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Christian cross

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A reliquary in the form of an ornate Christian Cross

The Christian cross is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity. It is a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is related to the crucifix (a cross that includes a representation of Jesus' body) and to the more general family of cross symbols. The cross is a crucifix without Jesus' body on it.

History of use of the symbol

Pre-Christian cross-like symbols

The cross-shaped sign, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both East and West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization. It is supposed to have been used not just for its ornamental value, but also with religious significance.[1]

Some have sought to attach to the widespread use of this sign, in particular in its swastika form, a real ethnographic importance. It may have represented the apparatus used in kindling fire, and thus as the symbol of sacred fire [2] or as a symbol of the sun,[3] denoting its daily rotation. It has also been interpreted as the mystic representation of lightning or of the god of the tempest, and even the emblem of the Aryan pantheon and the primitive Aryan civilization.

Another symbol that has been connected with the cross is the ansated cross (ankh or crux ansata) of the ancient Egyptians, which often appears as a symbolic sign in the hands of the goddess Sekhet, and appears as a hieroglyphic sign of life or of the living.[4] In later times the Egyptian Christians (Copts), attracted by its form, and perhaps by its symbolism, adopted it as the emblem of the cross (Gayet, "Les monuments coptes du Musée de Boulaq" in "Mémoires de le mission française du Caire", VIII, fasc. III, 1889, p. 18, pl. XXXI–XXXII & LXX–LXXI).

In the Bronze Age we meet in different parts of Europe a more accurate representation of the cross, as conceived in Christian art, and in this shape it was soon widely diffused. This more precise characterization coincides with a corresponding general change in customs and beliefs. The cross is now met with, in various forms, on many objects: fibulas, cinctures, earthenware fragments, and on the bottom of drinking vessels. De Mortillet is of opinion that such use of the sign was not merely ornamental, but rather a symbol of consecration, especially in the case of objects pertaining to burial. In the proto-Etruscan cemetery of Golasecca every tomb has a vase with a cross engraved on it. True crosses of more or less artistic design have been found in Tiryns, at Mycenæ, in Crete, and on a fibula from Vulci.

The material in this section is a slightly abbreviated copy of text in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia reproduced in full in Wikisource.

Early Christian use

During the first two centuries of Christianity, the cross may have been rare in Christian iconography, as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution. The Ichthys, or fish symbol, was used by early Christians. The Chi-Rho monogram, which was adopted by Constantine I in the fourth century as his banner (see labarum), was another Early Christian symbol of wide use.

However, the cross symbol was already associated with Christians in the second century, as is indicated in the anti-Christian arguments cited in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, chapters IX and XXIX, written at the end of that century or the beginning of the next,[5] and by the fact that by the early third century the cross had become so closely associated with Christ that Clement of Alexandria, who died between 211 and 216, could without fear of ambiguity use the phrase τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον (the Lord's sign) to mean the cross, when he repeated the idea, current as early as the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas, that the number 318 (in Greek numerals, ΤΙΗ) in Genesis 14:14 was interpreted using numerology as a foreshadowing (a "type") of the cross (T, an upright with crossbar, standing for 300) and of Jesus (ΙΗ, the first two letter of his name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, standing for 18),[6] and his contemporary Tertullian could designate the body of Christian believers as crucis religiosi, i.e. "devotees of the Cross".[7] In his book De Corona, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the sign of the cross.[8]

The Jewish Encyclopedia says:

The cross as a Christian symbol or "seal" came into use at least as early as the second century (see "Apost. Const." iii. 17; Epistle of Barnabas, xi.-xii.; Justin, "Apologia," i. 55-60; "Dial. cum Tryph." 85-97); and the marking of a cross upon the forehead and the chest was regarded as a talisman against the powers of demons (Tertullian, "De Corona," iii.; Cyprian, "Testimonies," xi. 21–22; Lactantius, "Divinæ Institutiones," iv. 27, and elsewhere). Accordingly the Christian Fathers had to defend themselves, as early as the second century, against the charge of being worshipers of the cross, as may be learned from Tertullian, "Apologia," xii., xvii., and Minucius Felix, "Octavius," xxix. Christians used to swear by the power of the cross (see Apocalypse of Mary, viii., in James, "Texts and Studies," iii. 118).

