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Audiobook edition · 2 h 50 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 96 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 96 pagesAbout this book
What happens when a ruler demands obedience, but faith demands refusal?
Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III brings together writings preserved in the broader biblical canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. In Meqabyan I, the text tells of Meqabis and his sons facing a king who demands worship of foreign idols. Their refusal places faith, conscience, and life itself at stake.
Meqabyan II turns to theological dialogues and divine revelation, while Meqabyan III explores resurrection, reward after death, and divine justice. Despite their shared name, these writings are distinct from the Greek and Latin books of Maccabees. Together, they offer stories and teachings about courage under pressure, rather than a single continuous plot.
What you’ll discover
- Meqabyan I: Faith under pressure Follow Meqabis and his sons as the narrative tests their resolve against a ruler’s demands.
- Meqabyan II: Questions of existence Explore dialogues concerning the nature of existence, God’s sovereignty, and the history of the faithful.
- Meqabyan III: Hope beyond death Consider the text’s teachings on resurrection, the righteous, and justice beyond earthly tyranny.
- A distinct Ethiopian tradition Discover writings preserved in Ge’ez and kept within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s broader canon.
- Courage and its cost Encounter stories that ask what believers endure when earthly power presses them to surrender.
Who will love it
Readers who love martyr stories, ancient battle accounts, and prayers of deliverance will find much here. It also suits anyone curious about Ethiopian Christianity and how a community keeps its faith under pressure.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wider canon preserved in Ge'ez
- A tyrant king feeds idols and hunts the faithful
- Letters from Jerusalem keep scattered Jews united
- A robbed treasury and a bought priesthood
- Eleazar and seven brothers choose death over pork
- Judas Maccabeus fights with prayer and mercy
- Nicanor's threat meets a dream and a prayer
- A king's elephants fail against a sleeping hour
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Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III
by Anonymous
A king readies five hundred drunken elephants against captives, then oversleeps and forgets his order.
Challenging2–5 hours to readfrançais
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In short
Picture a king who orders five hundred elephants, drunk on wine and incense, to trample a whole captive people. The morning comes, and he sleeps through it.
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A wider canon preserved in Ge'ez
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church counts eighty-one books in its Bible. That is more than the sixty-six of Protestant Bibles and the seventy-three of the Catholic canon. Among them stand the three Meqabyan books, which the church reads as scripture. Outside Ethiopia and Eritrea they are little known.
The books survive in Ge'ez, a language no longer spoken in daily life but still used by the church for liturgy and scholarship. Ethiopian Christianity has deep roots. The Aksumite king Ezana adopted Christianity in the fourth century, which made Ethiopia one of the first nations to do so. Scholars do not agree on when the Meqabyan books took shape. Many place their present form in the first thousand years of the Common Era, with older layers perhaps beneath.
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A king readies five hundred drunken elephants against captives, then oversleeps and forgets his order.
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- Level
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- Paperback
- 96 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 96 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 148 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Large print hardcover
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Cite this edition
Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-ethiopic-meqabyan-i-iii.
Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-ethiopic-meqabyan-i-iii
Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-ethiopic-meqabyan-i-iii.
@book{anonymous2026ethiopic,
title = {Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-ethiopic-meqabyan-i-iii}
}
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Questions about Ethiopic Meqabyan I–III
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What is Meqabyan about?
It is a collection of three books of Ethiopian Orthodox scripture. It tells of idol-worshiping kings, faithful people who refuse to give in, the martyrs Eleazar and seven brothers, the warrior Judas Maccabeus, and a rescue from a king's elephants.
Is Meqabyan the same as the Books of Maccabees?
Ethiopian tradition treats Meqabyan as a separate body of writings. Even so, the later chapters in this collection follow events from the time of Antiochus, Judas Maccabeus, and Ptolemy Philopator, so Maccabean readers will recognize them.
Is Meqabyan in the Bible?
It is part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon, which has eighty-one books. It does not appear in Protestant, Catholic, or other Eastern Orthodox canons, and most readers outside Ethiopia and Eritrea first meet it as an apocryphal text.
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