Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church

1 Comment November 18, 2020 Steve Wiggins

In such a bibliocentric culture, I wonder why we lack curiosity about the Bible. Not only do we not study it much in religion classes, we often accept it as a fixed cultural object. Saying that it’s the word of God, as if that explains anything, many Protestant groups take it as the 39 books of the “Old Testament” and the 27 of the New, ignoring the 66 total that stands like a warning sign of impending idolatry. Roman Catholics and some Anglicans add the books of the Apocrypha, or Deuterocanon, bringing the number closer to 73 books. I say “closer to” because some of these books seem to be expansions on other books already in the canon. Over the years the National Council of Churches has added a few more books, considering various other groups (mostly Orthodox) that recognize some further works as canonical.

In this era of recognizing the importance of black lives and black culture, I’m amazed there’s so little curiosity about the Ethiopian Orthodox canon. I’ve spoken to many biblical scholars who could care less that the fantastic books of Jubilees and 1 Enoch are in the canon of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches. It’s almost as if these groups simply don’t matter in the world of Christendom. I note that biblical scholars I ask about this are usually Protestant or Catholic themselves. It seems to me almost a racist slight not to include books that are recognized among some Christian groups, but not others.

What is the scientific criterion for determining a book is the word of God or not? It surely can’t be fear of contradiction, for the Protestant Bible—the briefest in mainstream Christendom—has plenty of contradictions of its own. The Bible itself famously does not name the books included. Various authorities made decisions at various points about which books should be included and which should be left out. It is such a very human process. But when it comes to including the books of churches that total nearly 40 million members, suddenly people just aren’t that curious. Those of us interested in demons have to take Jubilees and 1 Enoch seriously. They are fascinating books. And Biblical for millions of people. The past several years have made me think quite seriously about the borders built around the Bible. Whose choice is it not to include books already in the canon for their neighbors? Or, as might be more accurate, who has the authority to cut out books that already belong for many African Christians?

3 Comments March 27, 2019 Steve Wiggins

It’s complicated. The Bible, that is. Tracing its origins as a book can easily occupy a lifetime, but the issue that keeps coming up with Scripture is how, definitively, to close the canon. If we should. My research on demons lately has led me once again to the books of Jubilees and 1 Enoch. The latter has long been popular with the paranormal crowd because it has some weird stuff in it. Thing is, as I mentioned back in November, these two books are part of the biblical canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. And the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. That makes these two books by definition “biblical.” You won’t find them in nearly any printed Bible in the western world, although you can locate them in collections of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.

This privileging of the western canon has implications. How do we know what really belongs in the Bible? Judaism never officially closed its canon, but by consensus the same books contained in the Protestant Hebrew Bible (aka Old Testament) are those recognized. Early Christian writers had different Bibles. It took almost four centuries for them to agree generally on what should be included. In Europe, that is. Not all branches of the church were represented in the Council of Rome. Instead of waiting for the consensus of all—there was an urgency to stomping out heresy—the decision was made. For some. Meanwhile other Christian groups continued to use certain books that “the official” closing of the canon left out in the rain. Or the desert. Whichever.

The question of just what’s in the Bible goes a bit deeper than that. The Tewahedo Churches of eastern Africa also recognize the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. “So?” did I hear you say, “Catholics recognize them too—what’s the big deal?” These books, however, in the Ethiopian and Eritrean canons are not the same as western 1 and 2 Maccabees. The books of the Mäqabeyan contain different content while maintaining the same basic name. This means that we’re gonna need a bigger canon. What’s more, these books have been pretty much ignored by biblical scholars. One of the reasons, no doubt, is that they are written in Geez, a language not on the menu of too many seminaries. Simply to dismiss them, however, is to ignore the belief system of over 50 million Christians. It seems that the version of the Good Book tucked under the arm of many an evangelist is the condensed version. Putting together a canon, it appears, is more complicated than it looks.