Site design by DaveBulow (davebulow@planetquake.com)


Site Introduction and Updates...
A Brief Overview of the Bible...
Some Key Biblical Concepts in Rasta Reggae Lyrics...
Frequently Occurring Biblical References in Reggae Lyrics...
Amharic in Reggae lyrics...
Contact info page...
Links to other sites...
Site acknowledgements...

List lyrics alphabetically by artist...
List lyrics alphabetically by song title...



If you think this website is a bit *quiet*, click one of the following links to hear some music

'Reggae Allstars' radio station

Online Dub Radio Station - by Dub Warria1

Dub.com - Dub Music Online since 1997

Easy Skankin Roots Reggae Radio

Jah Radio

Help relieve poverty and suffering in Ethiopia by supporting Oxfam

The illustrations for this website (excluding photographs of artists) are my own
artwork, unless otherwise specified.

Updates - What's NEW? Last updated 24th January 2011

News of upcoming
Rastafari and Reggae inspired art exhibition: "Black Gold", Paintings and Silhouettes by Lois Cordelia, 27th January - 10th February, Dalston, London.

"Black Gold" - Exhibition & Sale of Paintings and Silhouettes by Lois Cordelia, 27th January-10th February, Dalston, London

Celebrating more than 100,000 visitors
over the last four years ! :-)

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Words of Wisdom
was originally founded
24th November 2001.

Greetings and welcome to Words of Wisdom!

This website is dedicated to matching Reggae song lyrics to Biblical quotations. Thank you for visiting.
May JAH guide thy coming in and protect thy going out
- Deuteronomy 28:6, Psalm 121:8

A design I created on Photoshop, showing some of the most important Rastafarian symbols. Click the picture for more information on some key Rastafarian concepts.




Many reggae songs - especially those inspired by Rastafari - contain biblical quotations, references, and allusions. Sometimes these are quite obvious, taken as direct quotes from scripture, but in other cases they may be adapted to fit a rhythm or rhyme, and will therefore be less easy to pin-point.

Biblical quotes in reggae lyrics are usually taken from the
King James Version (abbreviated to KJV) of the Bible, also known as the
Authorized Version (AV). This was published in 1611, which accounts for the old style of English. The KJV is still perhaps the most widely known and best loved version of the Bible in English today.

Click here to learn more about the Bible
Click the picture for more general information about the
Bible

Quotations in reggae lyrics are frequently adapted from the original Biblical text to include Rastafarian terminology. See the
Key Ideas section of this website for plenty of examples.

Reggae lyrics did not always contain Biblical quotations. Probably these were first introduced when Rastafarian musicians appeared on the reggae scene. Since this time, reggae music has become almost inseparably associated with Rasta culture, not least because some of its best known exponents were Rastafarians. The closely related
Nyabinghi chants are similarly often inspired by the Psalms.

As a slight aside from the main biblical theme, I've also devoted part of this site to the occurence of Amharic lyrics in Reggae songs. Amharic is the national language of
Ethiopia, and is therefore very important to Rastafarians. Please see the Amharic section for further information, translations and reggae lyrics featuring Amharic words and phrases.

"One Love" in Amharic. Click the picture for more information

As mentioned above, I've also included a selection of articles about
key concepts (both biblical and extra-biblical) featured in Rasta reggae lyrics, as well as brief commentary where appropriate on some of the most frequently occurring biblical quotations.

Personally, I love reading the Bible. Sometimes quite by chance I will come across a scripture that I recognise from a Reggae song, and think, 'Aha! So that's where it comes from'. Most of the time, however, I use the
Bible Gateway website to help find quotations and references. This site is a powerful Bible-study tool, where you can both look up particular references and also search for words or phrases. It has translations of the Bible in numerous different languages and versions.



Words
of Wisdom was originally the so-called 'Bible Section' of the Reggae Lyrics Archive but has expanded to the extent that it is now a homepage in its own right.


The title 'Words Of Wisdom' is derived from the song of the same name by
Dennis Brown. However, the phrase 'words of wisdom' is not actually a direct bibilcal quotation in the KJV, though most people would agree that the Bible contains many words of wisdom.

Click
here for a list of all the artists/groups whose lyrics are featured on this site.


I hope you will find this site useful and informative, whether your interest is from the angle of reggae, Rasta, the Bible, languages, or any other.

Email me!
Please feel free to send any comments, suggestions, or corrections to me,
Lois. Many thanks :-)



One Love!


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