**The canon of the Ethiopian Bible**

The Bible 

The Holy Scriptures are one of the two great foundations of the faith and here is what our church holds and teaches concerning it. The word of God is not contained in the Bible alone, it is to be found in tradition as well. The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God who is the author of the Old and New Testaments containing nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. But God’s word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition. We receive the one and other with equal veneration.

The canon of the Ethiopic Bible differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches.
List all books. As a whole, books written in the Geez language and on parchment are numerous. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament that will bring the total of canonized books of the Bible to 81.

These are the following

A. The Holy Books of the Old Testament

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
13. Jublee
14. Enoch
15. Ezra and Nehemia
16. Ezra (2nd) and Ezra Sutuel
17. Tobit
18. Judith
19. Esther
20. I Maccabees
21. II and III Maccabees
22. Job
23. Psalms
24. Proverbs
25. Tegsats (Reproof)
26. Metsihafe Tibeb (the books of wisdom)
27. Ecclesiastes
28. The 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. Book of Joshua the son of Sirac
46. The Book of Josephas the Son of Bengorion

B. The holy books of the New Testament

1. Matthew
2. Mark
3. Luke
4. John
5. The Acts
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
28. Sirate Tsion (the book of order)
29. Tizaz (the book of Herald)
30. Gitsew
31. Abtilis
32. The I book of Dominos
33. The II book of Dominos
34. The book of Clement
35. Didascalia

The Ethiopic version of the Old and New Testament was made from the Septuagint. It includes the book of Enoch, Baruch, and the third and fourth Esdras. In the international Bible studies there are certain books belonging to the class usually designated pseudepigraphic. The whole Christendom and whole-learned world owes a debt of gratitude to the church of Ethiopia for the preservation of those documents.

Among these books is the book of Enoch which throws so much light on Jewish thought on various points during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The book of Jubilee (Kufale, i.e. Division) otherwise known as the Little Genesis has also been preserved entire only in the Ethiopic version. The preservation of yet one more book in its entity, namely, the Ascension of Isaiah, is to be remembered to the credit of the Ethiopic Church.

But books, which should be considered for higher education and could be prepared carefully in order to suit modern thinking, are the following.

1. Theological books such as the following

- Haymanote Abew or the Faith of the Fathers in which other writings of the Apostolic Fathers and also of the Eastern Orthodox Church fathers are to be found.
- Works of St. Cyril and many other writers.
- The exegesis of the letter to the Hebrews by St. John Chrysostom.
- The pastoral work of St. John Chrysostom.
- Severious of Asmunage – a collection of twelve exegetical works, which prove the teaching concerning God.
- A book that proves the existence of God Hilawae – Melekote
- The book of Hawi, which proves the teaching concerning God.
- Book of the mystery by Abba Georgis containing arguments and evidence about the mysteries.
- Religious documentary book by Jacob of Elbaredia.
- The true faith (written during the reign of Zera Yacob)
- The five pillars of the Sacraments (as Catechism).

M E I L A D

2. Books that have the orders of the church

- The liturgical book with the 14 Anaphora
- Ghitsacwa –Lectionaries or a list of annual reading of the scriptures during the liturgical service and other prayer hours.
- The book of the Sacrament of Matrimony (Metsehafe Teklil)
- The book of Baptism
- The book of Ordination
- The book of Covenant
- The prayer book for the dead
- The prayer book of the Incense
- The book of Canon
- The prayer book of purification

3. Books on Church administration and on counseling

- A big book on the Synod of the Apostles in four parts
- The Didache and Abthulis
- The book on the Synod of Nicea
- The book on the Synod of Galatia
- The book on the Synod of Antioch
- The book on the Synod of Lethokia
- The book on the Synod of Kerthica
- The book on the Synod of Esrskousia
- The book on the Synod of Srethia
- The book of Fetha Negast
- Spiritual Medicine (Fewse Menfsawi)
- Exegesis on the meeting of clergy (Tikbe Kahenat)

4. Scared books

Most of these books are written in sections or parts for bindings, these are

- The old & The New Testaments
- The Books of the scholars of the Church
- Metsehafe Menequsat (book of the Monks)

5. Hymn books, mostly by St. Yared
- Digua
- Thesome Digua
- Mieraf
- Zimare
- Mewasiet
- Zik
- Mezmur
- Liturgy (Kedasie)
- Saatat (of ABBA Giorgis)

6. Books on Calendar

- Book of Abushakir
- Sid, the Son of Batrik
- Mark son of Kenbar
- Leader of Blind – by Demetros
- Mathematics concerning calendar by the Monastery of Bizen

7. Historical Books

- First writing on Zion
- Biography (Gedle) of Lalibela
- History of the Kings of Axum
- History of the Kings of Zagwe
- On the treasure of the kings
- On the honor of the Kings
- Tefut
- Biography (Gedle) of Tekla Haimanot
- George the son of Amid
- History of Alexander
- Works of the brothers – Part II
- Books on preaching

8. Compositions (works) on the virgins (celibates)

- Writings (compositions) on the woman who anointed Jesus
- Compositions (writings) on the Samaritan woman
- Writings on the birth of Christ
- Writings on Epiphany
- Writings on the Resurrection etc.

