Christians stole the Cross??

Question

Someone just said Christians stole everything, including "their fancy and sacred cross symbol"

Which religion did we steal the cross off of again?

Farien3...I liked your answer, but thumbs down for your attitude...shut up because I DID want to know.

Answer 1

The Eastern god Virishna was put to death on a cross between two thieves. The Egyptian god Osiris was often portrayed stretched out as on a cross. Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs was sometimes symbolised as being nailed to a cross. It was the symbol of the Druid god Hu. There are many others. Crucifixion was a common symbol of the death of the physical body and the opening of the spiritual senses in the Pagan world.

Early Christians, despite believing (obviously) that Jesus was crucified, rejected the image of the man on the cross because too many other religions were using it.

Answer 2

The cross - whether a T or an X or other form of cross, can be found in most cultures, sometimes as a design, sometimes used in religion. As far as Christianity goes, the cross became a symbol because it was believed that Jesus died on a stake with a crosspiece which was a method of execution used by the Romans. The apostle Paul was the first to speak of Jesus' death stake as being symbolic of the sacrifice he made. (See below) And since that stake was shaped as a cross - or at least it was believed to be by early Christians - the shape eventually became a symbol of his sacrifice.

In spite of a lot of erroneous information otherwise, there doesn't seem to be a real connection between the pagan use of the cross and the Christian symbol.

Answer 3

*** rs p. 89 pars. 1-3 Cross ***

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.

Was that the case in connection with the execution of God’s Son? It is noteworthy that the Bible also uses the word xy′lon to identify the device used. A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott, defines this as meaning: “Wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, etc. . . . piece of wood, log, beam, post . . . cudgel, club . . . stake on which criminals were impaled . . . of live wood, tree.” It also says “in NT, of the cross,” and cites Acts 5:30 and 10:39 as examples. (Oxford, 1968, pp. 1191, 1192) However, in those verses KJ, RS, JB, and Dy translate xy′lon as “tree.” (Compare this rendering with Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23.)

The book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: “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 (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.

Answer 4

All of them before you.

wEll, not true.

The cross most Christians use is the Latin cross. I'm not sure of it's origins, but it's either of Greek origination [in which case stealing applies] or later [In which case stealing may apply]. The cross that would have been used to crucify Christ would have been a Tau cross, which looks like this:

T

Crosses are universal symbols, really, all over the world. The Tau, The Latin, The Flyfot [Swastika], Solar [Equal armed] Maltese.

Answer 5

" The Cross is one of the oldest religious symbols of all time, from the prehistoric solar cross (an equal armed cross), to the Cross adapted from Pagan cults for Christian use after the council of Nicaea. Cross symbols are among the oldest on earth, and are found in every culture. Crosses are almost invariably symbols of the sun, the sky, and the passage of time, and are linked with most solar deities."

Don't ask questions unless you really want to know the answer....

Answer 6

The christians stole the cross symbol from the greek but many cultures and religions have used it. So don't feel bad.

Answer 7

The circulate image of the Christian improve into the the circulate the place Jesus improve into nailed by ability of the Romans. I in basic terms coincide with the circulate symbolized a protracted time in the past by ability of the Egyptians. in spite of the actuality that for the time of the e book of Paul especially in the e book of Acts, it improve into written that Jesus improve into held on a tree. From the Jewish custom, whilst somebody is held on a tree, he's cursed. besides, being held on a tree as an account proved basically that the Apostles have been rather no longer around on the time Jesus improve into crucified and their writings have been in basic terms accumulated from heresays. The wood circulate improve into the emblem of Roman punishment to criminals to further humiliate them in the eyes of the citizen and an useful way for the Romans to hold greater fears to those which will oppose their rules. you're hypothesis with regards to the ankh is a trifling concept because of the fact women individuals have been made lesser beings than adult adult males even previously Christ improve into born.

Answer 8

How far back do you want to go? At least a dozen other Gods got crucified and their stories were still current at the time Christianity was created. Almost all of the Solar cults used the cross with the sun circle on it.

Answer 9

You didn't. Romans used the cross and an X as methods of cruxification. I am not sure when they used one or the other etc but I know they used both. Jesus is said to have been cruxified on a cross and therefore that is the symbol.
I know that and I am not even Christian. If someone says that, ask them to back it up. Maybe they actually know something, but I doubt it.

Answer 10

That would include the Celts, Greeks, and Egyptians.

I forgot the Native American tribes that used the cross, but that, of course, would not imply stealing as they were not in contact with each other.