Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | 12/10/19 | Andrew Lawler

[marshmallow]

Archaeologists now can more closely date when the religion spread to the Aksumite Empire

In the dusty highlands of northern Ethiopia, a team of archaeologists recently uncovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, a find that sheds new light on one of the Old World’s most enigmatic kingdoms—and its surprisingly early conversion to Christianity.

An international assemblage of scientists discovered the church 30 miles northeast of Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading empire that emerged in the first century A.D. and would go on to dominate much of eastern Africa and western Arabia. Through radiocarbon dating artifacts uncovered at the church, the researchers concluded that the structure was built in the fourth century A.D., about the same time when Roman Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianty in 313 CE and then converted on his deathbed in 337 CE. The team detailed their findings in a paper published today in Antiquity.

The discovery of the church and its contents confirm Ethiopian tradition that Christianity arrived at an early date in an area nearly 3,000 miles from Rome. The find suggests that the new religion spread quickly through long-distance trading networks that linked the Mediterranean via the Red Sea with Africa and South Asia, shedding fresh light on a significant era about which historians know little.

“The empire of Aksum was one of the world’s most influential ancient civilizations, but it remains one of the least widely known,” says Michael Harrower of Johns Hopkins University, the archaeologist leading the team. Helina Woldekiros, an archaeologist at St. Louis’ Washington University who was part of the team, adds that Aksum served as a “nexus point” linking the Roman Empire and, later, the Byzantine Empire with distant lands to the south. That trade, by camel, donkey and boat, channeled silver, olive......

[dp0622]

Very interesting. First time I’ve heard of them.

300 years is actually pretty fast to spread 3000 miles with no modern communication.

Not just spread but take hold.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[irishjuggler]

The 3,000 mile figure mentioned in the article is a little misleading. Sure, that’s the distance to Rome, but from the time of the apostles there were Christians all over the middle east and Mediterranean region. From where did the first Christians in Ethiopia come? There are some articles that mention missionaries from Syria.

[xp38]

Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

[MurrietaMadman]

Sssshhhhhh.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-throne-of-adulis-9780199739325?cc=us&lang=en&

Reading about this may be a crime

[Fiji Hill]

The eighth chapter of Acts describes the conversion of the treasurer of Ethiopia. However, this “Ethiopia” is most likely Kush, a kingdom in what is now northern Sudan.

[A strike]

The author of course is referring to A.D. without being intelligent enough to know it.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Radiocarbon dating has always been something of a puzzle to me. I am skeptical about it. The same goes for many assumptions and assertions made by archaeologists. Messy business.

My question about radiocarbon dating is whether it targets the age of the substance, or the age of its form. The substance is atoms and molecules, any of which ultimately have their origins when time began, i.e. when matter was created. How can radio carbon dating accurately refect when human, or other, intervention, rearranges matter?

[Cronos]

Christianity was in Ethiopia and India during Apostolic times. An Ethiopian was baptised in the book of acts. And st Thomas landed in India in 52 AD.

But this travelling was commonplace then.

Read of Hanno the Navigator who circumscribed Africa around t00 bc.

Or the one that fascinates me the most is the story of Gilgam7a Sumerian king who travelled the world before 3000 BC. Thi k of that, before e en the old kingdom of Egypt, before egy7was United. Fascinating our ancestors were

[Grimmy]

Read of Hanno the Navigator who circumscribed Africa around t00 bc.

**********

Wow. That’s a lot of cuttin’. Get carpel tunnel syndrome.

(I know, I know, but I had to)

[Forward the Light Brigade]

HANNO DIDN’T Circle Africa—just went down the west coast to Cameroon. Another Phonetician team it it earlier for the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho—Herodotus wrote about in in his History.

[patriotfury]

Right in!

Acts 8:26-40

Philip meets the Etheopian eunuch, who accepts Christ, and evangelizes from there.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Armenian and Ethiopian writing is the same even though the spoken languages are completely different. Ethiopia also has a long tradition of Orthodox Christianity...

Around 406 AD, Saint Mesrob Mashtots was tasked with creating a new alphabet for the Kingdom of Armenia. The Armenians sought to distance themselves from the countries and religions that surrounded (and attempted to conquer) them. Many suggest that Mesrob might have encountered Ethiopian Christians while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and came into possession of one of their religious texts. With a Ge’ez bible as his guide, it isn’t unthinkable that Mesrob adopted some of the characters to fit his unfinished alphabet. Both Armenia and Ethiopia were nations that had faced the same problem Mesrob was sent to address – they were the only Christian nations in their regions for years, and were eager to produce the same sort of religious literature.

Source: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/african-culture-proto-ethiopians-may-have-given-armenians-their-first-alphabets.305793/

[Psalm 73]

I guess Phillip would be the first recorded contact between early Christians and Ethiopians when he explained Isaiah to the Ethiopian eunuch and baptized him by the roadside.

[Cronos]

😊 writing on a phone has its negatives

[norwaypinesavage]

"Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading empire that emerged in the first century A.D. and would go on to dominate much of eastern Africa and western Arabia.... The kingdom began its decline in the eighth and ninth centuries, eventually contracting to control only the Ethiopian highlands. Yet it remained defiantly Christian even as Islam spread across the region."

Isn't it interesting how Northern Africa and the Middle East was the cradle of civilization, until.....

[FormerLib]

Philip the Evangelist was told by an angel to go to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and there he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer of the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27) and was returning home. Sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah, he was reading Isaiah 53:7-8. Philip asked the Ethiopian, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He said he did not (”How can I understand unless I have a teacher to teach me?”), and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him the Gospel of Jesus, and the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They went down into some water and Philip baptized him.

[circlecity]

That may or may not be true, but what we do know is that Christianity was exported to Africa very early, within a year or two after Christ’s ascension. This church dates roughly to the ministry of St. Augustine- a African.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj.