Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon

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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. 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]

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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. Unique to the Orthodox Tewahedo canon are the Paralipomena of Jeremiah (4 Baruch), Jubilees, Enoch, and the three books of Meqabyan.

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.

The Orthodox Tewahedo narrower New Testament canon consists of the entire 27 book Christian protocanon, which is almost universally accepted across Christendom.^[1]

The broader canon adds to the 81 books of the Tewahedo bible the following:^[3]

• Josippon (1 book)
• Sinodos (4 books)
• Books of Covenant (2 books)
• Ethiopic Clement (1 book)
• Didascalia (1 book)

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.^[3]

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List of Old Testament books in the Orthodox Tewahedo Bible:^[4]

List of New Testament books in the Orthodox Tewahedo Bible, including the broader canon:^[1]

• Fetha Negest, a legal code used by Ethiopian Christians
• Book of the Cock, a work sometimes used by Ethiopian Christians

• 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.
• Harden, J.M., ed. (1920). The Ethiopian Didascalia.
• 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.
• Platt, Thomas Pell, ed. (1834). The Ethiopic Didascalia; or, the Ethiopic version of the Apostolical constitutions, received in the church of Abyssinia. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.
• Wanger, Anke (2011), The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church (PDF), Euclid University
• 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.

• Contantinus Siamakis, Biblical Canon of the Orthodox Christian Church, Studies 1, 2008

• Biblia Aethiopica—August Dillmann et al online edition of the Ethiopic Bible
• 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.)