Cross

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Cross

1.     General

2.     Presuppositions

3.     Forms

4.     Methodology

5.     Depictions

1. General

The prominence of the cross as a Christian → symbol is rooted in the NT account of the saving death of → Jesus on the cross at Golgotha. The wealth of the symbolism is due to the link with another line of interpretation that was originally independent, namely, the cross as an eschatological seal. In this view, the cross is a sign whose bearers commit themselves to the protection and possession of God at the last judgment. Basic here is the idea of sealing, which carries with it from the legal sphere the element of inviolability. The adoption of Ezek. 9:4 in Rev. 7:2 and elsewhere bears witness to the antiquity of this tradition. The crosses in Jewish graves give archaeological evidence of its impact upon → Judaism.

Most important for the image and concept of the cross was the need to wrestle with the “scandal” of the crucifixion of Jesus (see Gal. 5:11). The shame of crucifixion in the Roman empire as a capital punishment for slaves and criminals was the reason for the relatively late appearance of the cross in official art. The attempt to show that God willed the cross of Jesus, notwithstanding the curse of Deut. 21:23, initiated an early → theology of the cross and enriched cross iconography.

If the development is seen as a whole, for all the change of significance and the loss of value that the cross suffered as a cultic object at the → Reformation, the symbol of the cross has been historically most effective as an expression of the content of Christian faith, no other Christian symbol being comparable to it.

2. Presuppositions

The witness in the Bible, early writings, and the cultus is older than that in depictions of crosses.

2.1. The OT had a fruitful influence by means of typology. Although Deut. 21:23 worked negatively through the equation of the cross with the accursed tree (LXX xylon, Vg lignum), proof was also adduced for the positive character of the Christian cross as salvific and conferring blessing (Justin Martyr Dial. 89–91). The prefigurations demonstrating this positive meaning lived on in Christian art. The xylon was given a positive meaning as the Tree of Life and paradise (Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24). This was the root of the symbolism of the cross as the Tree of Life (Ign. Trall. 11.2).

Ezek. 9:4 had even greater impact. At the last judgment the saved would be marked with a tau on the forehead. This was the last letter of the alphabet, which in ancient Hebrew had the form of a + or a ×. The concept made its way into Christianity, unmistakably in Rev. 7:2–3 and other passages. → Tertullian (ca. 160-ca. 225) quoted Ezek. 9:4 as a biblical argument in favor of marking a cross on the forehead; he found the cross in the t[au] of the Latin and Greek text of Ezekiel (Adv. Marc. 3.22). → Origen (ca. 185-ca. 254) saw the proof in the crosslike tau of the archaic letters (Sel. in Ezech. 9), which was known also to → Jerome (ca. 345–420; In Hiez. comm. 3:9). We have here a basic component of cross symbolism, namely, the cross as an eschatological seal (Gk. sphragis), a sign (Gk. sēmeion, Lat. signum) of possession, protection, and dedication. A related phenomenon may be the custom of apotropaic crosses (e.g., on the entrance door) or their use in → exorcism.

This line of understanding quickly joined hands with a second motif that had NT roots in the accounts of the historical lignum of Golgotha and the Easter story. Paul used “the word of the cross” as a phrase describing the whole salvation event, including → Easter. The idea implies victory (1 Cor. 1:18–25 etc.). In Eph. 2:16 and Col. 2:14 the cross is the mediator of → reconciliation and the liberator from → guilt. A link to its cosmological significance may be seen in Eph. 3:18 and 4:16 (cf. Justin Martyr Apol. 1.55).

The saying of Jesus about bearing the cross (Mark 8:34) became significant for the seeing of an attribute in the cross. Along with these texts that are oriented to the crucifixion, Matt. 24:30 was also an influential text for Christian symbolism, especially in the East (→ Eschatology). The resplendent sign of the Son of Man was very soon interpreted as the cross (Did. 16.6), which at the → parousia goes before Christ as a sign of victory (tropaion, “trophy”; Cyril of Jerusalem Cat. 13.41).

