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The big conversion took place in the relatively brief period of 30 years, between 300 and 330, according to archaeological and textual evidence. Certainly Constantine's Edict of Milan (AD 311), declaring toleration of Christianity, and the ascension to the Imperial throne in 312 of the first Christian emperor, must have inspired new converts, but it also allowed closet Christians to worship openly. Still, to explain earlier conversions, it seems more convincing to examine Christianity as a religious movement in opposition to the Romans.
Christianity: The Archetypal
Millenarian Movement
Bryan Wilson and Norman Cohn provide numerous illustrations of sects arising out of the mainstream of Christianity and setting the date for the return of Christ and the impending Golden Age within the lifespans of those who adhere to the sect. For the early Christians, the Second Coming was not some distant event, but at hand. Numerous scholars have supported that the Book of Revelations, composed during the reign of Domitian (AD 81‑96) was written with the Romans in mind. Such a statement may seem blasphemy to the modern Christian, but all the aspects of the Beast match up to Rome. Thus, one can imagine the Egyptian finding comfort that the oppressors soon will be overthrown. The glorious future is no longer a return to the same good old days, but still very much to an Egyptian Egypt.
The native Egyptian would be further attracted to Christianity because the Romans were so fervently opposed to it for so many years. Tertullian (AD 200) speaks of the persecution of Christians as a reaction to various stresses: "If the Tiber reaches the walls; if the Nile fails to reach the fields, if the heaven withholds its rain, if the earth quakes, if there is famine, if there is pestilence, at once the cry is raised `The Christians to the lion!'"
While in other parts of the empire, local populations were recorded as taking out their private grievances on the convenient scapegoat of the Christians, in Egypt, persecution was initiated mostly by the Roman military during periods of Imperial edicts ordering mass persecution. The most significant was ordered by Diocletian in 303, literally on the eve of the Christian conversion of the entire empire. Diocletian ordered all churches demolished and all Christian manuscripts destroyed, another possible reason for lack of surviving data from the early Coptic period..
Contemporary accounts held that 144,000 Christians were killed in Egypt during the persecutions of Diocletian and Decius, who launched an earlier edict lasting from 249‑251. Decius had required that all Imperial residents be witnessed by a Roman official when making sacrifice to any old pagan deities; everyone was required to obtain a "certificate of sacrifice" and those who refused were put to death. While active persecution in Decius's rampage continued only about a year, it took 10 years before his successor Emperor Gallienus officially withdrew the edict. Ironically the last emperor's name to appear in a hieroglyphic cartouche on an Egyptian temple wall was that of Decius on the temple of Khnum at Esna. One of the last known hieroglyphic inscriptions was on a stela, dated 295, from Erment (now in the British Museum) in which Emperor Diocletian is portrayed offering a sacrifice to the sacred bull, Buchis, in the garb and traditional profile stance of the old pharaohs.
Roman persecution of Christianity also is notable because of the aforementioned Imperial policy of religious tolerance, but several factors separated Christianity from other faiths. First, Christians refused to acknowledge the emperor as a living God. The Roman emperors were less concerned, however, with loss of respect than with the practical consideration of Christian flagrant disloyalty. Decius, for example, worried about Christians creating converts among the military. Roman suspicions about the treasonous nature of Christianity were further fueled by the Christian belief that worship should be private, suggesting a secret society, but the persecutions necessitated even greater secrecy for Christian gatherings.
In sum, in addition to the hope of salvation, Christianity would free the Egyptian from having to give hypocritical homage to a distasteful, tyrannical leader who did not even rule Egypt on her native soil. Christianity furthermore might have been attractive because of its thesis of non‑universality of divine grace. Only those who repent and believe in Jesus will be saved, thus excluding the Romans. Christ also favored the poor and meek, providing added encouragement for the lower classes to dump their old gods. In this context, the rise of monasticism in Egypt—and Egypt was where the monastic ideal originated—can be seen as a reaction to Greco‑Roman hedonism. The root of the word "anchorite" comes from "anachoresis" meaning “flight” to the ancient Egyptians.