Which country was the first to adopt Christianity?
We’ve all heard of Jerusalem and the centuries-long history of its religious importance. Some of us have heard of other holy cities of the world, like Mecca, Varanasi, and Rome. Even some more ancient ones like Bethlehem, Corinth, and Fes. And yet, there is another religious center, of Christianity in particular, that is just as old and still relevant today.
Welcome to Not Trivial! A podcast that takes a deeper dive into the stories behind the trivia questions you may or may not have heard at the pub. My name is Liz, and I’ve been a trivia nerd since I was young. My parents and I would play Trivial Pursuit very often. I’ve hosted and played pub trivia, and I’m a collector of random history, language, and world culture facts. One of my greatest passions is sharing what I’ve collected with others. I’m hopeful this podcast makes the trivia questions feel less trivial, and more important to understanding how the past creates the present, and subsequently the future. Let’s get started…
This week, Christians around the world, and other socially conditioned non-Christians, will celebrate Christmas. It’s one of the most well-known Christian-specific dates on the modern calendar. An annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, pretty much THE central figure in Christianity. The New Testament of the Bible recounts the narrative of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, to his mother Mary and his father Joseph. His mother, famously a virgin and given the gift of pregnancy by God on high. Heavily pregnant and finding no room in an inn, ending up in a stable full of animals. Once born, angels proclaimed his birth and spread the word widely.
There are many things to say about any narrative in any holy book. And I’m not a religious expert, so I won’t get into any of them today. But clearly, this time of year is a deeply sacred one for practicing Christians. And with Bethlehem and other locations in what is now Israel and Palestine being at the forefront of narratives in the Bible, you would think these locations would be historically the first to adopt Christianity. But history is never that simple.
Historically, at the time of Jesus’ birth, Jerusalem was a city ruled over by Herod the Great, a foreigner appointed by the Romans. The Roman Empire was ruled by Caesar Augustus, Julius Caesar’s adopted son and famously the first Roman Emperor, as opposed to previous Roman consuls. He was also called Octavian and was friends with Marc Antony, who then betrayed Rome by marrying Cleopatra and fomenting a small rebellion, which didn’t succeed. Octavian instituted Pax Romana and the empire was relatively stable for a majority of his reign.
What we know about the Roman Empire is that it didn’t suddenly adopt Christianity once Jesus was born. They sorta kinda famously crucified him. Many Roman emperors had to adjust to the fact that Christianity was growing rapidly. And many of them resisted this idea, heavily persecuting Christians, but in 313 AD, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan and made the practice of Christianity legal throughout the empire. Twelve years later, Constantine called a council meeting, where Christian bishops gathered and discussed many things; one of them being the question of whether Jesus was the son of God or not. They ended up agreeing and writing a declaration of their beliefs. It wasn’t for another 55 years that Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. And of course, the Roman Empire doesn’t exist today as it once did. So it can’t be the first “country” to adopt Christianity.
Today’s trivia question is about a country still in existence that adopted Christianity very early on, roughly the same time the Roman Empire did, and still has a majority Christian population. We’re talking about Ethiopia. This East African country has had many names, and at the time it adopted Christianity, it was called the Kingdom of Aksum. And it fully adopted it and declared Christianity to be the state religion in 330 AD. That’s only five years after all the bishops met to write a statement of belief, called the Nicene Creed.
The Kingdom of Aksum was founded in the first century AD. By the time of its adoption of Christianity, it was considered one of the great regional powers of the day. Alongside Persia, Rome, and China, Aksum was powerful due to its control over trade routes between India and Rome. Cities along the west coast of the Indian peninsula would trade iron, cloth, and spices with cities dotted along the horn of Africa and the Arabian Gulf. Aksum held wealth in the form of ivory as well and used it as a trading commodity. Up the Arabian Gulf into Egypt meant trading cloth, wine, copper and brass. This meant that Aksumite traders were in contact with Greeks and Romans. It’s not a stretch to understand how Christianity might have come to the kingdom.
