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Canon & Tradition

Books of the Ethiopian Bible: a guide to the 81-book canon.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church preserves one of Christianity's most distinctive biblical traditions. This guide begins with the church's own published English list, explains important naming differences, and identifies where further scholarly care is needed.

Reviewed July 22, 2026Tradition identified throughoutSources listed below
The Short Answer

The official church list counts 46 Old Testament books and 35 New Testament books.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's English canon page totals these as 81. Its method of counting sometimes groups multiple familiar books under one numbered heading and includes books of church order alongside the 27-book New Testament familiar to most Christians.

This means a simple comparison chart can mislead. A title translated as "Maccabees," for example, may refer to Ethiopian Meqabyan literature rather than the Greek Maccabean books used in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

Why canon language needs care

A biblical canon is a community's recognized collection of sacred books. Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches do not all organize that collection identically. Differences can involve the number of books, how books are divided, the names used in translation, and whether a text is printed in the same physical volume.

Western scholarship sometimes speaks of a "narrower" and "broader" Ethiopian canon. That language can be useful, but it is an analytical description rather than a substitute for the church's own account. This guide therefore starts with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's published list and then notes scholarly questions separately.

Important:

This page describes a Christian tradition; it does not ask readers to pretend that all Christian traditions hold the same canon. Respectful comparison begins by naming the difference accurately.

The 46 Old Testament headings in the church's English list

The following titles normalize obvious English spelling while preserving the church page's order and grouped counting. Follow-up studies will examine each collection's Ge'ez title, textual history, contents, and reception.

  1. Genesis
  2. Exodus
  3. Leviticus
  4. Numbers
  5. Deuteronomy
  6. Joshua
  7. Judges
  8. Ruth
  9. 1 and 2 Samuel
  10. 1 and 2 Kings
  11. 1 Chronicles
  12. 2 Chronicles
  13. Jubilees
  14. 1 Enoch
  15. Ezra and Nehemiah
  16. Second Ezra and Ezra Sutuel
  17. Tobit
  18. Judith
  19. Esther
  20. First Meqabyan / Maccabees in the English list
  21. Second and Third Meqabyan / Maccabees in the English list
  22. Job
  23. Psalms
  24. Proverbs
  25. Tegsats (Reproof)
  26. Metsihafe Tibeb (Books of Wisdom)
  27. Ecclesiastes
  28. Song of Songs
  29. Isaiah
  30. Jeremiah
  31. Ezekiel
  32. 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. Sirach
  46. Josippon / Joseph ben Gorion

Books that especially distinguish the Ethiopian collection

1 Enoch

An ancient Jewish apocalyptic collection preserved completely in Ge'ez. Aramaic fragments from Qumran confirm that major portions circulated centuries before the surviving Ge'ez manuscripts.

Study Enoch and the Bible

Jubilees

A retelling and interpretation of Genesis and part of Exodus organized through jubilees, chronology, covenant, festival practice, and angelic revelation.

Detailed guide planned

Meqabyan

Books with names related to "Maccabees" in English discussion but with content distinct from 1-4 Maccabees in other Christian traditions.

Book-by-book guide planned

Josippon

A historical work associated with Joseph ben Gorion in the church's English list. It should not be casually equated with the writings of Josephus without explaining its separate transmission history.

Textual-history guide planned

The 35 New Testament headings in the church's English list

The first 27 are the New Testament books recognized across most Christian traditions. Eight additional headings are church-order and apostolic-instruction texts in the Ethiopian tradition.

  1. Matthew
  2. Mark
  3. Luke
  4. John
  5. Acts
  6. Romans
  7. 1 Corinthians
  8. 2 Corinthians
  9. Galatians
  10. Ephesians
  11. Philippians
  12. Colossians
  13. 1 Thessalonians
  14. 2 Thessalonians
  15. 1 Timothy
  16. 2 Timothy
  17. Titus
  18. Philemon
  19. Hebrews
  20. 1 Peter
  21. 2 Peter
  22. 1 John
  23. 2 John
  24. 3 John
  25. James
  26. Jude
  27. Revelation
  28. Sirate Tsion (Book of Order)
  29. Tizaz (Book of Herald)
  30. Gitsew
  31. Abtilis
  32. First Book of Dominos
  33. Second Book of Dominos
  34. Book of Clement
  35. Didascalia

What this library will build next

The long-term goal is not merely to post a list. Each book needs an individual study that answers the same core questions: What is the text? In what language and manuscripts is it preserved? When was it likely composed? How is it organized? What are its central theological ideas? Which communities receive it as Scripture? Where does it intersect with other biblical or early Jewish and Christian writings?

The sequence will begin with the best-attested and most frequently searched texts: 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the three books of Meqabyan, Sirach, and the Ethiopian church-order collection. Every article will include primary-text references, current scholarship, and a visible statement of canonical status.

Sources and further study

  1. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. "The Holy Scriptures: The Books of the Bible." The page cites a 1983 Holy Synod publication and lists 46 Old Testament and 35 New Testament headings.
  2. Mikre-Sellassie, Gebre-Amanuel. "The Bible and Its Canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church." The Bible Translator 44, no. 1 (1993): 111-123. DOI record.
  3. Assefa, Daniel. "The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church (EOTC)." In The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2022.
  4. Baynes, Leslie. "Enoch and Jubilees in the Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church." In A Teacher for All Generations, Brill, 2012.
  5. Library of Congress. "The Ethiopic Book of Enoch," a lecture by Ephraim Isaac on the text and its Ethiopian preservation.