Definition:

The Coptic Language is the name used to refer to the last stage of the written Egyptian language. Coptic should more correctly be used to refer to the script rather than the language itself. Even though this script was introduced as far back as the 2nd century BC., it is usually applied to the writing of the Egyptian language from the first century AD. to the present day.

Short History Of The Egyptian Language Before Coptic:

The ancient Egyptians devised a writing system to record their spoken language over 60 centuries ago. The first application seems to have been the calendar. The system started by giving each word a symbol, called hieroglyph. This convention was of course doomed because of the tremendous vocabulary it would have generated. Out of such ideas they took some of these hieroglyphs and associated a sound value to them which, when combined together, would spell out the spoken word. The sound values of such characters depended mostly on the pronunciation of the word that it denoted in the early stage. Thus the hieroglyph for mouth, pronounced ‘ro’ became the sound ‘r’ in the new system. About 130 hieroglyphs have been identified as voiced characters. Some represented a single sound, others a two-character sound, and some a three-character sound. Many more hieroglyphs were added to represent the idea or to enhance the meaning of the word. These are commonly referred to as ‘ideograms’ and they brought the number of identified hieroglyphs to over 4,000. This script, popularly called hieroglyphic, was both beautifully drawn as well colorfully painted. It was used for inscription on Egyptian monuments as well as a variety of written texts on papyrus. In parallel with the development of the hieroglyphic script, a second script came to light. Such script was a mere simplification of the artistic, and sometimes laborious, hieroglyphic. It was originally devised by the priests to record the records of the temples and then became a tool of the government servants, educated by the learned priests, who used it to record the affairs of the state. Due to the priestly origin of the script the name ‘hieretic’ was popularly affixed to it. This script used the same symbols, drawn in a simplified way. There is no indication that script had as many ideograms as the hieroglyphic had. With the decline of the state such a cumbersome writing method became impossible to preserve it as is. So in the fifth century BC. a new script was devised that was both simpler to write and included about ten percent of the total number of hieroglyphs used previously. This new script came to be referred to as ‘Demotic’. The cursive, and relatively ugly appearance of characters, in comparison to the hieroglyphic, was compensated for by its relative compactness. Many written records were preserved in that script but they dared not inscribe it on temple walls.

Origin Of Coptic Among Egyptian Pagans In 313 BC:

