Christianity in Egypt
is the second largest religion in Egypt. The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts. As of 2019, Copts in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's population, with an estimated population of 9.5 million or 10 million. In 2018, approximately 90% of Egyptian Christians were Coptic Orthodox.
The history of Egyptian Christianity dates to the Roman era as Alexandria was an early center of Christianity.
Demographics
The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts who belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Church. As of 2019, Copts in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's population, with an estimated population of 9.5 million or 10 million. Smaller or larger figures have also been cited, in the range of somewhere between 6% and 18% of the population, with the Egyptian government estimating lower numbers and the Coptic Orthodox Church claiming 15 million Christians living in Egypt. A lack of definite, reliable demographic data renders all estimates uncertain. Outside of Egypt, there are roughly 1 million members of the Coptic Orthodox abroad. In 2018, approximately 90% of Egyptian Christians were Coptic Orthodox.Other than the Coptic Orthodox Church, two other Oriental Orthodox churches have members in Egypt: the Armenian Apostolic and Syriac Orthodox churches.
A minority — approximately 2.5% — of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Catholic Church. In 2007, the Annuario Pontificio estimated the total membership of the Coptic Catholic Church to be 161,327, divided into nine eparchies, with nine bishops and 164 parishes. Other particular churches of the worldwide Catholic Church with members in Egypt include the Melkites, Maronites, Syriac Catholics, Armenian Catholics, and Chaldean Catholics. Most Latin Church Catholics in Egypt are expatriates.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa is the presence of Eastern Orthodoxy in Egypt. Its membership has steadily declined, and was approximately 110,000 in 1980.
There are a small number of Protestants among Egypt's Christian populations. This includes the Evangelical Church of Egypt, Pentecostals, Anglicans, and the Armenian Evangelical Church. There are smaller numbers of adherents of the Christian Brethren, Free Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Churches of Christ, among others. Between 1,000 and 1,500 Jehovah's Witnesses live in Egypt. The Adventist Atlas estimated 852 members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Egypt as of 2008.
Scattered among the various churches are a number of converts from Islam to Christianity. A 2015 study estimated that there were 14,000 such believers in Egypt.
Socioeconomic overview
Coptic Christians in Egypt are generally characterized by relatively high levels of educational attainment, income, and representation in professional and white-collar occupations, though their participation in security-related institutions remains limited. A 2013 demographic study found that most socioeconomic and health indicators among Copts were broadly comparable to those of Egyptian Muslims. Historical data also suggest that Egyptian Christians have been overrepresented in the country’s middle and upper-middle classes.Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Copts held significant roles in Egypt’s financial and administrative sectors. They were widely employed as accountants in government offices, and by the 1960s reportedly owned a substantial portion of the country’s banking institutions. In the mid-20th century, Christians were estimated to represent 45% of Egypt’s medical doctors and 60% of its pharmacists.
A 2016 study by the Pew Research Center found that 36% of Egyptian Christians had completed university education, among the highest rates in the Middle East and North Africa.
Several Coptic families have attained significant economic influence, particularly in the private sector. The Sawiris family, through its Orascom conglomerate, became one of Egypt’s most prominent business dynasties in the early 2000s, with interests spanning telecommunications, construction, tourism, and technology. In 2008, Forbes estimated their combined wealth at $36 billion.
Some scholars attribute the high educational and economic profile of the Coptic community to a historical emphasis within the tradition on literacy and the development of human capital.
History
Early history
According to tradition, the Coptic Church was founded by Mark the Evangelist, who was one of the seventy apostles chosen by Jesus and sent out to preach the gospel. He is mentioned in the Book of Acts as a companion of Saint Paul in Antioch and Cyprus, and is ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. According to the Coptic tradition, Mark was born in Cyrene, a city in the Pentapolis of North Africa. This tradition adds that Mark returned to Pentapolis later in life, after being sent by Paul to Colossae and serving with him in Rome ; from Pentapolis he made his way to Alexandria.According to tradition, in AD 49, about 16 years after the Ascension of Jesus, Mark travelled to Alexandria and founded the Church of Alexandria, having already been in Egypt for 4-5 years. The Coptic Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and the Coptic Catholic Church all trace their origins to this original community. Aspects of the Coptic liturgy can be traced back to Mark himself. He became the first bishop of Alexandria and he is honoured as the founder of Christianity in Africa. When Mark returned to Alexandria, the pagans of the city resented his efforts to turn the Alexandrians away from the worship of their traditional gods. In AD 68, they placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead.
According to Eusebius, Mark was succeeded by Anianus as the bishop of Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero, probably, but not definitely, due to his coming death. Later Coptic tradition says that he was martyred in 68.
According to Severus ibn al-Muqaffa, the rise of Christianity in Alexandria in the second half of the first century was accompanied by persecution by the Romans, so much so that after the departure of the third Pope of Alexandria Avilius in 93 AD, a new pope could not be chosen until 95 AD. This pope, Kedron, was himself martyred under the emperor Trajan. Despite this, the bishops elected a new pope, indicating that the church had such a powerful base that no amount of persecution, not even the murder of the pope himself, could overcome it.
The Rise of Christianity
was elected as the 5th Pope of Alexandria in 106 AD, and the Catechetical School of Alexandria arose in his days, as did the number of churches in Egypt and beyond, despite the emperor Hadrian continuing the persecution of Christians. The next two popes, Justus and Eumenes, were also Deans of the Catechetical School of Alexandria. The persecutions by Hadrian intensified during their pontificates, but subsided during that of the next two popes, Markianos and Celadion, due to the ascension of the relatively tolerant emperor Marcus Aurelius. Since the middle of the second century, the Catechetical School has produced many Church Fathers whose writings are still read and studied today, including Origen and Clement of Alexandria, as well as Saints Pantaenus and Athenagoras. Some of the most important Church Fathers in the West, such as Saints Augustine and Jerome, were influenced by the School of Alexandria too. Another milestone of the second century was the first Bible translations into Coptic from its original Koine Greek. Coptic was, along with Syriac and Latin, one of the earliest languages the New Testament was translated into.Pope Demetrius established a liturgical calendar by which fasts and feast days were determined. He was engaged in the controversy over the canonical calculation of Easter, and was the first to apply the calculation method for determining the date of Easter. His method was later approved by the Council of Nicea, which made one of the duties of the patriarch of Alexandria to determine the dates of the Easter and to announce it to the other Christian churches. This duty fell on this officiate because of the erudition at Alexandria he could draw on.
Pope Demetrius died in 230 after a long pontificate, and neither his pontificate nor that of his predecessor Julian saw any violent persecution of Christians, except that the restrictions against them were not lifted, and he had warned the bishops against leaving Alexandria. Despite this, the Pope would secretly leave to ordain new priests in other cities and villages. By 300, about a quarter of the population in the eastern half of the Roman Empire was Christian.
During the second century, the Church also fought against Gnosticism, which syncretized Christianity with the beliefs that had prevailed before it. Its monks engaged in meditation and philosophy in pursuit of spiritual knowledge, which they believed could be attained solely by human effort without God's help. Gnostic beliefs were not well understood to historians until the discovery of their writings, such as the Nag Hammadi library, in the 20th century. The gnostics wrote false gospels and ascribed them to Biblical figures. For example, the Gospel of Judas portrays Jesus' betrayer Judas Iscariot as a partner in salvation and redemption. The Church Fathers, such as Origen and Clement of Alexandria, produced anti-Gnostic writings which contributed to the fall of the movement, although it would take several centuries to completely disappear.
The Era of Martyrs
The main problem suffered by the church in the second and third centuries was their persecution by the Roman Empire. From the expulsion of Jews and Christians from Rome around 50 AD to the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, the Christians suffered various persecutions, the harshest of which were the Neronian persecution and the Diocletianic Persecution. Christian history refers to the persecutions of Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian and Diocletian as the "Ten Great Persecutions".Christian teachings conflicted with Roman beliefs regarding the deification and worship of Roman emperors, and Christians refused to serve in the Roman army and took Sabbath days off to perform religious rites. Roman authorities thus saw Christians as anti-state criminals, and Christianity as a subversive religion that threatened the safety and security of the empire. Therefore, they banned Christian gatherings and organised persecutions against Christians, which reached their height under Diocletian. The Christians faced this persecution with strength and endurance, with thousands choosing to suffer torture and death over denying their faith in Christ. The Coptic Church began counting the years, the Era of the Martyrs, from the beginning of Diocletian's reign, and commemorates the martyrs on Nayrouz, which is the beginning of the year in the Coptic calendar.
The situation for Christians greatly improved after Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan legalised Christianity in 313 AD, and Emperor Theodosius's Edict of Thessalonica made it the state church of the Empire in 380 AD.
From the 3rd century onwards, Egyptian Christianity fostered the Desert Fathers and thus originated a major and influential tradition of ascetic monasticism in the Christian Church overall.