Sunday, January 2, 2011

Egypt.

Dear Friends,
Greetings! Blogging is not blocked in Egypt so I am back, at least temporarily.

I am here in Egypt for a two week stay and I am just over half way through that time. There have been many thoughts and emotions that I have experienced this past week. When I think geographically about going from Ethiopia to Sudan to Egypt I realize the incredible diversity in people groups and climates on this African Continent.

Ethiopians, while African, are not the very black Africans of Southern Sudan. And neither the Sudanese or the Ethiopians are the Arabs or North Sudan or Egypt. Ethiopia and Sudan both have many African tribes such as the Anuak in Ethiopia and the Nuer in Sudan. In Egypt I find only the Arabs.

It is very clear to me having been here in Egypt for only a week so far that the Egyptians totally identify with the Middle East. Egyptians are Arab and not African by ethnicity. At the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo the seminary was very much geared to cooperative work with the Middle East, with other Arab countries. While there was at least one Sudanese student there is was clear that the seminary does not feel connected to Africa in the same way as the Middle East. I am coming to see the cultural bridges more clearly. Egypt is a bridge between Africa and the Middle East much the same way that Turkey (and to a lesser extent Russia) is a bridge between Europe and Asia; Saudi Arabia is a bridge between the Middle East and Asia.

I am now comprehending that while the Arabian Penninsula is not a continent in its own right it is certainly the Middle East and Arabic and is considered to be a part of Asia. On the other hand when I examine early Christianity I am aware that the strip of land which fronts the Mediteranian Sea (including Israel/Palestine and Syria and Lebanon) as well as Greece (Athens) and Italy (Rome) in Europe and Northern Africa (Egypt and Ethiopia) are all a part of the Biblical witness for Christians.

Part of my desire to come to Alexandria in Egypt, where I currently am sitting and typing in this blog, stems from the class I taught at the Nile Theological College in Khartoum, Sudan, just about a year ago. The class was on New Testament Background. I realized then that Alexander the Great had swept down from Greece in 400 B.C. and, among other accomplishments, had built this ancient city of Alexandria. In Alexandria was born a great hub of Jewish culture, language and literature. From Alexandria the spread of Koine Greek created the lingua franca of New Testament Times. Between the culture and language of Greece and the military might and the roads of the later Roman Empire, God had put in place over a number of centuries the means to spread the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have desired to see this place and walk in its streets since I renewed my learning about this period of time which led up to the spread of Christianity in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In seminary I learned about Alexandria and at the same time my thoughts were distracted by a multitude of other things which I was learning. The Greek culture that Alexander the Great brought with him from Greece was modified by the existing Semantic culture of Palestine and the surrounding cultures such as Persian. This modification came to be known as Hellenistic. Hellenistic then was what happened when Greek culture came into the ancient cultures between Greece and Egypt. In Alexandria the Jewish community came to read and speak Greek to the point that Hebrew was no longer in use for reading the Bible. Thus the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek and became the Bible for the first Christians as well as for the Jews. As the Christian Scriptures were written in Greek they were added on to the First Testament to make the Christian Bible which consists of the First and Second Testaments. Because of the Roman system of roads the early Christian missionaries were able to take the Gospel to Europe and Africa as well as to every part of Asia Minor. The Christian faith became the religion of the Roman Empire by the 4th Century A.D., under the Emperor Constantine. Alexandria had much to do with the reasons for the spread and the acceptance of Christianity in the ancient world.

While I was in Cairo I saw the Pyramids of Giza. I was able to take a leisurely boat road on the Nile River. Despite the fact that in Khartoum I live near the Nile River and cross it nearly every week I have never been on a boat road in it. I was able to see the first mosque that was built in Cairo in the 7th century by the Muslim who founded Cairo. Then I was able to see the Coptic churches in the Old City of Cairo. This included the church which is built on the sight where it is believed that the Holy Family stayed in Egypt after the birth of Jesus.

Europe is old and has great history. In Rome and Athens I saw ruins which stretched far beyond the first century A.D. Here in Egypt there is history dating back millenium before the birth of Jesus. I have a heightened awareness of the work of the Triune God of Christianity in human history long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There are such roots and there is such tradition. These things are capable of imprisoning the Gospel in such a way that it can no longer reach out to people. These things are also capable of keeping the Gospel alive and growing when people do not try to capture it for themselves.
Blessings,
Debbie

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