Where did the cross really come from?

Question

I was in the Portland museum viewing the Egyption collection from Cairo museum and noticed that they also used this symbol in there pegan religious beliefs! Is it really christian?

Answer 1

The cross symbol is taken from the initial letter for the god Tammuz.
Tammuz was another name for Nimrod, whom the Bible calls "a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah", the True God. (Genesis 10:9 and Psalms 83:18)
Surely this proves that it is not a symbol God would approve of in worship? A true christian would not venerate it.
Additionally Jesus was crucified on a stake (Greek "Sturos" - beam) not a cross. (Acts 5:30 King James Bible)
Had Jesus been murdered with a weapon would true lovers of him venerate or idolise a gun or sword, wearing miniature replica's of such in gold or silver around their necks? I think not!
Yet millions of acclaimed Christians do wear and worship what they believe Jesus died on, strange!

Answer 2

The Egyptian ankh is like a christian cross, but with a loop at the top. It meant human life or life force, I believe, and was considered a holy symbol, even as jewelry frequently featured in ancient Egyptian art, and often associated with their jesus-like god Osiris.

For the Egyptians, I don't think it had anything to do with crucifixion. I have heard that the christian cross was partially an adaptation of the ankh, but it obviously symbolizes crucifixion as well.

A christian-like cross was also a symbol of the Babylonian god Tammuz, yet another jesus-like figure that preceded jesus. I don't know if this guy/god was supposedly crucified or not. But the t or T was used as a religious symbol; it literally stood for his name.

The Romans crucified criminals for about 1000 years (700BC to 300AD).

Answer 3

According to Webster’s dictionary a cross is “a structure, typically an upright supporting a horizontal beam, anciently used in the execution of malefactors.” In the Bible the Greek word usually rendered cross is stauros. Its Latin equivalent is crux. Was the stauros or crux on which Christ died a traditionally shaped cross?

Yes, say spokesmen of Christendom, such as the Signs of the Times, October 23, 1956. It dogmatically states that the stauros on which Christ died was such a cross. In support of this assertion several authorities are cited, secular and religious. But what are the facts?

The facts are that authorities are not agreed that there is “no doubt” about the nature of the stauros on which Christ died and are not agreed that it was the traditionally shaped cross. The Encyclopædia Britannica, 1907 and 1942 editions, under the term “cross” states that Christ is “generally believed” to have died on such a cross, that at best it is only “by general tradition” that the matter is established.

As for religious authorities, one states: “The accounts of the manner of the crucifixion being so meager, any degree of certainty is impossible.”1 And another tells that “no definite data are found in the New Testament concerning the nature of the cross on which Jesus died. It is only the Church writers after Justin Martyr who indicate the composite four-armed cross as Christ’s vehicle of torture.”2

And concerning the terms stauros and crux we are told that ‘stauros properly means merely a stake.’ “In Livy [Roman historian shortly before Christ’s ministry] even, crux means a mere stake.” “The Hebrews have no word for Cross more definite than ‘wood.’”3
Clearly there is no Scriptural support for the traditional cross as a symbol of Christianity. Then how can its adoption by professed Christians be accounted for? It was borrowed from the surrounding pagans. It is another one of the many paganisms that the early apostate Christians adopted so as to appeal to the pagans and to be more like them. In this they followed the example of the Israelites who wanted a king so as to be like the nations round about. Thus Dr. Killen, in his Ancient Church, writes:

“From the most remote antiquity the cross was venerated in Egypt and Syria; it was held in equal honor by the Buddhists of the East; and what is still more extraordinary, when the Spaniards first visited America, the well-known sign was found among the objects of worship in the idol temples of Anáhuac. It is also remarkable that, with the commencement of our era, the pagans were wont to make the sign of the cross upon the forehead in the celebration of some of their sacred mysteries.”

Answer 4

Geometric shapes come in all different forms. The use of the cross in Christianity is just what it symbolizes for us.
Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins.

Please note, it was A cross. It is not lost on us that it was not the only cross ever to be used. Crucifixion was one of the more heinous means of execution used by the Romans for criminals.

Geometric shapes are finite in number, so you will find multiple usages for any number of them. The buliding where I once lived had a very old tile floor in the lobby. The edge pattern was made up on bent crosses all along the perimeter of the walls. We now call those shapes swastikas, but the building had been built long before the name Adolph Hitler came into being.

Christians also use a fish shape to identify themselves as believers. It's not like the sahpes have a copyright on them...

Answer 5

The cross symbol itself is one of the earliest religious symbols mankind has. Depending on the religion and the region of the world it's found in it can be symbolic of the division of the world/universe into the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) and it can also represent divinity (the horizontal line representing earth and the vertical line representing God or the divine).

The symbol you saw in the museum is, likely, an Ankh which represented, in Egyptian religion, the soul itself. In other words, no, it's not Christian.

Answer 6

Nyet, nope, nein, no. The symbol was adopted by Christians solely because it happened to be the type of Roman torture/murder that allegedly killed their Christ, who, if he died on one per the stories, he'd have only been one of thousands who died on a cross. Celts also used the symbol of the cross long before Christianity was ever in Ireland, for which the symbolism is only guessed at, and generally is thought to have something to do with the four directions or something delightful like that. Hope that helps a tiny bit.

Answer 7

The only reason that the cross is the christian symbol is because of how Jesus died. You see normally when they crucified some one it was only on one pole with their hands and feet nailed to it. But Jesus was supposed to suffer so instead of nailing through his wrists where his major arteries were (would make it a faster death) they nailed his hands on either side of a horizontal peice of wood. Since Jesus died for our sins people starting using a simple cross to represent the memory of Jesus dieing like that.

Answer 8

Jesus was crucified. The Romans got the idea from the Medo Persians I believe. So yes it would really come from Jesus suffering and dieing on one of them.

Answer 9

The cross was a Roman instrument of humiliation and death used to crucify criminals. It would be a modern-day electric chair.

Answer 10

It was a spiritual symbol long before Christianity. Can you tell me what it means?