THE CHRISTIAN CROSS

by Avram Yehoshua

(Endnotes in red. Click on the number to go to endnote. Click the BACK button on your browser to return to the article)

In searching out the biblical understanding of what Yeshua (Jesus), was crucified on (the traditional Christian cross), I have found that there is no biblical evidence for it, whether the small 't' cross, or the capitalized (T). Criminals and such were sometimes crucified on a pole or stake, with a cross piece to make it a 't,' for there are records of such in ancient literature, but the 'cross' that Jesus was crucified on, gives us no biblical grounds for assuming that it was any kind of 't.' From the Greek New Testament, the word that our English translates as 'cross', is a piece of wood that is a stake or a pole, that's all. And many times it's just called a tree (KJV: Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13; 1st Pet. 2:24).

I have also come to see that the traditional Christian cross was taken from the pagans. Its form or letter (T or t), symbolized Tammuz, the major pagan god of the ancient world. In Vine's Dictionary, under 'cross, crucify' it has this:

'A. Noun

'stauros (4716) denotes, primarily, 'an upright pale or stake.' On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb (sta-roo), 'to fasten to a stake or pale,' are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed 'cross.' The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea' (Babylon), '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 century 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.'

'As for the Chi, or X' (in Greek), 'which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, that letter was the initial of the word 'Christ' (in Greek), 'and had nothing to do with 'the Cross' (for xulon, 'a timber beam, a tree,' as used for the stauros, see under TREE).'

'The method of execution was borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians. The stauros denotes (a) 'the cross, or stake itself,' e.g., Matthew 27:32; (b) 'the crucifixion suffered,' e.g., 1st Corinthians 1:17-18, where 'the word of the cross,' RV, stands for the gospel; Galatians 5:11, where crucifixion is metaphorically used of the renunciation of the world that characterizes the true Christian life; 6:12; 14; Ephesians 2:16; Philippians 3:18.'

'The judicial custom by which the condemned person carried his stake to the place of execution, was applied by the Lord to those sufferings by which His faithful followers were to express their fellowship with Him, e.g., Matthew 10:38.'

B. Verbs

1. 'stauroo ( 4717) signifies (a) 'the act of crucifixion,' e.g., Matthew 20:19; (b) metaphorically, 'the putting off of the flesh with its' (carnal) 'passions and lusts,'

2. 'sustauroo ( 4957), 'to crucify with' (su-, 'for,' sun-, 'with'), is used (a) of actual 'crucifixion' in company with another, Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32; John 19:32; (b) metaphorically, of spiritual identification with Christ in His death, Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20.' 1

In Bauer's classical Greek lexicon, the word stauros is, 'in the sense', an 'upright, pointed stake'.2 It goes on to tell us that at times, there could be a cross-piece attached to it, but that this was not the case in all instances. It reads, 'a stake sunk into the earth in an upright position; a cross-piece was oft. (Artem. 2, 53) attached to its upper part, so that it was shaped like a T or thus t.' 3 As we can see, there is nothing from the biblical word itself, that means that the 'cross' or stauros, or wooden pole that the Lord was pierced to, had to have a cross-piece with it.

The other Greek word that is sometimes translated 'cross' in our English translations is zu-lon). It appears in Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13 and 1st Peter 2:24. Other translations, more true to the literal meaning, have 'tree' (as we noted above in the King James Version). Again, there is nothing inherent in the word that suggests that it has to be a 't.' If anything, it conveys just the opposite meaning. That it was a single piece of wood. It means, 'wood as building material' 'objects made of wood' 'the pole on which Moses raised the brass serpent' 'cross' and 'tree.'4 Again, no solid evidence that what Yeshua was crucified on was the traditional 't.'

