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Eli

I was told the pentagram was more widely used than the cross as a church symbol until the times of the inquisition. The cross being a symbol for suffering, was believed to be a more appropriate symbol than the pentagram (the symbol for truth). It wasn't until the 19th? century that the pentagram was adopted into witchcraft and became more widely viewed as a satanic symbol. I believe the earliest record is a painting depicting some evil god with a pentagram as a backdrop.

This was a question btw. If it's not true let me know so I stop telling people it is .

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INTERESTING, ELI!

I DID SOME CHECKING, AND HERE'S WHAT I FOUND.

1. The PENTACLE/PENTAGRAM that Alva Steffler (retired Wheaton College prof. and friend) put in his book "Symbols of the Christian Faith" is one that has one line overlapping the next. (Maybe that's what a "pentacle" is.) He says that it is "associated with the five wounds of Christ." His text also mentions that it is a "sign to ward off evil spirits...carved on door frames, thresholds and gates. (That part is a 'turn off' for me.) He mentions that the star ("Day Star") is a symbol of the divine guidance from the account of the Magi.

2. The Cross, we should remember -- whether my looking in books or web shows it used as an image early or not -- PLAYS VERY PROMINANTLY IN SCRIPTURE! CHRIST HIMSELF SAID "TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME." HOW MUCH MORE DO WE NEED?

According to Steffler, about the fifth century the Cross began to overtake the Chi Rho (Initials for [i/]Christ Jesus) as the dominant image of Christianity.

But before that you had Constantine's adoption of the Cross as a symbol.

I seem to recall that the Cross was too much of a reality of suffering early on.

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The Cross Wasn’t Originally A Christian Symbol

We have grown so used to the idea that the crucifixion, the cross, is the supreme symbol of Christianity that it is a shock to realize how late in the history of Christian art it is recognized. In the first art of Christianity it hardly appears; and the earliest example, on the doors of Santa Sabina (built AD430) in Rome, is stuck away in a corner almost out of sight...early Christian art is concerned with the miracles, healings, and with hopeful aspects of the faith like the Ascension, second coming and the resurrection.

Kenneth Clark, Civilization: A Personal View (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) p. 29
http://www.bbie.org/english/resources/gospel_news/1504/gn05.html

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But assuredly it was a literary symbol of the martyrdom that was considered a CROWN!

And the CROSS has a history of its own too. Here we go:

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Icons of the empty Cross symbolise Christ's Resurrection. The Cross is often portrayed as the tree of life with burgeoning leaves or flowers

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Edited by - fred on 06/25/2003 9:53:38 PM

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From the Matins service
(sung after Resurrection Gospel)

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ,
let us bow down before the Holy Lord Jesus,
the only sinless One.
Thy Cross do we adore, O Christ,
and thy holy Resurrection
we praise and glorify:
for thou art our God,
and we know none other beside Thee;
we call upon thy Name.

O come, all ye faithful,
let us adore Christ's holy Resurrection.
For lo, through the Cross
is joy come into all the world.
Ever blessing the Lord,
let us sing his Resurrection:
for in that He endured the Cross
He hath destroyed Death by death.

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On a lighter note, a good friend of mine had this to say about the imagery of the cross: "I think that when Jesus comes back, the last thing He's gonna want to see is a cross."

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