The Book of 1 Meqabyan

1 Meqabyan (also known as 1 Ethiopian Maccabees and 1 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 1 Maccabees. The only complete copies of 1 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).

fire is never quenched

The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated as “fire is never quenched” in English is translated in Shor as “wildfire is never quenched.” Andrei S. Desnitsky explains (in: The Bible Translator 2018, p. 233ff. ): “Hell is described as a place where ‘the fire is never quenched.’ This is easy to render in probably any language but the translators into Shor (a Turkic language spoken in south-western Siberia) noticed that the direct rendering creates a rather positive image: what a nice place it must be, warm and full of light! This connotation disappeared as soon as they replaced the word ot (fire, light) with ört (wildfire).”

Hades / Sheol

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez and Greek that is often translated in English as “Hades” or “Sheol” is translated in the German Luther Bible 2017 (and pre-1912) as Totenreich or “realm (or: kingdom) of the dead” in these verses. (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

In Chuj it is translated as “among the dead,” in San Mateo Del Mar Huave as “the place where are the dead,” and in Coatlán Mixe as “the grave.” (Source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Sheol .

day of judgment

The Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “day of judgment” in English is translated in Bora as “pay-causing day.” (Source: Mildred Larson in Notes on Translation, July 1965, p. 1-15)

See also Day of the Lord.