9. Writings that describe the biography of the martyrs

Biography and works of St. George
“ “ “ St. Kopnious
“ “ “ St. Irenaeus
“ “ “ St. Gelwdewos
“ “ “ Forty soldiers of Heaven

10. Different philosophical books

- Wogris the Wise (philosopher)
- Angare Felasfa (collections from philosophers)
- Thoughts and commentary of Zera Yacob of Axum

11. Books on the tradition and culture of the country

- On old age and adolescence
- Customs and traditions of Ethiopia

12. Books on nature and science

- Books on nature and science Part II and I
- Aximaros
- Phisalgos on animals and others

13. Books, which show writings of compositions

- The composition or writing of one of the criminals (outlaws), who was hanged with Jesus
- On the Miracles of St. Mary and many other apocryphal books are to be found.

14. Ancient grammatical books

There are very many grammatical books written by different people and found at different places in the world. The above noted are but a very few examples from among the different books numbered by the thousands that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has. In the past, at present and even in the future either in the church or at the schools what the church uses for educational services was and will not be outside of these books.

In the past, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had not much opportunity to expand and propagate the above, noted doctrine and orders of the church inside and outside the nation; this is because of the different circumstances prevailing in the surroundings of the country. Because of the advent of European Colonialism upon its neighboring African countries and the great monetary support that other religious groups received to convert Africans. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had no other choice but to defend on and preserve all here Christian legacy. Henceforth, she was unable to raise her apostolic voice louder among her African brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, the sense of freedom that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church maintained for centuries being, the torch of freedom to all Africa has enabled Africans to be aware of their freedom.

In this 20th century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church is conducting many apostolic missions – that is organizing church councils and founding clergy training programs within the country; and carrying on her apostolic missionary activities.

CANON LAW
The canons, regulations of Christian instruction and worship of the Ethiopian Church, are contained in the Sinodos and Didascalia, two compilations of ancient church canons, dating from the second period of Ethiopic literature. These canons are closely associated with the New Testament.

The Sinodos, classed as part of Ethiopic New Testament, is composed of various elements: Constitutions of Apostles, the Statutes of the Apostles, the Canons of the Apostles, the canons of Various councils-Nicaea, Gangra, Sardica, Antioch, New-Caesarca, Aneyra, Laodienea – and various theological and pastoml treatises. Eight books make up the Sinodos. Sinodos is the Corpus juris Ecclesiastic of the Church. The various discourses and treaties included in this Corpus are:

1. An exposition of the dialogue ascribed to St. John Chrysostom.
2. On the Essence of the Holy Trinity.
3. On the fear of God.
4. On the ancient people and a refutation of the Jews.
5. A discourse of St. Gregory of Armenia against the Jews.
6. Hortatory discourse to believers who desire to walk in the paths of wisdom and knowledge.
7. Hortatory discourse to believers who desire to walk in the paths of wisdom and knowledge.
8. The discourse of the Nicene Fathers on the Holy Trinity.
9. The penitential canons of our Lord to Peter.

The Didascalia a document well known in the Christian Church originally composed in Greek probably in the middle of the third century, a discourse on Church life and society. The whole work was afterwards, somewhere in the fourth century, incorporated in the Apostolic Constitutions. It has Latin, Arabic and Syriac versions, which differ among themselves and from the Ethiopic version with regard to the subject matter. The Ethiopia Didascalia contains the first seven books of the Apostolic Constitutions and it represents a form intermediate between the shorter Syriac Didascalia and the complete work of Apostolic Constitutions.

Briefly the contents of the document are: Questions of morality, the duty of studying the Scriptures and observance of the Seventh Commandment, mutual duties of husband and wife, offices and duties of Christian ministers; the duties of widows; the method of baptism, laymen not to baptize; vows of virginity; the duties of the faithful towards the martyrs; observance of Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy week and method of calculating the date of Easter; warning against heresy; respect to be shown to the faithful departed; prayers to be used on specified and unspecified occasions.

“Glory be to the Almighty God,” Amen.

Source

A short history, faith and order of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, published by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Holy Synod, Addis Ababa 1983.

