Coptic Christianity

What is Coptic Christianity?

Coptic means ‘Egyptian’. Coptic Christianity is a group of Christians in Egypt. At the first century of Christianity, Coptic Christianity were considered as Eastern Christianity and subsequently they were separated to anothers because of several reasons. Their local culture and language influenced the development of Christianity there. It makes them different from another Christianities. Moreover, they hold different understanding of Trinity concept and they have another literatures beside the canonic bible.

After the day of Pentacost, the apostles accepted Holy Spirit and they were encouraged to report the gospel. Saint Mark, one of the apostles went to Egypt and constructed congregation there. Those Egyptian Christians then became Coptic Christianity.

History of Coptic Christianity

Coptic Christianity was born in Alexandria. There are so many approximation about when Coptic Christianity began. The historians estimate that it was born approximately in the first or second century. There were also another religions and concepts of divinity among Coptic Christianity. Those influenced the developed Christianity there.

There are so many opinions about who the early Coptic Christianity were. They were probably Jews who lived there, or the pagans. The Jews might be the early Coptic Christians because the historians found the influences of Judaism in Coptic Christianity.

Coptic Christianity then created an organization like Western Christianity. Their organization still had Judaism’s influences. They had archbishop, bishops, priests, and teachers.

Why are they different?

Coptic Christianity is physically different from Western Christianity. It is because they have different local cultures which influence their own styles. They also have a few different doctrines. For instance, about The Trinity. After Origen reported his writing about the doctrine of The Trinity, Arius and Alexander started to debate about the explanation of The Trinity. The council of Nicea then chose Alexander explanation and it became the doctrine of The Trinity in Western Christianity. But, Coptic Christian chose the explanation of Arius which said that God Father is higher than Jesus Christ. It is because Coptic Christianity was influenced by the Jews and their ways of thinking. Besides, they were also influenced by heresies: Gnostic and Marcion. So they chose to mix the concept of The Trinity with the Israelite’s concept of God.

They also have their own literatures beside Holy Bible. Those literatures give them different visions about Jesus Christ. For example, Gospel of Barnabas and Gospel of Jude told different story about the death of Jesus Christ. Many theologians thought that those Gospels were influenced by the heresies. It makes Western Christianity considered them as heresy too.