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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s not only extra books, though. Translated into the ancient Ge\u2019ez language in the first centuries after Christ, the Ethiopian Bible preserves a close but slightly different manuscript transmission than Western Bibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Brief History of the Ethiopian Bible and Church<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ethiopia is one of the oldest continually Christian regions of the world. It\u2019s said to have been first evangelized by Matthew and Bartholomew \u2014 two of the twelve apostles<\/a> \u2014 shortly after Pentecost, with the eunuch of Acts 8:27\u201339<\/a> named as the first Ethiopian convert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evangelism continued until the early 4th century AD, when King Ezana was baptized into the faith and made Christianity the official state religion \u2014 about 50 years before the Edict of Thessalonica did the same for Rome in 380 AD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time most of the Scriptures were still read in Greek \u2014 including the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint<\/a>, and the New Testament, which was written in Greek<\/a>. So work soon began on translating all of those books into the Ethiopian language of Ge\u2019ez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, most scholars believe the Ethiopian canon was finalized sometime around the 5th or 6th century AD<\/a>. That translation has remained the official liturgical Bible of the Ethiopian church ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Western and Ethiopian churches experienced a major schism during the Christological controversy of 451 AD, when the Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus Christ had two separate natures, human and divine, united in his person. The Ethiopian church (together with other Oriental Orthodox churches) disagreed, arguing that he had only one, inseparable human-and-divine nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, both sides agreed Jesus was human and God, they just disagreed on how<\/em> he was human and God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To many of us today, that might seem like hair-splitting, or at least an insufficient reason to excommunicate each other and never speak again! But, unfortunately, it\u2019s exactly the sort of issue that has led to many, many divisions in the Christian church throughout its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, because the churches were no longer communicating, it enabled them to decide separately what the final canon ought to be. Of course, they agreed on all the core books \u2014 everything in Protestant and Catholic Bibles<\/a> today \u2014 but not on some of the other antilegomena,<\/a><\/em> or disputed books<\/a> of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ethiopian and Western churches were completely cut off from one another for over a thousand years. Finally, in the 15th-16th centuries, the first few efforts were made to resume dialogue \u2014 mostly unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t really until the 20th century that conversations between these estranged churches began resuming, especially following Vatican II and with the rise of evangelical missionary movements in the latter half of the 1900s. Still, many tensions remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remarkably, despite enduring periodic persecution over the centuries, Ethiopia remained majority Christian, even as many of its neighbors fell to Islam. Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church makes up about 43% of Ethiopia\u2019s population<\/a> \u2014 over 35 million people, with many more adherents worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 81 books in Ethiopian Bibles, <\/strong>compared to 66 in Protestant Bibles, 73 in Catholic Bibles, and about 76 in Eastern Orthodox Bibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few of these books \u2014 five, to be exact \u2014 have come to called the \u201cbroader canon.\u201d These books are understood to inform doctrine, but are not used in worship \u2014 sort of how the Apocrypha are understood in Lutheran and Anglican tradition. Some of these additional books are hard to find, even in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ethiopian Bible contains all 66 books included in every Protestant Bible<\/a>, in the same order. This includes the 39 Old Testament books from Genesis to Malachi, and the 27 New Testament books from Matthew to Revelation. It also has the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, plus a few more, mixed in throughout the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a complete, annotated list of the books in the Ethiopian Bible.<\/strong> Books also in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles are in bold<\/strong>, while books unique to the Ethiopian Bible are bold and highlighted<\/mark><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New Testament books are the same across all biblical traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remaining books in the Ethiopian Bible are not found anywhere else. Indeed, they are rarely used and difficult to obtain even in Ethiopia, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church lists them<\/a> as part of its \u201cbroader canon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the easiest way to think about the difference between the various types of Bibles is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are six books in the Ethiopian Bible\u2019s narrower canon that do not appear in other biblical canons: Enoch, Jubilees, 1-3 Megabyan, and 4 Baruch. Then, there are nine more in the broader canon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most westerners, the book of Enoch is the best-known and most-discussed book unique to the Ethiopian Bible. In this book, Enoch, one of the patriarchs from Genesis, describes the fall of the angels and their coupling with human women, ultimately producing the Nephilim<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though not canonical in Protestant, Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox traditions, Enoch was quite popular before and during the time of Jesus. In fact, Jude quotes it directly as Scripture \u2014 though only briefly, in verses 14-15<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite its influence on some of the New Testament writers, both the Jewish rabbis and early Christian councils ultimately determined Enoch, although containing some truthful elements, could not be considered God’s inspired Word.