The Ethiopian Bible, also known as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Bible, is the sacred scripture of one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world.
It is written primarily in Ge’ez, an ancient Semitic language no longer spoken but still used in liturgy. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible has been written in vallum, animal skins, stone tablets, etc. and is perhaps one of the world's oldest bibles. Their bible was written in Ge’ez and the later Amharic.
The Ethiopian Bible is notable for its size and content-it contains more books than the Protestant Bible, and it includes texts that are not found in the canons of Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy.
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The Protestant Bible contains 66 books-39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
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In contrast, the Ethiopian Bible includes 81 books (46 books in the Old Testament and 35 books in the New Testament).
The canon of the Ethiopic Bible differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches.
An example of an Ethiopian Bible.
Contents of the Ethiopian Bible
The Holy Scriptures are one of the two great foundations of the faith and here is what our church holds and teaches concerning it. The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God who is the author of the Old and New Testaments containing nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. But God’s word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition.
Old Testament Books
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament:
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- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- Ruth
- 1 Samuel
- 2 Samuel
- 1 Kings
- 2 Kings
- 1 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles
- Jubilees
- Enoch
- Job
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
- Song of Solomon
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Lamentations
- Ezekiel
- Daniel
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
- Tobit
- Judith
- Esther
- 1 Meqabyan
- 2 Meqabyan
- 3 Meqabyan
- Esdras Apocalypse
- Susanna
- Bel and the Dragon
New Testament Books
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 35 books of the New Testament:
- Matthew
- Mark
- Luke
- John
- Acts
- Romans
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Galatians
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Colossians
- 1 Thessalonians
- 2 Thessalonians
- 1 Timothy
- 2 Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon
- Hebrews
- 1 Peter
- 2 Peter
- 1 John
- 2 John
- 3 John
- James
- Jude
- Revelation
- Sirate Tsion A
- Sirate Tsion B
- Tewosdosyan
- Qalementos
- Diyaskelya
- Qanona
- Gospels of Egzi’abher Ab
- Gospels of Haymanot Abew
Among the additional writings are books such as 1 Enoch, Jubilees, 1-3 Meqabyan (which are different from the 1-2 Maccabees found in Catholic Bibles), and The Book of the Covenant.
The Books of Enoch and Jubilees are included in the Ethiopian Bible.
Theological and Historical Context
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. In the international Bible studies there are certain books belonging 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.
The Ethiopian canon, however, developed separately, influenced by early Jewish and Christian traditions in the region of Ethiopia. From a theological standpoint, the Ethiopian Bible’s inclusion of books like 1 Enoch, with its sensationalistic themes and heavy angelology, is significant. While 1 Enoch is quoted in Jude 1:14-15, it was not included in the Protestant canon because it was not recognized as inspired Scripture by the early church councils.
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Another key difference between those who use the Ethiopian Bible and those who use the Protestant Bible lies in each group’s approach to Scripture.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church places a strong emphasis on tradition alongside Scripture, whereas Protestantism insists that Scripture alone is the final authority in matters of faith and practice.
As a whole, books written in the Geez language and on parchment are numerous.
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.
Preservation and Propagation
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.
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. 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, Laodienea - and various theological and pastoml treatises. Eight books make up the Sinodos. Sinodos is the Corpus juris Ecclesiastic of the Church.
The Didascalia 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.
Through the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible, the canonical authenticity is broader. The narrower canon includes the traditional Hebrew Protocanon, the catholic Deuterocanon, the prayer of Manasseh, 3rd and 4th Ezra, the Paralipomena of Jeremiah, the Jubilees, Enoch, the books of Meqabyan, Lamentations, Jeremiah, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah and all of 4 Baruch.
The 27 New Testament books that are established are the New Testament canon. The broader canon includes: Josippon, the books of Sinodos, the Books of Covenant, the Ethiopic Clement and the Didascalia.
There are also non-canonical or quasi-canonical books that are considered heterodox or an external reference to Ethiopian Christians. This includes perhaps non-canonical variations or fabrications of Enoch or books like the Book of the Cock or Rooster. Likewise, Gnostic books do exist within Christianity and some Bibles in general. This perhaps includes debate on the authenticity of the Gospel of Thomas which is of Alexandrian Origin and not considered canonical by Copts, Ethiopians or Oriental Orthodoxy.
Ge'ez is one of the oldest written languages inscribed by men and an early semitic language. The pictorial and hieroglyphic language timeline versus the written language timeline discrepancies is very broad. This is where you might include a tree model of Protolanguages. Protolanguage tree mapping is very hereditary in the sense that mapping languages can be reminiscent of a linguist acting like a geneticist. Amharic is a subgroup that follows the Ge'ez script.
These languages are probably considered the same languages that may have been spoken by the ancient Cushites or during the reign of King Solomon who fell in love with Sheba, whom he is considered to have seduced. This led to him having a son and the continuation of his dynasty in Ethiopia which ended at the time of Haile Selassie I.
Efforts have been made to attempt to reestablish the Solomonic dynasty including by the Stark Global Initiative and the Crown Council of Ethiopia. There also have been efforts to remove the Sigil of Baphomet or Moloch's Seal from the Flag of Ethiopia. The extensive history surrounding the symbolism is mysterious, and the idea of David having a star is questionable.
