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However, Roman policy also weakened the chances for the priesthood to organize an effective resistance movement. When the revolts led by priests failed, when the apocalyptic prophesies ceased to come true, where could the Egyptian turn in desperation but to another belief system?
The Birth of Christianity in Egypt
The founder of the Christian Church in Egypt was Saint Mark the Evangelist, who arrived in Alexandria in AD 43, according to the fourth century scholar Eusebius. The Bible references Apollos, “a native of Alexandria” who worked with Paul in Ephesus and Corinth (Acts 18:25)—and who in one version of the story was said to have “been instructed in the word in his home city,” suggesting a Christian community in Alexandria already by the late AD 40s . However, the earliest fragments classifiable as definitely Christian found in Egypt date back only to the early second century. Eusebius's listing of bishops following Mark is unsupported until Demetrius who took the office in AD 189.
Alexandrian Jews in the first century might have been receptive to Christian missionaries, who added a more apocalyptic dimension to their already monotheistic belief system, because of their loss in social status thanks to Roman rule. Christianity could impart spiritual solace and renewed hope, especially after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The lack of early data on Christians in Alexandria might be due to its followers not having yet categorized themselves as distinct from the large Jewish population. Jews coming to Egypt from Palestine might have included Christian missionaries, and they would most likely come to Alexandria because it boasted the largest (and most intellectually minded) Jewish community in the country.
Jews leaning towards Christianity might have influenced other people dissatisfied with Roman rule, such as native Egyptians, other Semites, even Greeks, but the general resentment against Jews exhibited by Alexandrian mob riots throws this hypothesis into question. Conversion to Judaism was socially supported by the Romans, according to reporters as diverse as Matthew, Juvenal, Dio, Philo, and Seneca, but Egyptian resentment against advantages perceived to be given to the Jews by the Romans must surely have limited their persuasive power. And after the Jewish revolt ended in AD 117, few Jews remained in Egypt. It seems more likely that Egyptians became more interested in Christianity after it was disassociated with and even rejected by mainstream Judaism.
The first evidence that with certainty indicates the emergence of Egyptian Christians (rather than merely Jewish converts) dates to the second half of the third century AD after a series of failed nationalist uprisings. Texts and gospels dating back to AD 260 support that Egyptians are now preaching Christian beliefs in Coptic rather than Hebrew or Greek.
The word “Coptic” associated with Egyptian Christianity comes from the demotic word for Egyptian. Coptic as a written language employs Greek letters rather than hieroglyphics to communicate the Egyptian language. By this point, most writing was done in Greek or demotic script, the forerunner of coptic. Hieroglyphic writing had long been relegated to ritual purposes, the decoration of temples, the copying of the proper protective scriptures from the Book of the Dead and cartouches (one's name in hieroglyphic imbued with great symbolic significance) on mummy sarcophagi and the like.
These early Biblical texts (dating from the late third, early fourth century) in Coptic were somewhat crude renditions of Greek manuscripts, significant simply for their existence. Also about this time, around AD 300, the first Coptic Christian scholar and teacher, Hieracas appeared, educated in both Greek and Egyptian. Even more significant were the first reports of Christians in Middle and Upper Egypt, the traditional stronghold of the old belief system. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria in the mid‑third century, is quoted by Eusebius, as having traveled to Christian communities in the Fayyum. Eusebius had previously counted among victims of the Christian persecution by Severus (AD 201), people taken to trial in Alexandria from all over the country, including the Thebaid, suggesting pockets of Christianity in Upper Egypt in the early third century. Evidence for Christianity in these regions by the late third century is further confirmed by archaeological evidence—Christian manuscripts and letters, communications between Christians from these areas and Alexandrian Christians. More support can be made from the shape of tombs, mummy‑decorations, and other Christian sacred objects.