Edited by Aymero W and Joachim M., The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, published by the Ethiopian Orthodox mission, Addis Ababa 1970.

Captured German War Films (1945)

Father Justin, Saint Catherine's Monastery

A great lecture by Fr. Justin in the worlds oldest monastery, Saint Catherine's in

Mt Sinai. Very interesting!

Orthodox Chant

More beautiful Orthodox chanting...

"The Ring and the Cross" Cool story about J.R.R. Tolkien & His Chritian Writings

 

 

The Ring and the Cross

How J.R.R. Tolkien became a Christian writer

 

From their mastery of Middle-earth geography to their occasional fluency in Elvish, fans of the "Lord of the Rings'' books tend to be a pretty knowledgeable bunch. But many would be surprised to learn that J.R.R. Tolkien's great medievalist epic had a co-author: God. According to Peter Kreeft, a Catholic philosopher at Boston College, Tolkien was under the divine spell when he composed his sprawling trilogy. "Of course it's inspired; it's got His fingerprints all over it,'' wrote Kreeft in an article on Tolkien and evil that was reprinted this spring in a special all-Tolkien issue of the Catholic-leaning Chesterton Review.

Kreeft isn't alone in his analysis. Though Tolkien's epic romance remains a lodestar for fantasy geeks worldwide, it has also been adopted by myriad Christian commentators. Books on Tolkien's religiosity are everywhere. For evangelical Protestants, there's "Finding God in 'The Lord of the Rings,'" written by two authors affiliated with the organization Focus on the Family. For Catholics, there's Hillsdale College historian Bradley Birzer's "J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth,'' which was just released to coincide with Peter Jackson's latest "Lord of the Rings'' film, "The Two Towers.''

When "The Lord of the Rings,'' a novel in three volumes, was first published in 1954-55, the Anglican poet W.H. Auden called it a "masterpiece,'' and even suggested that Tolkien had "succeeded where Milton failed'' when it came to the question of reconciling free will with the notion of a God whose power is absolute. The current emphasis on Tolkien's religiosity has its more immediate origins in Joseph Pearce's 1999 book "Tolkien: Man and Myth,'' which underscores Tolkien's deeply Catholic views. Since Pearce's writing — and, of course, the news that the "Lord of the Rings'' books were coming to movie theaters — the theological ferment has been considerable. In April of 2000, Christianity Today ranked Tolkien's epic among the top 10 Christian books of the 20th century; the first slot went to C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity,'' which might not even have been written had Tolkien not helped Lewis to find God in 1931. More religiously-infused books on Tolkien are on the way, including Kreeft's "The Philosophy of Tolkien'' and Baylor University theology and literature professor Ralph Wood's "The Gospel According to 'The Lord of the Rings.'"

In the 1960s and early '70s, Tolkien was often associated with the counterculture — in particular, with the Green movement. After all, he once wrote that "in all my works I take the part of the trees as against all their enemies.'' "Gandalf for President'' buttons were common, and Led Zeppelin lyrics abounded with Tolkien references — consider "Ramble On,'' for example: "'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair / but Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, yeah.'' (The less said about Leonard Nimoy's 1967 song-poem "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,'' the better.) But Tolkien's Christian interpreters, many of them conservatives, have tried to wrest him away from hippies, tree-huggers, and other assorted left-wingers. Birzer, for example, wrote in the New Oxford Review last year that the new Christian interpretation makes it "impossible'' to see Tolkien as the poster boy for the "libertine drug culture'' of the '60s. Will the real J.R.R. Tolkien please stand up?

No one disputes that Tolkien's Catholicism influenced his writing. Indeed, he held his conservative Catholic views rather fiercely — due in part to his conviction that his mother Mabel had been persecuted by her family for her conversion to Catholicism in 1900 (she died shortly afterward of diabetes). After serving on the Western Front in World War I, Tolkien returned to his studies of medieval literature; after becoming a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in 1925, he helped found an influential group of Christian philosopher-writers called "the Inklings,'' which included C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. In a 1953 letter Tolkien described "The Lord of the Rings'' as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work.''

But Tolkien's views — on both religion and fiction — were complex. In another letter, Tolkien outlined his aspiration to create a new mythology for England, describing the existing body of Arthurian legend as inadequate for the role because it "explicitly contains the Christian religion.'' (He added, "That seems to me fatal.'') References to real-world belief systems, Tolkien thought, would detract from the beguiling timelessness he hoped to convey. Tolkien's characters inhabit a pre-Christian version of our own world; they don't worship, carry on religious rituals, or talk about faith. Commentators have noted similarities between Tolkien's trilogy and Wagner's "Ring Cycle,' which also put Europe's pagan heritage in the service of national myth-making.