Nonetheless, Moloch was one of the foreign deities that were worshipped by some of Solomon's lust, and this was something that angered God, as Moloch was considered a deity of child sacrifice. These were among others and was worshipped among a Sidonian goddess. Nonetheless, Solomon is known to have repented, and the Cushites referenced in Psalm 68:31, among the Egyptians were the nobility of worshipping God. A bridge was also to be made between Egypt, Assyria, and Israel.
Many Egyptians and Ethiopians share E1b1, specifically the Coptic Egyptians, meaning that through a certain emperor's lust for foreign women, many of them may share a common grandfather from the tribe of Judah. This overlap is rare, and the root of this linkage resembles the time of King Solomon's reign. Likewise, there are projects that aim to be building a global incubation hub and bridge within the countries of Egypt, Syria and Israel or connect the unconnected. If you look at the hereditary perspective, Christ being from the Tribe of Judah, or the nations of the Cushites and the Egyptians worshipping God, or the linkage between Egypt, Syria and Israel from an ancestry perspective, this bridge may have likely already been developed.
Many of the hereditary links, and the history of the Solomonic dynasty led way to a counterculture movement that mistakenly thought Haile Selassie I was the Christ. The Rastafarians were visited by Haile. He gave the tribal leaders gold medallions and didn't publicly condemn their ideology, instead saying, "he felt like he had to respect their beliefs". He opted to denying being Christ within external interviews. Giving these leaders gold medallions or gifting them some land in Ethiopia was used by Rastafari scholars as evidence of him supporting his divinity.
Ironically, one such scholar, Dr.Ikael Tafari had no Ethiopian or Jamaican lineage. He considered himself Pan-African. Rastafari leaders also have been known to call themselves the African Orthodox Church (who were excommunicated) and established churches such as the Church of the Black Madonna.
Rastafarians make their own Rastafarian variations of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. They also misleadingly claim to be Ethiopian or Coptic. In reality, they aren't adherents of any such creed. This includes one of the most popular sellers online of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible calling themselves the Ethiopian Orthodox Church through independent publishing on Amazon. The unfortunate reality is that many Rastafarian views take elements of Western Christianity or modernist European Churches as core to their theology.
This is due to the fact that though many no longer have the Christological view of a late emperor, other secular ideologies blemish the authenticity of the Ethiopian church they want to emulate. They copy the title but adhere to different theology. The church they are trying to emulate is the true African church, and this is the accidental whitewashing of the authenticity of the Oriental Orthodoxy of the Ethiopians.
This whitewashing has been done in the West due to the Third Great Awakening and rise of the occultic (dualistic/neo-paganist) Myal faith. Even after the rise of the autonomy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ethiopia who is considered protected by its patron St. George, have suffered immensely.
Rastafarianism, famine, the Derg, and political discourse was a predecessor to another end for the Solomonic empire. Political discourse led to the eventual split of what became the Eritrean Church. Other drama within the offset political scenes of Ethiopia mirrored problems for the Eritrean church. Also, the Ethiopian Church split with the faithful of Tigray. This was done through an unsanctioned bishopric coup. The people of Ethiopia suffered much, and with the death of their emperor, a unifier, came a genocidal divider.
The authenticity of the actual Ethiopian Tewahedo bible has been one that stood the test of time. Ethiopians have gone out of their way to preserve the historical language of their ancestors, and even the adherents of Amharic aim to speak in Ge'ez. The Ethiopian Church, Eritrean Church, and truly Ethiopian faithful of Tigray have been affected both internally and externally.
This includes bishops stealing or taking bribes, traces of magic practiced within some deacons (debtera), corruption within the mistranslations of their authentic works, the suffering of Abune Antonios in Eritrea (a confessor/martyr), or the need for an authentic Pope in which Dioskoros is uncanonical and the papacy is vacant. The World Council of Churches is expected to convene in 2025 at Alexandria, the See of St. Mark and the spread of such interfaith movements threatens African diaspora.
This includes Bishop Angelos of London praying the Annual Day of Prayer in Westminster Abbey, a church known for interfaith and atheist vigils. This form of inclusivity equates the African diaspora with Westernism, Europeanism, and modernity at a time of suffering within the Ethiopian churches, Oriental Orthodoxy, and a need for unified Coptic identity.
After all, in these modern times, with the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritreans having a vacancy as of 2024, perhaps a reconciliation could be possible. Instead, Oriental Orthodox leaders rather shift the core focus on adherence to western ideologies. Ethiopia is the heart of Africa and an epicenter for history, theology, and archeology, including potentially housing the Ark of the Covenant.
There is a 21st century revival happening in terms of the Ethiopian Bible over NKJV, KJV, Gideon or Gutenberg press bibles. The same also likely applies to Coptic bibles that are within the Egyptian monasteries. However, this revival is counterculture, and not mainstream, but rather a result of the information age. The beauty of the Ethiopians is that throughout all this suffering and famine, very few nations are as filled with inner peace, simplicity, and as much hope.
The Ethiopians love Christ, adhere the immaculateness of the Virgin Mary, and are a culture of true diversity, simplicity, history, and courage.