Alexander Hislop offers us a wonderful insight into the 'cross' that Constantine saw. It wasn't the traditional church cross. That cross, as it is known today, was brought into the Church by the (pseudo) Christians of Egypt (who were more pagan than Christian). This 'Christian' cross had been in use for 1500 years before Jesus though. Hislop shows how deeply steeped in paganism and superstition it is. The following is a quote from his book:

Section VI - The Sign of the Cross

'There is yet one more symbol of the Romish worship to be noticed, and that is the sign of the cross. In the Papal system, as is well known, the sign of the cross and the image of the cross are all in all. No prayer can be said, no worship engaged in, no step almost can be taken, without the frequent use of the sign of the cross. The cross is looked upon as the grand charm, as the great refuge in every season of danger, in every hour of temptation as the infallible preservative from all the powers of darkness. The cross is adored with all the homage due only to the Most High, and for anyone to call it, in the hearing of a genuine Romanist, by the Scriptural term, 'the accursed tree,' is a mortal offense.'5

'To say that such superstitious feeling for the sign of the cross, such worship as Rome pays to a wooden or metal cross, ever grew out of the saying of Paul, 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ' - that is, in the doctrine of Christ crucified - is a mere absurdity, a shallow subterfuge and pretence. The magic virtues attributed to the so-called sign of the cross, the worship bestowed on it, never came from such a source. The same sign of the cross that Rome now worships was used in the Babylonian Mysteries, was applied by Paganism to the same magic purposes, was honored with the same honors.'

'That which is now called the Christian cross was originally no Christian emblem at all, but was the mystic Tau of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians - the true original form of the letter T - the initial of the name of Tammuz - which, in Hebrew, radically the same as ancient Chaldee, as found on coins, was formed as in No. 1.' (#1 refers to a picture on page 197 in Hislop's book, of a cross, which looks like the common, small 't' cross of most any church.)

The 'mystic Tau was marked in baptism on the foreheads of those initiated in the Mysteries 66 and was used in every variety of way as a most sacred symbol. To identify Tammuz with the sun, as in No. 4; sometimes it was inserted in the circle, as in No. 5.' (The cross of #4, pictured in his book on page 197, is a small t with a circle at the top, while the cross of #5 has cross-bars of equal length and width, with the circle surrounding it, or touching all four outer points.)

'The mystic Tau, as the symbol of the great divinity, was called, 'the sign of life.' It was used as an amulet over the heart 7 and was marked on the official garments of the priests, as on the official garments of the priests of Rome; it was borne by kings in their hand, as a token of their dignity or divinely conferred authority.'

'The Vestal virgins of Pagan Rome wore it suspended from their necklaces, as the nuns do now.8 The Egyptians did the same, and many of the barbarous nations with whom they had intercourse, as the Egyptian monuments bear witness. In reference to the adorning of some of these tribes, Wilkinson thus writes:'

'The girdle was sometimes highly ornamented; men as well as women wore earrings; and they frequently had a small cross suspended to the necklace, or to the collar of their dress...showing that it was already in use as early as the fifteenth century before the Christian era.'9

'There is hardly a Pagan tribe where the cross has not been found. The cross was worshipped by the Pagan Celts long before the incarnation and death of Christ.'10

'It is a fact,' says Maurice, 'not less remarkable than well attested, that the Druids in their groves were accustomed to select the most stately and beautiful tree as an emblem of the Deity they adored, and having cut the side branches, they affixed two of the largest of them to the highest part of the trunk, in such a manner that those branches extended on each side like the arms of a man, and together with the body, presented the appearance of a HUGE CROSS, and on the bark, in several places, was also inscribed the letter Thau.'11

'It was worshipped in Mexico for ages before the Roman Catholic missionaries set foot there, large stone crosses being erected, probably to the 'god of rain.'12

The cross thus widely worshipped, or regarded as a sacred emblem, was the unequivocal symbol of Bacchus, the Babylonian Messiah, for he was represented with a head-band covered with crosses.' This symbol of the Babylonian god is reverenced at this day in all the wide wastes of Tartary, where Buddhism prevails, and the way in which it is represented among them forms a striking commentary on the language applied by Rome to the Cross.'

