The Complete Ethiopian Biblical Canon: Every Book, Listed and Explained

The Complete Ethiopian Biblical Canon: Every Book, Listed and Explained

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's biblical canon is the largest of any major Christian denomination — 81 books in total. Here is the complete list, with brief explanations of the books not found in the Western Protestant canon.

Old Testament additions: The Book of Enoch (the complete 108-chapter text of 1 Enoch), the Book of Jubilees (a retelling of Genesis and Exodus with additional material), 1-3 Meqabyan (the Ethiopian Maccabees), Additions to Psalms (the 151st Psalm and others), Additions to Ezra-Nehemiah, and the Prayer of Manasseh.

The Broader New Testament: The Ethiopian canon includes the standard 27 New Testament books plus some additional texts in the Narrower and Broader canons — including 1 and 2 Clement, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the Didascalia.

How the canon is structured: Ethiopian theologians traditionally divide the Old Testament into the Narrower Canon (those books closest to the Hebrew Bible) and the Broader Canon (additional books accepted as inspired). The Narrower Canon is essentially the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament. The Broader Canon adds the texts listed above.

This two-tier approach to canon is actually more nuanced than the blunt distinction between "canonical" and "apocryphal" used in Western Christianity. The Ethiopian tradition is saying: these texts are scripture, but we acknowledge different levels of centrality and authority.

Our collection — the Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, and Books of Meqabyan — covers the most significant additions to the Ethiopian Broader Canon. Each is available in a collector's hardcover edition built for serious, lasting engagement with these ancient texts.