Alexander the Great invaded Egypt. His legacy was carried on by his general Ptolemeus and his successors in Egypt. That legacy, simply stated, was to have a universal culture. Such culture would of course be the Greek or Hellenistic one. With the culture comes the language, so it became the proper way for the educated classes to learn Greek and encourage their children to learn it for the economical as well as the social advantages. In script, the Greek was far superior to the Demotic, the last surviving Egyptian script at the time. It offered 24 characters all pronounceable as opposed to over 400 symbols that only a small percentage represented sounds and the rest were ideograms. It is important to note here that the Greeks learned their writing system from the Egyptians through the frequent travelers of the ancient world, the Phoenicians. In the course of their commercial dealings with the Egyptians, the Phoenicians imported the Egyptian script and molded it into an alphabet with a far smaller number of characters, all pronounceable and all consonants. As they traveled the Mediterranean and traded with the inhabitants of the Greek Isles, they gave their version of the Egyptian writing system to the Greeks. They in turn revised its orthography and added a number of written vowels. A system that eventually became the basis for the new Egyptian script, i.e. the Coptic. The pagan Egyptian priests, as a result of the invasion of the Greek language, found themselves at a disadvantage. The source of income as well as the power of their temples depended a great deal on the making and the sales of magical amulets. Now these amulets, written in Egyptian, can not be pronounced by those who can afford to pay for them. If they can not use, properly or at all, it is safe to say that they would not buy it. To avert such economic and religious massacre, they reverted to a transliteration system of these amulets. This new system used the Greek characters along with several other characters borrowed from the Demotic to denote sounds not available in Greek. The economic success of such system made them extend its use to other applications such as horoscopes and the like. The number of borrowed Demotic characters eventually were reduced. The resultant script was highly standardized, in the common tradition of the Ancient Egyptians. Origin Of Coptic Among Christians In Egypt Christianity in Egypt owes its formal introduction to St. Mark the Evangelist. He most likely came first to Alexandria in the early fifties of the first century AD., accompanying his uncle St. Barnabas. This came as a result of the news of Apollo, who represented an imperfect Christianity that existed in Alexandria at the time. After the repose of St. Barnabas in Cyprus, St. Mark came again by himself and started proclaiming the word of God among the Jews. The legacy that St. Mark left in Egypt was a Christian community made up primarily of converted hellenized Jews. Christianity remained eclipsed by the powerful Jewish community in Alexandria at the time. After the Jewish Revolt in the first quarter of the second century AD. and subsequent annihilation of the Jews in Alexandria, the Christians of Egypt became visible to the world. The first visible signs of such presence were rather blemishing to the character of the Church. Two teachers of Gnostic, heterodox repute, traveled abroad at different times during the middle of the second century AD. They were Basilides and Valentinus. The latter became infamous due to his quest to be the bishop of Rome. In any case, these teachers influenced the arrival of Pantanus, the missionary, presumably to introduce the orthodox teachings of Christianity to a seemingly Gnostic community. After his arrival he discovered that this was not exactly the case and there was a strong orthodox community present as a result of the evangelizing work of St. Mark and his successors. Being a renowned Christian teacher he was put in charge of the Christian school of Alexandria, a rather small school that taught those who are willing to serve the Lord the fundamentals of Christianity. Shortly after his arrival, St. Demetrius, the first bishop of Egyptian origin, became the bishop of Alexandria about 189 AD. The contact between Pantaenus, the missionary, and St. Demetrius the representative of the large and mostly non-Christian Egyptians was truly a match made in Heaven. As a result a missionary movement to convert the Egyptian peasants began. The School of Alexandria probably became a school to prepare the missionaries and direct their activities. The dilemma faced by those responsible for directing such missionary work was the uniformity of the message to be given to the Egyptians. The missionaries knew how to read Greek but not Demotic. The Egyptian peasants did not know how to read either but they understood the sounds of the language written by the Demotic script, i.e. Egyptian. To insure that the Word of God, written in the Scriptures, be preached the same by the different missionaries, it had to be written in a way that the missionaries can read and the Egyptians can understood when it was read to them. So the missionaries translated the Scriptures into the Egyptian tongue but wrote them using the Greek characters they are familiar with. These attempts differed from those of the pagans in that they did not use any Demotic character in the beginning. The shortcomings of that system were eventually realized and more characters, borrowed from the Demotic, were added to bring them to the current six or seven additional characters that survived in the Sahidic and Bohairic dialects respectively. Dialects Now we see two independent attempts to write the Egyptian language in new script. Each attempt was unique in its motive, approach, and audience. Due to the distribution of the population along the length of the Nile, many dialects developed. Each was characterized by the use of different vowels in pronouncing the same words as well as some distinct variation in the vocabulary. The pagans attempted from the start to develop a uniform written language in a neutral Dialect, the Sahidic. Because of their early start, they were successful in their efforts and nearly erased any influence that such regional dialects had on their own version of Coptic. The Christians on the other hand put the benefit of the people ahead of proper language development and resurrected all these regional dialects in a written form. Eventually most of these dialects fell into disuse as the uniform Sahidic became the more dominant again. Another factor that affected these the dialects was the fact that the Coptic language was generally weakened by the influence of Arabic. All the dialects were to a large extent geographically-dependent. Their spanned the entire length of the Nile Valley. Based on literary records we have such dialects as the Akhmimic and the Lycopolitan (Asyutic) dialects of Upper Egypt, the Middle Egyptian and the Fayoumic of Middle Egypt, and the Bohairic of the Delta. Then there is the Sahidic dialect that became, from the earliest times, a neutral dialect used throughout Egypt and eventually gained literary dominance with the extensive writings of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite. There is also a host of minor dialects as well as subdialects to the ones mentioned above. Now Bohairic is the only surviving dialect of Coptic. It was kept alive first by the strength of the monastic communities of Wadi n’ Natrun which used it extensively. Then with the move of the Patriarchate from Alexandria to Cairo in the 11th century, Bohairic, the dialect of the District, became the official dialect of the Church replacing the Sahidic. The Golden Age Of Coptic Coptic was used from its Christian beginnings in the late second century AD. till the time of the Great persecution of Diocletian in the early 4th century AD. predominantly as a translational tool from Greek to Egyptian. After the persecution, the monastic movement picked up tremendous steam. It was for the Copts the only way they can express their great love for God, that they earlier expressed with the willing sacrifice of their most precious possession, their earthly lives. These monastic communities were large and mostly Egyptian. This generated the need for the abbots of these communities to write their rules in their own language, i.e. Coptic. Also the Fathers of the Coptic Church, who usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Coptic. So with monastic fathers like St. Antony, St. Pachomius, and St. Macarius and their respective disciples writing to their monks; and Church Fathers like St. Athanasius, St. Theophilius, and St. Cyril writing also to them in Coptic, the Golden Age of Coptic was about to begin. It was not until St. Shenouda the Archimandrite came on the scene that Coptic really achieved its literary excellence. St. Shenouda who lived from 348 to 466 AD. was able to transform the language form a tool to communicate instructions to the monks to a wide-variety literary language that addressed monks, ecclesiastic authorities, laymen, and even government officials. His charisma, knowledge of Greek language and rhetoric, and his innovative mind gave him the necessary tools to elevate the Coptic language, in content and style, to a literary height never achieved before nor equaled since. The Coptic scholars are constantly astounded by his great writings as more and more of them are being studied and accurately published. This literary legacy continued to a lesser degree through the writings of his disciple St. Besa in the second half of the fifth century. But such writings were mostly for the edification of the large monastic community in the White Monastery. later in the sixth and seventh centuries other fathers wrote many works in Coptic like Rufus of Shotep, Constantine of Asyut, and Pisentius of Qift. Coptic During the Early Arabic Period (7th to 10th Century AD) By the middle of the seventh century, Egypt came under the dominance of Arab rulers that eventually tried to force the Copts to learn Arabic to keep their government jobs. This policy slowly eroded the number of Coptic lay readers who were mostly from the ranks of these government workers and their families. In other words the pressure put on such families to learn Arabic to ensure their continuing service in the government and the inheritance of such work by their offspring, made them slowly neglect educating their children in literary Coptic. Within a few hundred years Bishop Severus of Al-Ashmunain found it necessary to write his ‘History of the Patriarchs’ in Arabic to address such a drastic decline. Ecclesiastically, the language continued strong. In fact, a great number of Hagiographic texts were composed during the early parts of this period. Coptic continued to be used in the Church with Greek as the second language, as seen from the texts that survived from the period. However a relatively small number of liturgical manuscripts survived from such period to show how it was being used. This was due to the heavy use that such manuscripts were subjected to, poor preservation during the period of decline in use, and the parchment material they were written on that did not lend itself to such heavy use. During this period some Arabic loan-words made their way into the language. But there was no indication that the Arabic language was used in the Church. There were no Coptic-Arabic manuscripts that belong to this period or any literary citation to indicate its possible use. Coptic was also the spoken language of the peasants and probably the clergy. Coptic versus Arabic (from 11th to 14th Century AD) As the 11th century approached, the excellent relations between the rulers of Egypt and the Church were drastically changed as the Hakem-bi-Amr-Allah became the ruler. His violent mood swings took their toll on the Christians who were periodically subjected to open persecutions, had their churches closed for up to two years at time, and saw their language being prohibited from use. Through God’s grace, this period did not last long, but it definitely left open the door for further decline in Coptic use. During the same period, the European Crusaders waged their wars against the Moslem rulers of the Middle East in an effort to secure the holy places. Their presence in the area generated waves of persecutions and oppressions against the Copts. This was due to the Moslems seeing in the sign of the Cross, displayed by the Crusaders, an implied alliance of the Copts with those invaders and a great threat to the country. Of course there was no chance of such alliance, for the Crusaders considered the Copts as heretics and treated them worse than they treated the Moslems, as sad as it might sounds. Introduction of Arabic in the 12th century by Patriarch Gabriel ibn Turaik was probably an attempt to show the Moslems that the Copts are different from real enemy that they were fighting. Such move may have been considered wise at the time but it actually opened the flood gates. Christians Arabic literature flourished afterward. Later in the period, Arabic invaded the liturgical books, replacing Greek in bilingual texts and intruding on traditionally non-bilingual ones. Even purely Arabic liturgical texts began to appear, indicating that Arabic moved from a mere reference translation to actual use in the churches. Original composition in Coptic became limited to liturgical hymns and prayers. The only Coptic literary texts composed in the later part of the period were the martyrdom of St. John of Phanidijoit, written as such to shield from the eyes of the Moslems, and compositions, urging the Copts to revive their language. Further testimony to the gradual decline of the language as a reading tool was supplied by the many lexicographic works that were introduced during the period. They were in the form of Muqadimat (Grammar) and Salalem (Scalae or word lists). Another sign of decline was Arabic texts circulating among the monks but written in Coptic characters, as they could not still read the Arabic script. This eventually was replaced with the writing of Coptic text in Arabic letters that we see nowadays in the Coptic Church. In summary, this period saw the decline of Coptic literary use in its last stronghold, the Church. Eventually, it led to the weakening of the Church which subsequently weakened the language more, a natural chain reaction. The number of Christians declined due to conversion to Islam. This can probably be attributed to the decline in Coptic which represented a cultural barrier for the Copts from the Arabic-Moslem Culture. But now the increasing use of Arabic bridged that barrier and made it easier for the border-line Christians to cross to seemingly greener grounds! Coptic Decline as a Spoken Language (to 17th Century) After the 14th century the Church experienced a decline spiritually and in numbers. The dominance of the Ottoman Empire over Egypt in the early 16th century seemed to accelerate such decline. Production of Coptic Manuscripts slowed down to a trickle. This is an indication that Coptic books were not used as often as before in the Church, so there was no need to produce more. Tradition still mandated that Coptic be used in Church services but in a decaying fashion. Eventually Vansleb, the French traveler, concluded upon seeing an old man speaking in Coptic that with his death (the man’s) Coptic will die. Such observation may not have been completely accurate but it gave an indication that Arabic has replaced Coptic as the primary spoken language among the Copts, if not the only one! Revival of Coptic in the 19th Century AD God, in His great mercy, did not let that decline goes unchecked. In His usual fashion, He brought forth a gleam of light in the midst of that self-imposed darkness. Such light was St. Cyril IV, Patriarch of Alexandria in the beginning years of the second half of the 19th century. St. Cyril started a Church-sponsored movement to educate the clergy and the new generations. Revival of Coptic seemed to be a necessary tool for such a movement. So Coptic language education was offered in all the schools that he built alongside the other curriculums that was needed to make a new, better, and educated generation. St. Cyril did not last long on the throne of St. Mark. In fact too short of time for such a great figure in Church history. His death was in part brought upon by opponents of his reforms. But he laid the ground work for such movement to continue. In the last half quarter of that century the movement to revive the Coptic language intensified. The eyes of those in that movement turned to Greece in an effort to establish a standardized method of pronouncing Coptic. It was felt that Greek preserved the original sound value of many of the characters in Coptic because of its close association with Coptic in its early days. However the Greek tongue underwent some modifications due to the effect of 150 years of Turkish (Ottoman) dominance. Because of the lack of any other available means, a new pronunciation system was established for Coptic that made it sounds not as Egyptian as it should have sounded. In spite of the above shortcoming, those dedicated people spread the language among the masses. They printed many of the Coptic service books for the first time, as they were only extant in manuscript form. Thus reviving the use of Coptic in the Church services. Several works of grammar was produced as a result along with a more comprehensive dictionary that was available before. The establishment of the Clerical College also aided in the propagation of the movement. Coptic in the 20th Century Coptic continued its growth in the Church and among the Ecclesiastically-educated groups that were produced in the early parts of the 20th century. Coptic schools, instituted by St. Cyril IV and others that emulated them, continued their valuable work among the Coptic community. The clerical college also continued the tradition of the 19th century revival of Coptic. However, the pronunciation system established seemed to be a hindrance to the spread of the language among the masses. With the advent of the revolution of 1952, Arabic became more prominent in Egypt and eventually it had an influential effect on the new educated classes among the Copts. As members of these groups were called upon to serve the Church, they brought with them a preaching spirit that put Arabic in a new prominent position in the services, i.e. sermons. Unintentionally, and in spite of the good will of such people and their love of the tradition of the Church, they introduced again an element that eventually weakened the revival process. If such process is not wisely put in check and eventually reversed, we are liable to face in the future a Church with a lost identity. May God have mercy on those who would contribute to such a sorry end!

The Establishment of the Church and its Creed

The church was established in Alexandria between 55 and 68 A.D. by St. Mark, one of the 70 Apostles of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the church is the same one that is cited in the New Testament according to the teaching of Jesus Christ and his Apostles (Mt. 16:18; 24:14). The Church believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of Man (Mk. 8:31, 38), Son of God (Mt. 3:17), and God (Jn. 14: 8-11), who was born through the Spirit of God to St. Mary 2,000 years ago (Mt. 1:18-23). He came to our earth to give salvation to mankind through his crucifixion on the cross (Mt. 27:27-44). After his death, Jesus was buried for three days in a tomb (Mt.27:57-61), and on the third day his resurrection took place (Mt. 27:62-63). He appeared to his disciples (Mt. 28:16-20) relatives, and others. After 50 days, Jesus ascended to Heaven (Mk. 16:19). St. Paul emphasized such faith as follows: “He [God] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the word, taken up in glory” (I Tim. 3:16). The Fathers of the Church summarize their faith according to the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:16-20), Three in One.”

