Beyond Canon

Early Christianity and the Ethiopic Textual Tradition

Meron Gebreananaye, Francis Watson, Logan Williams, Meron Gebreananaye, Francis Watson, Logan Williams

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780567697653
• eBook ISBN:
  9780567695888
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This book highlights the significance of a group of five texts excluded from the standard Christian Bible and preserved only in Ge'ez, the classical language of Ethiopia. These texts are crucial for modern scholars due to their significance for a wide range of early readers, as extant fragments of other early translations confirm in most cases. Yet they are also noted for their eventual marginalization and abandonment, as a more restrictive understanding of the biblical canon prevailed – everywhere except in Ethiopia, with its distinctive Christian tradition in which the concept of a "closed canon" is alien.

In focusing upon 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Epistula Apostolorum, and the Apocalypse of Peter, the contributors to this volume group them together as representatives of a time in early Christian history when sacred texts were not limited by a sharply defined canonical boundary. In doing so, this book also highlights the unique and under-appreciated contribution of the Ethiopic Christian Tradition to the study of early Christianity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The End-time in 1 Enoch, Paul and Matthew: Continuity and Discontinuity
• 2 Debating Daniel’s Dream: The Synoptic Gospels and the Similitudes of Enoch on the Son of Man
• 3 Peter and the Patriarch: Eschatological Perspectives from 1 Peter and 1 Enoch
• 4 Has Christian Tradition Influenced the Ge‘ez and Greek Versions of 1 Enoch?
• 5 Non-human Animals in the Primeval History of Jubilees
• 6 The Trial of Isaiah: On Alleged Jewish Backgrounds of the Ascension of Isaiah
• 7 The Vorlage of the Ethiopic Version of the Epistula Apostolorum: Greek or Arabic?
• 8 The Apocalypse of Peter: The Relationship of the Versions
• 9 Gospel Writing in Transition: A Look at the Ethiopic Ta-’ammǝrä ’Iyasus
• 10 ‘The House of the Gospel’: Text, Image and Sacred Space
• Afterword
• Bibliography
• Index of Authors
• Copyright