History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

in contemplative retirement preparing for his apostolic ministry. There is a legend, that the apostles

Thomas and Bartholomew carried the gospel to India. But a more credible statement is, that the

Christian teacher Pantaeus of Alexandria journeyed to that country about 190, and that in the fourth

century churches were found there.

The transfer of the seat of power from Rome to Constantinople, and the founding of the

East Roman empire under Constantine I. gave to Asia Minor, and especially to Constantinople, a

commanding importance in the history of the Church for several centuries. The seven oecumenical

Councils from 325 to 787 were all held in that city or its neighborhood, and the doctrinal

controversies on the Trinity and the person of Christ were carried on chiefly in Asia Minor, Syria,

and Egypt.

In the mysterious providence of God those lands of the Bible and the early church have

been conquered by the prophet of Mecca, the Bible replaced by the Koran, and the Greek church

reduced to a condition of bondage and stagnation; but the time is not far distant when the East will

be regenerated by the undying spirit of Christianity. A peaceful crusade of devoted missionaries

preaching the pure gospel and leading holy lives will reconquer the holy land and settle the Eastern

question.

§ 9. Christianity in Egypt.

In Africa Christianity gained firm foothold first in Egypt, and there probably as early as the

apostolic age. The land of the Pharaohs, of the pyramids and sphinxes, of temples and tombs, of

hieroglyphics and mummies, of sacred bulls and crocodiles, of despotism and slavery, is closely

interwoven with sacred history from the patriarchal times, and even imbedded in the Decalogue as

"the house of bondage." It was the home of Joseph and his brethren, and the cradle of Israel. In

Egypt the Jewish Scriptures were translated more than two hundred years before our era, and this

Greek version used even by Christ and the apostles, spread Hebrew ideas throughout the Roman

world, and is the mother of the peculiar idiom of the New Testament. Alexandria was full of Jews,

the literary as well as commercial centre of the East, and the connecting link between the East and

the West. There the largest libraries were collected; there the Jewish mind came into close contact

with the Greek, and the religion of Moses with the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. There Philo

wrote, while Christ taught in Jerusalem and Galilee, and his works were destined to exert a great

influence on Christian exegesis through the Alexandrian fathers.

Mark, the evangelist, according to ancient tradition, laid the foundation of the church of

Alexandria. The Copts in old Cairo, the Babylon of Egypt, claim this to be the place from which

Peter wrote his first epistle (1 Pet. 5:13); but he must mean either the Babylon on the Euphrates,

or the mystic Babylon of Rome. Eusebius names, as the first bishops of Alexandria, Annianos (a.d.

62–85), Abilios (to 98), and Kerdon (to 110). This see naturally grew up to metropolitan and

patriarchal importance and dignity. As early as the second century a theological school flourished

in Alexandria, in which Clement and Origen taught as pioneers in biblical learning and Christian

philosophy. From Lower Egypt the gospel spread to Middle and Upper Egypt and the adjacent

provinces, perhaps (in the fourth century) as far as Nubia, Ethiopia, and Abyssinia. At a council of

Alexandria in the year 235, twenty bishops were present from the different parts of the land of the

Nile.

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History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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During the fourth century Egypt gave to the church the Arian heresy, the Athanasian

orthodoxy, and the monastic piety of St. Antony and St. Pachomius, which spread with irresistible

force over Christendom.

The theological literature of Egypt was chiefly Greek. Most of the early manuscripts of the

Greek Scriptures—including probably the invaluable Sinaitic and Vatican MSS.—were written in

Alexandria. But already in the second century the Scriptures were translated into the vernacular

language, in three different dialects. What remains of these versions is of considerable weight in

ascertaining the earliest text of the Greek Testament.

The Christian Egyptians are the descendants of the Pharaonic Egyptians, but largely mixed

with negro and Arab blood. Christianity never fully penetrated the nation, and was almost swept

away by the Mohammedan conquest under the Caliph Omar (640), who burned the magnificent

libraries of Alexandria under the plea that if the books agreed with the Koran, they were useless,

if not, they were pernicious and fit for destruction. Since that time Egypt almost disappears from

church history, and is still groaning, a house of bondage under new masters. The great mass of the

people are Moslems, but the Copts—about half a million of five and a half millions—perpetuate

the nominal Christianity of their ancestors, and form a mission field for the more active churches

of the West.

§ 10. Christianity in North Africa.

Böttiger: 

Geschichte der Carthager

. Berlin, 1827.

Movers: 

Die Phönizier

. 1840–56, 4 vols. (A standard work.)

Th. Mommsen: 

Röm. Geschichte

, I. 489 sqq. (Book III. chs. 1–7, 5th ed.)

N. Davis: Carthage and her Remains. London & N. York, 1861.

R. Bosworth Smith: Carthage and the Carthaginians. Lond. 2nd ed. 1879. By the same: Rome and

Carthage. N. York, 1880.

Otto Meltzer: 

Geschichte der Karthager

. Berlin, vol. I. 1879.

These books treat of the secular history of the ancient Carthaginians, but help to understand the

situation and antecedents.

Julius Lloyd; The North African Church. London, 1880. Comes down to the Moslem Conquest.

The inhabitants of the provinces of Northern Africa were of Semitic origin, with a language

similar to the Hebrew, but became Latinized in customs, laws, and language under the Roman rule.

The church in that region therefore belongs to Latin Christianity, and plays a leading part in its

early history.

The Phoenicians, a remnant of the Canaanites, were the English of ancient history. They

carried on the commerce of the world; while the Israelites prepared the religion, and the Greeks

the civilization of the world. Three small nations, in small countries, accomplished a more important

work than the colossal empires of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, or even Rome. Occupying a narrow

strip of territory on the Syrian coast, between Mount Lebanon and the sea, the Phoenicians sent

their merchant vessels from Tyre and Sidon to all parts of the old world from India to the Baltic,

rounded the Cape of Good Hope two thousand years before Vasco de Gama, and brought back

sandal wood from Malabar, spices from Arabia, ostrich plumes from Nubia, silver from Spain, gold

from the Niger, iron from Elba, tin from England, and amber from the Baltic. They furnished

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History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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