Page:Early Christianity outside the Roman empire.djvu/19

Rh I speak, of course, of the Christianity of the Euphrates valley, of the Church whose language was Syriac and its metropolis Edessa. But before we settle down to our study of this Church we shall do well to consider how it came to pass that it is the only historical rival of the Greeks.

Let us look round the Roman Empire. To the north and west it is obvious that Greek-speaking Christianity could have no competitors. Marcion of Pontus to all intents and purposes counts as a Greek. The few Christians of Armenia used Syriac until the 4th century. The Latin Christianity of the West and of N. Africa is wholly the child of Greek Christianity. At a much later period it also developed distinctive characteristics, but it inherited nothing of primitive Christianity which it did not get through Greek Christianity. The language, the laws, the customs of the Latins are all utterly foreign to Palestine and Semitic thought.

Nor does Egypt supply anything for our purpose. Christianity was early established in Alexandria, but Alexandria was less Egyptian than Gibraltar is