The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon, used in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, stands out as the largest and most diverse biblical canon in traditional Christendom, comprising 81 books.
An Ethiopian priest reading from a bible
The Holy Scriptures are one of the two great foundations of the faith. The word of God is not contained in the Bible alone, it is to be found in tradition as well.
Sacred Texts and Traditions
The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God, the author of the Old and New Testaments. They contain nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. God’s word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition.
The Ethiopic Bible: A Distinct Canon
The canon of the Ethiopic Bible differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament, bringing the total of canonized books of the Bible to 81.
Read also: Ethiopian Cuisine: Philadelphia Guide
Old Testament (46 Books)
The Orthodox Tewahedo narrower Old Testament canon contains the entire established Hebrew protocanon. Moreover, with the exception of the first two books of Maccabees, the Orthodox Tewahedo canon also contains the entire Catholic deuterocanon. In addition to this, the Orthodox Tewahedo Old Testament includes the Prayer of Manasseh, 3 Ezra, and 4 Ezra, which also appear in the canons of other Christian traditions. The books of Lamentations, Jeremiah, and Baruch, as well as the Letter of Jeremiah and 4 Baruch, are all considered canonical by the Orthodox Tewahedo churches. Additionally, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Books of Ethiopian Maccabees are also part of the canon; while they share a common name they are completely different from the books of Maccabees that are known or have been canonized in other traditions.
New Testament (35 Books)
The Ethiopic version of the Old and New Testament was made from the Septuagint. It includes the book of Enoch, Baruch, and the third and fourth Esdras.
LOST Bible Books Explained: Thomas, Judas, Magdalene, Solomon & MORE
Preservation of Unique Texts
In international Bible studies, certain books belong to the class usually designated pseudepigraphic. The whole Christendom and whole-learned world owes a debt of gratitude to the church of Ethiopia for the preservation of those documents. Among these books is the book of Enoch, which throws so much light on Jewish thought on various points during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The book of Jubilee (Kufale, i.e. Division), otherwise known as the Little Genesis, has also been preserved entire only in the Ethiopic version. The preservation of yet one more book in its entity, namely, the Ascension of Isaiah, is to be remembered to the credit of the Ethiopic Church.
Canons, Regulations, and Instructions
The canons, regulations of Christian instruction, and worship of the Ethiopian Church are contained in the Sinodos and Didascalia, two compilations of ancient church canons, dating from the second period of Ethiopic literature.
Sinodos
The Sinodos, classed as part of Ethiopic New Testament, is composed of various elements: Constitutions of Apostles, the Statutes of the Apostles, the Canons of the Apostles, the canons of Various councils-Nicaea, Gangra, Sardica, Antioch, New-Caesarca, Aneyra, Laodiene - and various theological and pastoml treatises. Eight books make up the Sinodos. Sinodos is the Corpus juris Ecclesiastic of the Church.
Read also: Authentic Ethiopian Cuisine
Didascalia
The Ethiopic Didascalia, or Didesqelya, is a book of Church order in 43 chapters, distinct from the Didascalia Apostolorum, but similar to books I-VII of the Apostolic Constitutions, where it most likely originates. The Didascalia is a document well known in the Christian Church originally composed in Greek probably in the middle of the third century, a discourse on Church life and society. The whole work was afterwards, somewhere in the fourth century, incorporated in the Apostolic Constitutions. It has Latin, Arabic and Syriac versions, which differ among themselves and from the Ethiopic version with regard to the subject matter.
Briefly the contents of the document are: Questions of morality, the duty of studying the Scriptures and observance of the Seventh Commandment, mutual duties of husband and wife, offices and duties of Christian ministers; the duties of widows; the method of baptism, laymen not to baptize; vows of virginity; the duties of the faithful towards the martyrs; observance of Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy week and method of calculating the date of Easter; warning against heresy; respect to be shown to the faithful departed; prayers to be used on specified and unspecified occasions.
Historical Context
In the past, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had not much opportunity to expand and propagate the above, noted doctrine and orders of the church inside and outside the nation; this is because of the different circumstances prevailing in the surroundings of the country. Because of the advent of European Colonialism upon its neighboring African countries and the great monetary support that other religious groups received to convert Africans. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had no other choice but to defend on and preserve all here Christian legacy. Henceforth, she was unable to raise her apostolic voice louder among her African brothers and sisters.
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Biblical Canon
The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is a version of the Christian Bible used in the two Oriental Orthodox Churches of the Ethiopian and Eritrean traditions: the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. At 81 books, it is the largest and most diverse biblical canon in traditional Christendom. Western scholars have classified the books of the canon into two categories - the narrower canon, which consists mostly of books familiar to the West, and the broader canon, which includes nine additional books. It is not known to exist at this time as one published compilation. The broader canon seems to have been created by Ethiopian scholars commenting on the Fetha Negest law code, which says that the canon contains 81 books, but only lists 73.
An Ethiopian Bible
Read also: A Taste of Ethiopia in South Carolina