<\/strong> It\u2019s not known why Ethiopian Orthodox authorities disagreed with that consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jubilees is another major book recognized in the Ethiopian canon but excluded from Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox canons. It retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus with additional details, based around a structured sacred calendar of 49-year intervals, or jubilees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Enoch, it is helpful for understanding Second Temple Jewish thought. But also like Enoch, Western churches followed the Jewish rabbis in asserting it was not the Word of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three books of Meqabyan are a curious case, because they are not the same as the books of Maccabees included in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles. The books of Meqabyan do not cover the actual history of the Maccabees but focus on more general themes of righteous heroes resisting idolatrous pagan kings, and provide broader commentary on salvation and punishment across the biblical timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These books are difficult to find in English; 3 Meqabyan in particular has never been translated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also known in Greek as the Paralipomena of Jeremiah, 4 Baruch is believed by most Jews and Christians to be a later pseudepigraphal work attributed to Jeremiah. But the Ethiopian version is instead attributed to Baruch, Jeremiah\u2019s scribe (see Jer. 36:1-4<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth Baruch tells a fable-like story involving Ebed-Melek the Cushite (i.e., Ethiopian) palace official from Jeremiah 38:7-13<\/a>, in which he falls asleep for 66 years before announcing the end of the exile to Jeremiah in Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The broader canon of the Ethiopian Bible includes nine books not found elsewhere, four of which are often combined into one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, no complete Ethiopian Bible currently exists in English.<\/strong> The Ethiopian Orthodox Bible Project (EOBP)<\/a> is gradually working on a full translation from Ge\u2019ez and Amharic, but it\u2019s a huge undertaking and may be several more years before it releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The EOBP has warned consumers to be wary of \u201ccomplete Ethiopian Bibles\u201d sold online,<\/strong> as they do not actually contain the complete canon listed above. Indeed, one popular example claims to include all Apocryphal books and commentary<\/em> \u2026 in only 81 pages! If you\u2019ve ever seen a Bible (and you know now that the Ethiopian Bible is longer<\/em> than Western Bibles), you know how implausible that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the core 66 books<\/a> are in every English Bible version<\/a>, whether NIV, KJV\/NKJV, ESV, NRSVue, NASB, NLT, and so on. And most of the other books (Apocrypha) are in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. It\u2019s likely that there are variations between the Western and Ethiopian text of these books, just as there are between the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament used in Protestant and Catholic Bible translations, and the Greek Septuagint used by Eastern Orthodox churches. But until they are translated directly from the Ge\u2019ez version, we can’t know for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there is no complete Ethiopian Bible available in English, most of the additional books are available individually<\/em> in English<\/strong>, though they can be hard to find. These translations are generally by scholars or aficionados, not by Ethiopian Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enoch is the easiest Ethiopian book to find, as it is attested in a few Greek manuscripts and other languages in addition to the Ge\u2019ez, and has held a longstanding fascination among both conspiracy-minded occultists and serious Bible scholars, though for different reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first complete English edition of Enoch was publishing in 1812 by Richard Laurence and is now public domain. Many other public-domain versions have followed, of varying quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the best, most complete, and most accurate translation of Enoch is 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation<\/a><\/em> by Dr. George W. E. Nickelsburg and Dr. James C. VanderKam.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The book of Jubilees has also had many English versions, especially after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls<\/a> revealed 15 Hebrew manuscripts of it \u2014 one of the highest of any book in the collection. The best complete English version of Jubilees is Jubilees: The Hermeneia Translation<\/em><\/a> by Dr. James C. VanderKam.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike Enoch and Jubilees, the books of Meqabyan are very hard to find in English. They were written in Ge\u2019ez (rather than translated from Greek or Hebrew) and have only recently received any attention from Western Christians and scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, there is only one* English translation of 1 and 2 Meqabyan, and none of 3 Meqabyan, though the translator of the first two books is presumably at work on the third:<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Technically two, but one of them<\/a> is in Rastafarian dialect.