2.2. The Sitz im Leben of the sign and symbolism of the cross was the → liturgy and cultus, and primarily → baptism (§1). In 2 Cor. 1:22 (cf. Eph. 1:13–14; 4:30) we perhaps have an early witness to a rite of marking with the cross (sphragis). There might be a connection here with non-Christian rites of sealing. When Paul in Rom. 6:6–11 speaks of baptism as being crucified with Christ, we can see how the two components of interpretation of the cross come together—the cross as cultic sphragis and as historical stauros.

The gesture of crossing oneself, of which we have early attestation, also came to be linked to baptismal sealing. Pagan, magical, and apotropaic ideas might have had an influence at this point, with the power to terrify demons being ascribed to the cross (Origen In Exod. hom. 6.8; Cyril Cat. 4.13–14). Praying with outstretched arms was also regarded as a “type of a cross” (typos staurou; Justin Martyr Apol. 1.55).

Especially influential on art was the early turning to the east in prayer, for it was from the east that the parousia was expected (Matt. 24:27). This tradition produced the symbolism of the cross of → light and the crosses in church apses. At all these points we can see clearly the antiquity of the liturgical impact of the cross. Theological thinking on the cross and the liturgical sign of the cross converged in the act of baptism long before the symbol took actual shape.

3. Forms

Over the centuries, the cross has assumed many different forms, some of which appear in the accompanying figures.

1.     The circular cross is commonly used in magic.

2.     The ankh cross, or crux ansata, takes its form and meaning from the Egyptian hieroglyph for “life”; it was Christianized before a.d. 391.

3.     The Greek cross is the crux quadrata.

4.     The St. Andrew’s cross (= the Greek cross on its side), or crux decussata, corresponds formally to the Hebrew tau and occurs also in Jewish art.

5.     The Latin cross is the crux immissa; in the later fourth century it often appears with scalloped ends (cf. 11).

6.     The staurogram, or (inaccurately) crux monogrammatica, seems to be the oldest Christian symbol. Consisting of the superimposed letters rho and tau, it was originally a pagan shorthand abbreviation but was adopted in Greek gospel MSS about a.d. 200. The abbreviation was placed into the context of a word—CrOC (= stauros)—and treated like a nomen sacrum.

7.     The St. Anthony’s cross, also known as the tau cross or the crux commissa, is based on the Greek tau and is thought to have been in the form of the cross at Golgotha (see Justin Martyr Dial. 91.2).

8.     The crooked cross is common in texts.

9.     The Maltese cross became the sign of the order.

10.     The forked cross, or pestilence cross, was common in the later Middle Ages. It stressed the torment of the cross and, when depicted with branches, also symbolized the Tree of Life.

11.     The (tear)drop cross, with its opening arms, denotes the victorious character of the cross.

12.     The Jerusalem cross carries a suggestion of the five wounds of Christ.

13.     The double cross, or the crux gemina—later the patriarchs’ cross—carries the caption above the crossbar; with three crossbars, it becomes the papal cross.

14.     The Russian cross has a footrest.

15.     The cross of light, or crux radiata, is gold in color, or else four beams radiate from it.

16.     The cross with floral motifs—the crux florida, or arborvitae cross—carries a reference to paradise (Rev. 22:2).

17.     This cross combines the two NT motifs of light (ΦωC / phōs) and life (ΖωH / zōē; see John 8:12), which also underlie numbers 15 and 16.

18.     The Christogram and variants (→ Monogram of Christ) are not crosses in the strict sense, since they were originally signs for the name of Christ, not for the cross.

4. Methodology

In fixing the meaning of the cross, we must consider not only the fact that a symbol can have many senses but also the twofold iconological root of cross symbolism as both signum and lignum crucis. The interrelation of the two motifs greatly extends the range of what the cross expresses. To arrive at the dominant sense we have to take into account the setting and function. In the case of the cross at an entrance, the stress is on the sheltering aspect of the place; for a cross in the apse, the focus is on the room’s consecrated aspect.