But let’s dig a little deeper into the Kingdom of Aksum and its religious journey. King Ezana II was the one to declare Christianity the state religion, but the coins minted during his early reign show symbols of the god Astar. This was a god worshipped throughout the Arabian peninsula and east Africa, associated strongly with the planet Venus - since it is both the morning and evening star. Before Jesus’ birth, the region of Aksum is associated with the Queen of Sheba, or rather she with it. Historians don’t fully agree that such a queen existed or was from the region of Aksum before it was Aksum - but she is in the narratives of the Bible. Portrayed as a wealthy queen, bringing an abundance of riches to King Solomon, longing to hear his wisdom and asking him riddles to solve. Sheba and Solomon eventually had a son together, Menilik, who later on was sent from Sheba’s residence to Solomon’s, in order for him to become a learned man and ruler. But Menilik rejected being a ruler in Judea and returned to his mother’s court. He’ll pop back up in today’s story.
There is a deep understanding in the ancient world that what we now call Ethiopia is a center of wealth. But Aksum was also a religious powerhouse. With so much trade, there’s got to be a meeting and mixing of religious traditions. King Ezana II had a mentor, Frumentius. And Frumentius was a teacher of many topics to the young king. Because the trade routes were so well established, it meant people could travel easily between places. From Aksum to Alexandria, Frumentius wanted to understand religion. Christianity specifically. And he eventually became a bishop, which kickstarted the conversion of the kingdom when Frumentius returned to Aksum. Instead of a different narrative where a king shuns his mentor for converting to a new religion, King Ezana II embraced his mentor and this new religion - that wasn’t really all that new but was spreading widely and rapidly.
The church in Alexandria didn’t follow up or control much of how Christianity developed inside of Aksum. It was mostly left to its own devices. It had wealth, so how strategic would it have been for a Christian church in the Roman Empire - which wasn’t the official religion yet - to hold any influence? However, the Christianity that developed in Aksum did follow the more orthodox views as some Eastern European Christians did. At least initially. And we’ll return to that as well in a little bit. Naturally, the King wanted to build a church, in order to practice his faith. And provide a demonstration of his commitment to this new religion. So a church was built - and like many holy buildings, rebuilt many times due to wars or weather events or lack of upkeep. The Church of Saint Mary of Zion is still in Ethiopia today, and is well-known in the Christian world. It’s said that the church is the site where the Ark of the Covenant was hidden for safekeeping. And they’ve done a good job with that - since all Western movies ever made about the Ark of the Covenant have taken place not in Africa, but in the Middle East or Europe.
But this church was also the place where subsequent Ethiopian emperors were crowned, a clear sign that the religion runs deep and was aligned with the state government. The spread of Christianity throughout the kingdom of Aksum was done by way of missionaries. As with most religions or belief systems, believers are sent out to spread the word and convert others. And in Ethiopia, as in other places, that meant monks established centers of learning where they then translated scripture from Greek and Aramaic into the local language. By the beginning of the sixth century, there were Christian churches throughout the north of Ethiopia.
Some two hundred years after Ezana II began the Christian conversion of his kingdom, King Kaleb waged crusade in the southern parts of the Arabian peninsula. This is because of an uptick in the spread of Judeaism at the time, but I’m sure he may also have done it to protect his trade routes. Tolerance wasn’t a strong suit at the time - not quite like the Edict of Milan that Constantine put forth, protecting religious freedom. No, the 500s were tumultuous and every piece of wealth or land was hard fought for and hard won. This era in human culture is generally hard. Some of the worst years in recorded human history were in the 500s.
The early Aksumite church was closely related to the Coptic Christianity in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria encouraged clerical immigration to Aksum and a program of careful recruitment of religious leaders in the kingdom to ensure that the rich and valuable diocese of Aksum remained under their control. The kings and bishops who encouraged these settlements assigned missionaries to appropriate areas in Aksum. They donated money to communities and religious schools while protecting their occupants from local anti-Christians. Students of the schools were recruited, ordained, and sent to work in parishes in new Christian areas. The strength of these traditions was the main driving force behind the Church’s survival despite its distance from its patriarch in Alexandria.