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourth Baruch, also known in Greek as the Paralipomena of Jeremiah, is available in two English translations. A public domain version<\/a> is available online for free, while a more comprehensive edition<\/a> was published by the Society of Biblical Literature. Both are from the Greek text, though, which may differ from the Ethiopian version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only a few of the books from the broader canon have been translated into English. The EOBP hosts a listing of where you can find them<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the Ethiopian Bible is used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which is a Christian liturgical tradition that traces its roots back to the time of the apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church differs radically on certain points of doctrine compared to most Western churches<\/strong> \u2014 even more so than the differences between Catholic and Protestant churches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And, remember that the additional books in the Ethiopian Bible were rejected by both Jewish and Christian authorities as not being the inspired Word of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that does not<\/em> mean these books were \u201clost\u201d<\/a> or \u201cburied\u201d in the West.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Books like Enoch and Jubilees were generally not themselves regarded as heretical by early church authorities \u2014 though they came to inspire various streams of thought that were<\/em> heretical. Instead, after careful study, rabbinical and church authorities determined that they were unlikely to have been actually written by Enoch or another patriarch or inspired author, and therefore could not be included in the canon of Scripture. So, over time, they fell out of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ethiopian Bible represents a parallel but distinct scriptural tradition from the one that emerged in the West through the Orthodox, Catholic, and eventually Protestant churches. While it overall shares far more in common with Western Christianity than it has differences, Ethiopian Christianity contains enough unique features to remain interesting to scholars, theologians, and other Christians who want to better understand the breadth of Christian thought and practice throughout history and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can certainly be worthwhile to explore new ideas and see how other Christians practice and experience their faith \u2014 but always be careful that you\u2019re doing so from a reputable, trustworthy source. <\/strong>Any time you find something outside of the core biblical canon you’re familiar with, always check it against the familiar Bible you know and trust. When in doubt, it\u2019s best to consult with a trusted priest or pastor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning more about our shared faith is never a bad thing, but you must avoid the temptation to wander away from the fold because something else seems more exotic or exciting. In the end, old forgotten books won\u2019t save you \u2014 only Jesus will.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to go deeper into every book of the Bible \u2014 including the Apocrypha \u2014 right from your phone or computer? Bible Gateway Plus<\/a> offers dozens of study Bibles, dictionaries, commentaries, and other resources<\/a> to go deeper into every aspect of God\u2019s Word. Start your free trial today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the Ethiopian Bible? Learn its history, why it has 81 books, how it differs from Western Bibles, and how to read it in English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[131,80,59,268,538,237],"yoast_head":"\nThe Birth of the Ethiopian Bible<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Separation of the Western and Ethiopian Churches<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Ethiopian Church Today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How Many Books Are in the Ethiopian Bible?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Complete List of Books in the Ethiopian Bible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Old Testament<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The New Testament<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The \u2018Broader Canon\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Ethiopian Bibles vs. Western Bibles Compared<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Which Ethiopian Bible Books Are Not in Western Bibles?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Book of Enoch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Jubilees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Meqabyan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Fourth Baruch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Broader Canon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Where Can you Read the Ethiopian Bible in English?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Where to Find Enoch and Other Ethiopian Bible Apocrypha in English<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Enoch<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Jubilees<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
1-3 Meqabyan<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Fourth Baruch<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Broader Canon<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Is the Ethiopian Bible Christian?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why the Ethiopian Bible Matters for Christians Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n