'The cross,' says Colonel Wilford, in the Asiatic Researches, 'though not an object of worship among the Baud'has, or Buddhists, is a favorite emblem and device among them. It is exactly the cross of the Manicheans, with leaves and flowers springing from it. This cross, putting forth leaves and flowers (and fruit also, as I am told) 13 is called the divine tree, the tree of the gods, the tree of life and knowledge, and productive of whatever is good and desirable, and is placed in the terrestrial paradise.'14

Compare this with the language of Rome applied to the cross and it will be seen how exact is the coincidence. In the Office of the Cross, it is called the 'Tree of life' and the worshipers are taught thus to address it: 'Hail, O Cross, triumphal wood, true salvation of the world, among trees there is none like thee in leaf, flower, and bud. O Cross, our only hope, increase righteousness to the godly and pardon the offenses of the guilty.'15

'Can any one, reading the gospel narrative of the crucifixion, possibly believe that that narrative of itself could ever germinate into such extravagance of 'leaf, flower, and bud,' as thus appears in this Roman Office? But when it is considered that the Buddhist, like the Babylonian cross, was the recognized emblem of Tammuz, who was known as the mistletoe branch, or 'All-heal,' then it is easy to see how the sacred Initial should be represented as covered with leaves, and how Rome, in adopting it, should call it the 'Medicine which preserves the healthful, heals the sick, and does what mere human power alone could never do.'

'Now, this Pagan symbol seems first to have crept into the Christian Church in Egypt, and generally into Africa. A statement of Tertullian, about the middle of the third century, shows how much, by that time, the Church of Carthage was infected with the old leaven.16 Egypt especially which was never thoroughly evangelized, appears to have taken the lead in bringing in this Pagan symbol. The first form of that which is called the Christian Cross, found on Christian monuments there, is the unequivocal pagan Tau, or Egyptian 'Sign of life.' Let the reader pursue the following statement of Sir G. Wilkinson:'

'A still more curious fact may be mentioned respecting this hieroglyphical character (the Tau), that the early Christians of Egypt adopted it in lieu of the cross, which was afterwards substituted for it, prefixing it to inscriptions in the same manner as the cross in later times. For, though Dr. Young had some scruples in believing the statement of Sir A. Edmonstone, that it holds that position in the sepulchers of the great Oasis, 17 I can attest that such is the case, and that numerous inscriptions, headed by the Tau, are preserved to the present day on early Christian monuments.'18

'The drift of this statement is evidently this, that in Egypt the earliest form of that which has since been called the cross, was no other than the 'Crux Ansata' or 'Sign of life' borne by Osiris and all the Egyptian gods; that the ansa 19 or 'handle' was afterwards dispensed with, and that it became the simple Tau, or ordinary cross, as it appears at this day, and that the design of it's first employment on the sepulchers, therefore, could have no reference to the crucifixion of the Nazarene, but was simply the result of the attachment to old and long cherished Pagan symbols, which is always strong in those who, with the adoption of the Christian name and profession, are still, to a large extent, pagan in heart and feeling. This, and this only, is the origin of the worship of the 'cross.'

'This, no doubt, will appear all very strange and very incredible to those who have read Church history, as most have done to a large extent, even amongst Protestants, through Romish spectacles; and especially to those who call to mind the famous story told of the miraculous appearance of the cross to Constantine on the day before the decisive victory at the Milvian bridge, that decided the fortunes of avowed paganism and nominal Christianity. That story, as commonly told, if true, would certainly give a Divine sanction to the reverence for the cross. But that story, when sifted to the bottom, according to the common version of it, will be found to be based on a delusion - a delusion, however, into which so good a man as Milner has allowed himself to fall. Milner's account is as follows:'

'Constantine, marching from France into Italy against Maxentius, in an expedition which was likely either to exalt or to ruin him, was oppressed with anxiety. Some god he thought needful to protect him; the God of the Christians he was most inclined to respect, but he wanted some satisfactory proof of His real existence and power, and he neither understood the means of acquiring this, nor could he be content with the atheistic indifference in which some many generals and heroes since his time have acquiesced.'

'He prayed, he implored with such vehemence and importunity, and God left him not unanswered. While he was marching with his forces in the afternoon, the trophy of the cross appeared very luminous in the heavens, brighter than the sun, with this inscription, 'Conquer by this.' He and his soldiers were astonished at the sight; but he continued pondering on the event till night. And Christ appeared to him when asleep with the same sign of the cross, and directed him to make use of the symbol as his military ensign.' 20

Such is the statement of Milner. Now, in regard to the 'trophy of the cross,' a few words will suffice to show that it is utterly unfounded'; 'that it was not the sign of the cross that was seen, but quite a different thing, the' (initial for the) 'name of Christ' (which in Greek is an X). 'That this was the case, we have at once the testimony of Lactantius, who was the tutor of Constantine's son Crispus - the earliest author who gives any account of the matter, and the indisputable evidence of the standards of Constantine themselves, as handed down to us on medals struck at the time. The testimony of Lactantius is most decisive:'

