HistoryPtolemaic, Roman and Byzantine Egypt

Christian and Byzantine Egypt

Christianity spread through Egypt; monks like Antony and Pachomius founded monastic life, and Coptic became the Christian Egyptians' written language.

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Christianity reached Egypt early. Church tradition says the evangelist Mark founded the church of Alexandria in the 1st century AD. By the 4th century, Egypt was one of the great centers of the Christian world, and it gave Christianity something new: monks.

Key idea

Christianity spread through Egypt in the Roman period. Antony and Pachomius founded monastic life: Antony as a hermit in the desert, Pachomius with the first communities of monks living by a rule. Coptic, Egyptian written in an alphabet based on Greek, became the Christian Egyptians' written language.

The desert fathers

  • Antony (about AD 251–356) gave away his property and went into the desert to live alone in prayer. His life, written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, made him famous across the Christian world.
  • Pachomius (about AD 292–348) gathered monks into communities at Tabennisi in Upper Egypt, with a shared rule of prayer, work and meals. This kind of monastery spread across the Christian world.
  • Alexandria had a famous school of Christian learning, with teachers like Clement and Origen.
Coptic: the Egyptian language written in Greek letters plus a few letters taken from Demotic.

Why it works

Writing Egyptian in Greek letters, with a few extra signs for sounds Greek lacked, made it far easier to learn than hieroglyphs or Demotic, and it showed vowels. Christians needed scriptures and prayers that ordinary Egyptians could read and hear in their own language, and Coptic gave them that.

The end of the temples

Old temples closed over a long time, not in a single year. Under the emperor Theodosius I, laws of the AD 390s banned pagan sacrifice, and the great temple of Serapis at Alexandria was destroyed in AD 391. Yet at Philae, on Egypt's southern border, priests still carved the last known hieroglyphic inscription in AD 394, and worship of Isis there went on until the emperor Justinian closed the temple in the AD 530s.

Philae, one of the last temples to close, and Nag Hammadi, where a jar of Coptic books was found in 1945.

Worked example: One year or many?

A book says "Egyptian religion ended in AD 391." What does the evidence from Philae suggest?
  1. In AD 391 the Serapeum at Alexandria was destroyed.
  2. At Philae, a hieroglyphic inscription was carved in AD 394, and the temple worked until the AD 530s.
  3. So the old religion faded over more than a century, at different times in different places.

Answer: That it ended gradually, not in one year.

In AD 451 the Council of Chalcedon split the churches over how to describe Christ's nature. Most Egyptian Christians rejected its decision, and their church, today's Coptic Orthodox Church, went its own way.

Common mistake

Dating the end of Egyptian religion to one year. Old temples closed over a long time; Philae was among the last, in the AD 530s.

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 2 XP.

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Sources and further reading

  • Ian Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000), ch. 15
  • Wikipedia, "Christianity in Egypt"
  • Wikipedia, "Anthony the Great"
  • Wikipedia, "Pachomius the Great"
  • Wikipedia, "Coptic language"
  • Wikipedia, "Philae"
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