Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity
Otto F. A. Meinardus
Abstract
Christianity arrived early in Egypt, brought—according to tradition—by Saint Mark the Evangelist, who became the first patriarch of Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church has flourished ever since, with millions of adherents both in Egypt and in Coptic communities around the world. Since it split from the Byzantine Church in 451, the Coptic Church has maintained its early traditions, and influence from the outside has been minimal: the liturgy is still sung to unique rhythms in Coptic, a late stage of the same ancient Egyptian language that is inscribed in hieroglyphs on temple walls and papyr ... More
Keywords: Christianity, Egypt, Saint Mark the Evangelist, Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Church, Egyptian language, hieroglyphs, papyri, temples
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 | Print ISBN-13: 9789774247576 |
| Published to Cairo Scholarship Online: January 2012 | DOI:10.5743/cairo/9789774247576.001.0001 |
