Beyond the core list, the Russian Orthodox Church, drawing on a tra-
dition that received the Greek Bible, included in its first published Bible in
Old Church Slavonic (in Ostrog 1581) a list of writings that differs slightly
from that of Greek Orthodoxy: Prayer of Manasseh, 2 Esdras (= 1 Esdras),
3 Esdras (= 2 Esdras), and 3 Maccabees. Here one may notice not only the
difference in nomenclature for the Esdras books but also the complete ab-
sence of 4 Maccabees. The status of these books, however, has not been rig-
orously maintained in subsequent centuries, so that they now have an am-
bivalent place and function within the biblical canon.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has an understanding of canon that
has not operated with the same degree of fixedness as found in other tradi-
tions. Moreover, unlike most of the Orthodox churches, the Ethiopic tradi-
tion did not inherit the Greek Bible. Many biblical manuscripts copied in
Classical Ethiopic (Ge{ez) tradition contain Prayer of Manasseh (where it
follows immediately upon 2 Chron. 33:12), 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras 3–14 (=4 Ezra,
without the Christian additions in chaps. 1–2 and 15–16),1 Enoch,andJubi-
lees.The degree of recognition accorded the latter two works and, indeed, a
number of books in the Old Testament may have varied during the early
stages of their reception and consolidation into the Ethiopic tradition. For
example, while there is little or no evidence that the scriptural status ofJu-
bileeswas ever questioned, other works could be regarded as “disputed”
(Chronicles, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs), while some
of these and even others could be labeled as “noncanonical” (Ezra-
Nehemiah, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesi-
astes, Baruch,1 Enoch, Ascension of Isaiah, 4 Baruch).
It is not clear whether the West-Syrian Orthodox traditions (e.g., Syri-
ac Orthodox and Monophysite Orthodox churches), such as the Ethio-
pian, initially received an Old Testament based on the Hebrew Bible or de-
rived it from the Greek. Although the Peshinta, the standardizing Syriac
translation of the Bible, transmitted the Jewish Bible as its Old Testament,
the Old Testament writings not in the Hebrew Bible were soon added to
this tradition. Not only did the fourth-century fathers Aphrahat and
Ephrem treat them as part of their Bible, but these writings are copied in
the earliest complete Syriac Bibles whose manuscripts may date back as
early as the sixth century. Significantly, one of these early manuscripts,
designated7a1,even contained2 Baruch, 4 Ezra,and 4 Maccabees. More-
over, the oldest Syriac version of the Psalter from the twelfth century (now
in Baghdad, the Library of the Chaldaean Patriarchate) includes five addi-
tional psalms (Psalms 151–155), of which Psalm 151 corresponds to the same182loren t. stuckenbruckEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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