What were the historical origins of Christendom's cross?

Question

i guess i'm asking where or how did the cross originate

Answer 1

the cross as we know it is a pagan symbol and does not resemble what Jesus was crucified on, He was crucified on a tree

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.as...

Answer 2

I don't know offhand, but I'm sure you're dying to tell everyone.

I mean, you already were aware of a "historical origin".

Answer 3

The origins of our cross, as the symbol of our faith is found in the fact that our Lord and Savior died on that cross so that I don't have to suffer the penalty of sin but can instead have eternal life.  The origin of our cross, as the symbol of our faith is that after hanging and dying on that cross our Lords body was placed in a tomb where three days later He arose bodily in victory over death, h**l and the grave.

Answer 4

The original symbol of the church was the Ichthus (fish symbol).  The cross itself as a symbol of christianity was actually condemed by the early church (3rd century ce) because of its pagan roots.  During the 5th century it started showing up on tombs and sarcophagus in the Vatican and the earliest christian art using it was around the 7th century.  The original version of the cross was more of a letter T (tau cross - thor, pagan roots) than the roman cross we're familiar with now.  There is some debate on the exact times but its largely accepted that early on the cross was seen as a reminder of a horrible form of execution than Jesus' sacrifice.  Interestingly enough, Jesus was crucified on a "Pole" according to the Jews and early christian scholars and is one of the reasons the Jews largely didn't accept Jesus the messiah... god cursed those who were nailed to wood.

Edit: If a person is attached to the "cross" it's called a crucifix (which means literally "one attached to a cross") which has additional history attached to it.

Answer 5

i don't get what you are asking, but i'll try to answer. historical origin? they crucified people on the cross. why christianity hold the cross holy? because they crucified Jesus on one.

Answer 6

The Greek word rendered “cross” in many modern Bible versions (“torture stake” in NW) is stau‧ros′. In classical Greek, this word meant merely an upright stake, or pale. Later it also came to be used for an execution stake having a crosspiece.

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary acknowledges this, saying: “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.”—Edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376.

“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.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith.

In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

Answer 7

To my understanding, it was one of several torture and execution devices. Jesus of Nazareth was another unfortunate victim or this barbaric device used for alleged criminals during Roman Empire era during Christ's life time. They constructed it and actually the nails were placed differently (through wrist I believe). Christians use this now to remember the torture Christ endured for us, to die for us-proving essentially humans are cruel,  they killed Jesus for having followers. I myself, do not prefer to remember Jesus by the instrument men built to destroy him, that seems odd as I prefer to honor him, like if he was killed via lethal injection would I have a syringe charm as a necklace or an electric chair in my living room?  NO- I would not.      

Answer 8

The cross comes from an ancient pagan symbol representing the compass points.  There are many good documentaries you can find online about this.

The cross is just one more non-Christian thing (Christmas) that the Christian religion has hijacked to be more populist.

Answer 9

It originated in the ancient world as a means of execution that could last for days with much suffering for the crucified person. The Romans took it to to new levels of cruelty and nearly a science of maximum torture inflicted for the maximum amount of time. It was a common means of execution for non Roman citizens. When Rome defeated Sparta, the historians of the day estimated between 6000 and 10,000 crosses with people nailed to them lined the roadways.

Answer 10

The Roman Empire.

Answer 11

Maybe what they all say is true.. but, they have found mummies or bodies that have been crucified, the feet still have the nails in them !! So we do know it was part of the time of Jesus that it took place. I do not wear Jesus on anything.... go in peace..... God bless

Answer 12

The cross originated from the Romans as the form of execution of the worst offenders. That was the only time in Human history was the cross you to execute someone. However this was to fulfill the type

in the Old Testament. In Exodus when the Israelites were to leave Egypt. They had to slay a lamb thet was without blemish or mixture.

And put the blood over the door so the death would PassOver the homes where the blood was seen. No matter who was in the house.

Alamb was slain on a vertical post with a horizontal bar to tie the lambs hooves to so the blood would drain out.

That is wht Christ was executed at that exact time in history. He came as the real lamb of God to take away the sin pf the world His bloos shed washes away our sins. We are longer under God's wrath when God see the blood meaning we cleansed by beleiving and receiving Christ as our savior God passes over us. We are saved

Do yuo see how Christ fulfilled this type He is the real passover lamb.

The cross is not something we wear outward but it is the reality in our life. We take up the cross and follow Him daily this inward. Amen

Answer 13

Please clarify.

Answer 14

It was a fairly common form of execution from the 6th century BC, especially among the Persians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Romans, until c. 313 AD, when Christianity became the dominant faith in Rome.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04517a.h...

Answer 15

I agree with Simone, and will add this:

Note what W. E. Vine says on this subject: “STAUROS (σταυρός) denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross.” Greek scholar Vine then mentions the Chaldean origin of the two-piece cross and how it was adopted from the pagans by Christendom in the third century C.E. as a symbol of Christ’s impalement.—Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1981, Vol. 1, p. 256.

Significant is this comment in the book The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art: “It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—By G. S. Tyack, London, 1900, p. 1.

The book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), adds: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . It is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ‘cross’ when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting ‘cross’ in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.”—Pp. 23, 24; see also The Companion Bible, 1974, Appendix No. 162.