Of all the surprises awaiting the scholar who opens the Ethiopian Bible for the first time, none is quite as disorienting as the encounter with the Books of Maccabees.

For the Catholic or Orthodox Christian from the West, “Maccabees” conjures specific historical imagery: the Hasmonean revolt, the guerrilla warfare of Judas Maccabeus against the Seleucid Empire, the cleansing of the Temple, and the origin of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. It is a gritty, political, and historical narrative set firmly in the 2nd century BC.

However, if you open the Book of Maccabees (Meqabyan) in the Ethiopian canon, you will find none of this. There is no Judas Maccabeus hammering the Greeks. There is no Hasmonean dynasty. There is no Hanukkah.

Instead, you encounter a Benjaminite named Meqabis, a tyrannical idol-worshipping king named Tsirutsaydan, and a narrative that reads more like a theological morality play than a military chronicle.

This divergence is not an error; it is a profound declaration of identity. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) preserves three books—1, 2, and 3 Meqabyan—that are entirely distinct in content, origin, and theology from the four books of Maccabees found in the Greek Septuagint.

In this article, we will unravel this literary mystery. We will explore the content of these unique books, investigate why they share a title with texts they do not resemble, and examine the profound theology of martyrdom and resurrection that cemented their place in the 81-book canon.

 

Part I: The Name Enigma—Why “Maccabees”?

The first question every student asks is: If these books aren’t about the historical Maccabees, why do they bear the name?

To understand this, we must realize that in the early Christian world, “Maccabee” was not merely a family name (referring to the Hasmoneans); it had become a genre label. The root of the word—often associated with the Aramaic for “Hammer” or related to the concept of “fighting”—came to symbolize Martyrdom and Holy Zeal against pagan oppression.

Just as modern people might use the word “Vandal” to describe anyone who destroys property (regardless of whether they belong to the ancient Germanic Vandal tribe), early Christians used “Maccabean” to describe any holy person who resisted tyranny and idolatry unto death.

The Ethiopian texts are “Maccabean” in spirit, not in lineage. They narrate the struggle of the faithful against the idolatrous State. By retaining the title Meqabyan, the Ethiopian Church is asserting that these specific martyrs—Meqabis and his sons—fulfill the archetype of resistance just as well, if not better, than the historical figures of Judea.

 

Part II: 1 Meqabyan—The Martyrdom of the Benjaminite

The First Book of Ethiopian Maccabees (Meqabyan I) is a text of 36 chapters that sets the stage for the Ethiopian understanding of resistance.

 

The Villain: Tsirutsaydan

The narrative introduces a king who serves as the archetype of all pagan tyranny. His name is Tsirutsaydan. Etymologically, scholars believe this name is a Ge’ez corruption or conflation of “Tyre and Sidon” (Tsur u Tsaydan), the famous Phoenician cities often associated with Baal worship and wickedness in the Bible. In the Ethiopian imagination, Tsirutsaydan is a king of Media and Midian who is obsessed with an idol cult.

 

The Hero: Meqabis

Opposing him is not a warrior-priest like Judas, but a teacher named Meqabis. He is identified specifically as a man from the tribe of Benjamin. This tribal affiliation is significant; while the Western Maccabees were Levites (priests), the Ethiopian hero comes from the tribe of Saul and Paul, emphasizing a different kind of leadership.

The core narrative follows a grim but inspiring arc:

1. The Idol Decree: Tsirutsaydan commands his subjects to worship his idols.
2. The Refusal: Meqabis and his sons (named Abya, Seela, Fentos, and two others) refuse. Their refusal is grounded in a sophisticated theology of the “One True God” who created heaven and earth, contrasting Him with the impotent idols of wood and stone.
3. The Martyrdom: The king, enraged by their insolence and their teaching, orders them to be tortured and burned. They face the fire with the same stoic resolve found in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or the “Woman with Seven Sons” in the Greek 2 Maccabees.

 

The Second Group

Interestingly, Chapter 15 of 1 Meqabyan introduces a second group of brothers: Yihuda (Judah), Meqabis, and Mebikyas. They lead a successful revolt against another ruthless king named Akrandis. This section bears a faint echo of the historical Judas Maccabeus, suggesting that the author of the Ethiopian text may have had access to oral traditions or fragments of the historical account, which were then woven into this new, distinct composition. However, the details remain legendary; Mebikyas is described as entering the king’s camp and decapitating him while he sat at dinner, a scene reminiscent of the Book of Judith.

 

Part III: 2 Meqabyan—The Repentant King

The Second Book of Ethiopian Maccabees (Meqabyan II) offers a surprising twist on the genre. Usually, in biblical literature, the “Enemy King” is a static figure of evil (like Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar). In 2 Meqabyan, the enemy becomes the hero.

The book, comprising 21 chapters, begins with a figure named Meqabis—but this is not the martyr from Book 1. This Meqabis is a King of Moab.

 

The Scourge of God

Initially, this Moabite king attacks Israel. The text interprets this assault as a divine punishment for Israel’s sins. God uses the pagan king as an instrument of wrath. However, the narrative does not leave him in darkness.

 

The Conversion

Through a series of encounters and perhaps the conviction of the Holy Spirit, King Meqabis repents. He realizes the emptiness of his idols and turns to the God of Israel. He is then taught the Law of God by the prophet Rei.

This is a profound theological statement. It asserts that the “Maccabean” spirit—the zeal for God’s law—is not limited to the bloodline of Israel. A Moabite king can become a “Maccabee” if he submits to the Truth. The book details his subsequent life of teaching the Law to his people and even to the Israelites.

