Modern Conflict, Ancient Egypt

"When Israel was a child then I loved him, and I called him out of Egypt." --Hosiah 11:1


While there are two thousand years of Coptic history, today history positions Copts at a critical juncture. The United States government is making movement to attempt restraint to the conflict now boiling in Egypt. There are at this moment, thousands of Coptic Christians being slaughtered for no other reason than they are Christians, not Muslims.
Many outside of the middle east are wholly unaware that the intensification of what some call a 'holy war' between Christians and Muslims is again on the front burner. Today it is more often Christian communities who are suffering. Egypt and Iraq are two such examples.

Otto Meinardus writes about this history, which replays itself again today in his book of the same title, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity. "The history begins with the traditions of the visit of the holy family to Egypt... to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy" regarding the coming of the One, The Christ. "Undoubtedly Egyptians filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit... returned to their homes along the Nile Valley, and established there the first Christian communities," so records the Bible verse, Acts 2:10. Regarding Saint Mark the Evangelist as the founder of their church, Coptics, as did Saint Mark, suffered much persecution for their faith.

Yet today few realize "that Egypt once was a great Christian nation." Following its initial establishment in Egypt in the earliest of the common years, the Coptics became a firm part of Egyptian life from the second century onward. In Alexandria, with Constantine's rule in 313C.E. the Church emerged to face numerous conflicts with their neighbors. By the sixth century there is recorded to have been 600 hundred monasteries in and around Alexandria. Saint Cyril is by tradition said to have constructed the first Egyptian cathedral. However the Copts split from the Byzantine church in 451 C.E. The most famous Coptic Theologian of the early period is Origen, who settled in Alexandria and founded a school there which had great influence over the Coptics.

Also in the early church there arose a disagreement regarding the understanding of the "body of Christ." Further developments led to schisms and emerged with four groups, including the Nestorians claiming ascendancy. With these divisions in place, the Coptic Church was further weakened by the arrival of the Muslim invaders, under which many more adopted the beliefs of Mohammad, the Prophet.

Currently, writes Meinardus, the Coptics have been revitalized and are increasing. The "Africa Project," whereby the Church of Alexandria joins forces with the ancient churches of Africa has yielded a harvest for both groups, strengthening them and enriching their ancient traditions. Today the style of worship remains in the ancient Coptic language and her song remains equally vibrant, fueled with ancient rhythms. Yet the unfolding conflict in Egypt threatens, the innocent, the minorities, the Copts directly.

Melchizedek, a Jew and other Torah Figures

Melchizedek-- Heb. meaning, "the god Zedek is king."


The Hebrew name Melchizedek appears in many current documents as if something new to humankind is being uncovered. In fact the name means in English, the god Zedek is King. It is also the name of the ‘mysterious’  (Greek word meaning ‘the initiate(d)’) personage mentioned in Genesis 14:18-20.

He is also mysterious because little is actually known of this person whom the Bible records as being a priest and king. In the book of Hebrews 7, he is presented as one who presages the appearance of the Christ come into the world. Here the name Melchizedek, owing back to its original Hebrew, takes the additional connotation of ‘the king of justice.’

There are three main points of resemblance between Melchizedek and the Christ who it may be said later fulfills his oracle. Both men were both priest and king; both offer bread and wine as sacrifice to G-d; both derive their priestly state directly from the ancient Hebrew tribe of Aaron, because neither man is from the tribe of Levi, another branch which served a different priestly function.

Who and why are the tribes of Israel important to the story of Melchizedek? First of all, the bible records for history that the ancient tribes of Israel performed several distinct functions in their society and that this ordering reflected well upon their religion which in time comes to us as Judaism. While the Torah records many tribes from far and wide, the tribes most important to the story of Melchizedek are the Levites, those men who were the hereditary priests, or sacred ministers with duty to offer sacrifices at the altar of the holocausts (Leviticus 1:3-4); they also entered the place of worship morning and evening to offer incense at the golden altar. See Psalms 99 and 110:4, also Hebrews 7:1-17.  The significance of the “order of Melchizedek” is that his authority arose by means different than the traditional hereditary one of other priests. They were made priests on the mandate of G-d, the Creator. Nothing more is made of their priestly state.