Pope Discorus of the fifth century A.D. as well as all the Alexandrian Fathers believed in and taught the pure Orthodox faith of their predecessors. Pope Discorus says the following concerning the Faith of the Coptic Orthodox Church: “If a piece of iron, heated to white heat, be struck on the anvil, it is the iron which receives the blows and not the white heat, though the iron and the heat form an indivisible whole. The unit of the iron and the white heat is symbolic of our Saviour’s incarnation, whose divinity never parted from his humanity, not even for a moment nor the twinkling of an eye. Yet though His divinity parted not from His humanity, their union was without mixing nor fusion, nor change, like unto the union of the iron and the white heat.” The Fathers of the Alexandrian School define this union as “The one Nature of God the Word made “flesh” and is synonymous with St. John’s saying “the Word was made flesh” (Jn. 1:14).

One scholar writes about the early Fathers of the Coptic Church as follows: “Alexandrine Christianity became the light of the world. The venerable Fathers of the Coptic Church, the great theologians of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, the Coptic Saints and heretics, the founders of monasticism, the immortal leaders of the oecumenical movement, all these and numerous other categories of illustrious Copts made indelible contributions to the establishment of the new faith.”

The Coptic Language and its Alphabet

The Coptic language is the last phase of the ancient Egyptian language. We know that the ancient Egyptian language was used by the Egyptians through the country’s long history, even during the Greco-Roman period. But when the Ptolemaic Dynasty started to rule Egypt after the invasion of Alexander the Great in332 B.C., Greek was used as the official language while the ancient Egyptian language remained the popular or common one used by the Egyptians. Both languages continued to be employed after the Roman and Byzantine occupation until the invasion of the Arabs in the 7 th century A.D. (642 A.D.). “In 705/706A.D. the Umayyad Viceroy ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Abd-al-Malik issued the hazardous and untimely decree substituting Arabic for Coptic in all state affairs. Though his injunction could not be carried out in practice, it proved to be an incentive for the native scribe to learn the language of the conqueror, and this resulted in the appearance of many bilingual documents in subsequent centuries”. The Coptic language was employed as “a spoken and liturgical language until approximately the thirteenth century A.D.” (7) But in the late Middle Ages (about the 17 th century A.D.) the Coptic language was discontinued as the spoken language of Egypt, “though it is still used as a liturgical language in Coptic churches to the present day” (with the Arabic language), among some Coptic communities in a few villages scattered in Upper Egypt. Much of its vocabulary has been used in the spoken Arabic of Egypt. Philologists have noticed that the Coptic language has different dialects such as Bohairic (the dialect of Lower Egypt), Saidic (Upper Egypt), Faiyumic, Bashmuric, Akhmimic, and sub-Akhmimic. The Bohairic dialect is still used in the Coptic liturgy.

The Coptic people left many writings in Coptic that include the sayings of the Egyptian Fathers, the monastery rules, theological writings, biographies of saints and martyrs (the Synaxarion), prose narrative, poetry, contracts, letters, stories, funeral texts, religious texts, grammatical study, historical events, gnostic writing, magical text, miracle texts, and medical texts as well as the translation of the majority of the books of the Bible. Most of the books of Old Testament were translated from Hebrew into Coptic, and all the books of the New Testament were translated from Greek into Coptic. In addition, they left texts “of the apocryphal gospels and Acts, the violent tenor of the lives of their martyrs” and “the Coptic Manichaean papyri discovered in 1930 in the Faiyum. Today, the Copts (Christian Egyptians) write in the Arabic language. Their literature is part of Arabic literature. Among the modern Coptic literary men are Ikladious Labib, Akhnoukh Fanous (1856-1946), Tadros Wahba (1860-1934), Francis El-Atr (b. 1882), Nasr Losa El-Assiuti (b. 1887), Iskander Kousman, Roufail Nakhla.” I would add to this list: Yassa Abd El-Messih, Ayoub Faraq, Pahor Ikladious Labib, Shaker Basilios, Iris Habib El-Masry, and many others. “All these had an Islamic Arabic education, in addition to a thorough knowledge of Coptic Christian doctrine and history.” These people “are of Ancient Egyptian stock, without such Turkish or other foreign blood, being the direct descendants of the Pharaohs.” About the third century A.D. onwards, the Egyptians or the Copts adopted all the 24 Greek letters and other seven letters from the Demotic (the last phase of the writing of the ancient Egyptian language which in Greek means the writing of the commoners) using all the 31 letters as a new system of writing, the Coptic language, instead of about 750 signs which the ancient Egyptians invented. These signs usually were pictures of buildings or parts of buildings, human beings, parts of men, mammals and parts of mammals, birds, amphibia, fish, insects, plants, heaven, stars, earth, water, sea, boats and their parts, wind, temple articles, clothing, jewelry, insignia and more pictures from their environments.

The History of the Coptic Church

The Coptic Church of Egypt started during the Roman Empire and continued under the Byzantine Empire, thereafter under the Islamic rule and into modern times. The church and its people met severe persecution since early Christianity in the first century A.D. and through the centuries. Thus it has its own history of two thousand years which includes:

1. The history of the Popes with their deeds since the first century A.D., starting with the first Pope, Anianus, until the life of His Holiness the 117th Pope, Shenouda the Third. We know the lives and deeds of all these Popes without any gaps with the number of years when each occupied the seat of Alexandria.

2. The Popes and their relationship with the ruling dynasties of Egypt. The founder of the Coptic Church was St. Mark, who was martyred during the rule of the Roman Emperor Nero (54-68 A.D.). Since that time, the Coptic Church and its creed spread throughout Egypt. The Christians of Egypt met 10 persecutions during the reigns of the following Roman Emperors: Nero (54-68 A.D.), Domitian (81-96 A.D.), Trajan (98-117 A.D.), Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.) Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.), Maximinus (235-238 A.D.), Gordian III (238-244 A.D.), Decius (249-251 A.D.), Valerianus (253-259 A.D.), Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), and Maximian (286-305 A.D.). The relationship between the Popes of the Coptic Church and the ruling dynasties of Egypt, was sometimes good or bad, according to the policy of the many rulers of Egypt.

3. The Popes and their relationship with the other churches. Christianity started in the first century A.D. and, until the middle of the fifth century A.D., there was “a strong unity among the traditional church.” “Each church was considered a bishopric under the leadership of an archbishop who was in complete charge…When there were problems concerning the creed, the heads of the churches met in ecumenical councils to resolve them.” The first ecumenical council of Nicea took place in June 325 A.D. because the Libyan priest Arius denied the divinity of Christ; this heresy was rejected by the council. The second council, that of Constantinople, was held in 381 A.D., to discuss “the heresy of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople who did not believe in “the divinity of the Holy Spirit.” The members of the council.”excommunicated the heresiarch.” In 431 A.D., the members of the third ecumenical council gathered in Ephesus and excommunicated Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, who believed “that the Christ was two distinct persons: one divine and the other human; that each of these two acted independently of each other.” Only the first three ecumenical councils were accepted by the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The fourth council was held in 448 A.D. in Ephesus because Eutyches who became an archimandrite of one of the monasteries in Constantinople, rejected the humanity of Christ. But during the council, he changed his opinion and accepted that “Christ is ‘the Word made flesh’,” which saved him from excommunication. In 451 A.D., the fifth council took place in Chalcedon, because of the “false accusations that Pope Discorus of the See of Alexandria was Eutychian, although he was not”. Pope Discorus interpreted his faith to the members of the council, that his faith and the faith of the Alexandrian Fathers is the pure Orthodox faith of their ancestors; the council believed that “his orthodoxy was true indeed.” During the meeting of this council, a strong conflict appeared among the different churches because of their creeds. After the council of Chalcedon, no other ecumenical councils were held. Before and after this council, major gaps opened among these churches. “The first of the churches to be alienated was that of Egypt, then those of Antioch, Armenia, Ethiopia and India.”

The classical and modern historians tell us that many of the Christians of Egypt, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the United States, Central and South America, Canada, Australia, and Asia are following the same creed of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Many of Coptic Orthodox Churches were established in Egypt and other countries in the early centuries A.D. and have continued through the centuries until today.

