1 Meqabyan

The first of the Ethiopian Meqabyan books in the EOTC 81-book list.

1 Meqabyan is the first of the Ethiopian Meqabyan books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo eighty-one-book list. The date in this dataset is late antique Ethiopian tradition, at low confidence, because the books’ composition history is less firmly fixed than the Greek Maccabees. 1 Meqabyan is not 1 Maccabees. The similar names come from a shared memory of the Maccabean theme, not from identity of text. Canonical status here belongs to the Ethiopian column. Greek 1 Maccabees has its own row for Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant comparisons.

Not the same work as 1–4 Maccabees in the Septuagint or Catholic/Orthodox collections.

Date

Late antique Ethiopian tradition (low confidence)

Confidence

low

Languages

Ge'ez

Traditional authorship

Not named in the book

Authorship note

Author not named; received in the Ethiopian Orthodox canon

• Ge'ez Meqabyan · Ethiopic Meqabyan manuscripts

  Medieval and later Ge'ez biblical copies · Ge'ez · Ge'ez 1 Meqabyan

  1, 2, and 3 Meqabyan survive in Ge'ez biblical manuscripts of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition. They are Ethiopian compositions about Jewish martyrs and covenant faithfulness. They are not translations of Greek 1–4 Maccabees, even though a later European label sometimes confused the names. No Greek uncial copies them. Manuscript evidence for these three books is the Ethiopic tradition itself. Their canonical status in this dataset is the Ethiopian list, not a claim that Carthage or Trent named them.

• lists noncanonical

  Jewish canon

  1 Meqabyan is not a book of the Tanakh. Josephus, near the end of the first century, describes twenty-two Jewish books his people trust and sets later writings in a lower rank. The later rabbinic Bible, counted as twenty-four books, likewise leaves 1 Meqabyan outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. 1 Meqabyan is an Ethiopian Christian book about Jewish faithfulness. It is not a Second Temple Jewish manuscript, and it is not Greek 1–4 Maccabees. The Tanakh does not include it. Jewish copying or quotation, where it exists, is reception. It is not the same fact as a place in the Hebrew canon, and it is not a Christian council’s decision.

• lists noncanonical

  Greek and Latin churches

  1 Meqabyan does not appear in Greek uncials or in the Latin lists of Hippo and Carthage. Early Christian reception here is an absence from those lists. The positive canonical reception is Ethiopian and is recorded in the tradition status, not in Athanasius or the Muratorian Fragment.

• ProtestantRelated literature

  1 Meqabyan is not among the Protestant 66 and is not Greek 1–4 Maccabees.

• CatholicRelated literature

  1 Meqabyan is not a Catholic deuterocanonical Maccabees book.

• OrthodoxRelated literature

  1 Meqabyan is not the Greek Maccabees of Orthodox collections.

• EthiopianCanonical

  1 Meqabyan belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox biblical collection.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Ethiopian Christian work, not Tanakh.

• LXXNot applicable

  Not a Septuagint Maccabees book.

• Early ChristianRelated literature

  Ethiopian biblical narrative in a later regional canon.

• Second TempleNot applicable

  Later Ethiopian Christian work.

No council, confession, or canon list in this dataset names 1 Meqabyan. Tradition status is recorded in the section above.

• Shared tradition · Ge'ez Meqabyan ↔ Greek 1 Maccabees

  Low confidence — disputed or tentative.

  The similar names do not make these the same book. Ethiopian Meqabyan is not a translation of Greek 1 Maccabees.

No dated canon event in this dataset is tied to 1 Meqabyan.

• Westminster Confession I.2–3 names the 66-book Protestant canon and says the books commonly called Apocrypha are not of divine inspiration and are not part of the canon of Scripture.
• Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), lists the Catholic canonical books including the deuterocanonical writings received in the Vulgate.
• Brenton’s public-domain Septuagint translation includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Additions, and Maccabees as part of the Greek Old Testament corpus.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church publishes an 81-book list that includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, speaks of 22 Jewish books and distinguishes later writings as not equally trusted.
• Ge'ez manuscripts preserve the complete Ethiopian biblical books, including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• The 397 Carthage list includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, 1–2 Maccabees among the books to be read in church, alongside the widely received Protestant 66.