'Constantine was warned in a dream to make the celestial sign of God upon his soldiers' shields, and so to join battle. He did as he was bid, and with the transverse letter X circumflecting the head of it, he marks Christ on their shields. Equipped with this sign, his army takes the sword.'21

'Now, the' (Greek) 'letter X was just the initial of the name of Christ, being equivalent in Greek to CH' (sound). 'If therefore, Constantine did as he was bid, when he made, 'the celestial sign of God' in the form of 'the letter X' it was that 'letter X' as the symbol of Christ and not the sign of the cross, which he saw in the heavens. When the Labarum, or far-famed standard of Constantine itself, properly so called, was made, we have the evidence of Ambrose, the well know Bishop of Milan, that that standard was formed on the very principle contained in the statement of Lactantius - viz., simply to display the Redeemer's name. He calls it 'Labarum, hoc est Christi sacratum nomine signum.'22 'The Labarum, that is, the ensign consecrated by the NAME of Christ.'23 There is not the slightest allusion to any cross - to anything but the simple name of Christ.'

'While we have these testimonies of Lactantius and Ambrose, when we come to examine the standard of Constantine, we find the accounts of both authors fully borne out; we find that that standard, bearing on it these very words, 'Hoc signo victor eris' 'In this sign thou shalt be a conqueror,' said to have been addressed from heaven to the emperor, has nothing at all in the shape of a cross, but 'the letter X.'

'In the Roman Catacombs, on a Christian monument to 'Sinphonia and her sons,' there is a distinct allusion to the story of the vision; but that allusion also shows that the X, and not the cross, was regarded as the 'heavenly sign.' The words at the head of the inscription are these: 'In Hoc Vinces X.'24 Nothing whatever but the X is here given as the 'Victorious Sign.'

'There are some examples, no doubt, of Constantine's standard, in which there is a cross-bar, from which the flag is suspended, that contains that 'Letter X;'25 and Eusebius, who wrote when superstition and apostasy were working, tries hard to make it appear that that cross-bar was the essential element in the ensign of Constantine. But this is obviously a mistake; that cross-bar was nothing new, nothing peculiar to Constantine's standard. Tertullian shows 26 that that cross-bar was found long before on the vexillum, the Roman Pagan standard, that carried a flag; and it was used simply for the purpose of displaying that flag. If therefore, that cross-bar was the 'celestial sign,' it needed no voice from heaven to direct Constantine to make it; nor would the making or displaying of it have excited any particular attention on the part of those who saw it.'

'We find no evidence at all that the famous legend, 'In this overcome,' has any reference to this cross-bar; but we find evidence the most decisive that that legend does refer to the X. Now, that that X was not intended as the sign of the cross, but as the initial of Christ's name, is manifest from this, that the Greek P, equivalent to our R, is inserted in the middle of it, making by their union CHR. Any one who pleases may satisfy himself of this by examining the plates given in Mr. Elliot's Horae Apocalypticae.27 The standard of Constantine, then, was just the name of Christ.' 'To display that name on the standards of Imperial Rome was a thing absolutely new; and the sight of that name, there can be little doubt, nerved the Christian soldier's in Constantine's army with more than usual fire to fight and conquer at the Milvian bridge.'

'When therefore, multitudes of the Pagans, on the conversion of Constantine, flocked into the Church, like the semi-Pagans of Egypt, they brought along with them their predilection for the old symbol. The consequence was, that in no great length of time, as apostacy proceeded, the X which in itself was not an unnatural symbol of Christ, the true Messiah, and which had once been regarded as such, was allowed to go entirely into disuse, and the Tau, the sign of the cross, the indisputable sign of Tammuz, the false Messiah, was everywhere substituted in its stead. Thus, by the 'sign of the cross,' Christ has been crucified anew by those who profess to be His disciples. Now, if these things be matter of historic fact, who can wonder that, in the Romish Church, 'the sign of the cross' has always and everywhere been seen to be such an instrument of rank superstition and delusion?'28

From Vine and Bauer we saw that the primary meaning of the Greek word translated as 'cross' in our English Bibles, means, an upright pole or stake. Hislop revealed that the standard 't' cross of Christianity is false and pagan. There is therefore, no reasonable evidence to suggest that the 'cross' that the Lord was crucified on, had to be the traditional 't', and that we should associate Yeshua with the pagan cross.

