Beware of “Complete” and “81 Book” Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles In English! – They Are All Fake!
We are very sad to report that there seems to be an entire industry devoted to trying to swindle the public about the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. Multiple Bibles are being offered up for sale purporting to be Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles and not a single one of them is what it claims to be. Not even one! If you bought one already, we are sorry to say that you were misled.
Remember, not even in Ethiopia in Ge’ez or Amharic or any other language is there a complete Ethiopian Orthodox Bible for sale with all the books in one volume, let alone one in English! In fact, some of the books of the broader canon are hard to find even in Ethiopia, they are not published all together in one volume! We hope that situation changes in the future and that the Church there will publish one Bible with all of the books included. We do not know when a complete Ethiopian Ge’ez or Amharic Bible will be published. Again, there isn’t one in English. The goal of our the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible Project is to translate those books of the Ethiopian canon not yet translated in English!
On amazon.com there are listed for sale several Bibles which were intended by their publishers or their editors to pass for Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles, or Bibles with all of the books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible canon. In some cases including additional books by their admission. They are ALL frauds. They are all misleading. They are all incorrect. In addition, most of them are in very tiny print, riddled with typos and appear hastily assembled.
Let’s look at the first one that we found on Amazon “Ethiopian Bible in English Complete 88 Books: The Entire Text with Missing Deuterocanonical Apocrypha Enoch, Jubilees and The Lost Writings.” by “Bob Henry Oakland” If you read the reviews, buyers warn that it doesn’t have 88 books, it has 78. Remember some of the books of the Ethiopian canon were never translated into English. Even if it did have 88 books, they wouldn’t be the RIGHT books since those books are not in English yet!
“HOLY BIBLE Ethiopic Version / Volume 1 Containing the Old Testament, Apocrypha, Enoch 1,2 and Jubilees considered as Canon / Ethiopian Bible considered as canon by the Ethiopic Church Hardcover” By “Bible Society” under the author listing. The book known as 2 Enoch isn’t in the Ethiopian canon, while “Enoch” is! This one has several typos and is also missing all of the ETOC Books that were never translated into English.
“Ethiopian Bible in English Complete: Lost Books of the Bible. Apocrypha Complete By “Sacred Scriptures Press” Again, it is missing those EOTC Bible books that were never translated into English.
“THE COMPLETE ETHIOPIAN BIBLE WITH 88 BOOKS: Apocryphal Texts Included Paperback – April 19, 2024” By “Jeremy Copson” “Anonymous Anonymous” and “R.H. Charles” R.H. Charles was a translator for Enoch, Jubilees, and other books. He is long deceased and had nothing to do with this book. They may have reprinted some of his material though. Again, a sloppy book, missing verses, and more importantly missing those books of the ETOC Bible never translated into English!
“Ethiopian Bible in English Complete: The 88 Missing Books” By “Celestial Manuscripts” This too is missing those books of the EOTC Bible were never translated into English!
A reoccurring element is that most of these “Complete” “Bibles” have extremely small text, so that in addition to not being what they purport, they also are extremely hard for people to read. This was no doubt done to save money.
“The Oldest Ethiopian Bible: Translating 19 Omitted Apocryphal Books from the Protestant Ge’ez Bible Canon into English, Including Sirach, Enoch, Angels, Watchers and Giants” By “Harper Bon Granger” Another one that is missing those books of the EOTC Canon never translated into English.
“Ethiopian Bible Complete Apocrypha (Annotated)” By “Anonymous Anonymous” and “Dante S. Harvard” A lot of these names sound contrived. Is Dante S. Harvard a real person? We doubt it. Who is “Anonymous Anonymous?” Again this is not complete because it is missing those EOTC Bible books never translated before into English.
Ethiopian Bible in English 88 Books: The Ultimate Edition Complete With Apocryphal Scriptures By “Ancient Scriptures,” R.H. Charles, and Anonymous. This one as well is not a complete Ethiopian Bible for the same reason as the others.
There is one that is particularly misleading we need to warn against. “Books Of The Ethiopian Bible Hardcover” By “Ethiopian Church” This wasn’t done by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and we doubt that any “Ethiopian church” did it! Again another one that isn’t a complete Ethiopian Bible! Please don’t be misled by hucksters online.
