Melchite Church

The term "Melkite" (/ˈmɛlkaɪt/), also written "Melchite", refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The term comes from the Northwestern Semitic root-word M-L-K found in Syriac malkoyo (ܡܠܟܝܐ‬), Hebrew: 'מלך'‬ Melk-i or Melech-i, and Arabic: ملكي‎ Malak-ī, meaning "royal", and by extension, "imperial". When used in an ecclesiastical sense, it refers specifically to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church as an ethnoreligious group.

Melkites view themselves as the first Christian community, dating the Melkite Church back to the time of the Apostles. This first community is said to have been a mixed one made up of individuals who were originally Greek, Greco-Macedonian, Roman, Syriac, and Jewish.

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