ABSTRACT
Ethiopian literature has assured the preservation of numerous biblical apocryphal works. This chapter presents new data, provides a fresh look at the history of the biblical canon circa the fifteenth century, and aids the search for more clues to the survival of apocryphal works in Ethiopia. The Ascension of Isaiah, by contrast, is absent from the large Greek uncial codices, but in eight Ethiopian manuscripts it forms a unique block with the canonical book of Isaiah, forming the second part of the visions of the prophet, which could reflect an older situation. The resumption of regular contacts with the Coptic patriarchate of Alexandria led to an enormous missionary effort on the part of the Egyptian metropolitans to update Ethiopian Christianity after seven hundred years of isolation and stagnation.
