With Due Respect: Is the Ethiopian Bible the oldest Bible?

 

No, the Ethiopian Bible is not the oldest Bible. This is a common online claim, mostly because people compare the Ethiopian Bible (which was adapted by Ethiopia during 1400s) with the King James Bible (which was complied during the 1600s). Neither translation is the earliest scripture.

The Ethiopian Bible

For the Ethiopian Bible (the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, written in Ge'ez):The translation of biblical texts into Ge'ez began in the 4th–6th centuries CE, soon after Christianity became the state religion in the Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia) in the 4th century.

The oldest surviving Ethiopian biblical manuscripts are the Garima Gospels (illuminated manuscripts of the four Gospels), radiocarbon dated to roughly 330–650 CE (with some samples as early as 390–570 CE). These are among the world's oldest illustrated Christian manuscripts and the earliest in Ge'ez.

However, a full Ethiopian Bible (with its broader canon of 81–88 books, including texts like Enoch and Jubilees not in most other Christian canons) as a complete, compiled collection appears in later manuscripts.

The oldest version

The oldest surviving nearly complete or complete Bibles (as full codices containing both Old and New Testaments in one set of manuscripts) date to the 4th century AD.

Codex Vaticanus (c. 300–325 AD or slightly later): One of the earliest and most complete Greek Bibles (Septuagint Old Testament + New Testament), housed in the Vatican Library. It is missing some parts but is among the oldest.

Codex Sinaiticus (c. 330–360 AD): Contains the oldest complete New Testament and large portions of the Old Testament in Greek. Discovered at St. Catherine's Monastery, it is widely regarded as one of the most important early biblical manuscripts.

Theology 1.0: How did Christianity come to Ethiopia?

 

After the ascension of Jesus, many early Christians decided to leave Jerusalem to spread the religion. Some Christians eventually came to Ethiopia, but the communities were not significant until the 4th century.

Frumentius and Aedesius, two Syrian Christians, were shipwrecked on the Red Sea coast and taken as slaves to the Aksumite court during the reign of King Ezana. Frumentius gained the trust of the royal family and was eventually freed, becoming a prominent advisor to the young King Ezana. By 330 AD, King Ezana of the Aksumite Empire converted to Christianity. About ten years later, Christianity became the official religion of the Aksumite Empire.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church itself claims to have been established in 330 AD.

The Nine Saints
During the late 5th century, nine Christians (often called the Syriac Nine Saints, even though most of them were not Syrian) decided to do missions across Ethiopia.  

Theses missions also served as permanent centers of Christian learning in which monks finally began to translate the Bible from Greek and Aramaic into Ethiopic so that Ethiopians could read Scripture for themselves. 

Thus Christianity was no longer a religion for the small percentage of Ethiopians who could read Greek or Aramaic/Syriac, but for all Ethiopians.