The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) (), also sometimes known as the Abyssinian Church or the Church of Abyssinia, is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The EOTC is the first indigenous Christian church from sub-Saharan Africa and precedes the arrival of Western and European colonizers, who mostly followed Catholic and Protestant denominations, to the region by more than a millennium. It is also one of only three universally recognized Oriental Orthodox churches in Africa alongside the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church—and one of only two in sub-Saharan Africa—as the status of the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church is still disputed by the broader Oriental Orthodox communion. Dating back to the Christianization of the Kingdom of Aksum by Coptic Orthodox missionaries in 330; it has between 38 million and 51 million adherents in Ethiopia, and 60 million members worldwide. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches."Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church", World Council of Churches website (accessed 2 June 2009) The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches (the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch).
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church had been administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria from the first half of the 4th century until 1959, when it was granted autocephaly with its own patriarch by Cyril VI of Alexandria, pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Tewahedo ( ) is a Geʽez word meaning "united as one." This word refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in miaphysitism, meaning one perfectly unified nature of Christ, i.e., a complete union of the divine and human natures into one nature is self-evident to accomplish the divine salvation of mankind, as opposed to the "two natures of Christ" belief commonly held by the Chalcedonian Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, and most other Protestant churches (which are predominant among Christians in Europe, the Americas, and most of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia), as well as by the non-Chalcedonian Church of the East, but not by most Restorationist denominations. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to a miaphysite Christological view followed by Cyril of Alexandria, its leading proponent in the Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries, who advocated "", or "one (mia) nature of the Word of God incarnate" () and a hypostatic union (, ). The distinction of this stance was that the incarnate Christ has one nature, but that one nature is of the two natures, divine and human, and retains all the characteristics of both after the union.
Miaphysitism holds that in the one person of Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity are united in one (μία, mia) nature (φύσις - "physis") without separation, without confusion, without alteration and without mixing where Christ is consubstantial with God the Father.The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity by Ken Parry 2009 page 88 Around 500 bishops in the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem refused to accept the dyophysitism (two natures) doctrine decreed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, an incident that resulted in the second major split in the main body of the Catholic-Orthodox Church in the Roman Empire.
Name ( ) is a Geʽez word meaning "being made one" or "unified" (see also the Islamic concept of monotheism, ). This word refers to the Oriental Orthodox belief in the miaphysite nature of Christ (one composite union of the divine and human natures), as opposed to the dyophysite nature of the hypostatic union (two unmixed, but unseparated divine and human natures), which is the belief held by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches (to which the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church belongs) fall under the umbrella of non-Chalcedonian Christianity, due to their theological rejection of the Council of Chalcedon, the church council following the Council of Ephesus held in 451. The Oriental beliefs are sometimes incorrectly described by outsiders as monophysite (one singular divine nature of Christ); however, the Ethiopian Church and other Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to miaphysitism ("one united nature"), and the Ethiopians argue that the monophysite epithet is offensive.
History
Origins
John Chrysostom speaks of the "Ethiopians present in Jerusalem" as being able to understand the preaching of Saint Peter described in Acts 2:38. Possible missions of some of the apostles in the lands now called Ethiopia are also reported as early as the 4th century. Socrates of Constantinople includes Ethiopia in his list as one of the regions preached by Matthew the Apostle,Socrates of Constantinople, Sozomen, Theodoret. Historia Ecclesiastica. p. 57. where a specific mention of "Ethiopia south of the Caspian Sea" can be confirmed in some traditions such as the Roman Catholic Church among others. Ethiopian Church tradition tells that Bartholomew accompanied Matthew in a mission which lasted for at least three months. These missions are depicted in paintings by Francesco Trevisan (1650–1740) and Marco Benefial (1688–1764) in the Church of St. Matthew in Pisa.Meskel and the Ethiopians. EOTC Publication Committee, September 2015
The earliest account of an Ethiopian converted to the faith in the New Testament books is a royal official baptized by Philip the Evangelist (distinct from Philip the Apostle), one of the Seven Deacons (Acts 8:26–27):
The passage continues by describing how Philip helped the Ethiopian treasurer understand a passage from the Book of Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading. After Philip interpreted the passage as prophecy referring to Jesus Christ, the Ethiopian requested that Philip baptize him, and Philip did so. The Ethiopic version of this verse reads "Hendeke" (ህንደኬ həndäke); Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII was the Queen of Ethiopia from c. 42 to 52. Where the possibility of gospel missions by the Ethiopian eunuch cannot be directly inferred from the Books of the New Testament, Irenaeus of Lyons around 180 AD writes that "Simon Backos" preached the good news in his homeland outlining also the theme of his preaching as being the coming in flesh of God that "was preached to you all before."Irenaeus of Lyons, "Adversus haereses" III. 12. 8 The same kind of witness is shared by 3rd and 4th century writers such as Eusebius of CaesareaEusebius Pamphilius, Church History and Origen of Alexandria.
