. His manuscript study compares witnesses including British Library Oriental 751–753 and Tübingen Ma IX 1, and examines passages transmitted in a different order in Book II. This manuscript history matters when comparing the arrangement of different editions. Bausi, “The Manuscript Tradition of the Ethiopic Qalēmenṭos. A Short Note,” 2006, pp. 47–50.

The church’s published canon list includes Clement among its additional New Testament writings. For an explanation of its place in the count, see our comparison of the broader and narrower Ethiopian canons. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, canonical books.

How to follow the references

The examples below use Breandan Lumpkin’s The Book of Clement from the Ethiopian Bible, Revised Reader’s Edition, edited by Abiy Aklile and forthcoming as of October 20, 2026. A reference such as 4:37 means chapter 4, numbered paragraph 37 in that edition. This numbering should not be assumed to match every Clement edition or manuscript.

The edition moves through Adam, the dispersion of peoples, Abraham, Peter’s revelations to Clement, and pastoral instruction. The following examples come from chapters 4–5. They illustrate particular passages rather than supplying an exhaustive dictionary of the work’s names.

Bonitor and Nimrod

Western readers can begin with the Nimrod of Genesis 10:8–12, the mighty hunter whose kingdom includes Babel in Shinar. Genesis 11 then tells the story of the tower and the confusion of languages without naming Nimrod as its builder. The familiar association between Nimrod and the tower is developed in Christian interpretation: Augustine, for example, identifies him as Babylon’s proud founder when discussing Babel. Genesis 10; Augustine, City of God, XVI.4.

Clement adds an episode about how Nimrod acquires knowledge. In 4:30–32, he travels to Tirewus, encounters Bonitor, and stays with him for ten years to learn wisdom, counsel, and reasoning. After leaving, he has books written about what Bonitor taught him. In 4:33–37, the narrative contrasts this knowledge with Azdeser’s acquisition of sorcery and idolatrous teaching from Satan. Bonitor’s instruction, by contrast, comes from God and concerns the stars, years, and months; paragraph 37 calls it astronomy. The distinction is part of Clement’s account of the right and wrong uses of knowledge.

A close narrative parallel appears in medieval Latin Christianity. In Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica, Genesis, chapter 37, Nimrod seeks instruction from Jonithus, a son of Noah who receives wisdom from God and discovers astronomy. Jonithus teaches him and advises him about establishing his rule. Comestor attributes the account to Methodius. The Latin passage is reproduced in C. J. Verduin’s university-hosted collection of Jonitus sources. Comestor, “The Dispersion of Noah’s Sons and Nimrod,” Latin text and accompanying translation.

The connection is more substantial than a similar name: both narratives place Nimrod before a teacher associated with Noah and God-given knowledge of the heavens. Bonitor and Jonithus offer a useful comparison between Ethiopian and medieval Western expansions of Genesis. Their names, genealogies, and individual episodes still need to be compared before identifying them as identical versions or proposing direct borrowing.

Arganon and Debre Manos

In 4:41, God commands Abraham to go to Arganon after his return from the slaughter of the nations. Clement connects Arganon with the name Debre Manos. The next paragraphs explain why the place matters: Abraham meets Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, receives his blessing, and gives him a tenth of his possessions.

The biblical starting point is Genesis 14:14–20. Abram rescues Lot and returns from defeating Chedorlaomer and the allied kings. Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, brings bread and wine, blesses Abram, and receives a tenth. Hebrews 7:1–3 returns to this encounter and interprets Melchizedek’s kingship and priesthood in relation to the Son of God. Clement’s journey therefore develops an episode already important to readers of both Genesis and Hebrews. Genesis 14; Hebrews 7.

Clement makes the sacramental connection especially explicit. In 4:43–45, Abraham presents bread and wine; Melchizedek consecrates the offering, gives him some of it, and Abraham is described as receiving communion from Melchizedek’s hands. This is a fuller liturgical interpretation than Genesis itself supplies.

That interpretation has a recognizable Western counterpart. The Catholic Catechism, paragraph 1333, treats Melchizedek’s bread and wine as a foreshadowing of the Church’s Eucharistic offering. In Jerome’s Letter 46.2, written in the names of Paula and Eustochium, Melchizedek’s offering likewise points toward the Christian celebration of Christ’s body and blood. These are specific examples of a sacramental reading; Western Christians differ in their interpretations of the Eucharist. Catholic Catechism, 1333; Jerome’s correspondence, Letter 46.2.

