NEBAB #28: The Baptism of our Lord- Timket (Epiphany)

    NEBAB #28

The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD- TIMKET (EPIPHANY) 

The Spiritual Education Unit

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America

In this issue:

    1. The water saw Him and fled

    2. Timket and tabot

    3. Faith and works

    4. “Ask Abba/Kes”

    5. A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

    6. Children’s corner

    7.ይበል ግዕዝ 

    8. Orthodox Q&A

 

The waters saw Him and fled

Rejoice, Jordan! Your Creator has come to be baptised in your waters! Timket is a highly celebrated feast in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as the greatness of what our Lord did in the river Jordan cannot be hidden.

The question that looms above the observance of Timket is why? Why did our Lord get baptised? John’s baptism was for repentance from sin, of which our Lord had none. Christian baptism is for entry into the church, of which Christ Himself is the head. So what can we say is the reason for His glorious baptism by the hand of John?

One reason is simple- example. Our Lord, the Master of all, went down into the water to be baptised of John, His servant. The Greater was baptised by the lesser, so no one can refuse to be baptised by a priest whose humanity is equal to their own.

Another reason- public ministry. Our Lord’s baptism began His earthly ministry by which He taught, healed and eventually died for us. His baptism was public, and performed by the famous John in the famous Jordan. And if anyone were to say “I do not know about this Jesus”, someone would reply as Luke and NIcodemus did on the road to Emmaus, “Are you a stranger in Jerusalem, that you do not know what has happened?”

And another reason- revelation, for which reason this feast is called Epiphany. God took this occasion to reveal Himself to us in His Trinity, which was hidden before in prophecy and mystery, but now was shown to all.

A great reason- redemption. After the fall of man, Adam and Eve entered into a contract with Satan, signing humanity into his service. The copies were hidden in Jordan and in Hades, where our Lord destroyed them at His baptism and His death.

Timket and tabot

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church uniquely preserves the Ark of the Covenant (tabot) at the centre of her worship, and Timket is one of the rare occasions on which the tabot is carried in procession, as the priests of the children of Israel did.

In Ethiopia, Timket is observed from its eve on the 10th of Tir with ketera- a word that refers to making a reservoir or damming a stream to make a baptismal pool- on which day the tabotat are carried from their various churches out through the cities, blessing them. The procession through the cities starts in the afternoon of the eve of Timket, and the tabotat reach the tents erected for them in the evening. 

The prayers then begin and the night is spent with hymns, sermons and prayers, much like the night of the eve of the Nativity. 

Timket is special because of the involvement of the pool of water specially prepared for this celebration. Scripture readings are done at the four cardinal points of the pool, the water is blessed by the priest(s), and traditionally 3 candles are floated out onto the water, symbolising the Holy Trinity.

After the blessing of the water the people are sprinkled with it, and some people can be seen immersing themselves in the water, reminding themselves of their baptism- “symbolically renewing their baptismal vows”. At times people unfamiliar with the practice have mistaken this custom for baptism, so it falls to us to educate them.

What ailed you, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you were driven back?

Faith and Works:

Hore Iyesus! (Jesus went)

The journey of the tabotat to the water on the day of ketera represents the humble journey our Lord Jesus Christ took from Cana of Galilee to the river Jordan to be baptised by John. Unlike His triumphant entry to Jerusalem, our Lord walked to the Jordan.

Pilgrimage- one way to improve our Christian lives is to be pilgrims- visitors to places of spiritual significance, like city of Jerusalem, the Jordan river, our beloved Ethiopia, monasteries, and churches in far away places. The journey to a holy place is itself an act of worship.

Walking- another way to enrich our Christian walk is just that- to walk! In our world of planes, trains and automobiles, travel has taken on a different character, but as much as we get the chance, in humility, let us walk!

Ask Abba/Kes

"What is the spiritual significance of the blessing of the water at Timket?"

In the Great Commission of St. Matt 28:18-20, Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the Apostles commanding them to go and make Disciples of all the nations by Baptism. They began their task using fresh water, following the words of the Lord (Jn. 3:16; Acts 8:38) Blessing the water and harvesting humankind through water to Christ Jesus the Lord. It has been like this since early Church beginnings, as water cleanses the dirt of the body, baptism cleanses the dirt of the soul. 