It seems that the Lord, from the biblical account, was pierced to an upright stake or pole. This is interesting as the Lord Himself makes reference to such when He states in John 3:14, 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up'; 'And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself' (John 12:32).

As the Lord Yeshua implies, it is not the instrument of death that is to become our focus or symbol, but He Himself. The primary action of the verses point us to the Lord's hanging between Heaven and Earth, that is to say, His Death. But the secondary level here, suggests that the shape of the wood that would be used, would be like the one Moses made, which was only a pole (Num. 21:8-9). Benjamin Davidson's Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon tells us that the Hebrew word for what the snake was to be placed upon is nais, which means, a 'pole, Nu. 21:8, 9.'29 The Hebrew and English Lexicon of Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius also affirms this saying it's a 'pole, supporting' a 'serpent of bronze' 'Nu 21:8-9'.30 Both authorities specifically cite Num. 21:8-9 for pole. And no less an authority than C. F. Keil also believes it was only a pole (and not a standard Christian cross).31

Another issue is what the Church has done with it's cross. It has become the symbol to represent Jesus and has come to be revered or worshipped by millions of people. Even when people say they don't 'worship' the cross, they usually have an emotional attachment to it, something that cannot be biblically justified or defended.

When Hezekiah became king, he destroyed the pole on which Moses placed the bronze serpent (2nd Kings 18:1-6). Why? The people had been burning incense to it! They were 'worshiping' God that way. Most Christians who wear the cross as jewelry, or have it in their homes, or in their churches, will tell you that they have that symbol there to remind them of Jesus. But there is no biblical connection between Jesus and the cross. One has to make a mighty leap of presumption to say with certainty that what Yeshua was crucified on was the traditional 't' cross.

Of course, the Apostles would have known exactly what the Romans used to humiliate Yeshua on. But none of them saw fit to describe it for us, other than by using the words that we have already covered. Now, can you imagine someone offering a gold cross (or gold pole), to the Apostle Peter, to wear around his neck? His Friend, His King, was just pierced to 'it'. He saw and felt all the horror of Yeshua's death. He probably would not have appreciated its 'symbolic' significance.

And what if the Lord had died in an electric chair? Every church would have an electric chair where they now have crosses. Big electric chairs, little electric chairs, wooden electric chairs and metal electric chairs. Diamond studded electric chairs and gold plated electric chairs. And homes would be adorned with them. Perhaps some churches and homes would have a full scale model that one could sit in and meditate on the Death of Christ. There might even be some models that came with a small electric current so that the ones meditating on it would come to feel some experiential identification with how Christ died, and of course, to make sure that they didn't fall asleep while meditating on His Sufferings.

This all seems rather silly, far fetched and even laughable because the Messiah didn't die in an electric chair. But hasn't what the Church done with the cross, similar? Taking a known, idolatrous symbol, and saying that it represents the Messiah of Israel is Scripturally unsound and morally offensive. The cross was a pagan symbol before Christ, and that hasn't changed. It is still a pagan symbol. Are we to out-do the pagans in their symbols?

Yahveh declares that He doesn't want to be worshipped the way the pagans worship their gods,32 or to have graven 33 or wooden symbols 34 to represent Him. He wants us to do what is right in His Eyes, not ours.35 There is also the admonition to not let anyone entice us to going after other gods and worshiping them (Deut. 13:1-6ff). In this section, the Lord is saying that even if a (false) prophet's words come true, about whatever it is he spoke, the Lord commands His People not to follow him saying that He was testing His People Israel:

'you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for Yahveh your God is testing you to find out if you love Yahveh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.' (Deut. 13:3)

'And if it seem evil to you to serve Yahveh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my House, we will serve Yahveh.' (Joshua 24:15)

'For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.' (Rom. 1:16)

'For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.' (Rom. 14:15) 'It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.' (Rom. 14:21)