The Oriental Orthodox churches of Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia and Syria went their own way after a great council in 451.
Eastern churches451grew out of The early, undivided Church
The Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and Syriac churches did not accept the Council of Chalcedon's formula of Christ in two natures (451) and have been a distinct family since. Six churches today, in Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Armenia, Syria and India, with the Ethiopian holding the broadest canon in Christianity.
The Oriental Orthodox are six ancient churches: the Coptic in Egypt, the Ethiopian and Eritrean, the Armenian, the Syriac and the Malankara in India. They are as old as any church in the world, and they parted from the rest of Christianity after a council held in 451.
Each was founded long before that parting. Egypt's Christians count Mark the Evangelist as the founder of the church of Alexandria 16,7. The Christians of Kerala trace their faith to the apostle Thomas 25,40. Armenia adopted Christianity about the year 301, under Gregory the Illuminator, and is remembered as the first kingdom to do so 17,8. Ethiopia was brought to the faith in the fourth century through Frumentius, who became the first bishop of Aksum, though the Ethiopian church reads its beginning further back, in the officer of the Ethiopian queen whom Philip met on the road in Acts 18,9. These were the churches of Antioch and Alexandria, the homes of monasticism and of much of early Christian theology.
The break came over words about Christ. The Council of Ephesus in 431 had used the language of Cyril of Alexandria, who spoke of one incarnate nature of God the Word 14,4. Twenty years later the Council of Chalcedon taught one Christ made known in two natures, and Alexandria, Antioch and Armenia held that this divided him 5,4. They confess instead that the divine and the human are united in Christ without mixing, change, division or separation, one nature from two, which is what the word miaphysite means and what the Ge'ez word Tewahedo, being made one, says in the Ethiopian church's own name 3,24,9. Empire, language and politics widened what began as a disagreement over terms, and for centuries the Byzantine state pressed the churches that had not accepted the council 4,28. In our own time the conversation reopened. In 1973 Paul VI and Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria signed a declaration confessing one faith in the Triune God and Jesus Christ as perfect God and perfect man 26, and from 1985 to 1993 the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches agreed statements finding that both families hold the same faith in the incarnate Word, in different words 27,1.
These churches believe the Nicene faith, and they accept the first three great councils but not the fourth. They teach that in Jesus, God and man are joined in one united nature, whole and unmixed. Mary is honoured as the Mother of God, and fasting and the saints are woven through ordinary life.
The creed of Nicaea and Constantinople is confessed as it was written, and the councils of Nicaea in 325, Constantinople in 381 and Ephesus in 431 are received as binding 5,6,20. From Ephesus they keep the title Theotokos, God-bearer, for Mary, and devotion to her is strong in all six churches 14,22,24. Their word for what happened in the incarnation is union: one nature of the incarnate Word, in which the humanity is complete and the divinity unchanged, so that neither is lost 3,20,23. Salvation is described as this union reaching human beings, and the sacraments, above all baptism and the Eucharist, are where it is received 21,25.
Fasting is a mark of these churches: Copts keep well over two hundred fasting days a year, and the Ethiopian church keeps a comparable rule, with no animal products on fast days 21,24,7. Monasticism began in the Egyptian desert with Anthony and Pachomius and is still central, and bishops are chosen from among monks 15,7,2. The Ethiopian church also keeps practices no other church kept: a tabot, a replica of the ark of the covenant, rests in every church, and Saturday as well as Sunday is honoured 9,31.
Worship and practice
Worship is long, sung and ancient, in languages most of the congregation no longer speaks at home: Coptic in Egypt, Ge'ez in Ethiopia and Eritrea, classical Armenian, and Syriac, which is close to the Aramaic Jesus spoke. Drums, chant and incense carry it.
The Coptic liturgy usually served carries the name of Basil, sung in Coptic and Arabic with cymbals and triangle 20,21. Ethiopian and Eritrean worship uses the Ge'ez chant ascribed to Yared in the sixth century, with drums, prayer staves and the sistrum, and on great feasts the clergy dance before the tabot 9,24. The Armenian service is called the Badarak, sung in classical Armenian 22,8. The Syriac and Malankara churches pray the liturgy of James in Syriac and Malayalam 23,25,12. In every one of them the sanctuary is curtained or screened, worshippers stand, and the church year is shaped by long fasts and by feasts kept with all-night singing 21,24,2.
Scripture and Bible translations
Each of these churches has its own ancient Bible: the Peshitta in Syriac, the Ge'ez Bible of Ethiopia, the Armenian Bible that its own people call the queen of translations, and the Coptic versions of Egypt. The Ethiopian canon is the largest in Christianity, at eighty-one books.
The Peshitta has been the Bible of the Syriac and Malankara churches since about the fifth century, in a form of Aramaic close to the language Jesus spoke 12,23. The Armenian Bible followed the alphabet that Mesrop Mashtots devised about 405 so that Scripture could be read in Armenian at all 37,8. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo canon holds eighty-one books, the broadest in traditional Christianity, and includes Enoch and Jubilees, which no other church receives as Scripture, with a broader list used in some reckonings 33,9. Read here: the Van Dyck Arabic Bible, which Arabic-speaking Christians including many Copts have read since 1865, the Amharic Bible of Ethiopia, and Brenton's Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament these churches' own translations often follow. The versions guide sets out what each church uses.
In church
Each church keeps its ancient liturgical language: Coptic, Ge'ez, classical Armenian, Syriac (the Peshitta). The Ethiopian canon is the broadest in Christianity, with 81 books.
At home
The Protestant-produced Van Dyck translation of 1865 has circulated widely among Arabic-speaking Christians, including many Copts. Ethiopians and Armenians also use modern vernacular editions alongside their historic liturgical languages.
Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East preserve the Syriac Peshitta. Its Old Testament developed in the early centuries CE, while the standard Peshitta New Testament is generally associated with the late fourth or early fifth century. Modern Assyrian Aramaic and Arabic editions are also used.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the King James Version + Apocrypha and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
Out of Egypt have I called my son. Egypt sheltered the child Jesus, and Coptic Christians have never stopped saying so.
Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. The verse Ethiopian Christians read as their own calling, and one of the oldest self-descriptions of any church.
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
How can I, except some man should guide me. The Ethiopian official reading Isaiah in his chariot is where the Ethiopian church begins its story.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
He made himself of no reputation. Paul's hymn of the self-emptying God is the ground of what these churches say about the one united nature of Christ.
People
Mark the Evangelistfirst century The writer of the second Gospel, whom the Coptic Church honours as its founder and first bishop of Alexandria.16
Anthony of Egyptabout 251 to 356 The Egyptian who gave away his inheritance and went into the desert, and so began Christian monasticism, which spread from Egypt to the whole Church.15
Cyril of Alexandriaabout 376 to 444 Patriarch of Alexandria and the theologian of Ephesus in 431, whose phrase about the one incarnate nature of the Word these churches still confess.14
Gregory the Illuminatorabout 240 to 332 The evangelist of Armenia, whose work led the Armenian king to adopt Christianity about 301, and whose see at Etchmiadzin still leads the church.17
Frumentiusfourth century A shipwrecked young Syrian who became tutor at the court of Aksum and then its first bishop, so that Ethiopia's church began with a teacher rather than an army.18
Mesrop Mashtotsabout 362 to 440 The monk who invented the Armenian alphabet about 405 so that the Bible could be read in Armenian, and so gave a nation its literature.37
Shenouda III1923 to 2012 Pope of Alexandria for forty years, who led the Coptic Church through a difficult period in Egypt and signed the 1973 declaration with Paul VI.19
Today
Counts of these churches range from about fifty million to about eighty-seven million, depending on who is counting. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is much the largest. The Coptic Church is the largest Christian body in the Middle East.