Water has been used as this Blessed medium through which physical & spiritual cleansing can occur and in this way the clergy bless the water using the Holy Cross for rebirth, remission of sins, purification & sanctification, salvation and adoption into Christ. 

Mankind can now gain rebirth dying and rising, believing in Christ Jesus and then testify One Lord, One Faith and One Baptism. This is what we celebrate and reaffirm that we believe at the Major Feast Day of Timqet / Epiphany.

Glory to God for His Countless Blessings.

BIBLE QUIZ!

Which chapter in the book of Joshua records the Old Testament origin of our Timket tradition?

 

A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

A miracle of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, may her prayer and her blessing be with our king, Zara Yaqob, amen. It was the feast of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, on the sixteenth of Nahase, the Ascension of her holy body into the heavens. A great feast was being hosted for her at Bethlehem [in Israel], which is the place where she gave birth to the Savior of the World. And a huge congregation from all the Christians—[those] from Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, [and] Kwerz, [along with] the Maronites and the Europeans—would gather in that place. All of them would arrive together at Bethlehem, with their wives and children, where they would perform the Christian baptism for their children. One of those years, they were hosting the feast we mentioned and being blessed by the holy place where the Virgin Mary knelt down to give birth to the Savior of the World, and by the manger where [the baby] Jesus slept and the donkey and cow kept him warm.

The entryway [to the birthplace] was large and beautiful, with two gates. The bars of its gates were nailed with [hinges of] red iron leaves that resembled pure gold. The craftsmanship of the leaves’ engraving was marvelous and interwoven; there was nothing else like it in the world. While the people were being blessed and seeing the splendor of the craftsmanship of the gates’ bars, a European man looked at one of them and marveled at its craftsmanship. Satan placed a love of the bar in his heart and made him long to steal it. He thought to himself, “When all the people leave for home, I will get up at night and grab the bar. Then, I will take it to my country and give it as a gift to one of the kings of Europe, and I will get great wealth [for it].” After the feast was complete, all the people [who were pilgrims] returned to their regions, and that European man entered at night while all the people [remaining] were sleeping. He grabbed the bar and placed it upon his head. At once, the bar broke and fell upon his neck, choking him. Due to the great pain he received from this, he cried out with a loud voice. When the European monks who were staying in Bethlehem heard that man’s crying out, they left [and came] quickly to learn what had happened. And having arrived where he was, they saw him being choked by the bar and [with] a lot of blood pouring out. The crushing bar was attempting to cut his neck [off]. So they asked him what had happened to him, and he told them everything. He begged them, while weeping, to go down into the manager and ask Our Lady Mary to rescue him. He spoke again to them, [declaring,] “I will become a monk just like you. I will give all my wealth to that church of Bethlehem and will serve that church until the day of my death.” After the monks heard this account from him, they went down to the entrance into the manger, in which our Lord had slept.

[There,] they beseeched Our Lady Mary, with much weeping and burning hearts, to rescue the European man. When they raised their petition, they heard a voice that said to them, “This man will not be saved from the crushing bar until it is morning. And all Jerusalem’s people and all Bethlehem’s regions will come and see the miracle of my beloved son that he did in this church, which is the place of his miraculous birth. And after this, that man will be saved.” Having heard this, the monks sent messengers to the city of Jerusalem and all the regions, [to invite the people] so that they would come and see this miracle and astonishing thing. When the people heard this, they immediately came from everywhere. They saw the European, the bar crushing his neck, and all the blood pouring out of him. They asked Our Lady in unison to save this man from this terrible pain. And when it became evening [the next day], the break in the bar widened until it fell off his neck. The [broken] bar became whole, just as it had been before, and the seam could not be seen. The people who had seen this cried out, saying, “O Lord, have mercy on us!” They added, “The praise of your virginity is great, O Mother of God. Blessed are we, the poor ones, that we deserve our savior being born in our city, and that we have seen your miracle with our own eyes.” And then they took that European man and brought him down into the manager while the blood was flowing from his neck. They took some of the oil from the lamp that was lit there, and some ground from the manger, and they mixed them together and anointed his neck [with it]. At that very instant, he was healed from his injury. The blood that was flowing from his neck dried up, and the scar of his wound could not be seen. After they saw this, they marveled and rejoiced due to the man’s rescue and healing. 

