The Book of 2 Meqabyan

2 Meqabyan (also known as 2 Ethiopian Maccabees and 2 Ethiopic Maccabees) is canonical scripture for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. While «Meqabyan» is the Ge’ez equivalent of «Maccabees,» the content is completely different from 2 Maccabees. The only complete copies of 2 Meqabyan are available in Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopic), here used with permission by the Bible Society of Ethiopia.

The translation into English was provided by Haileyesus Woldemariam (UBS).

Satan

The Greek, Hebrew and Ge’ez that is often transliterated in English as «Satan» is transliterated in Kipsigis as «Setani.» This is interesting because it is not only a transliteration that approximates the Greek sound but it is also an existing Kipsigis word with the meaning of «ugly» and «sneaking.» (Source: Earl Anderson in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 85ff. )

In Morelos Nahuatl it is translated as «envious one» (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.) and in Tibetan: bdud (བདུད།), lit. «chief devil» (except in Rev. 20:2, where it is transliterated) (source: gSungrab website ).

See also devil.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Satan .