Bible
Ethiopian Bible
The Ethiopian Bible refers to the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is broader than the Protestant 66-book Bible and broader than the Roman Catholic canon, and it preserves several ancient texts (1 Enoch, Jubilees, Meqabyan) that are unique to the Ethiopian tradition.
Direct answer
The Ethiopian Bible is the canon of Scripture used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is broader than the Protestant 66-book Bible and broader than the Roman Catholic 73-book Bible. It is most distinctive for including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Ethiopian books of Meqabyan, which are unique to the Ethiopian tradition.
Total counts in commonly cited summaries are around 81 books. The Ethiopian Church preserves an ancient canon in Ge'ez, its liturgical language, and shares the same 27-book New Testament with the rest of Christianity.
Examples
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Oldest church tradition in Ethiopia, from the 4th century AD
Liturgical language
Ge'ez (preserved as the liturgical language; modern Ethiopia uses Amharic)
Distinctive books
1 Enoch, Jubilees, Meqabyan (different from Maccabees)
Approximate total
About 81 books (narrower and broader canon distinction)
How it works
Christian traditions differ on which books belong in the Bible. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has the broadest canon of any major Christian tradition.
- Protestant: 66 books (39 OT + 27 NT).
- Roman Catholic: 73 books (Protestant + seven deuterocanonical OT books).
- Eastern Orthodox: 76 to 81+ books depending on the specific tradition.
- Ethiopian Orthodox: typically described as 81 books, including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the books of Meqabyan unique to Ethiopia.
All four traditions share the same 27-book New Testament. The canon differences are entirely in the Old Testament and the broader Ethiopian list of additional ancient writings.
What makes the Ethiopian canon distinctive
- 1 Enoch: an ancient apocalyptic Jewish text. Quoted in Jude 14-15. Preserved in full only in the Ethiopian tradition.
- Jubilees: a retelling of Genesis and Exodus from a particular calendar perspective. Found in fragments at Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) and in full in Ge'ez.
- Meqabyan (1, 2, 3): Ethiopian books on the Maccabean period. Not the same as the 1-2 Maccabees in Catholic Bibles.
- Synodos and other writings: a collection of ancient church-order texts and additional canonical material in the broader canon.
The Ethiopian Church in brief
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ("Tewahedo" means "united", referring to the Oriental Orthodox view of the unity of Christ's divine and human natures) is one of the oldest Christian churches. Tradition traces its founding to the 4th-century mission of Frumentius. Liturgy has historically been in Ge'ez, an ancient Semitic language preserved by the church even as Amharic became the everyday language of Ethiopia. The church split from the broader Coptic Orthodox Church in the 20th century but remains in full communion with the wider Oriental Orthodox communion.
Things this page does not claim
- That the Ethiopian Bible is the "original" Bible. No surviving Bible is the original; all translations and canons depend on earlier manuscripts.
- That the Ethiopian Bible is the "true" or "hidden" Bible suppressed by other Christians. The Ethiopian canon is well documented and openly preserved.
- That the Ethiopian canon is necessarily "right" and other canons are "wrong". This page describes the Ethiopian Bible neutrally; canon questions are theological and depend on which tradition you stand in.
Related Bible pages
- How many books are in the Bible for the canon-by-tradition comparison.
- Books of the Bible in order for the Protestant book list.
- Who wrote the Bible for the authorship overview.
- All Bible pages and tools.
Frequently asked questions
Ethiopian Bible most often refers to the canon used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the largest of the Oriental Orthodox churches in Africa. The Ethiopian canon is broader than the Protestant 66-book Bible and broader than the Roman Catholic canon. It includes some books (like 1 Enoch and Jubilees) that no other major Christian tradition treats as canonical.
Counts vary because Ethiopian tradition distinguishes a 'narrower canon' (used liturgically) from a 'broader canon' (referenced in tradition). Sources commonly give 81 books total, including both Old and New Testament. The exact list and numbering vary by edition.
Different sense of 'older'. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church traces its history back to the 4th century AD, and its canon is preserved in the Ge'ez language. Some books in the Ethiopian canon (like 1 Enoch and Jubilees) are ancient Second Temple Jewish writings that predate the New Testament. But the New Testament texts themselves are shared across Ethiopian, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Bibles, and the Hebrew Old Testament that underlies most Protestant translations is the same age as the Ethiopian canon's foundation.
The most distinctive are 1 Enoch (referenced in Jude 14-15), Jubilees, and the Ethiopian books often called the books of Meqabyan (different from the Maccabees in Catholic Bibles). The Ethiopian canon also includes the deuterocanonical books found in Catholic Bibles (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1-2 Maccabees), plus longer versions of Esther and Daniel.
No. That claim shows up in popular content but is misleading. The Ethiopian Church preserves an ancient canon in Ge'ez and certain very old texts, but no surviving Bible is 'the original'. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek across many centuries, and every modern translation (including the Ethiopian Ge'ez Bible) is a translation or compilation from earlier manuscripts.
Jude 14-15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9 by name, suggesting the early church knew the text and used it. Quotation does not by itself make 1 Enoch canonical for the church that quotes it: Paul also quotes pagan Greek poets without making them Scripture. The Ethiopian Church includes 1 Enoch in its canon; most other Christian traditions treat it as a respected ancient Jewish writing but not Scripture.
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