James Bruce
Scottish explorer who brought 1 Enoch to Europe from Ethiopia
- Born
- 1730, Kinnaird, Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland
- Died
- 1794, Larbert
- Travels
- Ethiopia, 1769–1771; reached the source of the Blue Nile, 1770
- Brought to Europe
- Three Ethiopic copies of 1 Enoch (1773)
- Book
- Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790)
The Scottish traveler who reached the source of the Blue Nile and returned in 1773 with Ethiopic copies of the lost Book of Enoch.
What is James Bruce known for?
James Bruce (1730–1794) was a Scottish laird and explorer. After serving as British consul in Algiers, he traveled to Ethiopia, reaching Gondar in 1770 and later that year the springs near Lake Tana that he took to be the source of the Nile; in fact it is the source of the Blue Nile.
In Ethiopia he acquired manuscripts, including three copies of 1 Enoch in Ge'ez. The book had been lost to most of the Christian world since late antiquity but was preserved in the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Bruce brought the copies to Europe in 1773, one going to the Bodleian Library in Oxford and one to the French royal library.
His five-volume Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790) was widely doubted at first, but much of it was later confirmed. His Enoch manuscripts made possible Richard Laurence's English translation of 1821.
He brought the Ethiopic Book of Enoch to Europe in 1773.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit hole1 Enoch
- PersonRichard Laurence
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'James Bruce'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'James Bruce'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'Richard Laurence' (on Bruce's Bodleian manuscript of Enoch)Reference
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