Amharic Holy Bible Ethiopian Status

AD 1962 in the Gregorian Calendar), and states that it was translated by the Bible Committee he convened between AD 1947 and 1952, "realizing that there ought to be a revision from the original Hebrew and Greek of the existing translation of the Bible".  The 81 book Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Bible, including the deuterocanonicals, 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament, was published in 1986.  Although Christianity became the state religion of Ethiopia in the 4th century, and the Bible was first translated into Ge'ez at about that time, only in the last two centuries have there appeared translations of the Bible into Amharic.  It included the 66 books of the protocanon (i. e. those held canonical in common with Protestant and Catholic Christians), as the 5 narrow canon deuterocanonical books were published separately.  In 1962, a new Amharic translation from Ge'ez was printed, again with the patronage of the Emperor.  The preface by Emperor Haile Selassie I is dated "1955" (E. C. ), and the 31st year of his reign (i. e.  This version incorporates a few minor changes or corrections to the 1962 Amharic text of the New Testament, but the text of the Old Testament and Deuterocanon are identical to those previously published under Haile Selassie I.