The Church in Egypt Today Abdel Masih Istafanous Background Tradition holds that St. Mark, the writer of the second Gospel, founded the church in Egypt. 1 We know, however, from Acts 2 that on the day of Pentecost representatives from Egypt were present to hear the message of the gospel. It is also worth noting that the Jews of Alexandria were prominent among the Jews of the Diaspora. Moreover, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, was begun in the third century B.C. in Alexandria. Therefore, we can safely presume that the church was established in Egypt soon after the day of Pentecost through the ministry of some of the 3,000 people who were baptized then. Papyrus, Manuscripts, and Translations Egypt is well known for papyrus, the writing material produced from a plant that grew by the River Nile. The dry climate of Egypt preserved many invaluable, biblical papyri manuscripts for thousands of years. One of the best known is the Chester Beatty collection which contains texts from the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles of Paul, and Revelation, all dating between 200 and 250 A.D. Of special importance was the the discovery of the Nag Hammadi (a town in Upper Egypt) manuscripts in 194 7, which gave us a much closer acquaintance with the Gnostics and their deviations from Christianity, and of the Dishna (a town in Upper Egypt near Nag Hammadi) manuscripts discovered shortly before 1956. These so-called Bodmer Papyri take us back to the beginnings of the third century. They contain the full text of the Gospels of Luke and John, the two Epistles of Peter, and the Epistle of Jude. The fact that most of our ancient biblical manuscripts have been found in Egypt indicates clearly the prominent place of Scripture in the life of the e?.rly Egyptian church. Moreover, some very important translations of the Bible were undertaken in Egypt during the fourth century. The Coptic language was spoken by people in dialects which varied according to their geographical area. Many extant manuscripts are in the Bohairic (northwestern part of Egypt), Fayyumic (area of the oasis of Fayyum), Sahidic, and Akhmimic (southern part of Egypt), dialects. Not only are New Testament scholars very indebted to the early Egyptian Christians for these manuscripts, but also their existence underlines the fact that these Christians were very keen to have the Scriptures in both the language and 99 the dialects of the people. Thus, although bishops of the church of Egypt used the Greek language in their writings and deliberations at church councils (e.g. Nicea in 325, Ephesus in 431, and Chalcedon in 451 ), the Egyptian church translated the Scriptures into the spoken language and dialects of the masses. Hieroglyph, Greek, and Coptic Languages Christianity came to Egypt at a time when its ancient hieroglyphic language was giving way to two derivatives: the hieratic, i.e., the language of the priests/hierarchy, and the demotic, i.e., the language of the people. A further development of the latter brought about the Coptic language. Coptic simply means Egyptian, and is a corruption of Aiguptos, the Greek name for the pre­ Islamic Egyptian people. The Coptic language took over the Greek alphabet and added to it six (or in some dialects, seven) hieroglyphic letters. Ancient Egyptian Religions and Egyptian Church Life It is very interesting to note that as the Coptic alphabet acquired additional hieroglyphic letters, Coptic Christians brought over into Christianity some religious customs from the ancient Egyptian religious practices. For example, special prayers were introduced into Christianity for the "dismissal of the spirit of a deceased person" on the third day after death. This ritual, which is still practiced today, includes such elements as parsley, extensive prayers, and the sprinkling of water. Other prayers with a special liturgy were to be conducted on the fortieth day after a person's death. This incorporated into Christian life and worship something of the forty-day embalming rituals of the ancient Egyptians. These, and many other similar practices, have become a permanent part of the worship and life of Egyptian Christians. Early Theological Role While Rome was the "political" center of the world in the early Christian centuries, Alexandria was, par excellence, the center for culture, philosophy, and education. Her famous library contained a treasure of invaluable manuscripts. Therefore, it was only natural that the major early thinkers of the church were Alexandrian. Happily, their learning was combined with a missionary zeal. Pantaenus, the head of the celebrated catechetical school of Alexandria, 2 is said to have taken the gospel to India. Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian, strove to present the Christian faith in terms that communicated well to the philosophical mind of the learned people of his day. 3 When Neoplatonisin spread, Origen of Alexandria presented the Christian faith in its terminology to make the Christian faith appeal to philosophical minds. 