Doxological Eschatology: Nicaea's Prostration Canon and Egyptian Worship

The twentieth canon of the Council of Nicaea mandates that prayer on Sundays and during the Holy Fifty days from Easter to Pentecost be offered in a standing posture. On the surface, the canon and contemporary Coptic practices appear to be in direct contradiction; however, the reception and interpretation of this canon within Egyptian liturgical worship warrant deeper analysis. Building upon previous scholarship highlighting the embodied eschatology behind the intention of the canon, this paper examines biblical, patristic, and medieval sources to extract the Egyptian understanding of the canon in question. By drawing on the worship of the twenty-four elders in the Book of Revelation, along with differing notions of prostration in Egyptian thought, an interpretation of the canon emerges in the Coptic mind that permits year-long doxological prostrations in continuity with eschatological theology.