Later in the text, the villain Tsirutsaydan reappears (or a successor of the same name), introducing idolatry once again. The sons of the converted King Meqabis now take on the mantle of martyrdom, refusing to conform to the new wave of paganism and being burnt for their faith. This links the two books thematically: whether Benjaminite or Moabite, the response to tyranny is the same.

 

Part IV: 3 Meqabyan—The Philosophy of Salvation

The Third Book of Ethiopian Maccabees (Meqabyan III) is the shortest (10 chapters) and the most unusual. It abandons the narrative structure almost entirely.

If Book 1 is a tragedy and Book 2 is a redemption story, Book 3 is a Sermon.

It is a diffuse, philosophical work that reads like wisdom literature. It discusses:

• The Nature of Satan: It details how the Devil was originally an angel who fell due to arrogance, refusing to bow to Adam (a tradition also found in other pseudepigrapha like the Life of Adam and Eve and even reflected in Islamic tradition).
• The History of Salvation: It draws illustrations from the lives of Adam, Job, and David to explain how God saves the righteous and punishes the wicked.
• The Vanity of Power: It emphasizes that earthly kings and their idols are dust, while the power of God is eternal.

In the Ethiopian liturgy, 2 and 3 Meqabyan are often combined or read together as a single continuity of thought. They serve less as a history lesson and more as a theological primer on the nature of good and evil.

 

Part V: Why the Difference? The “Vorlagen” Mystery

Scholars have spent decades trying to understand why Ethiopia has such different books.

Theory 1: The Lost Text Some early scholars speculated that these books might be translations of a lost Hebrew or Aramaic original that didn’t survive elsewhere. However, the internal evidence—such as the name “Tsirutsaydan”—suggests a composition that occurred later, perhaps originally in Ge’ez or Arabic, loosely based on oral histories of the Jewish wars.

Theory 2: The “Josippon” Connection There is a medieval Jewish history book called the Sefer Josippon (Pseudo-Josephus). It was a popular retelling of Jewish history that circulated in the Middle East. Some scholars believe that the Ethiopian Meqabyan books derive their source material from a creative re-reading or oral transmission of the Josippon narratives, mixed with local Ethiopian homilies.

Theory 3: The Reconstruction The most likely scenario is that the Ethiopian Church knew of the Maccabees—they knew there were holy martyrs who resisted Greek idols—but they did not possess the physical Greek texts of 1-4 Maccabees. In the absence of the text, but possessing the tradition, Ethiopian monks or scribes composed (or received from Coptic/Arabic sources) these books to fill the “canonical slot.” They created a text that fulfilled the theological function of the Maccabees (teaching resistance to idolatry) without needing the specific historical details of the Hasmoneans.

 

Part VI: Theological Significance—Immortality and Resurrection

Why are these books so important to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church? Why keep them?

The answer lies in their robust theology of Resurrection.

Even more than the Western books, the Ethiopian Meqabyan places a massive emphasis on the life to come. When the martyrs in 1 Meqabyan face the fire, they do not merely speak of national liberation (as Judas Maccabeus might); they speak of the “glory of the soul” and the judgment of the dead.

For the Ethiopian theologian, these books provide the Old Testament bedrock for the Christian belief in the afterlife. They show that the “friends of God” (the martyrs) enter directly into glory. This connects seamlessly with the Ethiopian veneration of Christian martyrs (like St. George or St. Stephen). Meqabyan proves that the spirit of martyrdom is not a Christian invention, but an ancient, biblical reality.

Furthermore, the inclusion of the Moabite King Meqabis in Book 2 reinforces the Universalism of the Ethiopian faith. Ethiopia, like Moab, was a Gentile nation that turned to the God of Israel. By canonizing the story of a Gentile king who becomes a teacher of the Law, the EOTC validates its own identity as a non-Jewish nation that has nonetheless become the custodian of true biblical faith.

 

Part VII: A “Hidden” Canon

It is important to note that these books were virtually unknown to the outside world until recently. When the British Library acquired Ethiopian manuscripts in the 18th and 19th centuries (such as MS British Library Or. 506), Western scholars were baffled to find “Maccabees” texts that didn’t match the Septuagint.

It wasn’t until the 20th and 21st centuries that English translations (such as those by Ras Feqade Selassie or D.P. Curtin) became available, allowing the English-speaking world to read these “Hidden Maccabees”.

 

Conclusion: A Bible of Resistance

The Ethiopian Books of Meqabyan act as a “Bible within a Bible.” They encapsulate the entire Ethiopian religious worldview:

1. The World is Hostile: We live in the realm of Tsirutsaydan (idolatry/modernity/sin).
2. The Call is Resistance: We must be like Meqabis the Benjaminite, refusing to bow even if it means death.
3. The Hope is Universal: Like Meqabis the Moabite, even those outside the fold can be saved if they repent.
4. The Victory is Spiritual: The true victory is not killing the enemy (as in the Western Maccabees), but dying faithfully for God.

To read the Ethiopian Maccabees is to step away from the geopolitics of the Hasmoneans and enter a timeless spiritual battleground. It is a reminder that the “Canon” of scripture is not just a record of what happened in Jerusalem; it is a record of how the Spirit of God moved across mountains and deserts, inspiring different peoples to tell the story of faith in their own unique, inspired voice.

In the next article, we will move from the Old Testament to the New, exploring the Broader New Testament canon. We will open the books of Sinodos, Clement, and Didascalia—the texts that turn the New Testament from a collection of stories into a constitution for Christian living.