“It is evident from the foregoing “story” that the Coptic Church is not a Church of the past alone, she is also a Church of the present: stretching across the generation from the moment of St. Mark founded Her to the present day. She has conserved the Legacy bequeathed to Her most carefully; at the same time, encouraging the endeavors of the human mind in its search after knowledge. This encouragement is clearly seen by the members of creative works still extant despite all the destructive forces.”[/sws_ui_toggle]

Music elevates the spirit. It takes it from this tangible materialistic world towards the intangible spiritual world. Art in general and music in particular fleshes out what is spiritual. It is the medium between spirituality and our material life. Every beauty in nature shows elevation and every artistic inspiration demonstrates a level of elation. Music is not fantasy or distraction; it is part of life and one of its most important elements. Musical talents are in each one of us. Some have the strength to express it and others have the strength to feel it, enjoy it, and be touched by it.

The best instrument ever is the human’s voice. People used vocal music since their very early existence on earth. It has no substitute. All mothers, starting with Eve, sing in order to calm down their babies. The songs or tunes may differ, but they have one source: Motherly love.

For thousands of years, people used music in worship to praise their creator. They used music when working in prairies and over hills and mountains, when building their houses, when traveling down rivers or across oceans. Music is not just a combination of beautiful sounds that pleases the ear; it is an essential nourishment of the soul. Food might taste good, but the purpose of food is the nourishment of the body. Similarily, I won’t be exaggerating when I say that music’s purpose is the nourishment of the spirit. The Old Testament tells us that musical arts existed from the very early existence of humans. In Genesis 4:21, we learn of Jubal son of Lamek of the 9th generation from Adam. He was the father of all harpists and organists.

When Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, Exodus tells us how “[they sang] this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously… And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” [Exodus 15:1,21] Also in Judges we read: “Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying, Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.” [Judges 5:1-3]. And during the prophet David’s time, music reached its fullness in poetry, melodies and performances. Music was an essential part of all their praises to their creator, their prayers in times of war and in times of peace, theirin times of joy and and in times of sorrow.

In Chronicles we read: “It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD.” [2- Chronicles 5:13].

With this artistical splendeur, the Spirit came along, and with the strengh and influence of music immobile materials were moved, and Jericho’s walls fell down. This is the status of art in worship it arrived to it’s optimum.. How beautiful are Psalms!!.. People still enjoy them until this day.. They were written by the best ever mentioned psalters.. And Isaiah says in Isa 6:1-4: I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

The church on earth tries to imitate the Heavenly Church.. The Revelation Book says that all heavenly hosts despite their different classes praise around God’s throne and in His house day & night saying the Trisagion and reply saying that to Him be Power & Wisdom & Strengh & Honour & Glory & Blessing for all things were created by Him.. And Rev 5:8-9 says And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.

This is life in heaven.. One hymn on heaven will exceed all earthly hymns together in beauty.. That will be our life in the New Jerusalem coming from heaven..

How beautiful are the tunes of these few verses of the Bible: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. I think that however great & profound our imagination is, we can never realise how beautiful these tunes were.. I think it became clear why Apostolic Churches did take a big amount of music in it’s services & dogmas over the whole year.. Specially the Coptic Church where almost each word during the whole year whether in the morning or evening is chanted..

Here is the Apostolic teaching.. St.Paul speaks to Christians in his letter to Ephesians.. Eph 5:19-20 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; And in his letter to Colosians.. Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord…

St.John Christosomos explains that “singing with grace in your hearts”.. Also Origen, St.Basil, St.Augustin among others explained these verses clearly.. It was clear from that letter to Clossians that St.Paul was referring to Church Prayers which were well known to the readers.. From both texts, it is clear that St.Paul made music an essential element of worship and divided it to three: Psalms-Praises-Spiritual songs which are hymns.. These three parts were the fundamentals on which all traditional churches: Oriental & Occidental based their prayers.. If anyone objects on Apostolic Churches we may say that the base is in the Bible..

The early Christian Congregation began in Jerusalem.. It did attend both the synagogue & the temple.. Several texts in the Acts book mentioned that.. Among which Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour..

Although the temple’s music was instrumental, the synagogue’s music was vocal.. So, when the first christians became independent, they took their musical rites from the synagogue and used only vocal singing.. Composers & Readers who left Judaisme & believed in Christianity used to have the same job in Christianity.. So, Psalms were chanted exactly the same way they were sung in synagogues..

As the early Jerusalem’s Church the music was vocal in all Oriental & western churches.. Also, it used the same Jewish way of psalm chanting in most cases as the Jewish Christian church.. That what was said by fathers: Apostles did transmit something from the Jewish dogmas & traditions to all lands..

With the beginning of Christianity, in every oriental or western country, raised prayers, liturgies & dogmas conforming with the nature & environment of each land also every land composed the music conforming with it’s own taste so the Byzantine Church Music is Byzantine, the Egyptian Church Music is Egyptian, the Jewish the same..

The best example for that is that the Ethiopian Church although conceived and affiliated to the Egyptian Church for long generations remained pure Ethiopian.. That means that the local inherited art had the biggest influence in forming the Church Art.. That shows a big evidence on the difference between Coptic & Ethiopian Hymns.

So every nation took from it’s previous worship tunes which were found appropriate. So undoubtedly, Greeks took from their ancient worship hymns and used it in Christianity.. Also Romans took from their Ancient war Music & used it and so did Egyptians..

Once St.Mark came to Alexandria, Inianos’ family was baptised and Christianity spread quickly in all Northern & Southern Egypt in the first & second generations.. In year 400 the Anas-Elwogood Island had a church and a monastery.. Scientists agreed that no population believed in Christianity in strength & zeal as the Egyptians did.. The Ancient Egyptian man did in vain search for the unseen creative strength in the soul & spirit.

The most important tradition for the Ancient Egyptian City was art.. As the Ancient Egyptian arts were profoundly engraved in the people’s heart, it appeared clearly in Architecture, Sculpture and Ornaments.. Very influenced, almost the same as the Ancient Egyptian with a compromise with the new positions & thoughts of Christianity in the first four generations where Christianity Hypostasis & basics were founded..

Let’s have a look at Ancient Egypt’s art the land which believed in Christianity.. Pithagorus, the Greek scientist visited Egypt after 520 BC during the Hellenic invasion to Egypt.. their pressure and destruction to all civilisation & troubled social life.. He said that he could gather from Egypt elements on which he based his well known musical theory!!

Singing & Music was necessary at every Ancient Egyptian festival.. No meetings lacked music.. Also women in every house, mastered music & practised it.. In the pharaoh’s Palace there existed Musical teams or bands with singers they had conductors which were proud that they fill the pharaoh’s heart with joy & can realise His wants with their beautiful singing..

Religious Festivals were real wonder and Glory when they move with the God in his ship over the priest’s shoulders in the temple.. People used to present their offerings and salutations.. These customs were usually accompanied by Musical & Singer groups.. Many of the religious liturgies were accompanied by music.. Also kingly marches were lead by priests with praises & incense many of the priests were called Psaltos Priest.. Or King singer priests.. The Egyptian People is a very rich civilisation since old times.. Yet some of ancient words are said in Labours’ songs and a song to Nile’s Sailors sung in Arabic exactly in it’s same Ancient Egyptian pronunciation which is:”Ya Tera Tiri we hatili…”

Egyptians usually preferred to use blind singers.. There were many and the Coptic Church still chooses it’s cantors among blinds.. But we should take care and choose only the talented ones..

The Alexandria Library responsible ” Dimetrios the Valerion” in 297 BC said that in their Honour & Intercession festivals for Gods Egyptian Priests used to sing on the 7 Greek vowels consecutively.. It produced beautiful sounds which satisfied them from using the Flute or Harp.. Nikomax the Mathematician who lived in the first century said the 7 vowels were special to the seven stars.. Until today, most of the Coptic Hymns are sung on these vowels.. Some are sung on Alpha (a) others on (e) as aretenshonty, the Big Alleluia and the Offering Alleluia.. Ancient Egyptians considered that singing with these vowels represented the most profound religious expression..

Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish Philosopher who lived in the first century said: “The first Christians took from the Ancient Egyptian Hymns & used it in their new worship” Whether they took it as is, adding a spiritual dimension or didn’t take it, the Egyptian Art was still living and was still Egyptian Flesh & Blood. The Singary tune was named after Singar a city in the delta since Ramses II which became famous in the Coptic Aera for the numerous monasteries which were there around and it’s church were 2 consequential Popes were chosen..

The Edriby Tune is probably named after Edribah the City whose Ancient temple was changed by Abba Shenuti to a church.. Copts used also to find a relation with the Coptic word “Eder Hipi” which means sorrowful.. The text for hymn of the Cross: “When King Costantine’s peace letters arrived Alexandria saying close the Baraby doors & open the churches” this hymn was written for the discovery of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in 326.. Many other hymn share this same tune with this one among which the Shaaneen Sheres & Tarh and the Cross Tarh Hymn.. That proves that these hymns are old.