Estimates for the family as a whole run from more than fifty million to about seventy-two million, and the churches' own figures reach about eighty-seven million 28,39. More than two fifths of Ethiopians belong to the Tewahedo church, which makes it the largest of the six by far 11,9. In Egypt, around a tenth of the population is Christian, most of them Coptic Orthodox, and published estimates run from about five to about fifteen percent, a range that is itself argued over 29,7. The Armenian Church reports about nine million members worldwide, many of them in a diaspora formed by catastrophe 30,8. The Ethiopian church became self-governing in 1959, having been led from Alexandria for sixteen centuries, and the Eritrean church became self-governing after Eritrean independence, recognised in 1993 and with its own patriarch from 1998 9,2,32. All six are members of the World Council of Churches and are in dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church 1,27.
The twentieth century fell heavily on these churches. In 1915 the Ottoman government deported and killed the Armenians of Anatolia, most commonly reckoned at about 1.5 million dead, with estimates from 700,000 to 1.8 million 13,38, and Syriac Christians were killed in the same years in what they call the Sayfo 34,10. Under Ethiopia's military government from 1974 the church lost its lands and its patriarch, Abune Theophilos, who was imprisoned and killed 31,9. In Eritrea, Patriarch Abune Antonios was removed in 2006 and held under house arrest until his death in 2022 36,32. In 2015 twenty-one Coptic and Ghanaian Christians working in Libya were killed by the Islamic State, and the Coptic Church added them to its calendar of martyrs within days 35,29.
Words to know
miaphysite
From the Greek words for one nature. The teaching of the Oriental Orthodox churches that in Jesus the divine and the human are united in one nature, without mixing, change, division or separation. Those churches set it apart from the older label monophysite, which they do not accept as a description of what they believe.
Peshitta
The Bible in Syriac, a form of Aramaic close to the language Jesus spoke. It has been the Bible of the Syriac and Malankara churches since about the fifth century.
council
A gathering of bishops to settle what the Church teaches. The first, at Nicaea in 325, gave the Church its creed.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
liturgy
The set form of a service: its prayers, readings and actions in their usual order. The Orthodox call their main service the Divine Liturgy.
schism
A formal parting between churches. The Great Schism of 1054 divided Catholic West from Orthodox East.
patriarch
The title of the senior bishop of one of the ancient Christian centres, such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch or Moscow. In the Hebrew Bible the same word names Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
autocephalous
Self-governing. An autocephalous church elects its own head bishop and answers to no other church, while sharing one faith and one communion with the rest of its family.
Questions people ask
Why did these churches not accept the Council of Chalcedon?
Chalcedon in 451 taught one Christ made known in two natures. Alexandria, Antioch and Armenia held that this way of speaking pulled Christ apart, and kept instead the language of Cyril of Alexandria about one incarnate nature of the Word, in which the humanity is complete and the divinity unchanged 5,3,4. Language, politics and imperial pressure hardened what began as a disagreement over words 4,28.
Is the disagreement with other Orthodox and Catholic Christians still alive?
Much less than it was. In 1973 Paul VI and Shenouda III declared one faith in Jesus Christ as perfect God and perfect man 26, and the joint commission of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches agreed in 1989 and 1990 that both families confess the same faith in different terms 27,1. Full communion has not followed, and other matters, including which councils are received, remain open 1,2.
What does Tewahedo mean?
It is the Ge'ez word for being made one, and it names the union of the divine and the human in Christ that the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches confess. That is why their full names are the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church 24,9.
Why does the Ethiopian Bible have eighty-one books?
Because the Ethiopian church kept books that other churches let go, including Enoch and Jubilees, which survive complete only in Ge'ez. At eighty-one books it is the largest canon in traditional Christianity, and some reckonings list a broader set still 33,9.
Are Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox the same?
No. They are two families that separated at Chalcedon in 451, six centuries before the Eastern Orthodox parted from Rome. Eastern Orthodox churches accept seven ecumenical councils; the Oriental Orthodox accept three. They are not in communion with each other, although their dialogue has found the faith they hold to be the same 1,28,27.
Sources
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BibleVerse. “Oriental Orthodox: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-07, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/oriental/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-07. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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Egypt, Assyria and Israel named together and blessed together. These churches have carried that sentence through the centuries in the countries it names.