Early Christianity became the established church of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom under king Ezana in the 4th century when priesthood and the sacraments were brought for the first time through a Syrian Greek named Frumentius, known by the local population in Ethiopia as "Selama, Kesaté Birhan" ("Father of Peace, Revealer of Light"). As a youth, Frumentius had been shipwrecked with his brother Aedesius on the Eritrean coast. The brothers managed to be brought to the royal court, where they rose to positions of influence and baptized Emperor Ezana. Frumentius is also believed to have established the first monastery in Ethiopia, named Dabba Selama after him. In 2016, archaeologists excavated a 4th-century AD basilica (radio-carbon dated) in northeastern Ethiopia at a site called Beta Samati. This is the earliest known physical evidence of a church in sub-Saharan Africa.
Middle Ages
Union with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria continued after the Arab conquest of Egypt. Abu Saleh records in the 12th century that the patriarch sent letters twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Nubia, until Al Hakim stopped the practice. Cyril, 67th patriarch, sent Severus as bishop, with orders to put down polygamy and to enforce the observance of canonical consecration for all churches. These examples show the close relations of the two churches throughout the Middle Ages. In 1439, in the reign of Zara Yaqob, a religious discussion between Giyorgis and a French visitor led to the dispatch of an embassy from Ethiopia to the Vatican.
During the Middle Ages, the Ethiopian Church also witnessed the rise of influential monastic movements that challenged established religious and political norms. Abba Ewostatewos founded the so-called Ewostathian movement, which emphasized strict Sabbath observance and monastic independence, leading to tensions with the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Coptic Orthodox Church.Getatchew Haile, "The Monastic Reform of Abba Ewostatewos," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 1970, pp. 29–50.Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 209–232.Paolo Marrassini, "Ewostatewos," in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005), pp. 429–431.Steven Kaplan, The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1984), pp. 98–103. However, in the mid-15th century, his disciples secured recognition from the Alexandrian patriarchate, and the practice of observing both Saturday and Sunday as Sabbaths was officially accepted in Ethiopia.Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527, pp. 243–247.Getatchew Haile, "The Ethiopian Church and Its Leadership: The Struggle for Independence," Church History, vol. 44, no. 3, 1975, pp. 283–297. A century later, Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende led the Stephanite movement, which rejected veneration of the cross and royal authority over the Church, provoking harsh persecution under Emperor Zara Yaqob.Bairu Tafla, "Estifanos, Abba," in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005), pp. 392–393.Habtemichael Kidane, "The Stephanite Movement and Its Theological Significance," Aethiopica 13 (2010): 157–176.Getatchew Haile, "The Acts of Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende: The Struggle for Faith and Freedom in Fifteenth Century Ethiopia," Analecta Bollandiana 93 (1975): 333–368.Steven Kaplan, The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1984), pp. 113–128.Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527, pp. 269–278. Beyond doctrinal disagreements, the Stephanites articulated a radical critique of imperial authority and the sacralization of kingship, which some scholars interpret as an early Ethiopian form of religious dissent.Girma Getahun, "Abba Estifanos and the Stephanites: Resistance to Imperial Power in Fifteenth-Century Ethiopia," Journal of Religion in Africa 27, no. 4 (1997): 403–425.Getatchew Haile, "The Persecution of Abba Estifanos and His Disciples," Analecta Bollandiana 94 (1976): 311–345. These currents illustrate the diversity of theological and ecclesiastical debates within Ethiopian Christianity during the medieval period.
Jesuit interim The period of Jesuit influence, which broke the connection with Egypt, began a new chapter in church history. The initiative in Roman Catholic missions to Ethiopia was taken not by Rome, but by Portugal, in the course of a conflict with the Islamic Ottoman Empire and the Sultanate of Adal for the command of the trade route to India via the Red Sea.
In 1507, Mateus—or Matthew—an Armenian, had been sent as an Ethiopian envoy to Portugal. In 1520, an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Ethiopia. An account of the Portuguese mission, which lasted for several years, was written by Francisco Álvares, its chaplain.