What historical reasons led the Ethiopian Church to preserve different biblical books than Western churches?
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Executive summary
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church preserves a broader biblical corpus than most Western churches because its Christianity took root early, developed in a distinct cultural and textual orbit, and canonized books through liturgical use and local legal-religious practice rather than by later Western councils — a process described in scholarship and in Ethiopian church sources as producing an “81-book” canon with notable variations [1] [2] [3]. Different scholarly and devotional accounts emphasize overlapping causes: early adoption and relative isolation from Roman/Western canon‑forming forces, reliance on older textual streams like the Septuagint and local Jewish-Christian traditions, and a looser, practice‑based sense of canonicity reinforced by legal codes and church compilations [4] [5] [3].
1. Early adoption and geographic distance shaped an independent textual tradition
Christianity became established in Ethiopia by the fourth century, a timing that placed Ethiopian communities within the era when many texts circulated before fixed canons hardened elsewhere, and scholars argue that this early adoption combined with Ethiopia’s distance from Roman ecclesiastical centers allowed the church to inherit and preserve older, broader collections of writings [1] [4] [5].
2. Transmission lines favored Alexandrian/Septuagint and Jewish‑Christian materials
Several accounts note that the Ethiopian biblical tradition drew heavily from the Septuagint and related Alexandrian or Jewish‑Christian textual streams, and that texts respected in those milieus — such as Enoch, Jubilees, and other writings — remained in liturgical and manuscript circulation in Ethiopia even when Western churches excluded them [4] [1] [6].
3. A "looser" canon: liturgy and practice over formal exclusion
Scholars emphasize that canonicity in the Ethiopian church was defined more by ongoing reading, chanting, and ecclesial use than by a tightly delimited list produced at a single council; several studies describe the Ethiopian concept of canonicity as “more loosely” applied, with the church recognizing an expanded corpus that functioned as Scripture in worship and law [3] [1].
4. Local law codes and compilations helped fix an expanded list
Ethiopian ecclesiastical and legal texts — notably the Sinodos and references in the Fetha Negest — played an important role in naming and structuring the books regarded as authoritative; modern researchers trace how Ethiopian scholars and jurists used these compilations to reach a canonical figure (commonly 81 books) even while the items listed vary between manuscripts and editions [2] [7] [6].
5. Some books are unique or treated differently: preservation, not always uniformity
The Orthodox Tewahedo canon includes works rarely found in Western canons — for example, Enoch, Jubilees, unique Meqabyan books, and additional writings grouped under Sinodos or Ethiopic Clement — and scholarship notes both that some of these are unique to Ethiopia and that canon lists themselves show internal variation and manuscripts gaps [6] [3] [7].
6. Competing narratives and implicit agendas in modern accounts
Modern accounts diverge between academic caution and devotional promotion: scholarly papers emphasize manuscript diversity and historical processes [3] [7], while devotional publishers and popular sites stress spiritual continuity and argue Ethiopia preserved an “older” canon untouched by Western forces — a narrative sometimes advanced with promotional aims [1] [8]. Careful readers should note that some web sources amplify continuity or antiquity as part of identity or marketing claims, whereas academic work highlights complexity and variation [1] [3].
Conclusion: a canon rooted in history, use, and local authority
The Ethiopian Church’s distinctive canon emerges from the intersection of early Christian reception, alternate textual ancestry (notably Septuagintal and Jewish‑Christian streams), a practice‑based notion of scriptural authority, and formalizing moves through local canon law and scholarly lists — a combination that preserved writings others later set aside while producing internal variation and ongoing scholarly debate about exact contents [4] [2] [6].