African Christians Prior to Catholicism/King James/Columbus/African Diaspora/European Colonialism

J. Compton

"I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist." - 2 John 1:7

Don't believe the lie that the gospel of Jesus Christ was made up sometime after the Roman Emperor Constantine (around A.D. 313). Or, that King James is somehow responsible for the Scriptures that we have today.

African Christian Worship

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Egypt - according to their teachings, Jesus' disciple Mark is credited for establishing the Christian church there in approximately 42 A.D. Some writings that mirror today's New Testament were found in Bahnasa, in Middle Egypt, around 200 A.D. Also, a fragment of the gospel written by Jesus' disciple John, written in Coptic, was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the 2nd century A.D. In the 2nd century, Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into the local Coptic language.

Ethiopia - in 333 A.D. officially proclaimed Christianity as its state religion. The adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia dates to the fourth-century reign of the Aksumite emperor Ezana.

Here's the story of Ezana's conversion:
As a young monarch, Ezana was tutored by a Middle-Eastern Christian named Frumentius (died 383 AD), a Syrian-Phoenician Greek who was born in the city of Tyre (modern-day Lebanon). According to the historian Rufinus, Frumentius and his brother Edesius traveled with their uncle Metropius by ship to Ethiopia around 313 AD, a land under Axumite control. While at harbor in the Red Sea region, the crew of their entire ship was slaughtered over a brawl that had broken out (while another account says they were shipwrecked and lost that way instead). In any case, the two boys, Frumentius and Edesius managed to survive, and were brought as slaves to the court of King Ousanas. The King favored the two, raising them to positions of trust, and before he passed away, liberated them from slavery. His widow, the acting regent Sofya, had the two (now young adults) stay at court and tutor her young son Ezana. Using their influence over the central administration of the kingdom, Frumentius managed to befriend Christian merchants living and working within the kingdom, along with converting Ethiopian Axumites to the Christian faith. While his brother Edesius traveled back to his original home of Tyre to be ordained a priest, Frumentius stayed behind in Ethiopia to continue his work of conversion. Eventually, the Orthodox Christian Patriarch of Alexandria, Athanasius, raised Frumentius to the status of Bishop, whereupon he baptized King Ezana. Frumentius is honored in Ethiopian history as the Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace), as well as the first Abune, head of the Coptic Church of Ethiopia. His is also accredited with being the first to translate the New Testament into the Ethiopian writing system of Ge'ez.

Aksum was one of the earliest states to develop a coin system in order to service its sophisticated and prosperous economy. Emperor Ezana was the first world leader to put the cross on coins that are the earliest examples of Christian material culture from Ethiopia.

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria - the Nicene Creed, which is recited in all churches throughout the world, has been authored by one of its favorite sons, Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria for 46 years, from 327 A.D. to 373.

Also, on January 7, 367 A.D. when he wrote his annual Resurrection Day letter to his churches, it contained the same list of 27 books of the New Testament that are found in our Bibles today. So far as we know, Athanasius was the first Christian leader to compile a list of New Testament books exactly as we know them today (before Constantine's dream that spawned Catholicism, King James commissioned the bible's compilation and African diaspora).

"Black Dwarf" was the tag his enemies gave him. And the short, dark-skinned Egyptian bishop had plenty of enemies.

He was exiled five times by four Roman emperors, spending 17 of the 45 years he served as bishop of Alexandria in exile. It is Athanasius' writings that shaped the future of the church.

Ancient Nubia converted to Christianity under King Silko - ancient Nubia was at once a Nile Valley and Sudanic civilization. Its history extended beyond the founding of Dynastic Egypt and Napatan-Meroitic Kush. Equally significant, is the fact that long after ancient Egypt had been subdued by the Ptolemies and Rome, ancient Nubian civilization continued to thrive in late antiquity as an independent kingdom for 1,000 years. And more notably, contrary to western historians, the rise of Christianity in Nubia was gradual. It began a century before the arrival of Byzantine (the new Rome) missionaries. Consider the following:

1. Evidence of this lies within the royal mound superstructures of deceased Nubian kings.
• Archaeological excavation found evidence in 122 Nubian royal tombs of 5th and 6th century in Ballana and Qustul. They dated to the time after the collapse of the Meroitic state (from around AD 350 to 600), but before the founding of the Byzantine Christian Nubia.
• The excavator reported "Christian symbols have been found on possessions of obvious native manufacture such as leather quivers" ... "on pottery after baking". Also, found was "a silver reliquary with figures of Christ and the Apostles in relief".
• Christianity is believed to have spread to Nubia by the hermits and monks of the Thebaid (area of the famous city of Thebes. By the 5th century Thebaid was a desert in southeastern Egyptian where a number of Christian hermits retreated.
• The area around Thebes has always enjoyed a reputation for its strong, almost fanatical, Christianity. The first monks in the Christian tradition, known as "The Desert Fathers," contained a majority of Thebans, and Theban Christians celebrate many martyrs who have refused to yield their faith to the many persecutions in the first centuries of the church.
2. The primary historic figure credited for an "entryway for Christianity to sprout in Nubian a century before the arrival of Byzantine missionaries was the Nubian King Silko." In 537 A.D. he drove out the Blemmyes nomads. Archaeologist, discover Silko's triumphant inscription written on the pagan Temple Kalabsha in southern Egypt. It declared that "God gave me the victory."
3. The conversion of the Nubian peoples to Christianity in the sixth century A.D. began a period of cultural and political advance in the Sudan, and gave cohesion to the riverain kingdoms already existing before the arrival of the missionaries. Combining with the underlying native culture, new elements from the Mediterranean produced an intellectual and artistic activity, shown in the archaeological remains, which contradicts the impression of barbarism gained from reading the mainly hostile Arabic accounts of the country.

Brief Narrative About African Martyrs

Perpetua and Feliciti - in 202 or 203 A.D. a wealthy cultured and prominent woman of Carthage and her maid-servant were dragged to the courthouse by Roman soldiers. There the magistrate ordered the women to worship the Roman gods at once. The women did not answer. He offered them freedom and apologies if they would deny Jesus of Nazareth. Perpetua was said to have stepped forward and said, "As a water pot cannot call itself by any other name, I cannot call myself by any other name than Christian." Feliciti agreed. The magistrate ordered them both to be thrown into the sports arena with the lions on the following day. The hungry lions refused to attack them. So gladiators cut off their heads.

Alexander the African - around A.D. 252 he endured threats and harassment as other Christians. On April 24 of that year Roman officials gave him the chance to deny Jesus. He refused.

Theodora - a young black woman of high social position in Alexandria, Egypt was brought before Eustratius, the Roman Prefect of Alexandria, for refusing to make sacrifice before the Roman gods. The transcript records her saying things like, "I am a Christian made free by Jesus." ... "By coming incarnate into the world, He raised us from corruption and promised us eternal life." ... "The source of true honor is in Jesus of Nazareth. He is able to protect me."
Didymus helped Theodora escape from prison. Later the pair were martyred in 304 A.D. during the reigns of co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximianus.

Mary - a black slave woman of Senator Tertullius (he and his wife were also black). When the Roman Emperor Diocletian (240 A.D. - 311 A.D.) issued his edict against Christians Mary's owners whipped her in order to get her to deny Jesus (to keep their slaves out of the Roman hands) and on another occasion locked her in a closet. Mary refused to deny Jesus. Eventually, she was officially turned over to the Roman government system. Upon appearing in court before the Prefect Roman court records quote Mary as saying, "The God whom I serve is with me. I do not fear your torments which can only take away my life - which I am always ready to lay down for Jesus."

Black Africanus - he was told by the local Roman Prefect to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus. The Emperor Decius had him arrested on April 10, 250 A.D. Roman soldiers led Africanus and his followers to a wide deep pit full of snakes. Africanus was thrown in first, then his followers. The poisonous and constricting snake did not harm them. So the Romans pulled Africanus and his followers out, lined them up in front of the Prefect and beheaded them all.

African named Arcadius - a loyal Christian. Romans arrested his family and held them hostage to lure him back home. Upon return the Roman magistrate offered let them all go if he would deny Jesus and acclaim the Roman gods. Arcadius refused. In brutal return, the soldiers hacked away his limbs one-by-one, but Arcadius continued to pray to Jesus until he died. Some place his death under Roman Emperor Valerian (253-260 A.D.), others under Diocletian (240-311 A.D.).

Maurice, the African Roman general - he and his 6,000 men were black and Christian. He was ordered to put down a rebellion, but when he arrived at the location he discover the rebels were Christians. He sent a message to the Roman Emperor Maximian (250-310 A.D.) saying that he would not fight or kill these Christian rebels. The emperor sent another army who killed Maurice and his men. Italy's highest civilian medal is named after him - Sardinian Order of Saint Maurice. In A.D. 369 the site where he and his men died a basilica was built, and the village was named St. Maurice en Valais.

Summary of Africans Who Lived or Died for Jesus (not exhaustive)
(an introduction ... you can research it)

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