Aaron was a member of the tribe of Levi (Exodus 4:14-16 and 7:28-30) and the brother of Moses; he was the designated tribal spokesman before the Egyptian Pharaoh. The Levite priests were also charged with several other duties, including the care and cure of Lepers in their communities. Luke 1 and 5. They officiated at the temple, and all the Tribe of Levi along with those of Aaron ministered together during the great festivals. Their dress was a long, light linen tunic worn with a decorated sash and turban. Compare this with the modern, Orthodox Christian practice owing its tradition back to the Hebrews, in all ways of the priests. So it is the priest of modern day who presides as Melechizedek's descendant, anointed with Holy Chrism.

Orthodoxy and the Hellenization of the Jews

"...Jewish Palestine had already been under Hellenistic rule and its resulting cultural influences for some 300 years by the time of Jesus of Nazareth's arrival." --Dr. Martin Hengel, Ph.d

Recalling that in antiquity Greece was not the unified nation as we think of it today, but a nation of city-states (polis), each have to a large measure its own sovereignty. Thus a citizen of one polis was not a de facto citizen of any other, and once obtaining permission to leave one's own polis, travel to another was a potentially hazardous undertaking. After a citizen departed the gates of his own polis, where he held citizenship, he passed out into a place of limbo while en route. Traveling to the next place, one would not necessarily be admitted, since one was a foreigner in that place.

Despite the political alliances and organization of ancient Greek cities, Greek learning, thought and education was widespread and prominent throughout the middle east. "Hellenization was so widespread" that Jewish Palestine was more accurately described as Hellenistic Judaism, writes Constantelos in his book, Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church."Its force, which embraced almost every sphere of life... was an expression of the power of the Greek spirit which penetrated and shaped everything, expressively and receptively." Thus Greek was the language, long in common use by all. The Hebrew tongue of the Jew's forefather was nearly forgotten. The coming of the Christ was approximately 360 years into Greek-Roman rule.

Judaism did not rebuke Hellenization. Nor did the emerging Jewish Christians reject wholesale the thoughts, perceptions, philosophy, life-style or politics of Hellenism. Rather the Christian-Jewish sect embraced it. Greek and Roman culture through subsequent centuries became part and parcel of Orthodox belief and imagination.

Thus Christianity appears in the world not as a reaction against Hellenism, but in concert, as a new and empowered spiritual force; it united the Greek and Roman world thoroughly. The doctrine of God was brought to the Christians by way of an already established view that long played a part in Hellenism. Monism was much in vogue and debated by many scholars in antiquity. God was spoken of as the 'one who contained all'.

Many elements of Christianity that would claim to be uniquely her own, in fact, stretch far back into the ancient world; these ideas have had a long reign in the world of ideas. The Church would like to claim, for example, that she has the origins of the name (logos); that divine revelation was limited to the Jewish-Christians. They used established Greek thought to attack polytheism and to explain elements of the Torah, which reflect a sometimes different conception of the natural world. "Natural revelation is a very important element in several religions," argues Constantelos.

While ancient Greece accepted polytheism, the "new religion," Judeo-Christianity, advanced the cause of the Oneness, and her corresponding view of God as a mono-theism. Yet ancient Greece was pluralistic in her beliefs. No single philosophical idea was dominant. Both monotheism and polytheism were widespread. Greek civilization was correspondingly in flux.

Choice (heresy, haeresis) was thought the right of the Greek in the polis; later this notion of choice developed further into a sense of free-will, and remained part of Orthodox teaching, while other ideas related to the free Hellenistic spirit of the earliest eras were deemed heresy and expunged. The developing Orthodoxy saw life, and God everywhere.

God was, in the Christian mind, uncontainable (achoretos); Life is a mystery, suffused with this most holy of spirits. Creation is sanctified by the presence of the deity in man and nature. "This state reveals itself in human consciousness." For this reason temples, altars and other religious materials were put into use by the Christian community, reminding themselves that the presence of God was everywhere.The development of an idea of the personal, loving Spirit in the Christian mind further distinguished Orthodox Christians from others in the ancient world.

Consequently, through the Hellenization of the Jews, the stage was set for the timely entry of the Messiah, Emmanuel, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ. "Greek monotheism developed progressively after the sixth century B.C.E (BC). It was now Aristotle, the Greek thinker, who wrote, "God, being one, yet has many names, being called after all the various conditions which he, himself inaugurates."

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