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. Some books, though considered canonical, are nonetheless difficult to locate and are not even widely available in the churches' home countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea.[1][2] But there is an ongoing project to publish the complete canon in English. There are copies of the Bible that claim to be the complete canon on shopping websites like Amazon, but the project says these are fake.[3][4]
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. Finally, within the Orthodox Tewahedo tradition, 3 Ezra is called Second Ezra, 4 Ezra is called Ezra Sutu'el, and the Prayer of Manasseh is incorporated into the Second Book of Chronicles.
New Testament
The Orthodox Tewahedo narrower New Testament canon consists of the entire 27 book Christian protocanon, which is almost universally accepted across Christendom.[1]
Broader canon
The broader canon adds to the 81 books of the Tewahedo bible the following:[5]
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. Ethiopic Clement should not be confused with 1 Clement or 2 Clement.[2]
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. The additional eight books were those presumed to be missing from the list.[5]
1 2 G. A. Mikre-Sellassie (1993), "The Bible and its Canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church", The Bible Translator, 44(1): 111–123. doi:10.1177/026009359304400102
Assefa, Daniel. "The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawāhǝdo Church (EOTC)." The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity (2022): 211 ff
Covenant Christian Coalition. 2022.The Complete 54-Book Apocrypha: 2022 Edition With the Deuterocanon, 1-3 Enoch, Giants, Jasher, Jubilees, Pseudepigrapha, & the Apostolic Fathers. Covenant Press.
Mikre-Sellassie, Gebre-Amanuel (1993). "The Bible and Its Canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church". The Bible Translator. 44 (1): 111–123. doi:10.1177/026009359304400102.
Baynes, Leslie (2012). "Enoch and Jubilees in the Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church". In F. Mason, Eric; Coblentz Bautch, Kelley; Kim Harkins, Angela; A. Machiela, Daniel (eds.). A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam (2 vol. set). Vol.2. Leiden, Boston: BRILL. pp.799–818 – via Academia.edu.
What's in Your Bible?Archived 21 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine —a chart comparing Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Protestant canons (Bible Study Magazine Nov–Dec 08.)
Apocrypha are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word apocryphal (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings that were to be read privately rather than in the public context of church services. Apocrypha were edifying Christian works that were not always initially included as canonical scripture.
The Bible is a collection of religious texts and scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, and partly in Judaism, Samaritanism, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and other Abrahamic religions. The Bible is an anthology originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. The texts include instructions, stories, poetry, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies.
The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Church of the East. In contrast, modern Rabbinic Judaism and Protestants regard the DC as Apocrypha.
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the Christianization of the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 51 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches.
The Prayer of Manasseh is a short, penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah.
The Books of the Maccabees or the Sefer HaMakabim recount the history of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid dynasty.
The Ethiopic Lamentations of Jeremiah is a pseudepigraphic text, belonging to the Old Testament canons of the Beta Israel and Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It is not considered canonical by any other Judeo-Christian-Islamic groups.
The Jewish apocrypha are religious texts written in large part by Jews, especially during the Second Temple period, not accepted as sacred manuscripts when the Hebrew Bible was canonized. Some of these books are considered sacred in certain Christian denominations and are included in their versions of the Old Testament. The Jewish apocrypha is distinctive from the New Testament apocrypha and Christian biblical apocrypha as it is the only one of these collections which works within a Jewish theological framework.
The Biblical apocrypha denotes the collection of ancient books, some of which are believed by some to be apocryphal, thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD.
Meqabyan, also referred to as Ethiopian Maccabees and Ethiopic Maccabees, are three books found only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament Biblical canon. The language of composition of these books is Geʽez, also called Classical Ethiopic, although they are more commonly found in Amharic today. These books are entirely different in their scope, content and subject from the more well-known books of Maccabees found in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian biblical canon; the second section is the New Testament. The Old Testament includes the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or protocanon, and in various Christian denominations also includes deuterocanonical books. Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants use different canons, which differ with respect to the texts that are included in the Old Testament.
The term Catholic Bible can be understood in two ways. More generally, it can refer to a Christian Bible that includes the whole 73-book canon recognized by the Catholic Church, including some of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament which are in the Greek Septuagint collection, but which are not present in the Hebrew Masoretic Text collection. More specifically, the term can refer to a version or translation of the Bible which is published with the Catholic Church's approval, in accordance with Catholic canon law. The current official version of the Catholic Church is the Nova Vulgata.
Although Christianity became the state religion of Ethiopia in the 4th century, and the Bible was first translated into Ge'ez at about that time, only in the last two centuries have there appeared translations of the Bible into Amharic.
A biblical canon is a set of texts which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.
The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. It was given autocephaly by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. Thus, the Eritrean Church accords a primacy of honor to the Coptic Church.
Ethiopian literature dates from Ancient Ethiopian literature up until modern Ethiopian literature. Ancient Ethiopian literature starts with Axumite texts written in the Geʽez language using the Geʽez script, indigenous to both Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Bible:
The Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Axum, Tigray Region. It declared autocephaly on 7 May 2021, accusing the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of not doing enough to speak out against the Tigray war, and for being too closely aligned with the Ethiopian government. The archbishops of the Diocese of Tigray announced the establishment of the Synod of the Tigray Orthodox Tewahedo Church on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, based on their previously codified “Church Law” after a three-day meeting from October 21 to 23, 2024. Although there is declaration of autocephaly, the church has not been officially granted an autocephalous status from the officially recognized Oriental Orthodox Churches as of 2024.
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