Who Are Egypts Copts and Coptic Christians?
Who Are Egypt’s Copts and Coptic Christians?”Copt” and “Coptic” are terms often misunderstood and misapplied—not least because of confusion created by Copts themselves. Typically, the terms refer to Egypt’s large community of Christians. But not all of Egypt’s Christians are Copts. Out of Egypt’s 83 million people (in 2009), 9% are Copts, 1% are Christians of other denominations, such as Melkites, Maronites and Chaldeans (and 90% are Sunni Muslims). Answer: Origins of the Words: “Copt” and “Coptic” The word “Coptic” is frequently applied to Egyptian Christians throughout history. That, too, is wrong. The word “Copt” takes its origin from Kpt, which is the way Arabs pronounced the Greek word for Egypt, Aigyptos. So “Copt” originally had an exclusively geographic meaning. It couldn’t be otherwise, since Copts as a Christian sect distinct from the Roman Church did not yet exist for the first five centuries of Christian hist
