Egypt (Α ἴ γυ π τος)
NT references to Egypt occur mostly in historical retrospects. As the land which was friendly and hospitable to the Hebrews in the time of Joseph, but cruel and oppressive in that of Moses, it is mentioned twelve times in Stephen’s address before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), once in St. Paul’s speech at Lystra (13:17), and four times in Hebrews (3:16; 8:9; 11:26, 27). There i s a single allusion to contemporary Egypt in the account of the first Christian Pentecost: among the Jews and proselytes who were ‘sojourning in Jerusalem,’ and who formed St. Peter’s audience, were ‘the dwellers (ο ἱ κατοικο ῦ ντες) … in Egypt’ (Acts 2:9, Acts 2:10).
Philo estimated that there were not fewer than a million Jews in Egypt in his time (in Flaccum, 6; See Schürer, HJP [Note: JP History of the Jewish People (Eng. tr. of GJV).] II. ii. [1885] 229). The movement from Palestine into Egypt, partly by voluntary emigration and partly by forcible deportation, had been going on for six centuries. Aristeas (Epist . 13) states that Psammeticus (probably the Second, 594-586 b.c.) had Jewish mercenaries in his army. A company of Jews fled to Egypt after the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. (Jer 42-43). Some Aramaic papyri found at Assuan and Elephantine show that a colony of Jews was settled at this garrison and trailing post (590 miles S. of Cairo) in the 6th and 5th centuries b.c., and that they had built a temple to Jahweh. Many Jews were attracted to Alexandria at the time of its foundation by the offer of citizenship (Jos. c. Ap . ii. 4, Ant . XIX. v. 2). Ptolemy Lagi carried a vast number of Jews captive to Egypt (Aristeas, Epist . 12-14), Philo mentions that two of the five quarters into which Alexandria was divided were called ‘the Jewish’ (in Flaccum, 8). In no country were the Jews so prosperous, so influential, so cultured as they were in Egypt, where some of them held important offices of State under the Ptolemys (Jos. c. Ap . ii. 5, Ant . XIII. x. 4, xiii. 1, 2), and where an attempt was made to fuse Hellenic with Hebrew ideals.
History gives no trustworthy account of the evangelization of Egypt. The statement found in Eusebius (HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] ii. 16) that St. Mark was the first missionary who went thither, and that he preached there the Gospel which he had written, is confessedly legendary, and the idea that Apollos had some share in the enlightenment of his native city is no more than a natural conjecture. There are few materials to fill the gap between apostolic times and the beginning of the 3rd cent., when Alexandria (q.v. [Note: .v. quod vide, which see.]), the home of Clement and Origen, became the intellectual capital of Christendom. Even till the days of Constantine the progress of Christianity in Egypt was almost confined to this one Hellenistic city.
‘The great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt’ (Revelation 11:8) is probably Jerusalem, regarded as the latter-day enemy of righteousness and of God’s people, such as Sodom and Egypt had been in ancient times. The alternative view is that Rome is the great city which is allegorically or mystically named. If the addition ‘where also their Lord was crucified’ were original, it would of course decide the point; but this may be a gloss.
Literature.-A. Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 2, Eng. tr. [Note: r. translated, translation.], 1908; A. H. Sayce and A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri discovered at Assouan, Oxford, 1906; artt. [Note: rtt. articles.] in SDB [Note: DB Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible.], DCG [Note: CG Dict. of Christ and the Gospels.], EBi [Note: Bi EncyclopAEdia Biblica.], and HDB [Note: DB Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible (5 vols.).], with the Literature there cited.
James Strahan.