Debre Manos thus introduces a meeting of Abrahamic history, priesthood, and communion. The unfamiliar place-name carries themes that Western readers can recognize through Melchizedek, Hebrews, and the bread and wine of Christian worship.

Debre Manos and Golgotha

In 5:5–8, Clement gathers several events at Debre Manos: Adam’s creation and burial, Abraham’s offering of Isaac, Melchizedek’s altar, and Christ’s crucifixion at Golgotha, the place Western readers also know as Calvary. Clement explicitly interprets Isaac’s offering and the ram provided in his place as figures of Christ’s crucifixion for the salvation of Adam and his descendants. The passage is already explaining its own theological connections.

Isaac and Christ

The shared biblical starting point is Genesis 22:1–14: Abraham prepares to offer his beloved son, Isaac carries the wood, God stops the sacrifice, and a ram is offered instead. Hebrews 11:17–19 interprets Abraham’s obedience through faith that God could raise the dead. These passages connect sacrifice, the promised son, and deliverance from death. Genesis 22; Hebrews 11.

Early Latin Christians also read Isaac’s story as pointing toward Christ. Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, chapter 10, compares Isaac carrying the sacrificial wood with Christ carrying the wood of his cross. He also brings the substituted ram into his interpretation of Christ’s Passion. This method of reading an earlier event as anticipating Christ is called typology. Clement’s explanation in 5:7–8 belongs to a pattern of Christian interpretation that was familiar in Latin Christianity as well. Tertullian, chapter 10.

Adam and the cross

Clement’s connection between Adam and Golgotha also has a counterpart in Latin Christian tradition. Letter 46.3 in Jerome’s correspondence, written in the names of Paula and Eustochium, recounts a tradition that Adam lived and died at the place of the Crucifixion. It describes Christ’s blood reaching Adam’s burial place and presents Christ’s death as overcoming the first Adam’s sin. Letter 46.3.

The biblical foundation for comparing Adam and Christ appears in 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 45, where Paul contrasts death through Adam with life through Christ and calls Christ the last Adam. Paul does not locate Adam’s grave at Golgotha. The burial tradition gives geographical expression to the theological connection. Clement similarly brings humanity’s beginning and its redemption together at one sacred place. 1 Corinthians 15.

Moriah and Golgotha

The geographical claims still need to be distinguished. Genesis 22:2 names the land of Moriah; 2 Chronicles 3:1 places Solomon’s Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem; John 19:17 names Golgotha as the place of the Crucifixion. These passages do not themselves state that all three locations are identical. Clement makes a further identification within its sacred geography. 2 Chronicles 3:1; John 19:17.

Western readers can therefore recognize the Christian themes of Isaac anticipating Christ and Christ bringing life where Adam brought death, while also seeing how Clement develops those themes through its account of a shared location. The comparison reveals related traditions without requiring every Christian community to accept the same geographical identifications.

A glossary with passage references

Name or place	Reference in the Revised Reader’s Edition	What the passage says
Bonitor	4:30–32, 37	Nimrod’s teacher; his instruction concerns the stars, years, and months and is called astronomy.
Nimrod	4:30–32	Learns from Bonitor for ten years and subsequently has books written about the teaching.
Arganon / Debre Manos	4:41–45	The passage connects these names and places Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek, including the consecrated bread and wine, there.
Debre Manos / Golgotha	5:5–8	The narrative connects Adam’s creation and burial, Abraham’s offering, Melchizedek’s altar, and Christ’s crucifixion with one place.

How to assess a biblical parallel

A shared name provides a starting point for comparison. It does not by itself prove that two passages describe the same person or location, or that one author borrowed directly from another.

For each proposed connection, record three things: Clement’s passage, the comparison passage, and the interpretation you draw from them. Compare the actual wording and sequence of events. An argument for direct borrowing also needs to consider dates and possible routes of transmission.

For example, Genesis establishes Nimrod as a biblical figure, while Clement supplies the Bonitor episode. Debre Manos and Golgotha are explicitly connected within Clement, while the geographical implications remain a separate question. Keeping these distinctions clear makes the connections easier to study and discuss.

For another Ethiopian-preserved work that develops narratives found in Genesis, read our guide to the Book of Jubilees.

For related Ethiopian biblical research, explore Adrian Hills’s TheoDoor Project, which credits Breandan Lumpkin as a collaborator on its Ethiopic Broad Canon section. Read our TheoDoor research guide or browse the original collection. Shared with creator Adrian Hills’s permission.