Among the oldest hymns, one written by St.Clement of Alexandria in 180 in his book “Paedagogus” (the teacher).. It is a thanksgiving for Christ recited by new baptised people for their salvation from the seas of sins its translation is:”Holder of the wild animals, wing of the young birds, director of peace for ships, shepherd of kingly lambs, gather Your poor children to praise in holiness and sing in honesty with sincere mouths the Christ leader of children. Jesus human’s salvation, the Vineyard Shepherd, the heavenly help and the Holy sheep” No wonder that this hymn is no longer in use since our fathers wrote hundreds of hymns

The Oldest Christian hymn transcribed with musical signs was found on a Papyrus in Bahnasa.. Coming from the ends of the 3rd century it is a trisagion musically deciphered by Prof.Phales among which:”Let all forces praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit the only giver to good people Amen”

This Papyrus is a very important one.. It is not like any of the thousands of old Coptic Papyrus available in Egypt & in the whole world.. Some of them return back to the 9th Century & of course copied from older copies (Many of them are concerned with music) Nothing has any musical sign except in one Papyrus in John Rylands Library, Manchester Collection.. Mr.Crum the Coptic Language scientist used some specialists to decipher those signs but they could never do it.. I hope Prof.Phales will arrive to a decision in this matter.

Coptic Hymns were transmitted as oral tradition from one generation to another until 1927 when I brought Prof. Newlandsmith (Composer & Ex-Prof. in London Royal Music Academy) we signed a contract to transcribe hymns and masses in Musical Note.. I will mention that in details later on.

The Egyptian Church arts & dogmas began to raise with the beginning of Christianity in Egypt.. The Egyptian Church has it’s own four masses never used by any other church.

The Kyrollos Mass was written by St.Mark the Apostle himself.. Probably, this Mass’ status became stable long ago before St.Kyrollos because it is very similar to St.James Mass & The Lord’s Covenant Mass, the oldest liturgies.. Both St.Basil Mass & St.Gregory do share the same Awashy part with St.Kyrollos Mass that’s why we think that their music also return to it.. Except those, most of St.Kyrollos Mass Music was lost.. Nothing remained except the hymn Oukoty & Ouoh Nay they are used for the Dead Mass (Requiem Mass).

Concerning the St.Basil Masses, there exist 3 masses named after St.Basil.. St.Basil of Costantinople Church Mass, The Syrian St.Basil Mass & St.Basil Coptic Mass (it has a Greek text).. These three differ from each other in text, dogmas & music..

Certainly, the Egyptian St.Basil Mass does belong to the Egyptian Church.. It was used before the division of 451 (long before St.Basil the Great).. St.Basil’s Mass Music is pure Egyptian except the confession part & Confession Introduction they are Byzantine..

This Byzantine part also belongs to the Egyptian Church since it has no brother in the Costantinople text except a small sentence.. Neither in the Music, nothing is similar.. The St.Basil Mass Music, whether the Coptic or the Byzantine is so beautiful and have big influence if chanted in their original tunes and with a beautiful talented voice.

The Gregorian Mass also belongs to the Egyptian Church before division.. It’s music also is Egyptian except it’s beginning “The love of God the Father…” and the Confession are Byzantine..

“The Love of God the Father” is available in both the Coptic St.Basil Mass and Byzantine St.John Christomos but still their music are VERY different.. The Gregorian Mass Music is nothing but some Big Hymns which were going to be lost unless I did record it several times from Mlm.Mikhail who was the only one to have known it complete.. This mass is used in Big feasts.. It’s tunes are splendid and profound and have celebration influence..

The Malachite Church in Egypt used these 3 masses also after the division of the Church until the 12 th century.. The 4th Mass is Abba Serapion Bishop of Tomees (Tamyel Amdid) who was the disciple of St.Anthony the Great and a friend to St.Athenese the Apostolic. It was published in 1894.. We have strong proof that it belongs to the church of Alexandria.. Part of it is exactly the same in St.Mark Mass.

We do know nothing about it’s music or use.. It seems it wasn’t used widely and didn’t last for long..

In the writings of HH Gabriel Ben-Toreik Pope No 70 we got that some people tried using different masses than the 3 known ones.. In section 26 of his writings we found: “It came to me the weak, that some people in the Southern Cities (Seiid) pray inappropriate masses different from the three we all know which are St.Basil, St.Gregory & St.Kyrollos.. I defended people who are depending on that until they come at my residence and show these masses..”

Concerning hymns, a big rich collection survived and was preserved for the Church.. Their number exceed 300 Big & Small hymn.. Most of their texts are Coptic, some are Greek.. BUT all the music IS Coptic… These hymns are Spiritual, Profound & Beautiful.. They represent the High Standard of Spiritual Literature.. The original source of these hymns is pure Musical.. Some of them do last 15 minutes & are sung over one or few words or just a short sentence. Some of them (only in Greek words) are in use by Malachite but have different Byzantine Music..

All Church services as Tasbeha, Evening & Morning Incense Offering, Masses, Feasts & Fasts have their own hymns.. It differs accordingly to seasons.. Many Hymns are said just once a year. Which means it was composed for a special occasion.. Which proves that the Coptic Church is a very Musical One.. The Coptic Dogmas with their hymns throughout the year represent the LIFE in both the Old & New Testaments which shows CHRISTIANITY with splendid beauty in representation..

The sorrowful hymns have a very strong influence. No music in the whole world is similar.. It seems that this special aspect did characterise Egypt since very old ages: Herodote who visited Egypt in 460 BC said in his book about Egypt section 79:”One thing I am wondering about, which is the source of the song called Linos.. I think it is so old there, they call it Maniros.. They say that Maniros was the only son of their very first King.. He died very young so that they sang this sorrowful song for him.. And that this song was the first one they had..” In 1933, when more than 30 European Musician & Scientist heard these sorrowful songs, in the Music Conference held in Cairo, where I had the honour to be a member, a strong feeling mastered them.. I will never forget the “Singing Science” Professors in the Sorbone – Paris who asked Hegmn. Morcos Shenouda to repeat the Commemoration of Saints OVER 6 TIMES.. Also Mr.Newlandsmith said in one of his speeches: “Give me Cruzu’s voice singing some Coptic Hymns and I will destroy Jericho’s Walls..”

These sorrowful Hymns make the earthly boundings disappear, make the soul humble some of them could destroy the Hypocrite soul who insists in living sinner!!

The Coptic joyful hymns have their very special spiritual taste.. They make us feel that the heavenly beauty is very superior to all this world’s feelings.. We do believe that a hymn, sung in a talented voice and sincere soul has big influence more than dozens of words in attracting people to the Lord..

Religious Hymns which where composed similar to folkloric songs played a big role in spreading heresies and also in fighting them.. By the ends of the second Century, the Syrian “Beridessane” composed 150 psalm to spread the Gnostic Heresy which he joined he and his disciples.. So St.Avraam the Syrian composed hymns to resist & oppose it and gathered Choruses of Virgins who were intended to become nuns to sing them.. Also Arios composed folkloric songs to spread his heresy.. And a lot of fathers in Egypt & Europe composed opposite hymns to resist his thoughts.. As I did mention previously, Coptic Music was transmitted orally since the beginning of Christianity until 1927 when I called the Great Professor Newlandsmith who spent eight years transcribing it from the voice of Mlm.Mikhail until the work was done in 16 volumes.

In 1931, when this job came to it’s middle, the renewing supporters who called themselves the Reformation Party attacked me saying that I don’t want to preserve the old things.. On this same year in May, I travelled to England and gave with Mr.Newlandsmith three speeches concerning Coptic Music in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London.. Hundreds of Newspapers & Magazines in Europe, the States, Egypt & the Far East wrote about these speeches.. Fortunately, I still have all these speeches, here I show it to you.. Here on the first page an article in Oxford Newsletter: “A Great Speech added to the group of this season’s speeches” These articles described Coptic Music as Very Spiritual Music Very impressive and A Great Musical Treasure..

Here are the 16 volumes dear Copts would you publish them.. I don’t want any personal benefit, I even don’t want to write my name down there.. After that, I don’t think that any group of people would lack in preserving the most important tradition he & the whole world have, the oldest musical heritage. Many scientists everywhere are waiting for the publishing of these volumes to study Coptic Music & know the Coptic musical scales.. Although great researches on Byzantine, Syrian, Gregorian Music were published, not a word in any Musical Encyclopaedia was written about Coptic Music!!

I am working on recording the hymns on tapes to provide the Great Genius Prof. Phales with the recordings and transcriptions and prepare to publish them. This Professor is the one who deciphered Old Byzantine Music Transcription..

Coptic Music is Not Arabic, Not Turkish, Not Byzantine & Not Western IT IS PURE ORIGINAL EGYPTIAN MUSIC.