Christians in Ethiopia often refer to themselves as the chosen people of God. And this is because of Menilik, the son of Solomon and Queen Sheba I mentioned earlier, who was clearly Jewish and of royal blood. This is a direct link for Ethiopian Christians between Ethiopian royalty and King Solomon. Solomon is pretty much the big figure of any major religion, historically speaking. He is the son of King David, and his is the first temple built in Jerusalem. But to Christians and Muslims, he is seen as a prophet and devout follower of God. So, Ethiopia claiming Queen Sheba and her son gives them a direct link to the initial beginnings of Christianity. And they have held fast to this belief since King Ezana II in the 300s.
And that wasn’t easy! Because Islam was on the rise in the 7th century. Particularly in the Middle East, parts of Africa and into Southeast Asia. Aksum had these extensive trade routes with pretty much all of the locations where Islam was spreading rapidly. However, Christians in Ethiopia were steadfast and devout. That’s not to say that some groups of Christians in the kingdom weren’t converted to Islam, I’m sure it happened. But the kingdom itself remained committed to Christianity, come what may. This effort also isolated them from other Christian centers, like Rome. In fact, Ethiopia was the only African region to maintain its roots in Christianity, even though Islam spread throughout neighboring regions.
By the 900s, the kingdom of Aksum was no more. The spread of Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate was too overwhelming for the kingdom to maintain its trade routes and its religion. To protect themselves, the Aksumite people were driven deeper and deeper into the highlands and away from port cities. It also doesn’t help that by the time of the kingdom’s decline, famine was widespread as well due to a lack of rainfall and rampant plague.
No longer called Aksum, but Abyssinia, the lands they held onto were much smaller and inland. But they held onto territory in both the north and south. They were now surrounded by Islam. The religious isolation doesn’t mean they never had contact with their Christian connections elsewhere. They just had to become dedicated pilgrims to do so. Many Ethiopians would pilgrimage to Jerusalem. By the late 12th century, during the Zagwe dynasty, a prince named Gebre Meskel Lalibela traveled to Jerusalem. Folklore tells us that he was guided by God, while touring the city of Jerusalem, to return to Ethiopia and “build a second Jerusalem”.
This did occur and the city of Lalibela is now a center of pilgrimage for Ethiopian and other Christians. Lalibela is currently home to 11 rock-hewn churches. Go ahead, Google them, they’re beautiful. These are churches built into the ground, monolithic and carved by hand. The site is at an elevation of over 8,000 feet, clearly in the highlands of the region. Therefore a stronghold of Christianity from the beginnings of the kingdom. However, there’s some argument that the site of Lalibela didn’t magically begin during the reign of Lalibela himself. Archaeological evidence shows that the site was secular and a regional fortress before it was transformed into what it is today.
Lalibela is laid out to represent Jerusalem. Even that there are 11 churches is significant, their names as well. From the 14th century on, Christians and others from outside Ethiopia would travel there to see the site. In the 16th century in particular, there are many visitors to the area, arriving for a variety of reasons. But the 16th century is the Age of Exploration and the beginnings of colonialism by European powers. So you have a Portuguese priest accompanying the ambassador to the empire of Ethiopia and writing things like, “I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more because as to what I have already written they may accuse me of untruth, therefore I swear by God, in whose power I am, that all that is written is the truth”.
The Imam of the Adal Sultanate came through Lalibela, while on his invasion of Ethiopia, and actually set fire to one of the churches. The Adal Sultanate was centered in the horn of Africa, a Sunni Muslim power, and they wished to conquer Abyssinia. But the Portuguese were in the area and of course, wished to save Abyssinia from an invasion of Islam. It took almost fifteen years, but the Sultanate was driven out and Ethiopia remained unconquered. They were unconquered logistically, but also religiously. Throughout the time of certain Catholic expansionist regimes, like the Portuguese, Ethiopia was consistently requested to oblige themselves and profess obedience to Rome. But they never did.
Let’s hear a little bit about the branch of Christianity that Ethiopians practice, shall we? It’s clearly different to Roman Catholicism, due to the emperor’s refusal to declare obedience. But it’s also very different than Protestantism, which didn’t really come about until the 16th century anyway. And the Protestant reformation wasn’t the first time Christianity experienced a split. In 1054, what’s known as the Great Schism happened. This was a split between the Western and Eastern parts of the former Roman Empire, in terms of religion. The Catholic Church believed in the authority of the Pope. The Eastern Orthodox Church did not. There are other splits in doctrine and tradition and ritual, but that’s the big one.
