A Forgotten Church

In Mark 5 (parallels in Matthew 8 and Luke 8), Jesus and his disciples travel to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee -- then-Gentile, now-Arab territory. Immediately upon their arrival, they encounter a despairing demoniac. Jesus casts Legion into a herd of pigs, and the fully restored man begs Jesus to let him join the disciples on their future journeys. But Jesus refuses: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” In light of Jesus’ adamant insistence on not evangelizing throughout the Gospel of Mark, this command is nothing short of astonishing. Apparently, the man obeyed, because at the end of the following chapter, we see the fruit of his obedience: Jesus returned to the sea’s eastern side, and the people “immediately recognized him.” He traveled throughout “villages, cities, and countryside,” healing multitudes. And he came back to this land on numerous occasions.  

So, it started before even the earliest missionaries. It started with Jesus himself. 

And their earliest missionaries were not foreigners, by the way: Arabs were present at that legendary Pentecost (Acts 2:11). 

They remained present throughout the formative years of the early church. Four Arabs participated in the first main ecumenical council at Nicea (CE 325). Official bishops represented the province of Arabia in the second main ecumenical council at Constantinople (CE 381). 

And not just present. Active, alive. In the following centuries, and into the first millenium, churches in the East were well-connected with churches in the West -- well enough to be constantly arguing, that is. While these historical arguments and splits are in many ways regrettable, they must also be recognized as evidence of vitality, evidence of the fact that the Church in the Arab world has known centuries of flourishing. 

Many assume that Christianity in this region must have ended when Islam was founded in the early 7th century. This is just not true. Here in Jordan, for example, I could visit dozens of Byzantine church ruins from centuries before and after the advent of Islam. 

Furthermore, many assume that Muslims must have always persecuted Arab Christians and that the two must have always hated each other. This is also not true. I speculate that a misappropriation of elementary knowledge about the Crusades (a shameful scar on western Christendom) is to blame. But regardless: let it be known that Arab Christians and Arab Muslims have lived in relative harmony with each other for 1400 years. 

Not that problems have never arisen or that tension does not currently exist. They have, and it does. More on this later. 

But for now, I just wanted to briefly introduce Arab Christianity and in so doing dispel some common false assumptions surrounding it.

Of course, many American Christians have no assumptions of which to speak. They have ever and always equated Arab ethnicity with Islamic faith. They have never thought of their beautiful Arab sisters and brothers. Never said a prayer for them. Let alone worshipped alongside them. 

In the near future, I hope to offer readers a few glimpses of this church’s beauty.