Until today, many traditional Church music is only vocal among which Coptic, Greek & Syrian.. Above mentioned Scientists and many others advised to preserve it. They said it is the biggest crime to try playing it on musical instruments for it was designed for human’s voices.. Playing it on strings gives poor, cut performance which does not represent by any way the hymn itself.. Playing it on Piano (or keyboards) requires adding harmony which also is not appropriate and requires us to destroy it’s basis & squeleton foundations.. That means destroying the Church Heritage which is considered one of the most profound Church traditions.. The Greek Church also doesn’t use instruments even the Cymbal & Triangle are not used there..

Prof. Newlandsmith did find some few small Coptic pieces, counted on one’s hand fingers which could give the same effect when played on violin as when sung (A Capella) such as the Revelation Book Response.

Introduction

Music is the language used by the Seraphim in heaven and humans on earth to Praise God. It is the language of the soul as prayer is the language of the heart. St Augustine says “There is no emotion of the human spirit which music is incapable of expressing”.

In spite that Coptic hymns are primitive and very ancient they are still alive and appeal to both the simple and the sophisticated. It offers joy, peace, stimulation and fulfillment to whoever takes interest in it. All other forms of music run out of fashion with time but the Coptic hymns have provided the Copts with an everlasting means of praising God as well as of self comfort.

It is very cumbersome to try to trace back the origin of the Coptic hymns as they were not recorded on musical notes but in the minds of clergy and deacons. Thus, no one can be certain as to how the hymns were developed and to what extent they were influenced by the surrounding cultures and time. However we are certain of one thing; that they were developed through the gifts and inspirations which accompanied the Apostalic Period.

As to the value of hymns in the Coptic Church, our fathers consider that God’s praise through hymns is the means which lead to the rewards obtained in the holy Sacraments i.e. praise is essential for receiving the grace of God.

Historical Development Of Hymns

A. In the Old Testament: Man has used music in the worship and praise of God since the very early days of humanity. It started during the days of Adam and reached a peak during the life of King David who’s Psalms and hymns are still in use today. The Old Testament is full of references to the use of music and musical instruments in the Jewish worship.

B. The Early Church in General: The early church was founded by the “Jewish” apostles and hence it is expected that the early church must have been influenced by the Jewish music. This music took two forms; the Temple music which was vocal and the Synagogue music which used musical instruments. An evidence of such an influence is the universal use of the Jewish word ‘Alleluia’ in all churches.

Such an influence, however, varied from one church to another depending on the language, culture, music and tradition of the various nations. No attempt was made by the early preachers to dictate a uniform system of prayer on all churches. Rather they devoted their teachings to faith and doctrine and left the remaining details to individual churches to be arranged in accordance with their traditions and culture. An example of this is the Ethiopian Church which used dancing and their hymns and music totally differ from its parent church; the Coptic Church.

As to the wording of hymns used in the early church, it began with poorly written extracts of translated Psalms. Shortly afterwards the church realised the value of hymns and praise in establishing proper worship. As a result effort of writers and poets were poured into formulating hymns and praise passages.

The Serian Hymns: (Iraque, Syria, India) – The Serian hymns were totally dominated by the hymns of St Avram who influenced not only the eastern church but the western church also. This saint who is known as the flout of the Holy Spirit reached peaks in spiritual depths and musical talents that he lived in his hymns. During the life of St Avram the Serian hymns entered a new era in depth and excellence and his hymns are still alive in the Serian Church today.

The Byzantine Hymns: (Greece and Turkey) – This Church adopted a lot of music and hymns of the Serian Church but because of the language barrier it did not advance as rapidly as other churches. In fact it did not really begin until the end of the sixth century through Anatolius the bishop of Constantinople, Romans and others.

The Latin Hymns: (Rome) – Its music was also influenced by the eastern church but its real founder is St Ilary followed by St Ambrose who is considered the Prince of the Latin music (equivalent to St Avram of the Serian Church) with over 100 hymns related to him, followed by St Augustine and others.

In comparison with the Byzantine music, the Latin music was considered more spiritual and more realistic as it was centred around Christ and Salvation. It became the source of all western music and the basis of the Protestant hymns after the sixteenth century.

The Coptic Hymns: Historical evidence suggests that the Coptic hymns existed since the Apostolic ages. It was formulated and formalised during the foundation of the Coptic Church. Contrary to the western churches whose hymns were developed with time, the Coptic hymns remained unchanged.

Development of Coptic Hymns

The Coptic hymns began to develop shortly after the preaching of St Mark the Apostle in Alexandria. Early Christians were basically Jews, who lived in large numbers in Alexandria, and Egyptians. Both groups have contributed to the formation of the Coptic hymns, namely:

– The Christian Jews brought with them well established hymns both in wording and music.

– The Christian Egyptians brought with them the very deep music of the Pharaohs relating to immortality of the sprit, the one God and resurrection.

Both contributions mixed exceptionally well due to the similarity of the background of the two cultures, but mainly due to the dedication of the early Coptic Christians. That dedication was so strong that those new believers sold everything and devoted their lives to worship in monasteries near Lake Mariut first (in the forties of the first century) and then afterwards they spread to other locations.

With such devotion and zeal efforts were concentrated to establish the system of prayer, wording and music of hymns, the Liturgy, the system of hourly prayers etc.

An evidence of the early development of the Coptic hymns (basically the first two centuries) is the discovery of an ancient hymn called ‘xorinex’ recorded on musical notes near the City of Bahnassa in Upper Egypt which dates back to the third century.

Nature of the Coptic Hymns

Coptic hymns are deep, harmonic and exactly defined songs meant to express the innermost emotions of the praising spirit. They do not follow musical notes or dedicated rhythm but rather they translate the pulses of the spirit. No doubt, the Coptic hymns were the product of highly spiritual people guided by the gifts and inspirations that were pertinent to the apostolic period. As such, it would seem impossible to duplicate it or challenge it by musicians.

This conclusion was confirmed by the English musician Professor Earnst Newland Smith who visited Cairo in the winter of 1927 upon an invitation from Mr. Ragheb Moftah the Egyptian researcher. The English musician listened to the entire range of Coptic music and documented it in 18 volumes. Some of his findings and comments are listed below:

“What we understand today as oriental music appears simply a degradation of what was once a great art. This music which has been handed down for untold generations within the Coptic Church should be a bridge between the east and the West and place a new idiom at the disposal of Western musicians. It is lofty, noble and great art especially in the element of the infinite, which is lacking today. Western music has its origin in ancient Egypt”. He also says, “Give me the voice of Ceruso singing the Coptic hymns and I shall destroy the walls of Jericho.”

Importance Of Hymns

A. To Coptic Studies: Coptic hymns are essential to any Coptic study simply because it is related to the Church’s tradition, rites, worship and spirituality. This could be appreciated if we imagine our church services without hymns?!

B. To the Coptic Church:

1. In a non-apostolic church such as the Protestant churches hymns are used to prepare the spirit for prayers or listening to Preaching. Contrary to that, however, in the Apostolic churches especially the Coptic Church hymns are itself a worship for both the singer and the listener. Thus there is no specific time allocated for the hymns in the service but the whole service is a symphony consisting of the priest, deacons and congregation served by the music. In other words the hymn is the part of the service during which the spirit is let free to praise God with its full capacity and strength.

2. The hymns represent a valuable inheritance, which dates back to the apostolic age unchanged. Thus are regarded as part of the Church’s Sacraments and a living gift, which could be obtained through learning. Those who learn it become distinguished servants of the holies and participants of one of the church’s most valuable Sacraments, namely, Praising God!

3. Praising God is highly honoured by the Coptic Church to the same degree as the Holy Sacraments as it is a ‘sacrament of the heart’. Thus, the Discolia warns even the bishop against taking hymns lightly or neglecting it. It says: “If you, ‘bishop’, were sitting teaching or listening to the reader or the singer and an important personality enters the Church do not allow yourself to be distracted but continue talking or listening to the readings or the hymns’

C. To the Coptic Person

1. The Coptic hymns are phrases written around Divinity, faith and theological beliefs, which reflects the human conception of the nature of God. When it is sung driven by the spirit it expresses our participation in this faith and our thirst to the Creator.

Thus, its real effect comes from the fact that the hymns are centred around God and his love. It is an appreciation and a display of love and gratitude towards the love giving Father!

2. Praise is a Divine service whereby we join the cherubim and seraphim in their continuous praise. Thus, we get raised to the same rank of the heavenly Angels.

Scope Of Coptic Hymns

The Coptic hymns total above 300 songs, which differ in music, tones and length (in excess of 20 minutes of some). The bulk of them are written in Coptic but few are written in Greek and some of them have been lost or disappeared.

They are so diverse that only very few could claim absolute mastership of all hymns.