5. Depictions

5.1. In the → early church before Constantine, few crosses (mostly on graves; Catacombs; Christian Art), apart from staurograms, are unquestionably Christian and can be dated with any precision. Under Constantine (306–37), the cross slowly made its way into the political sphere (e.g., appearing on coins), preceded by the Christogram. Representative Constantinian crosses have not been preserved, however, and the literary evidence is debatable. It is often said that there was a Constantinian memorial cross on Golgotha, but contemporary references are lacking. This would presuppose the ending of crucifixion as a punishment, which cannot be dated with any certainty.

Great influence was exerted by Constantine’s vision of a heavenly sign promising victory before the decisive battle of a.d. 312, or by the later understanding of this sign as a cross (Rufinus Hist. eccl. 8.15). The motif of political victory was now added to that of theological victory. We know that the cross came into art by way of the idea of victory, the influence thus being hermeneutical rather than historical.

The first examples of the cross as an artistic theme of its own date from the middle of the fourth century on Roman passion sarcophagi. They depict triumphant crosses with laurel wreaths, in what is a diagram of the resurrection (H. von Campenhausen). In the Theodosian era the cross came to express the divinely given victorious power of the emperor, who included it in his insignia. After his victory over the Persians in 422, Theodosius II (emperor 408–50) set up a splendid cross on Golgotha that was often copied in later art.

The cult of the cross in → Jerusalem about the middle of the fourth century became a second creative force, along with → Byzantium, for the use of the cross in art. Cross → relics, legends regarding the finding of the true cross, pilgrimages to the holy places, feasts of the cross, and poems about it all gave rise to new depictions. Votive crosses, crossdecorated reliquaries, and devotionals of all types—sometimes with written references to the power of the cross to protect and bless, and simple or costly adornments—bear witness to private → piety alongside the official statements made by the church on sacred buildings, liturgical vessels, books, and textiles. The sarcophagi at Ravenna are examples of the funerary use of the cross. Express testimony to the development of the use of the cross even in → everyday life appears in Pseudo-Chrysostom (PG 48.825–27).

The theologically most significant conceptions of crosses represented in apses date from the days of Justinian, for example, S. Apollinare in Classe (ca. 549), outside Ravenna, and also the church at Sinai (548/565), where the cross is a subsidiary motif but integrates the whole composition. Findings of silver hoards from Syria show how costly the vessels were that were adorned with crosses from the fifth century to the seventh.

Monastic veneration of the cross in → meditation may be seen from wall paintings in Coptic monasteries. The cross played an important part in the iconoclastic controversy (→ Images 3.2) as the only permissible image in apses (e.g., in St. Irene, Constantinople, after 740).

5.2. In the early and high → Middle Ages, for all the richness and variety, the → doxological aspect remained dominant. As Ludwig of Bavaria wrote in his inscription to a poem by Rabanus Maurus on the holy cross (ca. 840), Christ’s victory and salvation are in the cross. The ancient idea of the eschatological seal also persisted. The early Mozarabic Beatus Apocalypse of Gerona (10th cent.), for the sealing of the forehead in Rev. 7:2–3, shows an angel descending from the place of the sun, having the seal of the living God. The imperial cross of Conrad II (1024–39) refers to the power of the cross to ward off evil. Herrad von Landsberg (d. 1195) writes about the radiant cross of the end time in her Hortus deliciarum: “This cross is so bright that it obscures the splendor of the sun and moon with its brightness” (based on Rev. 21:23). The rite on the sending forth of → crusaders bears witness to the ongoing double meaning of the cross—for protection of body and soul, but also as a sign of the cross, passion, and death of Christ (Mark 8:34).

A new emphasis came in the High Middle Ages when the cross was given a place in depictions of the last judgment. The context of imagery (instruments of the passion and Christ’s gesture of displaying his wounds) also interprets “the cross in relation to Christ’s passion, that is, as both judgment and salvation” (B. Brenk). The new depiction of Christ as → suffering man rather than majestic God came to full development in the later Middle Ages as the cross came to be seen increasingly as a symbol of suffering. Beginning in the 11th century, a crucifix placed on the → altar expressed closeness to the → sacrament of → sacrifice (§1).

On the eve of the → Reformation the ideas of A. Dürer (1471–1528) are noteworthy. In his pen-and-ink drawing Christ in Gethsemane (1521), Christ’s prostrating of himself in the form of a cross symbolizes unremitting acceptance by means of identification.

