Page 2 - Arab Christians_Neat

Arab Christians: Related

Who Are They

And Where Do

They Live?

The Vikings: Who Were They And
Where Did They Come From?

Church of St. John the Baptist, a Christian
church, is photographed here in Jordan.

Contrary to popular belief, the native
population in the Arabic world is not
exclusively made up of Muslims. There
is a significant population of Arabs who
practice Christianity who are commonly
known as Arab Christians. The ancestry
of these Arab Christians goes back to
the genesis of Christianity in the 1st
Century CE. Arab Christians are
mentioned in several instances in the
New Testament which gives the earliest
record of the existence of these
Christians in Arabia with the Books of
Acts (Acts 2:8-11), and Galatians
(Galatians 1:15-17) are two examples.
Arab Christians grew in numbers and
by the 4th century and had significant
numbers in the Arabian Peninsula,
Sinai Peninsula, and the Mesopotamia.
The Christian community in Ethiopia
was also influential in the adoption of
Christianity by Arabs, with Ethiopian
Christians being thought to have lived
in Mecca at some point.

History: Pre-lslamic
Period

The earliest Arab Christians existed
before the Islamic period, and these
consisted of ancient tribes of Qahtani
origin. These tribes included the early
Nabateans and Ghassanids, who spoke