Did you know that the oldest form of the Bible is the Ethiopian Bible? Find it here!

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Written in Ge'ez and other ancient dead Ethiopian languages, the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is said to be 800 years older than the most common King James Version (KJV) published in 1611. It is also older than the earlier Great Bible commissioned in 1539.


Displayed above is the Ethiopian Bible.

The Ethiopian Bible contains 81 books compared to 66 books found in KJV. It carries a variety of books that were excluded from the KJV: The Book of ENOCH, Esdras, Buruch and all 3 Books of MACCABEE etc. 


It is believed that the Bible (which composes of the Garima Gospels) was copied in a single day by a travelling monk, Abba Garima, who arrived in Africa from Constantinople in 494 AD. Legends also have it that the one-day writing process was possible after God delayed the sun from setting.


Abba Garima (left) and an Ethiopian monk holding the Ethiopian Bible.

You cannot keep a blind eye on how beautifully illustrated the Ethiopian bible is, its eye-catchy colours are still vivid today. It also portrays its characters with fairly African features. The bible's discovery shows a linkage between Ethiopia and the wider late antiquity world, black Jews would be a topic for another day.


Depiction of Mary and Jesus in the Ethiopian Bible.

Christianity in Ethiopia can first be traced back to the Kingdom of Axum when King Azena was converted to the religion. The earliest records are found in the Bible where the book of Acts 8:26-38 captures a story of how Philip, a Biblical evangelist, converted an Ethiopian court official to Christianity in the 1st Century AD.


An article on Orthodox Christianity confirms that the bible was produced and is today preserved at the Garima Monastery in the north of the country, which is in the Tigray region. 


Experts are also said to believe that the Ethiopian Bible is the earliest form of bookbinding still attached to original pages. It must have been well preserved! It is incredible that the gospels survived years of numerous Arab and Italian invasions including the 1930's fire that destroyed the Ethiopian monastery church.


Today, Christianity is the dominant religion in Ethiopia with many dominations being practised but led in numbers by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church.


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