5.3. The Reformation brought significant changes in the use of the cross in art. In the → Roman Catholic Church there was no break with → tradition, but the cross lost its cultic character in → Protestantism. Creative depiction came now in audible rather than visible form, that is, in poetry and music (→ Hymnody; Theology and Music).

The 16th century saw examples of iconoclasm (→ Images 3.3). The attempt to detach → faith from the material, along the lines of the OT commandments, led the Reformed to an attitude of great reserve with respect to images, especially crucifixes (→ Church 3.5; Reformed and Presbyterian Churches). In contrast, M. → Luther (1483–1546; → Luther’s Theology) thought that the crucifix should remain as a witness, for remembrance, as a sign (WA 18.80). More important for Luther was the spiritual place of the cross in its determinative significance for theology as theologia crucis (G. Ebeling).

5.4. In the → modern period ecclesiastically accepted forms of the cross have ceased to be binding. Instead we find individual conceptions that tend to stress also the human aspect. E. Barlach (1870–1938), for example, took up the theme of conformity to Christ in his 1932 Pietà. He used a strict form of the cross, yet also gave it relevance by transferring a medieval-type picture to a modern mother whose son was slain in war. Remnants of the ancient idea of the sign of the cross as protection live on, especially in popular custom (→ Piety). At the same time, the doxological symbolism in its many forms still has a firm place in the symbolic language of the → liturgy, especially in the → Orthodox Church.

→ Christian Art; Iconography; Sign of the Cross; Symbol

CROSS — an upright wooden stake or post on which condemned people were executed. Before the manner of Jesus’ death caused the cross to symbolize the very heart of the Christian faith, the Greek word for cross referred primarily to a pointed stake used in rows to form the walls of a defensive stockade.

It was common in the biblical period for the decapitated bodies of executed persons to be publicly displayed by impaling them on stakes to discourage civil disobedience and to mock defeated military foes (Gen. 40:19; 1 Sam. 31:8–13). This gruesome practice may explain how the stake eventually came to be used as an instrument of civil and military punishment. Such stakes came to be eventually fitted with crossbeams as instruments of humiliation, torture, and execution for persons convicted as enemies of the state (foreign soldiers, rebels and spies, for example) or of civil criminals (such as robbers).

Usage in the Ancient World. During the Old Testament period, there is no evidence that the Jews fastened people to a stake or a cross as a means of execution. The Law directed death by stoning (Lev. 20:2; Deut. 22:24). But the Law did permit the public display (or “hanging”) of a lawbreaker’s body “on a tree” (Deut. 21:22), strictly commanding that the “body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day” (Deut. 21:23; also see John 19:31).

Grisly as such a practice seems today, it did set Israel apart from other nations. The degrading practice most often used throughout the ancient world was to allow the victim to rot in public. Persons so displayed (or “hanged”) after execution by stoning for breaking Israel’s Law were said to be “accursed of God” (Deut. 21:23). This helps explain the references to Jesus’ being killed “by hanging on a tree” (Acts 5:30; 10:39) and the statement that Jesus was “cursed” in Galatians 3:13. Although Jesus died in a different manner, He was publicly displayed as a criminal and enemy of the state.

Ancient writers do not tell us much about how execution on a stake or cross was carried out. But excavated relief sculptures do show that the Assyrians executed their captured enemies by forcing their living bodies down onto pointed stakes. This barbaric cruelty was not crucifixion as we think of it today but impalement.

Scholars are not certain when a crossbeam was added to the simple stake. Jeremiah’s mention of princes being “hung up by their hands” (Lam. 5:12) by the Babylonians may refer to the use of a crossbeam. But there is no way of knowing whether the prophet speaks of a method of execution or the dishonoring of bodies killed in battle. The classical Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides refer to the stake or cross as a method of execution during the time of the Persians. But it is not clear whether the victim was tied or nailed to the wood or impaled.