4 100 Defense of the Faith When heresies invaded Christianity, Alexandrian theologians played a leading role in dismantling them. Origen, for example, wrote against Gnosticism and the Gnostic gospels. Later on, in the fourth century, the presbyter Arius came to Alexandria from the region called Libya today. He taught that the Son of God was himself created to become God's agent in the creation of the world. The Son, therefore, is not eternal and his nature is not identical with God's. Immediately, Athanasius, a deacon of the church of Alexandria, rose to defend the Christian faith in accordance with the Scriptures and the second-century teachings of Ignatius and Ireneaus. Athanasius maintained that Christ must possess a divine nature and be able to unite it with his human nature, or the salvation of man is but a vain dream. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria adopted Athanasius' stand . This led to the Council of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), after which the Nicene Creed received the formulation which the church uses today. 5 A few years later, as the church was disturbed by the teaching of Constantinople's Bishop Nestorius, the Council of Ephesus (431) under the leadership of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, settled matters and Nestorius was condemned. Theology, Politics, Conflict, and Isolation Later in the fifth century, the nature of Christ was discussed. For us today, the doctrine of the Incarnation has become so well formulated that we may fail to appreciate these early difficulties. That formulation holds that when God became man, no new personality was created. Rather, there was a being with a complete human nature, so really and intimately united with the divine nature that one and the same person not only possessed them both, but also lived and acted in both. Thus, the Word became flesh without ceasing to be God. Such early doctrinal discussions were not free from politics nor from the personal ambitions of bishops and emperors. 6 In the fifth century, a church council met at Chalcedon, near Constantinople. Their discussions and disagreements about Christ's deity and humanity were greatly colored by semantics. The vocabulary used often had different meanings to different schools of thought, particularly those of Alexandria and Antioch. The council produced a statement to the effect that the one and same person, our Lord Jesus Christ, was complete in both his divinity and humanity, true God and at the same time true man. Consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father in his divinity and begotten of him before all ages, he was also consubstantial (homoousios) with us in his humanity, and was born of the Virgin Mary. 7 Chalcedon went on to say : One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, made known in two natures [which exist] without confusion, without JOI change, without division, without separation; the difference of the natures having been in no wise taken away by reason of the union, but rather the properties of each being preserved, and [both] concurring into one Person (prosopon) and one hypostasis-not parted or divided into two persons (prosopa), but one and the same Son and Only-begotten, the divine Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from of old [have spoken] concerning him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and as the Symbol of the Fathers has delivered to us. 8 It is interesting to note that the phrase "made known in two natures" stands in the official Greek text as EK ovo <f>vaEwv while in the Latin it is in duabus naturis. "The latter is undoubtedly correct, the Greek text having been altered by some scribe to bring it into line with Cyril's teaching. "9 The terminology for the Incarnation became fixed, definite, and clear. Physis and hypostasis were now distinct: physis meant nature, and there were two of them in Christ (even if Cyril, pre-Chalcedonian Bishop of. Alexandria, understood the word differently), and hypostasis meant person. There was only one person in the Word incarnate. The Chalcedonian formula was not accepted by the Alexandrians who were led by Bishop Dioscurus. They were of the opinion that though the Lord Jesus Christ was before the Incarnation of two natures, yet at the Incarnation he came to be of one theanthropic nature. From that time, the church of Egypt came to be known as the Monophysite Church, separating itself from most of the churches of the world and from the "state church" in Egypt. This led to its isolation and even persecution. For the sake of unity, uniformity, and peace, the Byzantine Empire wanted to force the Chalcedonian teaching on the Egyptian church, the very thing which it resented.