The next day, he became a monk, gave all his possessions to Bethlehem, remaining there while serving our Lady the Virgin Mary and recounting her miracles until the day of his death. Dear beloved brothers, have you seen the mercy of God, praise be to him? And the compassion of his mother, the Virgin Mary, for the man who stole her possession, the bar of her entryway? And how, after he repented for the thing he’d done and vowed to be a servant in the church, she quickly healed him from his injury? And how she erased his sins and made him inherit eternal life? May we be worthy of imitating her. Let us learn, our dear brothers, how to treat well those who treat us evilly, for mercy covers many sins. Just as Our Lord says in the holy Gospels, be merciful and they will show mercy to you. And all the more so for one who shows mercy on the day of her blessed feast! For in the fearful courtroom she asks her beloved son on that person’s behalf for mercy and salvation. May her intercession be with our king, Zara Yaqob, who is called Constantine; may it protect him from the schemes of the enemy; may it deliver him to the port of salvation and life forever and ever. Amen.

O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!

LIJOCH! The Children's Corner

Memory verse: St Matthew 3:16

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

Put these events in the life of our Lord Jesus in the right order!

 

 

ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)

Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language

As is our custom, this section will explore the etymology of the name of the feast.

ጥምቀት 

timket - baptism

This noun comes from the verb root ጠመቀ Temeqe through the verb አጥመቀ aTmeqe - to dip, immerse, baptise. It is often found in its passive form ተጠምቀ teTemqe - to be baptised, referring of course to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This root also gives us መጥምቅ meTmiq - one who baptises, and ምጥማቅ miTmaq - a place of baptism, a baptism font, baptistery, or pool.

ዮሐንስ Yohanis - John

ዮርዳኖስ Yordanos - Jordan

ORTHODOX Q&A

What is the Feast of Epiphany about?

Epiphany is one of the great major Holy feasts of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.  In the early Church, this feast was celebrated with the feast of the nativity as one feast, (this is still done in the Armenian church) both revealing Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Son of Man. The question that must be asked pertaining to the feast is, if God did not make himself known, then how do we have a relationship with him? If there was no Epiphany, (or no Nativity) then there would be no relationship as God would not have made himself known.

The word Epiphany, is a great reminder of how God appears to man, removing the veil and unveiling the mystery of God. It is a greek word that can be broken up into two parts to be understood. “Epi” meaning from above and “phany” to mean manifestation. Epiphany, meaning manifestation and appearance from above. It is also called “theophany” to mean manifestation and appearance of God. This feast is another opportunity where God becomes revealed to us and we come to know him more on a deeper level.  On this feast we reflect on this theme of “Coming to know God, of God being revealed to each of us in life”. As Saint Paul says, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who longed for his appearing.” 

This changes the way we live our life.

Send us your questions at: seu.eotccarla@gmail.com

References

Short message on behalf the Spiritual Education Unit:

His Grace Abune Thaddaeus, Head Administrator Archimandrite Abba Gebreyesus, and all clergy and faithful- thank you for the opportunity to share this labour of love with you. Thanks also to the team of the Spiritual Education Unit for their hard work.

-Liqe Teghuan Tekle Mariam Greene

Timket and tabot: eotc-ma.com/post/astereyo-አስተርዮ-epiphany

LearnOTC- instagram.com/p/CnlmSINIbOh/

Orthodox QnA:

St Marks Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydney, 2023

Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam: pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/26

CONTACT US:

Archdiocese headquarters: Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World), Old Golden Grove Rd. Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago.

Tel. 868-642-4230.

e-mail: eotc.arch.carla@gmail.com

ethiopianorthodoxtewahedochurchcarla.org