Objectives Of The Hymn’s Subject

1. Appreciation of the importance of hymns.

2. Brief introduction to the history and development of hymns.

3. Survey common hymns and their occasions.

4. Learn selected hymns

5. Encourage further studies in hymns beyond this course.

References

1. Deacon’s service book (in Coptic)

2. The EBSALMODIA (in Coptic)

3. The book of daily Praise and hourly psalms by Father Matthew

4. Relevant cassettes by the Coptic Theology College in Cairo.

 The word Copt is derived from the Greek word Aigyptos, which was, in turn, derived from “Hikaptah”, one of the names for Memphis, the first capital of Ancient Egypt. The modern use of the term “Coptic” describes Egyptian Christians, as well as the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language script. Also, it describes the distinctive art and architecture that developed as an early expression of the new faith.

The Coptic Church is based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century, a dozen of years after the Lord’s ascension. He was one of the four evangelists and the one who wrote the oldest canonical gospel. Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark’s arrival in Alexandria as is clear from the New Testament writings found in Bahnasa, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 A.D., and a fragment of the Gospel of Saint John, written using the Coptic language, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half ffb of the second century. The Coptic Church, which is now more than nineteen centuries old, was the subject of many prophecies in the Old Testament. Isaiah the prophet, in Chapter 19, Verse 19 says “In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.”

Although fully integrated into the body of the modern Egyptian nation, the Copts have survived as a strong religious entity who pride themselves on their contribution to the Christian world. The Coptic church regards itself as a strong defendant of Christian faith. The Nicene Creed, which is recited in all churches throughout the world, has been authored by one of its favorite sons, Saint Athanasius, the Pope of Alexandria for 46 years, from 327 A.D. to 373 A.D. This status is well deserved, afterall, Egypt was the refuge that the Holy Family sought in its flight from Judea: “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son” [Mathew 2:12-23].

The contributions of the Coptic Church to Christendom are many. From the beginning, it played a central role in Christian theology—and especially to protect it from the Gnostics heresies. The Coptic Church produced thousands of texts, biblical and theological studies which are important resources for archeology. The Holy Bible was translated to the Coptic language in the second century. Hundreds of scribes used to write copies of the Bible and other liturgical and theological books. Now libraries, museums and universities throughout the world possess hundreds and thousands of Coptic manuscripts.

The Catechetical School of Alexandria is the oldest Catechetical School in the world. Soon after its inception around 190 A.D. by the Christian scholar Pantanaeus, the school of Alexandria became the most important institution of religious learning in Christendom. Many prominent bishops from many areas of the world were instructed in that school under scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the great Origen, who was considered the father of theology and who was also active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. Origen wrote over 6,000 commentaries of the Bible in addition to his famous Hexapla. Many scholars such as Saint Jerome visited the school of Alexandria to exchange ideas and to communicate directly with its scholars. The scope of the school of Alexandria was not limited to theological subjects, because science, mathematics and the humanities were also taught there: The question and answer method of commentary began there, and 15 centuries before Braille, wood-carving techniques were in use there by blind scholars to read and write. The Theological college of the Catechetical School of Alexandria was re-established in 1893. Today, it has campuses in Alexandria, Cairo, New Jersey, and Los Angeles, where priests-to-be and other qualified men and women are taught among other subjects Christian theology, history, Coptic language and art—including chanting, music, iconography, tapestry etc.

Monasticism was born in Egypt and was instrumental in the formation of the Coptic Church’s character of submission and humbleness, thanks to the teachings and writings of the Great Fathers of Egypt’s Deserts. Monasticism started in the last years of the third century and flourished in the fourth century. Saint Anthony, the world’s first Christian monk was a Copt from Upper Egypt. Saint Pachom, who established the rules of monasticism, was a Copt. And, Saint Paul, the world’s first anchorite is also a Copt. Other famous Coptic desert fathers include Saint Makarios, Saint Moses the Black, and Saint Mina the wonderous. The more contemporary desert fathers include the late Pope Cyril VI and his disciple Bishop Mina Abba Mina. By the end of the fourth century, there were hundreds of m ffb onasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian hills. Many of these monasteries are still flourishing and have new vocations till this day. All Christian monasticism stems, either directly or indirectly, from the Egyptian example: Saint Basil, organiser of the monastic movement in Asia minor visited Egypt around 357 A.D. and his rule is followed by the eastern Churches; Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, came to Egypt around 400 A.D. and left details of his experiences in his letters; Saint Benedict founded monasteries in the sixth century on the model of Saint Pachom, but in a stricter form. And countless pilgrims visited the “Desert Fathers” and emulated their spiritual, disciplined lives. There is even evidence that Copts had missionaries to Nothern Europe. One example is Saint Moritz of the Theban Legion who was drafted from Egypt to serve under the Roman flag and ended up teaching Christianity to inhabitants of the Swiss Alps, where a small town and a Monastery that contains his relics as well as some of his books and belongings are named after him. Another saint from the Theban Legion is Saint Victor, known among Copts as “Boktor”.

Under the authority of the Eastern Roman Empire of Constantinople (as opposed to the western empire of Rome), the Patriarchs and Popes of Alexandria played leading roles in Christian theology. They were invited everywhere to speak about the Christian faith. Saint Cyril, Pope of Alexandria, was the head of the Ecumenical Council which was held in Ephesus in the year 430 A.D. It was said that the bishops of the Church of Alexandria did nothing but spend all their time in meetings. This leading role, however, did not fare well when politics started to intermingle with Church affairs. It all started when the Emperor Marcianus interfered with matters of faith in the Church. The response of Saint Dioscorus, the Pope of Alexandria who was later exiled, to this interference was clear: “You have nothing to do with the Church.” These political motives became even more apparent in Chalcedon in 451, when the Coptic Church was unfairly accused of following the teachings of Eutyches, who believed in monophysitism. This doctrine maintains that the Lord Jesus Christ has only one nature, the divine, not two natures, the human as well as the divine.

The Coptic Church has never believed in monophysitism the way it was portrayed in the Council of Chalcedon! In that Council, monophysitism meant believing in one nature. Copts believe that the Lord is perfect in His divinity, and He is perfect in His humanity, but His divinity and His humanity were united in one nature called “the nature of the incarnate word”, which was reiterated by Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Copts, thus, believe in two natures “human” and “divine” that are united in one “without mingling, without confusion, and without alteration” (from the declaration of faith at the end of the Coptic divine liturgy). These two natures “did not separate for a moment or the twinkling of an eye” (also from the declaration of faith at the end of the Coptic divine liturgy).

The Coptic Church was misunderstood in the 5th century at the Council of Chalcedon. Perhaps the Council understood the Church correctly, but they wanted to exile the Church, to isolate it and to abolish the Egyptian, independent Pope, who maintained that Church and State should be separate. Despite all of this, the Coptic Church has remained very strict and steadfast in its faith. Whether it was a conspiracy from the Western Churches to exile the Coptic Church as a punishment for its refusal to be politically influenced, or whether Pope Dioscurus didn’t quite go the extra mile to make the point that Copts are not monophysite, the Coptic Church has always felt a mandate to reconcile “semantic” differences between all Christian Churches. This is aptly expressed by the current 117th successor of Saint Mark, Pope Shenouda III: “To the Coptic Church, faith is more important than anyth ffb ing, and others must know that semantics and terminology are of little importance to us.” Throughout this century, the Coptic Church has played an important role in the ecumenical movement. The Coptic Church is one of the founders of the World Council of Churches. It has remained a member of that council since 1948 A.D. The Coptic Church is a member of the all African Council of Churches (AACC) and the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). The Church plays an important role in the Christian movement by conducting dialogues aiming at resolving the theological differences with the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Evangelical Churches.

Perhaps the greatest glory of the Coptic Church is its Cross. Copts take pride in the persecution they have sustained as early as May 8, 68 A.D., when their Patron Saint Mark was slain on Easter Monday after being dragged from his feet by Roman soldiers all over Alexandria’s streets and alleys. The Copts have been persecuted by almost every ruler of Egypt. Their Clergymen have been tortured and exiled even by their Christian brothers after the schism of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. and until the Arab’s conquest of Egypt in 641A.D. To emphasize their pride in their cross, Copts adopted a calendar, called the Calendar of the Martyrs, which begins its era on August 29, 284 A.D., in commemoration of those who died for their faith during the rule of Diocletian the Roman Emperor. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons and in the Coptic Church Lectionary.

