EOTC Canon of Scripture

The Following Books make up the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Canon

It is important to note that the EOTC has two Bible Canons the Narrow Canon which contains fewer books and the Broader Canon which contains more. The Broader Canon has not been printed in Ethiopia since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Haile Selassie Version of the Bible, which was published in 1962, contains the Narrower Canon in Amharic translated from the Ge’ez.

Ideally we would like to offer the original Ge’ez or Amharic along with an English translation. The Ethiopian Orthodox Bible Project has the Haile Selasse Version in its possession in Amharic so far.

The Narrow Old Testament Canon is listed here:

    1. Genesis
    2. Exodus
    3. Leviticus
    4. Numbers
    5. Deuteronomy
    6. Joshua
    7. Judges
    8. Ruth
    9. I and II Samuel
    10. I and II Kings
    11. I Chronicles
    12. II Chronicles (including the Prayer of Manasseh)
    13. Jubilees
    14. Enoch
    15. Ezra-Nehemiah (In Catholic Bibles Ezra-Nehemiah are sometimes known as I and II Esdras)
    16. Ezra (2nd) and Ezra Sutuel  (Also known as I and II Esdras in the KJV, II Esdras is Chapters 3-14)
    17. Tobit
    18. Judith
    19. Esther (Including the Rest of Esther)
    20. I Meqabyan (Not the same as I Maccabees)
    21. II and III Meqabyan (Not the same as II and III Maccabees)
    22. Job
    23. Psalms (Including Pslam 151)
    24. Messalë (Proverbs ch 1–24)
    25. Tägsas (“Reproof”; Proverbs ch 25–31)
    26. Wisdom of Solomon
    27. Ecclesiastes
    28. Song of Songs (Also known as Song of Solomon)
    29. Isaiah
    30. Jeremiah (incl. Lamentations, Letter of Jeremiah, Baruch and Ethiopic 4 Baruch)
    31. Ezekiel
    32. Daniel (Including the Rest of Daniel)
    33. Hosea
    34. Amos
    35. Micah
    36. Joel
    37. Obadiah
    38. Jonah
    39. Nahum
    40. Habakkuk
    41. Zephaniah
    42. Haggai
    43. Zechariah
    44. Malachi
    45. The book of Joshua (Sometimes rendered Jesus) the Son of Sirach

The Old Testament Broader Canon is:

All of the books of the narrower Old Testament canon plus one book:

Yosëf wäldä Koryonor Josippon or The Book of Josephas the Son of Ben Gorion (Some Non- Ethiopians refer to this book as Pseudo Josephus) It has 8 parts

The Narrower New Testament Canon is:

    1. Matthew
    2. Mark
    3. Luke
    4. John
    5. Acts of the Apostles
    6. Romans
    7. I Corinthians
    8. II Corinthians
    9. Galatians
    10. Ephesians
    11. Philippians
    12. Colossians
    13. I Thessalonians
    14. II Thessalonians
    15. I Timothy
    16. II Timothy
    17. Titus
    18. Philemon
    19. Hebrews
    20. I Peter
    21. II Peter
    22. I John
    23. II John
    24. III John
    25. James
    26. Jude
    27. Revelation

The Broader New Testament Canon is all of the books of the Narrower  New Testament Canon plus:

28 Sirate Tsion (the Book of Order or the Order of Zion)

29 Tizaz (The Book of Herald or Commandments)

30 Gitsew

31 Abtilis

32 The I Book of Dominos (Also known as the Book of the Covenant I)

33 The II Book of Dominos (Also known as the Book of the Covenant II)

34 The book of Qälëmentos or Clement

35 Didesqelya or Didascalia (Ethiopic Didascalia not to be confused with other versions)

Note: Sirate Tision, Tizaz, Gitsew and Abtilis are all known as Sinodos as well and are each attributed to the Apostles.

* All together 81 books are counted in the Ethiopian Orthodox Canon it must be remembered however that books are sometimes counted and divided differently than in the other canons.

We are still in need of copies of the following books in Ge’ez and Amharic:

Josippon and all of the books of the Greater New Testament Canon (Except for Gitsew.)

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