Some fundamentalist Christians — the same folks who bash the "Harry Potter'' books — have denounced the prevalence of magic in the "The Lord of the Rings.'' Tolkien's Christian champions, however, argue that the Oxford don — like the Beowulf poet whose work he knew so well — breathed his own devout sensibility into pagan tales and archetypes, thus creating what Birzer calls a "Christ-inspired and God-centered mythology.'' Indeed, some of Tolkien's Christian interpreters see three of the novel's main characters — the wizard Gandalf, the hobbit Frodo, and the heroic human Aragorn — as Christ figures. "Each offers his life for others, each passes through darkness and even a kind of death, to a kind of resurrection,'' writes Stratford Caldecott, a Catholic reader of Tolkien who is writing a book on the subject.

Christian Tolkienists also point to the central role of the virtue of pity — a word Tolkien tends to capitalize — in the book's plot. When the hobbit Bilbo Baggins first discovers the dark lord Sauron's lost Ring of Power (an event which occurs in Tolkien's 1937 children's book "The Hobbit''), he makes a conscious decision to spare the life of its previous owner, the wretched creature Gollum. In "The Lord of the Rings,'' Bilbo's heir Frodo and his companions continue to spare Gollum from death; these acts of mercy end up inadvertently saving the world. "'The pity of Bilbo will rule the fate of many' gradually becomes the motto of Tolkien's epic,'' writes Ralph Wood. "The unrestrained quality of mercy is what, I suggest, makes 'The Lord of the Rings' an enduring Christian classic despite its pagan setting.''

For more secular Tolkienists, though, this sort of talk rankles. "I don't see pity as exclusively Christian,'' notes University of Maryland English professor Verlyn Flieger, author of "Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World.'' Flieger doesn't consider the specifically Christian reading of Tolkien's novel to be entirely wrong-headed, but she does find it reductionist. Some critics further observe that the novel's characters tend to be deeply invested in their middle-earthly lives, rather than in any afterlife. Consider Gandalf's carpe-diem advice to Frodo: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.''

Also, where Christian Tolkienists see intimations of redemption in "The Lord of the Rings,'' their secularist rivals contend that Tolkien did not create a divine comedy. Take Frodo's parting words to Sam when Frodo leaves for the Grey Havens, a kind of overseas Elvish retirement home: "It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.'' For Peter Kreeft, this smacks of a Christ-like sacrifice. But the sacrifice and loss isn't suffered by Frodo alone; it's suffered by all the denizens of Middle-earth: In Tolkien's scheme, the destruction of the one ring necessitates the departure of the Elves from Middle-earth — and with their parting, much that is beautiful and cherished disappears from the world forever. Evil, meanwhile, will doubtlessly reconstitute itself in yet another form. "That's a very Norse outlook: Even the winners lose,'' says Stephen Morillo, a Wabash College medieval historian who's teaching a course this January that covers Tolkien. 'That's really what lies behind the morality of 'The Lord of the Rings,' and that's just incompatible with a Christian interpretation.''

Tolkienian Christians have a marked tendency to gush about the books: "I have no doubt that Tolkien's great tale will be one of those we will hear told, or sung, by the golden fireside in that longed-for Kingdom,'' writes Caldecott. Some also want to use the popularity of "The Lord of the Rings'' to win converts. In a recent interview, David Mills, an editor of the conservative Christian magazine Touchstone, called Tolkien's work "stealth evangelization"; in regard to its appearance on the big screen, he suggests that Catholics "use the movie to raise questions for their unbelieving friends. . . help them begin to see that the great story depends upon its moral and spiritual depth, and then you can ask them where they find this morality and spirituality today. We know that the only place you find them in their full strength is the Catholic church, but your unbelieving friends don't know that yet.''

Of course, taking "The Lord of the Rings'' this way would turn it into something closer to C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia'' series, with its far more overt Christian exhortation. Tolkien and Lewis shared a distrust of the modern world, but they disagreed over the value of conveying direct religious messages through allegorical fiction. Tolkien disliked the Narnia books, and when it came to Lewis's popular apologetics, he snidely dubbed his friend "Everyman's theologian.''

Sure enough, today Tolkien retains his status as a big-church fantasist whose work inspires multiple interpretations, while Lewis tends to be more narrowly championed by conservative Christians. Speaking of the breadth of Tolkien's appeal, Bradley Birzer admits that "I think the beauty of Tolkien is that he's not explicitly Christian. I think I would be turned off if we had Jesus running around the story.'' Tolkien avoided that, but quite a few devout Christians are nevertheless claiming his story as their own. The question is whether this could be a turn-off to everybody else.

Saint Charbel

Saint Charbel

CBS Documentary - A Visit To The Holy Mountain ATHOS, Greece