For the four centuries that followed the Arab’s conquest of Egypt, the Coptic Church generally flourished and Egypt remained basically Christian. This is due to a large extent to the fortunate position that the Copts enjoyed, for the Prophet of Islam, who had an Egyptian wife (the only one of his wives to bear a child), preached especial kindness towards Copts: “When you conquer Egypt, be kind to the Copts for they are your proteges and kith and kin”. Copts, thus, were allowed to freely practice their religion and were to a large degree autonomous, provided they continued to pay a special tax, called “Gezya”, that qualifies them as “Ahl Zemma” proteges (protected). Individuals who cannot afford to pay this tax were faced with the choice of either converting to Islam or losing their civil right to be “protected”, which in some instances meant being killed. Copts, despite additional sumptuary laws that were imposed on them in 750-868 A.D. and 905-935 A.D. under the Abbasid Dynasties, prospered and their Church enjoyed one of its most peaceful era. Surviving literature from monastic centers, dating back from the 8th to the 11th century, shows no drastic break in the activities of Coptic craftsmen, such as weavers, leather-binders, painters, and wood-workers. Throughout that period, the Coptic language remained the language of the land, and it was not until the second half of the 11th century that the first bi-lingual Coptic-Arabic liturgical manuscripts started to appear. One of the first complete Arabic texts is the 13th century text by Awlaad El-Assal (children of the Honey Maker), in which the laws, cultural norms and traditions of the Copts at this pivotal time, 500 years after the Islamic conquest of Egypt were detailed. The adoption of the Arabic language as the language used in Egyptians’ every-day’s life was so slow that even in the 15th century al-Makrizi implied that the Coptic Language was still largely in use. Up to this day, the Coptic Language continues to be the liturgical language of the Church.

The Christian face of Egypt started to change by the beginning of the second millennium A.D., when Copts, in addition to the “Gezya” tax, suffered from specific disabilities, some of which were serious and interfered with their freedom of worship. For example, there were restrictions on repairing old Churches and building new ones, on testifying in court, on public behavior, on adoption, on inheritance, on ffb public religious activities, and on dress codes. Slowly but steadily, by the end of the 12th century, the face of Egypt changed from a predominantly Christian to a predominantly Muslim country and the Coptic community occupied an inferior position and lived in some expectation of Muslim hostility, which periodically flared into violence. It is remarkable that the well-being of Copts was more or less related to the well-being of their rulers. In particular, the Copts suffered most in those periods when Arab dynasties were at their low.

The position of the Copts began to improve early in the 19th century under the stability and tolerance of Muhammad Ali’s dynasty. The Coptic community ceased to be regarded by the state as an administrative unit and, by 1855 A.D., the main mark of Copts’ inferiority, the “Gezya” tax was lifted, and shortly thereafter Copts started to serve in the Egyptian army. The 1919 A.D. revolution in Egypt, the first grassroots dispaly of Egyptian identity in centuries, stands as a witness to the homogeneity of Egypt’s modern society with both its Muslim and Coptic sects. Today, this homogeneity is what keeps the Egyptian society united against the religious intolerance of extremist groups, who occasionaly subject the Copts to persecution and terror. Modern day martyrs, like Father Marcos Khalil, serve as reminders of the miracle of Coptic survival.

Despite persecution, the Coptic Church as a religious institution has never been controlled or allowed itself to control the governments in Egypt. This long-held position of the Church concerning the separation between State and Religion stems from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, when he asked his followers to submit to their rulers: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [Mathew 22:21]. The Coptic Church has never forcefully resisted authorities or invaders and was never allied with any powers, for the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are clear: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Mathew 26:52). The miraculous survival of the Coptic Church till this day and age is a living proof of the validity and wisdom of these teachings.

Today [as of the writing of this document in 1992 A.D.], there are over 9 million Copts (out of a population of some 57 million Egyptians) who pray and share communion in daily masses in thousands of Coptic Churches in Egypt. This is in addition to another 1.2 million emmigrant Copts who practice their faith in hundreds of churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Brazil, and many other countries in Africa and Asia. Inside Egypt Copts live in every province and in no one of these provinces are they a majority. Their cultural, historical, and spiritual treasures are spread all over Egypt, even in its most remote oasis, the Kharga Oasis, deep in the western desert. As individuals, Copts have reached prestigious academic and professional stature all over the world. One such individual is Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali the Sixth United Nations Secretary-General (1992-1997). Another is Dr. Magdy Yacoub one of the world’s most famous heart surgeons.

Copts observe seven canonical sacraments: Baptism, Christmation (Confirmation), Eucharist, Confession (Penance), Orders, Matrimony, and Unction of the sick. Baptism is performed few weeks after birth by immersing the whole body of the newborn into especially consecrated water three times. Confirmation is performed immediately after Baptism. Regular confession with a personal priest, called the father of confession, is necessary to receive the Eucharist. It is customary for a whole family to pick the same priest as a father of confession, thus, making of that priest a family counselor. Of all seven sacrements, only Matrimony cannot be performed during a fasting season. Polygamy is illegal, even if recognized by the civil law of the land. Divorce is ffb not allowed except in the case of adultery, annulment due to bigamy, or other extreme circumstances, which must be reviewed by a special council of Bishops. Divorce can be requested by either husband or wife. Civil divorce is not recognized by the Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church does not have and does not mind any civil law of the land as long as it does not interfere with the Church’s sacraments. The Church does not have (and actually refuses to canonize) an official position vis-a-vis some controversial issues (e.g. abortion). While the church has clear teachings about such matters (e.g. abortion interfers with God’s will), it is the position of the Church that such matters are better resolved on a case-by-case basis by the father of confession, as opposed to having a blanket canon that makes a sin of such practices.

There are three main Liturgies in the Coptic Church: The Liturgy according to Saint Basil, Bishop of Caesarea; The Liturgy according to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople; and The Liturgy according to Saint Cyril I, the 24th Pope of the Coptic Church. The bulk of Saint Cyril’s Liturgy is from the one that Saint Mark used (in Greek) in the first century. It was memorized by the Bishops and priests of the church till it was translated into the Coptic Language by Saint Cyril. Today these three Liturgies, with some added sections (e.g. the intercessions), are still in use; the Liturgy of Saint Basil is the one most commonly used in the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The worship of Saints is expressly forbidden by the Church; however, asking for their intercessions (e.g. Marian Praise) is central in any Coptic service. Any Coptic Church is named after a Patron Saint. Among all Saints, the Virgin Saint Mary (Theotokos) occupies a special place in the heart of all Copts. Her repeated daily appearances in a small Church in Elzaytoun district of Cairo for over a month in April of1968 was wittnessed by thousands of Egyptians, both Copts and Muslims and was even broadcast on International TV. Copts celebrate seven major Holy feasts and seven minor Holy feasts. The major feasts commemorate Annunciation, Christmas, Theophany, Palm Sunday, Easter, Ascension, and the Pentecost. Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. The Coptic Church emphasizes the Resurrection of Christ (Easter) as much as His Advent (Christmas), if not more. Easter is usually on the second Sunday after the first full moon in Spring. The Coptic Calendar of Martyrs is full of other feasts usually commemorating the martyrdom of popular Saints (e.g. Saint Mark, Saint Mena, Saint George, Saint Barbara) from Coptic History.

The Copts have seasons of fasting matched by no other Christian community. Out of the 365 days of the year, Copts fast for over 210 days. During fasting, no animal products (meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, butter, etc.) are allowed. Moreover, no food or drink whatsoever may be taken between sunrise and sunset. These strict fasting rules are usually relaxed by priests on an individual basis to accomodate for illness or weakness. Lent, known as “the Great Fast”, is largely observed by all Copts. It starts with a pre-Lent fast of one week, followed by a 40-day fast commemorating Christ’s fasting on the mountain, followed by the Holy week, the most sacred week (called Pascha) of the Coptic Calendar, which climaxes with the Crucifix on Good Friday and ends with the joyous Easter. Other fasting seasons of the Coptic Church include, the Advent (Fast of the Nativity), the Fast of the Apostles, the Fast of the Virgin Saint Mary, and the Fast of Nineveh.

The Coptic Orthodox Church’s clergy is headed by the Pope of Alexandria and includes Bishops who oversee the priests ordained in their dioceses. Both the Pope and the Bishops must be monks; they are all members of the Coptic Orthodox Holy Synod (Council), which meets regularly to oversee matters of faith and pastorship in the Church. The Pope of the Coptic Church, although highly regarded by all C 7e7 opts, does not enjoy any state of supremacy or infallibility. Today, there are over 60 Coptic Bishops governing dioceses inside Egypt as well as dioceses outside Egypt, such as in Jerusalem, Sudan, Western Africa, France, England, and the United States. The direct pastoral responsibility of Coptic congregations in any of these dioceses falls on Priests, who must be married and must attend the Catechetical School before being ordained.

There are two other non-clerical bodies who participate in taking care of Church affairs. The first is a popularly-elected Coptic Lay Council, which appeared on the stage in 1883 A.D. to act as a liaison between the Church and the Government. The second is a joint lay-clerical committee, which appeared on the stage in 1928 A.D. to oversee and monitor the management of the Coptic Church’s endowments in accordance with the Egyptian laws.

Daily, in all Coptic Churches all over the world, Copts pray for the reunion of all Christian Churches. They pray for Egypt, its Nile, its crops, its president, its army, its government, and above all its people. They pray for the world’s peace and for the well-being of the human race.