AnswerThe origins of Christianity in the mountain kingdom of Aksum go back to the fourth century, to the visit of two Christian merchants from Syria, Frumentius and Aedesius, to the court of the Negus (king). Although the Ethiopian Church relied on Coptic support and sustenance, it did not begin as a mission Church of Egypt and is not 'Coptic', rather a mission of the Nestorian Church. This led to its founding as a monophysite Church, teaching that there is only one, divine nature in Christ, not two natures, divine and human, as in orthodox teaching.

One of the unique features of Ethiopian Christianity is its sense of identity with the Jewish heritage of Christianity. Ethiopia is part of a Semitic world (Amharinya is a Semitic language). There may well have been a Jewish presence (as there was in Arabia just across the Red Sea) long before the coming of Christianity. Replicas of the ark are placed at the centre of all new churches in Ethiopia, and the churches themselves are designed on an idealised plan of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.