Ezra 6:11 may imply that the Persians continued to use impalement as a method of execution. The references to “hanging” in Esther (2:23; 5:14) probably refer to either impalement or crucifixion. The “hangman’s noose” was not commonly used in Persia during the biblical period. The word translated as “gallows” in the NKJV refers not to a scaffold for hanging with a rope, but a pole or stake for impaling.

Crucifixion on a stake or cross was practiced by the Greeks, notably Alexander the Great, who hung 2,000 people on crosses when the city of Tyre was destroyed. During the period between Greek and Roman control of Palestine, the Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Pharisees who opposed him at Bethome. But these executions were condemned as detestable and abnormal by decent-minded people of Jannaeus’s day as well as by the later Jewish historian, Josephus.

From the early days of the Roman Republic, death on the cross was used for rebellious slaves and bandits, although Roman citizens were rarely subjected to this method of execution. The practice continued well beyond the New Testament period as one of the supreme punishments for military and political crimes such as desertion, spying, revealing secrets, rebellion, and sedition. Following the conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity, the cross became a sacred symbol and its use by Romans as a means of torture and death was abolished.

Drawing: Gaalyah Cornfeld

This drawing of a crucifixion is based on the remains of a crucified man from the first century a.d. discovered in a cave in Jerusalem. Both of his feet had been pierced with a spike just below the heel.

Death on a Cross. Those sentenced to death on a cross in the Roman period were usually beaten with leather lashes—a procedure that often resulted in severe loss of blood. Victims were then generally forced to carry the upper crossbeam to the execution site, where the central stake was already set up.

After being fastened to the crossbeam on the ground with ropes—or, in rare cases, nails through the wrist—the naked victim was then hoisted with the crossbeam against the standing vertical stake. A block or peg was sometimes fastened to the stake as a crude seat. The feet were then tied or nailed to the stake.

The recent discovery near Jerusalem of the bones of a crucifixion victim suggests that the knees were bent up side by side, parallel to the crossbeam, and the nail was then driven through the sides of the ankles. Death by suffocation or exhaustion normally followed only after a long period of agonizing pain.

The Shape of the Cross. In time the simple pointed stake first used for execution was modified. The four most important of the resulting crosses are: (1) the Latin cross (shaped like a lower case “t”), on which it seems likely that Jesus died for our sins, because of the notice placed above His head (Matt. 27:37); (2) the St. Anthony’s cross, which has the crossbeam at the top (shaped like a capital “T”); (3) the St. Andrew’s cross, which is shaped like a capital “X”; (4) the so-called Greek cross which has the crossbeam in the center (shaped like a plus sign).

Significance of the Cross. The authors of the gospels tell us that the Lord Jesus spoke of the cross before His death (Matt. 10:38; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:27) as a symbol of the necessity of full commitment (even unto death) for those who would be His disciples. But the major significance of the cross after Jesus’ death and resurrection is its use as a symbol of Jesus’ willingness to suffer for our sins (Phil. 2:8; Heb. 12:2) so that we might be reconciled (2 Cor. 5:19; Col. 1:20) to God and know His peace (Eph. 2:16).

Thus the cross symbolizes the glory of the Christian gospel (1 Cor. 1:17): the fact that through this offensive means of death (1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 5:11), the debt of sin against us was “nailed to the cross” (Col. 2:14), and we, having “been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), have been freed from sin and death and made alive to God (Rom. 6:6–11).

The cross, then, is the symbol of Jesus’ love, God’s power to save, and the thankful believer’s unreserved commitment to Christian discipleship. To those who know the salvation that Christ gained for us through His death, it is a “wondrous cross” indeed. Also see Crucifixion of Christ.

[1]


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NT New Testament

OT Old Testament

LXX Septuagint

Vg (Latin) Vulgate

ca. circa, about, approximately

Sel. in Selecta in Ezechielem

In Hiez. In Hiezechihelem commentarii

Gk. Greek

Lat. Latin

e.g. exempli gratia, for example

etc. et cetera, and so forth

cf. confer, compare

In Exod. In Exodum homiliae

a.d. anno Domini, in the year of [our] Lord

St. Saint

Hist. Historia ecclesiastica

PG Patrologia Graeca

cent. century

d. died

WA M. Luther, Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimarer Ausgabe)

[1]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.

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