In contemporary Christianity

A crucifix on the wall of a church

In Christendom the cross reminds Christians of God's act of love and atonement in Christ's sacrifice at Calvary—"the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The cross also reminds Christians of Jesus' victory over sin and death, since it is believed that through His death and resurrection He conquered death itself.

Christian crosses at a joint service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, members of the major branches of Lutheranism, some Anglicans,and other Christians often make the sign of the cross upon themselves. This was already a common Christian practice in the time of Tertullian.[9] One of the twelve great feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, which commemorates the consecration of the basilica on the site where the original cross of Jesus was reportedly discovered in 326 by Helena of Constantinople, mother of Constantine the Great. The Catholic Church celebrates the feast on the same day and under the same name ("In Exaltatione Sanctae Crucis"), though in English it has been called the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican bishops place a cross [+] before the name when signing a document.

{{See also| American Heritage® > Dictionary





PRONUNCIATION: räy, r VARIANT FORMS: also ra·ya NOUN: A Christian subject under an Ottoman ruler. ETYMOLOGY: Turkish râya, from Arabic ra‘yah, subject, flock, from ra‘, to pasture, feed. See rcy in Appendix II.


CONTENTS · INDEX · ILLUSTRATIONS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

, Samuel Taliaferro

Rejection of the cross as a symbol of Christianity

Higher criticism

Dr Didron comments: "The cross has been the object of a worship and adoration, resembling if not equal to, that offered to Christ. That sacred tree is adored almost as if it were equal with God himself".[10]

The Greek word "σταυρός" (stauros) is rendered "cross" in nearly all English translations of the Bible. In classical Greek - the Greek that was used in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ - this word meant merely an upright stake, or pale.[11] In the Koine Greek of the New Testament, the Greek used by some of those who witnessed Jesus' death, the word was used to refer to a cross, as in the writings of the first-century B.C. Diodorus Siculus and in later writers, such as Plutarch and Lucian.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Jehovah's Witnesses' main reason for rejecting the cross is because they see it as an idol, the use of which in worship is condemned in the Bible (Ex 20:4,5; Ex 32:3-10; Ps 115:4-8; 1Co 10:14; Re 21:8). And, for them, it is unthinkable that the instrument of Christ's brutal murder should be seen as holy or worthy of veneration. [12]

Latter-Day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) also rejects the cross as a symbol, seeing it as a sign of Christ's death and therefore inappropriate as a symbol of the living Christ or his church.

Forms of the Cross

Christopher David Naylor, DPhil MD is a celebrated medical researcher and president of the University of Toronto; (born 1954 in Woodstock, Ontario).

Here are some examples of crosses:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crosses.

References

  1. ^ "Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship" (Encyclopaedia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.
  2. ^ Emile Burnouf, La science des religions
  3. ^ Bertrand, La religion des Gaulois, p. 159. The Companion Bible says: "These crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god,[a cross within a circle], and are first seen on a coin of Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C., and then on a coin struck by Caesar's heir (Augustus), 20 B.C. On the coins of Constantine I the most frequent symbol is ☧; but the same symbol is used without the surrounding circle, and with the four equal arms vertical and horizontal; and this was the symbol specially venerated as the 'Solar Wheel'. It should be stated that Constantine was a sun-god worshipper, and would not enter the 'Church' till some quarter of a century after the legend of his having seen such a cross in the heavens" (Appendix No. 162)
  4. ^ "The cross in the form of the 'Crux Ansata' . . . was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called 'the Sign of Life'." (The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904), by Colonel J. Garnier, p. 226.
  5. ^ Minucius Felix speaks of the cross of Jesus in its familiar form, likening it to objects with a crossbeam or to a man with arms outstretched in prayer (Octavius of Minucius Felix, chapter XXIX).
  6. ^ Stromata, book VI, chapter XI
  7. ^ Apology., chapter xvi. In this chapter and elsewhere in the same book, Tertullian clearly distinguishes between a cross and a stake.
  8. ^ "At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign" (De Corona, chapter 3)
  9. ^ De Corona, chapter 3, written in 204.
  10. ^ Adolphe Napoleon Didron, Christian Iconography Or The History of Christian Art in the Middle Ages, 1851, p. 373.
  11. ^ The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says: "The Greek word for cross, [stau•ros′], properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground. . . . Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole" [Imperial Bible Dictionary, edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376].
  12. ^ Did Jesus really Die on a Cross
Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article Archæology of the Cross and Crucifix.
Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article The Cross and Crucifix in Liturgy.
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