Talk:Crucifix

What exactly IS a crucifix? I'm not Christian, sorry for my ignorance. But is it the cross WITH the body of Christ? That's what I thought. --Dmerrill

Yep, in the technical usage of the Roman CAtholic church a cross is a cross, while a crucifix has a corpus (Latin, 'body') fixed to it. The entry needs to be disambiguated. --MichaelTinkler.

Have you noticed that Cross has a link to Christian cross, which redirects to this article? There should probably be some actual text at the Christian cross article, instead of redirecting straight here. I didn't set up the redirects, but I've been wondering when someone would notice and object. Guess that would be me now.... --Wesley

Just out of curiousity, if someone wants to make their own crucifix is there any place where a corpus may be obtained? I ask because I had a hard time finding one when I went to make a crucifix last year, only one store had one and it was about three feet tall and was several hundred dollars. I couldn't find any on the internet either in the size or cost range I wanted. I wound up carving the corpus myself - easier said than done because at the time I had very little experience carving stuff.
JesseG 19:58, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

Irish Penal Cross

I have a replica of what is called, in Ireland, a Penal Cross, the word "cross" being used, rather than "crucifix." This cross takes its name from the days of the Penal Laws (at their worst in the early 18th century). The Penal Laws was the name given to a body of extremely harsh repressive legislation, aimed at reducing the Catholic Irish to abject misery. In practice, even if the niceties of legal terminology put it otherwise, the Catholic Church was outlawed. Priests found in Ireland faced death as did Bishop (now Blessed) Oliver Plunkett.

My carved bog-oak replica is about 9 inches long, the crossbeam 3 inches wide and the upright, which is slightly curved, varying from 1 and a half to 2 inches wide. Note that it bears no resemblance to Celtic Crosses, although an expert in the field might point out similarities in carving styles. Irish lore has it that its peculiar elongated shape allowed the carrier to slip it up his sleeve when necessary.

The Cross, which is representative, or stylized, rather than realistic, is carved with:

the letters INRI at the top

a hammer and 3 nails below the letters

the sun, moon and stars, presumably referring to the unusual meteorological events reported at the time of the Crucifixion

the crucified Jesus

under Jesus's right arm is what I take--perhaps wrongly--to be a fish

under His left arm are two streaks, which I take--again, perhaps wrongly--to represent a flow of blood

to Jesus's right, roughly parallel with the legs of the victim, are a spear and a whip, the whip curling around below his feet--4 curved cords

to Jesus's left, again roughly parallel, is a primitive ladder

below the feet (and the curled whip) is a stylized representation of a cock, poised just above a cooking pot--perhaps a little irony in this grim representation.

I wish to stress that:

1) I am no art historian, I am unfamiliar with the technical terms of this discipline and I make no claims to any specialized knowledge in this field

2) This item is sold as a replica and is available in many Irish shops for tourists.

If anyone can correct my errors, or give more detailed explanations, I will be happy to read it!--PeadarMaguidhir 20:10, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

A little addendum: In the Irish language, a cross is generally called a "cros," whereas a crucifix is generally called a "cros céasta."--PeadarMaguidhir 21:08, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

when did this happen?

In the beginning of the second section, it says "Also, in the Old Testament, Moses lifted up a snake crucified on a pole-- a kind of symbolic crucifix". This didn't happen in the Torah, which is the original old testament. Could someone please clarify how they got this from the old testament? It's obviously Christian, but which version of the bible is it? Could someone please clarify this for me? thanks. Ilikefood 23:38, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

It is from the Torah -- Numbers 21:9. 71.206.186.34 (talk) 06:17, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Is the Crucifix a Catholic Thing?

I am just wondering why were references to Oriental Orthodox (and Anglican churches) have been removed. A large Crucifix is used in all Coptic Orthodox Churches above the altar. Furthermore the Crucifix is used in processions on various major feasts. I am just trying to make a point that it is used extensively in the Oriental Orthodox Church. (Mike Morgan 21:16, 26 August 2007 (UTC))

It is used in most of the European protestant churches, as well. See http://www.dorfkirche-bentwisch.de/?page_id=14 for a reference. --62.224.194.7 (talk) 22:20, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

The quote at the top of the article says "It is primarily used...", that doesn't mean exclusively used. In addition to orthodox, many "high-order" protestant denominations use the crucifix. If varies denomination to denomination, but many protestant denominations prefer just the cross. By the way I reverted the edit dealing with atheists using the upside down cross as a protest. It was actually added by an atheist based on a cite. Not a church going "hate monger" Please refrain from attacks. Marauder40 (talk) 03:34, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Random comment

Anyway -- it should be mentioned that they used to have daggers embedded in their crucifixes. I'd like to know if that was for self-defense, forceable conversion, both, or neither :) ClintJCL (talk) 18:22, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Views in other religions

I gather that many other religions find the crucifix to be offensive, especially among muslims, jews, seculars and protestants, who claim it to be an idol. There should be information on this, since in many occasions crucifixes have been banned in public because of controversies surrounding them. 69.157.229.153 (talk) 18:07, 3 January 2009 (UTC)