However, the Ethiopian church is known as an Oriental Orthodox Church. And this is an even older version of Christianity - this split predates even the Great Schism. As stated before, the Coptic Christians in Egypt practice a similar style of Christianity to Ethiopia, as does the Armenian Apostolic Church. Remember how I mentioned that Christian bishops got together and wrote a statement of belief? And then five years later, Ethiopia declared Christianity its state religion? Well, that council of bishops wasn’t the only council to meet and decide on things. In 451, the fourth such meeting of bishops occurred in Chalcedon, which is near modern-day Istanbul. And it’s at this council where another agreement about Jesus is arrived at. Namely that Jesus is both a God and a man - he exists in two states of being.
And while this may not seem like a big deal to all of us secular folk, it was a departure from previous thinking in Christianity. Oriental Orthodox Churches, like the one in Ethiopia, do not believe in all the same things that a Roman Catholic church would. There is a tradition of fasting, for example, that other Christians don’t have. Orthodox Christmas actually falls on January 7th, not December 25th, and Ethiopian Christians typically fast for 40 days prior to their Christmas. During this 40-day fast, they only eat one vegan meal per day. During Lent, the fasting period is even longer - 55 days.
Ethiopian Christians also have traditions that may seem similar to Judaism or Islam, like the fact that they do not eat pork. And other animals must be slaughtered in a specific ritualistic manner, in order to be safely consumed by believers. Ethiopian Christian men are typically circumsized. Men and women do not sit together while at church, they have their own sections. Women must cover their hair when attending service. When praying, feet must be bare.
However, they are definitely rooted in Christianity that would look familiar to a Roman Catholic. They cleanse themselves before taking communion. They believe in the Holy Trinity, which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And Oriental Orthodox churches use iconography heavily. Many Ethiopian churches have artwork depicting the birth of Jesus, images of the Virgin Mary, and portrayals of important saints doing their saintly good works. Like Saint George, who was an early Christian martyr. Traditionally told, George is a Roman solider who was forced to recant his Christian faith - this is before religious tolerance was granted and Christians were persecuted. George would not recant and was murdered. In folklore though, Saint George also slayed a dragon. According to the story, George came upon a princess in tears. And she was crying because she had been chosen as sacrifice to a dragon in a nearby cave. The dragon had been demanding tribute for years, but when the people ran out of livestock, they had to start sacrificing humans. George confronted the dragon and saved the princess and the local people.
Christianity in Ethiopia has such a long tradition and the country was never colonized by outsiders. Not for their lack of trying. The line of emperors dates back for centuries. It’s cleary a Christian stronghold and Lalibela is seen in many parts of the world as a holy place. The country of Ethiopia, however, no longer has emperors or kings. And yet, roughly 68% of its population identify as Christian who practice their faith. That’s a far cry from other supposedly Christian countries. The USA has maybe 25% of its population who identify as practicing Christians. Even lower in France, where 15% of the population identifies as a practicing Catholic. Similar numbers in Italy and Spain.
Whether you believe or not, religious views are an important topic to understand. There is a rich history of the world when viewed through the eyes of widespread religion and how or by whom it was adopted. Dogma aside, humans tend to crave belief systems. It’s part of our DNA to want to believe in something that explains how the world works and what our place in it is. Even if you believe that it’s all just random chaos, that’s a filter you see everything through. That’s a belief system. We would be better served if we understood why some people believe what they do and where it came from. And that’s a deeper dive into some of the history of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and the answer to the trivia question: Which country was the first to adopt Christianity? Stay tuned for more history from Ethiopia and how it connects to reggae music.
The Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 was Haile Selassie I. He would be known as the last reigning emperor. During the 1960s, much of Africa was attempting to overthrow its colonial masters. Although Ethiopia was not a colony of somewhere else, its monarchy was entrenched. Revolution was sweeping through much of the world, specifically a communist revolution. Monarchy was anathema to a communist, and so Ethiopia was in danger of toppling. But before that came to pass, Selassie would also be known as a great modernizer. Political reforms, the abolition of slavery, and during World War II he successfully negotiated and fought to free his people from fascist Italian occupation. He lobbied to have Ethiopia take part in the United Nations General Assembly. And yet, he held on tight to his beliefs that he had a divine right to rule as emperor or king. He believed he was descended from Menelik, in great Solomonic tradition.
When Selassie first became emperor in 1930, another spot on the map had been experiencing its own religious and social change: Jamaica. This island became a British colony in 1707, primarily for sugarcane production. Slaves from Africa were brought there to work the fields. And soon, like many other places, white masters were outnumbered. And while Jamaica didn’t take part in the kinds of revolutions that happened in Haiti or the USA, they were aware of those struggles. They were aware of people like Marcus Garvey because he was born and raised in Jamaica. Garvey would ultimately go on to become the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Garvey was a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist. His beliefs were rooted in the idea that indigenous and black people should have a strong bond with each other due to their shared history of trauma, be advocated for and represented in politics, and that Africa should be unified.
Jamaica by 1930 was seeing a new wave of religion also: Rastafari. Alongside the black nationalism and Pan-Africanism of Marcus Garvey, there were African preachers in South Africa who seceded from the Anglican church. They established their own church and gave sermons on topics like “Africa for the Africans” and expanded on the Biblical verse which says that “Ethiopia shall stretch out its hands to God”. As we’ve learned, Ethiopia not only has a clear and strong tradition of remaining Christian through its history, but it has also never been colonized. In the wake of the British, French, Belgian, Dutch, and Portuguese colonizing a vast majority of Africa for its own devices, and the Christian religion being a mainstay for many blacks of the African diaspora, it follows that they would look to modern-day Ethiopia as a vision of what self-rule could look like.
When Selassie was crowned in 1930, to the followers of the so-called Ethiopian movement, he became a messiah. He was the “second coming of Christ”. And Rastafari in Jamaica embraced the idea. Rastafari is Afro-centric by nature and believes that the African diaspora is oppressed in Western culture, or Babylon as it is referred to. Rastafari belief is grounded in the idea that God, or Jah, exists both on high and partially within each human individual. They refer to Africa as the promised land or “Zion”. They wear their hair in dreadlocks, in accordance with the Biblical ways of the Nazarites. In early Biblical teachings, it was considered holy to never cut your hair. Long hair became a symbol of holiness and closeness to God, however for Rastafari it also represented their resistance to oppressive Western thoughts about how black people should look in order to assimilate.
Rastafari also practice a mainly vegetarian diet, or Ital diet, stemming from the word “vital”. Rastafari vocabulary is often empahsizing the letter or sound of “i” to signify the unity of the speaker with God and all of nature. Rastafari often avoid foods that have been chemically modified or high in additives. They also consume cannabis in social gatherings called “groundings”. The Bible provides verses about the bounty of God’s garden and that the fruit born of the earth is for his children’s consumption. Cannabis is a naturally-occuring plant and not chemically modified, but also mainly used as a sacrament. In the same way a Roman Catholic would imbibe wine during mass, a Rastafari would consume cannabis at a grounding. And one of the more notable messengers of Rastafari the world over is Bob Marley.
Marley’s lyrics are a hymnal. Early songs like “Slave Driver” and “400 Years” are obvious in their message:
“Every time I hear the crack of a whip
My blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship
How they brutalize our very souls
Today they say that we are free
Only to be chained in poverty”
“400 years
Of the same, the same philosophy
400 years
And my people, still cannot see
Come with me, you black and you brown
You got to be free
Stop sittin' down on your pride”
Later songs like “Zimbabwe” and his famous “Redemption Song”, the lyrics are also clearly still aligned with Marley’s beliefs:
“To divide and rule could only tear us apart
In every man chest, there beats a heart
So soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries
And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries”
“Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly”
Remember that whenever you listen to reggae music, Bob Marley specifically, you are hearing the beliefs handed down to Africans through the centuries. I hope you enjoyed this little tale! Another episode of Not Trivial is coming soon, so please subscribe - available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!