Does it bother you that the cross, supposedly a Christian symbol, was actually stolen from the Egyptians?

Question

Does it bother you that the cross, supposedly a Christian symbol, was actually stolen from the Egyptians? Why or why not? (The Egyptian cross, the ankh, was a male-female symbol similar in concept to the yin-yang. When the Christians stole the ankh from the Egyptians, they removed the female symbol, or yoni, leaving only the masculine symbol-- a subtle way of reinforcing the idea that women are lesser beings).

Answer 1

Your biblical history is distorted. I'm sure you are loosely throwing the word "stolen or stole" purposely. The Romans used the cross to crucified its lawbreakers but Jesus wasn't a lawbreaker but an innocent sinless redeemer. A Double Minded MAN IS UNSTABLE In All His WAYS.

=0P

Answer 2

The cross symbol of the Christian was the the cross where Jesus was nailed by the Romans. I just coincide with the cross symbolized a long time ago by the Egyptians. Although in the Book of Paul specially in the book of Acts, it was written that Jesus was hung on a tree. From the Jewish tradition, when someone is hung on a tree, he is cursed. Anyway, being hung on a tree as an account proved only that the Apostles were really not around at the time Jesus was crucified and their writings were just gathered from heresays. The wooden cross was the symbol of Roman punishment to criminals to further humiliate them in the eyes of the citizen and an effective way for the Romans to bring more fears to those who will oppose their rules. You're speculation about the ankh is a mere theory because women have been made lesser beings than men even before Christ was born.

Answer 3

Nope. Doesn't bother me at all.
And why would you use the term 'stolen'? The Egyptians used the ankh, or the 'ansate cross', to signify life. The word ankh literally means 'life'.
I don't think the Christians stole anything. They used cross-like structures to execute the lawbreakers back in the day. The only reason the cross ,as we know it today, is so significant in the Christian faith is because Jesus was crucified on a cross.

Answer 4

You are correct. The cross was folded into the Christ myth as a redaction to explain away the Egyptian origins of the symbol. There is a transition in early christian artwork from an ankh to a modern cross over the course of about 250 years.

Answer 5

Well, that's an interesting interpretation, but it's not exactly correct.

See, the "cross" that a criminal tried in the Roman courts would have been hung on would have been a simple tree, that someone nailed cross boards on. Which is why the earliest scriptural reference to crucifixion, such as Deuteronomy, says to "hang on a tree." That is to be crucified by being nailed to an actual tree.

With Jesus, however, the Romans wanted to punish him more by making him drag his cross. So they made a whole cross for him. The two hung with him only carried their cross beams.

A matter of some importance is the ancient Hebrew Tau, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a small t. A cross. In the Book of Ezekiel, God tells the angel to mark his chosen ones with the Tau. (in most substandard bibles it just says "mark them") So God is sending his angels out to mark his chosen ones with the sign of the cross.

Not the ankh.

Like many ancient alphabets, each letter has a meaning. Tau means covenant.

When Jesus says I am the "alpha and omega" that's the Greek. And that's wrong. He would have used the Aramaic. I am the Al and the Tau - which means the Leader and the Covenant.

Our covenant is the cross.

Answer 6

that's kind of a fun theory, but inaccurate.

The cross is a Christian symbol simply because Christ died on a cross.

I'm a Christian, and I can tell you that we don't believe women are lesser beings. I think maybe you're getting your information mixed up. I hear that women are 'lesser beings' in Islam, but I haven't read any of their books, so I'm not saying for sure. But anyway, good try. Do more research. Talk to real Christians about what they believe instead of believing all the crap you read from all the skeptics. You may find out that Christians are not such bad people after all.

Answer 7

Every religion and culture borrows from those that came before it. Judaism borrowed from those polytheistic societies before it such as Egypt and the peoples of Mesopotamia. Christianity borrowed from Judaism, Islam borrowed from both. The cross is just another one of those symbols that has changed representations over the years. This does not make Christianity bad or reprehensible, its the way the world has always worked and will always work. Even Hitler stole a symbol. The swastika was a symbol for peace and humanity until Hitler took it and used it as a symbol of destruction and hatred.

Answer 8

Not one bit because the t or T was the symbol for the worship of the pagan god tamuz in Ezekiel 8:14 and the roman custom of impoailing people on trees is welll known to scholars there was a road leading into Rome called the apian way on it were impaled those executed for their crimes with a note as to who and what they did to serveas a warning to all who would think of commiting a crime it helped preserve the " Pax Romana" and as the KJV corectly states he was impaled on an upright tree or pole with no cross piece it helps if you look for facts rather than tradition Gorbalizer

Answer 9

Don't look now, but every religion "stole" something from their predecessors. That's the way it works. The Hebrews "stole" a unified God, Hell, the devil, and judgement day from the Zoroastrians. Buddha was a Hindu, Jesus was a Jew.

Buddha "stole" many of Ideas from the Vedas. He modified them and redirected the focus (to the 8fold path) and thus created Buddhism - With NO INTENTION of creating a new religion.

Jesus was born, lived and died a Jew. With NO INTENTION of creating a new religion. Christianity didn't become separate from Judaism for over 400 years after his death.

The Romans stole from the Greeks. The Sikks from the Jains. The Confusians from folk religion.

No one is complettely unique.

Answer 10

No relation.

Christ's having died on the cross is not a symbol. Christ's having died on the cross happened. The fact that the crucifix shares physical characteristics with the ankh is a coincidence.