In this discussion, the term pope (as in Rome) used prior to the year 606 is an anachronism. As it did not come into being in Rome until, Pope Boniface III (607) received the accolade papa/pope in 606, from Phocas (602-10), the usurper Byzantine Emperor.
The Coptic Oriental Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Egypt, is part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches (not to be confused with the Byzantine Orthodox group of churches aka the Eastern Orthodox Church). Alexandria has been the See of Mark since the year 68 of the common era. The Coptic or Copt’s are “native Monophysite Christians of Egypt.” They can boast that its first pope, and patriarch, Heraclas II (230-246) was invested more than 250 years before the first Bishop of Rome had the title of pope. In fact, the Copt’s had a pope before Rome decided on becoming an Apostolic See, by adopting Peter as its apostle. One has to remember that Peter was the Apostle at the heart of the See of Antioch, first and foremost. Rome’s timeline on Peter does not match the evidence.
Wagih Subhi Baqi Sulayman in 2012, became Alexandria’s 118th Pope and Patriarch, Tawadros II (Theodore II) of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Egypt. However, before Heraclas II, there were eleven Patriarchs of Alexandria, including the first, Mark, as its Patriarch.
“The Copts of Alexandria do not share any affiliation with your religious beliefs, you may assert.” However, if you have a New Testament, with it 27 books, then you owe some respect to the Coptic Church of Alexandria. As it was its patriarch, Pope Athanasius (328-379), who in 367 published his 39th Festal Epistle/Letter outlining the 27 books that form the New Testament that we used to this day. He also wrote the Nicene Creed, and is regarded by western
Protestant scholars as one of the greatest leaders of Christianity.
Yet, in the west we see Monophysite Christians as heretics who believe there is only one nature, partly divine and partly human, in the person of Jesus Christ. Monophysite Christians now comprising the Coptic, Armenian, Abyssinian, and Jacobite churches. What is wrong with being a Monophysite? See one hundred Armenian manuscripts below that did not accept the resurrection of Jesus.
The original followers of Jesus, the Ebionites who acknowledged neither a divine sonship nor a preexistence nor a virgin birth. Yet, they too are seen in the west as heretics, but not Jesus! The Church of Rome has robbed the Christians of the west their early history of their religion. Yes, robbed, as the earliest form of Christianity, believed in a non-divine Jesus, all the most ancient Biblical manuscripts, did not have a resurrected Jesus, Mark chapter 16 finished on verse eight. It was after the publications of the earliest manuscripts (MSS) that we begin seeing extra verses being added to Mark chapter 16, probably from the 5th or 6th-century onward.
Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart, 1971), pages 122-126.
16:9-20 The Ending(s) of Mark. Four endings of the Gospel according to Mark are current in the manuscripts. The last twelve verses of the commonly received text of Mark are absent from the two oldest Greek manuscripts (א and B), from the Old Latin codex Bobiensis (it k), the Sinaitic Syriac manuscript, about one hundred Armenian manuscripts, and the two oldest Georgian manuscripts (written A.D. 897 and A.D. 913). Clement of Alexandria and Origen show no knowledge of the existence of these verses; furthermore, Eusebius and Jerome attest that the passage was absent from almost all Greek copies of Mark known to them. The original form of the Eusebian sections (drawn up by Ammonius) makes no provision for numbering sections of the text after 16:8. Not a few manuscripts which contain the passage have scribal notes stating that older Greek copies lack it; and in other witnesses the passage is marked with asterisks or obeli, the conventional signs used by copyists to indicate a spurious addition to a document.—http://www.bible-researcher.com/endmark.html.
The divinity of Jesus, and his mother Mary, came by proclamations from Church Councils/Synods centuries after the fact. With Mary being deified at the Council of Ephesus in 431 as the Theotokos or Bearer of God. What do you say?
J.E. Jeanne p.p. Jero Jones.
Approved ~ FS