Review: Ethiopian Bible Apocrypha

Ethiopian Bible Apocrypha, (Ancient Path Publishing, 2025)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244357902-ethiopian-bible-apocrypha

The Ge’ez Bible according to the Ethiopians

Jews had a vibrant community in Ethiopia at least since 365 CE (traditions linking to King Solomon were probably mythical). Oral tradition claims the Tribe of Dan migrated from Israel after the Assyrian conquest (722 BCE). Ethiopian Christianity dates at least to the 4^th century (King Ezana of Axum).

With all the mythology around ‘homeland for the Jews’, we forget that the Jews actually had quite a few ancient homelands. In antiquity, Jews were often merchants, and they moved around a lot, their skill with languages enabling them to negotiate with far afield customers. They often served as mercenaries or doctors; they had advanced knowledge of water storage technology. Especially in Egypt and Babylonia, Jews were respected members of the ruling class.

Independent Jewish kingdoms of antiquity:

The Himyarite Kingdom, Yemen, 110BCE-525CE

Adiabene, Mesopotamia, 30-115CE

Palestine Hasmoneans 140-37BCE, and the 1st Jewish Revolt of 66-73CE

The Kingdom of Nehardea, Mesopotamia, 18-33 CE

The Mohoza Kingdom, Mesopotamia, 495-502CE

The Khazars, semi-nomadic Jewish state in the Caucasus, 750-950CE

The Kingdom of Septimania, southern France 462-759

The Kingdom of Simien, Ethiopia, 4th century CE

These are the gospels preserved by their churches. Some are so ancient that their facsimiles appear in the Septuagint (3^rd C BCE) but not in the Masoritic text (6^th-10^th C.

We tend to mistake the canon as a matter of orthodoxy competing with heresy. Often, it was simply a case of access. Copying scrolls and codices was laborious and expensive, and each church tended to use its own favourites or simply whatever they possessed in their reliquary.

The Paralipomena of Jeremiah (or 4 Baruch) comprises bits that were left out of the Book of Jeremiah but retained in the Ethiopian Bible. Psalm 151 is absent from the Masoritic; the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Book of Tobit and the Book of Judith are preserved in the Septuagint, though their relationship to Ethiopia is unspecified. Bel and the Dragon and Susanna are additions to the Book of Daniel, but why are they Ethiopian? There are some prayers which were preserved in the Ge’ez/Ethiopian as well as the Septuagint. The Book of Jubilees is Essene in origin and considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox church.

The greatest gem, I thought, is the Book of Meqabyan, uniquely Ethiopian and different from the Greek Books of Maccabees. It was used in Rastafari circles. This version is written in Jamaican patois. Example: ‘Fe ‘Abriham who believed Him Iginnin from him childhood were fe JAH Him trusted friend’.

This is a hefty tome, one to be selected if you’re a Bible scholar. Though I do so identify, I admit I was more interested in the history of each text and how it came to be preserved than I was in the line by line teachings. It would have been more interesting if the book had written more on differences between the Ethiopian and other traditions.

It also could have been more interesting if questions around translation had been addressed. I’d love to have seen comparisons—how did the Ethiopians write this line? How did the Septuagint? How did the Masoretic change thing in the Middle Ages? What did these differences mean for religious beliefs and practices?

A worthy work, notwithstanding that it’s one to sit on a shelf on your library for reference rather than to read page for page.