Legacy of Early African Christianity: Egypt and Ethiopia
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"According to tradition, the gospel Arthur Mark was the first one to go to Egypt to preach the gospel. Again, we don't have a lot of firm history on that, but that's a tradition at least. We also know that Apollos, that early and eloquent missionary, was an Alexandrian Jew according to the book of Acts, but we have no idea if he acquired his Christian faith at Alexandria." [00:01:18]
"Laterette says by the end of the second century the church was already strong. There had been a Gospel According to the Egyptians and several strains of Christianity were represented, including some of which the mainstream regarded as heretical. In Alexandria itself, a famous catechitical School developed which was to have among its teachers such distinguished Scholars as Clement and Origen." [00:03:02]
"When Christianity began to win numerous adherents among the Egyptian using population, the need was felt for a Christian literature which could be used by them in place of the difficult hieroglyphics. A simple script was employed based largely on Greek letters. The Egyptians so written was called Coptic. The chief home of Coptic Christian literature was in Upper Egypt or the Thebade." [00:05:52]
"By this time the Coptic church had really grown in its influence and strength and because of course that area of the Egyptian area, Alexandria, Egypt, all the rest was under Roman domination. When there arose widespread Roman persecution, it was the Coptic Christians of Egypt who suffered greatly under this. The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea was in Upper Egypt during that final episode of persecution that was ordered by the emperor Maximian in the year 311." [00:09:03]
"Yesubia said that so many Christians were beheaded that the acts used to cut off their heads was made dull and that it eventually broke and the executioners themselves were exhausted by all their labor of cutting off heads. Yet he said as well as soon as one of these Egyptian Believers was killed, someone else would confess themselves to be a Christian and be sent to their death and often they would be sent to their death singing Psalms and hymns." [00:09:48]
"Now over the centuries the Islamic evasion that came to Egypt around the year 642, it nearly destroyed Christianity in Egypt because Christianity in Egypt had been weakened by Decades of fighting amongst believers. And when the Islamic Invaders came, at first the Coptic Christians were relieved that they were no longer under the pressure of the Byzantine Roman Empire." [00:10:45]
"Anthony was born in AD 251. He was an ethnic Egyptian. We would call him Coptic if you want to from that stock. At that time Egyptian was still under Roman control and Christians were still subject to occasional bouts of persecution. But Egyptian was also a home, I should say, to one of the most energetic, life-filled Christian communities in the Roman Empire." [00:22:01]
"Anthony donated his huge Family Estate to the town where he lived and he either sold or gave away the rest of everything that he owned. He put his little sister in the care of a Convent and then he said I'm gonna devote my life to pursuing Jesus Through the spiritual disciplines instead of giving my attention to taking care of a large household estate." [00:25:26]
"Anthony impressed many of the townspeople around him, but he remained unsatisfied with the progress he was making. So what did he do? Well, instead of afflicting himself in these ways, he moved some distance from the village. He found an abandoned tomb and he started to live there. He arranged for a friend to bring him bread and then he closed the entrance to the tomb and he lived encased in this tomb for a long time." [00:30:03]
"Anthony lived in this abandoned Fortress for 20 years, and then after 20 years he left the Fortress and then a crowd of people was waiting for him outside. According to the accounts, after 20 years of living on hardly any food and you know when terrible conditions when he left the Fortress he looked healthy and well." [00:32:01]
"More than any other individual, this ethnically Egyptian man Anthony inspired the monastic movement. He wasn't the first Monk, but he was the most influential monk in the beginning of the monastic movement. You could say that indirectly he was responsible for the evangelization and the christianizing of Europe because of his mighty influence on the monastic movement which became the institution that did more to evangelize and christianize Europe than any other Institution." [00:36:27]
"Now historically speaking, the story of the acceptance of Christianity in this East African Empire of Ethiopia dates from the 4th century. Two Men, Frumentius and Odysseus of time, they both came from Tyre, that's on the coast of modern Lebanon. These two men, Frumentius and Odysseus, were taken as prisoners to Ethiopia, which was also called Abyssinia." [00:37:58]
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"Laterette says by the end of the second century the church was already strong. There had been a Gospel According to the Egyptians and several strains of Christianity were represented, including some of which the mainstream regarded as heretical. In Alexandria itself, a famous catechitical School developed which was to have among its teachers such distinguished Scholars as Clement and Origen." [00:03:02]
"When Christianity began to win numerous adherents among the Egyptian using population, the need was felt for a Christian literature which could be used by them in place of the difficult hieroglyphics. A simple script was employed based largely on Greek letters. The Egyptians so written was called Coptic. The chief home of Coptic Christian literature was in Upper Egypt or the Thebade." [00:05:52]
"By this time the Coptic church had really grown in its influence and strength and because of course that area of the Egyptian area, Alexandria, Egypt, all the rest was under Roman domination. When there arose widespread Roman persecution, it was the Coptic Christians of Egypt who suffered greatly under this. The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea was in Upper Egypt during that final episode of persecution that was ordered by the emperor Maximian in the year 311." [00:09:03]
"Yesubia said that so many Christians were beheaded that the acts used to cut off their heads was made dull and that it eventually broke and the executioners themselves were exhausted by all their labor of cutting off heads. Yet he said as well as soon as one of these Egyptian Believers was killed, someone else would confess themselves to be a Christian and be sent to their death and often they would be sent to their death singing Psalms and hymns." [00:09:48]
"Now over the centuries the Islamic evasion that came to Egypt around the year 642, it nearly destroyed Christianity in Egypt because Christianity in Egypt had been weakened by Decades of fighting amongst believers. And when the Islamic Invaders came, at first the Coptic Christians were relieved that they were no longer under the pressure of the Byzantine Roman Empire." [00:10:45]
"Anthony was born in AD 251. He was an ethnic Egyptian. We would call him Coptic if you want to from that stock. At that time Egyptian was still under Roman control and Christians were still subject to occasional bouts of persecution. But Egyptian was also a home, I should say, to one of the most energetic, life-filled Christian communities in the Roman Empire." [00:22:01]
"Anthony donated his huge Family Estate to the town where he lived and he either sold or gave away the rest of everything that he owned. He put his little sister in the care of a Convent and then he said I'm gonna devote my life to pursuing Jesus Through the spiritual disciplines instead of giving my attention to taking care of a large household estate." [00:25:26]
"Anthony impressed many of the townspeople around him, but he remained unsatisfied with the progress he was making. So what did he do? Well, instead of afflicting himself in these ways, he moved some distance from the village. He found an abandoned tomb and he started to live there. He arranged for a friend to bring him bread and then he closed the entrance to the tomb and he lived encased in this tomb for a long time." [00:30:03]
"Anthony lived in this abandoned Fortress for 20 years, and then after 20 years he left the Fortress and then a crowd of people was waiting for him outside. According to the accounts, after 20 years of living on hardly any food and you know when terrible conditions when he left the Fortress he looked healthy and well." [00:32:01]
"More than any other individual, this ethnically Egyptian man Anthony inspired the monastic movement. He wasn't the first Monk, but he was the most influential monk in the beginning of the monastic movement. You could say that indirectly he was responsible for the evangelization and the christianizing of Europe because of his mighty influence on the monastic movement which became the institution that did more to evangelize and christianize Europe than any other Institution." [00:36:27]
"Now historically speaking, the story of the acceptance of Christianity in this East African Empire of Ethiopia dates from the 4th century. Two Men, Frumentius and Odysseus of time, they both came from Tyre, that's on the coast of modern Lebanon. These two men, Frumentius and Odysseus, were taken as prisoners to Ethiopia, which was also called Abyssinia." [00:37:58]
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