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The Kingdom of Aksum in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. [3] The Ethiopian Empire was the only region of Africa to survive the expansion of Islam as a Christian state before European colonization. [4]
Christianity in Ethiopia is the country's largest religion with members making up 68% of the population. [ 3 ] Christianity in Ethiopia dates back to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum , when the King Ezana first adopted the faith in the 4th century AD.
Women covering their heads and separation of the sexes in churches officially is common to few other Christian traditions; it is also the rule in some non-Christian religions, Islam and Orthodox Judaism among them). [76] Before praying, the Ethiopian Orthodox remove their shoes in order to acknowledge that one is offering prayer before a holy ...
The veneration of Arwe, which was widespread, predates Christianity in Ethiopia, [1] which became a state religion under Ezana of Axum in the early 4th century. [2] Arwe ("wild beast" in Geʽez [3]) is a snake-king who rules for four hundred years [4] over the land that is to become Ethiopia.
No religion or ethnic group has been decisively identified with Bani al-Hamwiyah, but the queen, who is known as Gudit, was certainly non-Christian, as her reign was characterized by the destruction of churches in Ethiopia which is seen as opposition to the spread of Christianity in the region. [24]
Ethiopia was further Christianized in the 4th century ce by two men (likely brothers) from Tyre—St. Frumentius. [93] Ever since the conversion of Ezana of Axum to Christianity by Frumentius in 325 AD, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has received its archbishops from the Coptic Orthodox Church. [94]
After the Beta Israel autonomy in Ethiopia ended in the 1620s, Emperor Susenyos I confiscated their lands and forcibly baptized others. [10] In addition, the practice of any form of Jewish religion was forbidden in Ethiopia. As a result of this period of oppression, much traditional Jewish culture and practice was lost or changed.
The Ethiopian eunuch's religion of origin is significant because of the subsequent implications of his conversion to Christianity. There are many competing theories for the eunuch's pre-conversion religious status in relation to Judaism and Christianity.