“Ethiopian Bible in English: Complete Edition of Missing Books Including Apocrypha, Jubilees, Meqabyan 1-3, and Enoch (The Watchers, The Parables, The … Epistle of Enoch) (The Apocrypha Chronicles)” By “Holy Apocrypha” The Apocrypha refers to books in Orthodox and Catholic Bibles but not in Protestant ones. These are in ALL Orthodox and Catholic Bibles though already. Would a reputable publisher use a name like this? Another one that is not the complete EOTC Bible!
There are a few that use “Coptic” and “Ethiopian” together in the name. The Coptic Orthodox Church has a different canon from the Ethiopian, despite the fact the churches are in union, the Coptic Church has less books in its canon. “The Ethiopian Coptic Bible: History of the Oldest and Most Complete Book and Ancient Lost Biblical Text” Is an example of this. Who is this person on the cover? Who is “Kebede Tadele” the listed author? Who knows? Another one that isn’t a complete Ethiopian Bible.
How about this one “THE CANON COMPLETE SCRIPTURES: The Oldest Missing and Rejected Text From The Ethiopian Orthodox Bible” by “David Alon Hagrid” The English language title isn’t even using proper grammar. Another one that isn’t the complete Ethiopian Bible!
If you read all of the reviews for most of these Bibles, you come across some sincere and well meaning people who say they are so happy to have the book. Unfortunately, they don’t understand which books are in the EOTC Bible canon and which are not. You also come across a LOT of reviews that do point out they are missing books, and/or they are in small text, and they have mistakes and typos. We strongly recommend you read all the reviews and do your own research!
We could go on and on listing even more books that purport to be the Complete Ethiopian Bible in English, but we hope that this matter has been cleared up. NOT ONE of those books is what it purports to be. We promise you as soon as there is one, we will let you know!
We notice that many of these fake “Complete” Ethiopian Bibles do not allow a preview picture showing the table of contents, if there is one. No doubt because that would discredit them straight away if one knows what books are in the canon and are not! Some of the publishers have impressive sounding names but they are simply churning out misleading books and information. A lot of them, we can be thankful for this, have clearly contrived names, thus warning the public.
If you don’t believe us that there is no complete Ethiopian Orthodox Bible in English, and that they are all fakes, ask an Ethiopian Orthodox priest. He will tell you the truth. He will say he doesn’t know of one. He will also tell you that there isn’t a single bound volume – even in Ethiopia containing all of the books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible canon!
So, since we don’t yet have all of the books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible in English, what do we advise for those who want to read as many of the books as possible in print form in English? What is already available?
Portions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament
You can buy the Pseudepigrapha Volumes 1 and 2 by James Charlesworth. It contains some of the books of the EOTC Bible, along with copious scholarly notes. It also contains many other books as well which are not in the EOTC canon.
You can buy Meqabyan 1-3
This translation has some elements we disagree with, but it has all 3 books of Meqabyan in English and in print. It is also available as an e-book on lulu, and each volume is available separately as well
Meqabyan 1 translated by D P Curtin
Mr. Curtin has a better translation of Meqabyan 1, but this is does not include 2-3, unfortunately. We recommend getting it as well however. We do not necessarily agree with all of the notes but they can often provide helpful background information. It is a better translation than the one by Feqade Selassie for just Meqabyan 1. (There is a “lyrical” Version of Meqabyan online by Selassie free. It is better than not having any for free version online probably, but it is a very problematic translation because it was done to give it a lyrical quality rather than to focus on accuracy. Fortunately, the print one by Feqade on Lulu isn’t lyrical and has been improved.)
Portions of the Ethiopian Orthodox New Testament
Ethiopic Didascalia By James Mason Harden
(Be careful, there is a non-Ethiopic Didascalia and it is a different book in terms of content. Also some Didascalia editions are abridged. This is the best one we have seen thus far in print now.) The other one by Platt is an incomplete one.
This book is in multiple languages and includes translations from the Ethiopian and other versions.
This work corresponds with part of what is called Sinodos but it is incomplete. You can also get it free in pdf at this link. https://archive.org/details/statutesapostle00unkngoog
We also link to some of the EOTC Bible in English as free pdf files under our links tab at the top of this site!
We know that many people would like a single bound volume containing all the books. There isn’t one though because some of them haven’t been translated into English yet. The goal of this project is to translate the remaining books into English. Just obtaining all of the books is not easy. Once again, even in Ethiopia there isn’t a single print volume containing all of the books at this time. There should be, and we hope there will be in the future. Some of the books of the broader canon are in fact hard to find.
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