Music and the Protestant Church in Ethiopia

This book is about the controversy of zefen (secular music) and mezmur (spiritual music) in the Protestant Church in Ethiopia. Owing to the inappropriate translation of Galatians 5: 19-22, in which the Amharic Bible deviates from any other translation (including the Greek), the musician in the Ethiopian Protestant Church is painted as a professional destined for eternal doom. 

Several researchers from various parts of the world have also come to question how we (Ethiopians) came to such a conclusion; the belief that if music isn’t spiritual it is tantamount to sinning. Based on the Bible and the Bible only and backed by hard facts, this book resolutely argues that such a belief is unbiblical, and that like other professions, the ethical standing of music should be evaluated based only on the Bible.