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The disciples of Jesus founded a school in Africa
The strange story of the School of Alexandria
When I went to learn more about the early history of Christianity, there were many things I had never heard of before—like a school founded by Jesus’ first followers.
You wouldn’t hear about it in church. But it is mentioned in the official history of Christianity, in strange, brief, vague references. In a fourth century book, Eusebius’ History of the Church, there’s a mention of Mark, the author of the gospel, being “sent to preach in Egypt,” as he was “the first to establish churches in Alexandria” (HE 2.16)
That doesn’t refer to a school. But later in Eusebius’ book there is mention of a second century Christian man in Alexandria named Pantaenus who “directed the school of the faithful there, since, from an ancient custom, a school of sacred teachings existed among them.”
An ‘ancient’ school?
The city of Alexandria would seem a great place for one. With the Library of Alexandria, it was a famous center of learning in the ancient world.
Mark would be seen as a disciple rather than an apostle. But Eusebius said that he had been “sent.”…
