The Ethiopian Bible is the OLDEST canon in the world. It is also the LARGEST Bible with 81 books (some say there are 88), compared with the Protestant Bible with 66 books and the Roman Catholic Bible with 73 books. Like the Roman Catholic Bible, their “extra books” (called “Apocrypha” which means “hidden”) are not recognized as Divinely inspired by those Bible translators of the Protestant Bible. Those translators based the Protestant Bible on the principle of SOLA SCRIPTURA, which emphasized the authority of “Scripture Alone.” While the translators of the Ethiopian (and Roman Catholic) Bible emphasize “tradition” along with Scripture, and thus their “extra books” which may contain “some historical facts” but due to scriptural and historical inaccuracies they were not accepted as part of the canon of Holy Scripture by Protestant translators. If there is but one clear error in a book that was supposedly Divinely inspired by God, it must be rejected.

I answered a similar question about the Roman Catholic Bible on February 1st of this year, and I gave some of the clear “doctrinal errors” that are found in some of their extra books. Here is a definite error in the book of Tobit from the Ethiopian Bible: “Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold. For ALMS delivers from death and SHALL PURGE AWAY ALL SIN” (Tobit 12:8-9). I see no problem with verse 8, for prayer, fasting, and living a righteous life is a good thing. But verse 9 goes on to say that ALMS will “purge away all sin,” which means one can have their sins cleansed by “giving money, goods, or food to the poor as an act of charity.” In other words, this is teaching us that our sins can be taken away by “good works.” What does the Bible say about good works? Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast.”  What does the Bible say about cleansing from sin? The Bible states emphatically that “The BLOOD of Jesus Christ His Son CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN” (1 John 1:9). It is not “our good works” that removes our sins, but the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. Just before He commended His spirit to the Father He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and then a wicked soldier “pierced His side with a spear, and immediately BLOOD and water came out” (verse 34). Christ’s blood was shed to prove He had died to pay for our sins and thus the believing sinner is “cleansed from of all sin” and receives the “complete forgiveness of sins.” Hebrews 9:14 declares, “Without the shedding of BLOOD there is no remission.” The book of Tobit must be rejected for this fundamental error.

Other “extra books” were rejected based of inconsistencies with the rest of the Bible. For example, in the book of “Enoch” there is a very heavy emphasis on angels, to the point of naming 18 angels in Enoch 6:3, 8. None of these names are listed anywhere else in the Bible. In fact, we only have three names of angels mentioned throughout the Bible: Gabriel (Daniel 8:16; 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26), Michael (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; and Revelation 12:7), and Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12). God’s word must be INERRANT (free from “doctrinal errors” and “Biblical inconsistencies).” So, the “added books” of the Ethiopian Bible were rejected based on these points.  (DO)  (724.5)