Freethought & Rationalism Archive

reniaa · 12-14-2007, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stumpjumper

If I remember some of what I have read correctly, the sign of the cross was a Jewish symbol well before the time of Jesus.

It was a symbol used in underground cemeteries and has been found on Jewish sarcophagi in Jerusalem dating between the first and third century BC.

One theory was that it was the Hebrew letter tau and a symbol for the "sign" in Ezekiel 9:4...

ETA: One source for that view would be Yigael Yadin Pesher Nahum Reconsidered

Are you sure on this I've looked into it and seals and amulets have been found and they usually have the tetragramation on them as a mark and symbol?

Stumpjumper · 12-14-2007, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reniaa

Are you sure on this I've looked into it and seals and amulets have been found and they usually have the tetragramation on them as a mark and symbol?

I'm pretty sure the link between the Hebrew tau and the sign of Ezekiel is in the writings of Origen.

The differences between the Tau Cross versus the Latin Cross is well known, though. St. Francis wore a Tau Cross not a Latin one...

Toto · 12-14-2007, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stumpjumper

If I remember some of what I have read correctly, the sign of the cross was a Jewish symbol well before the time of Jesus.

It was a symbol used in underground cemeteries and has been found on Jewish sarcophagi in Jerusalem dating between the first and third century BC.

I think that some of those "crosses" have been identified as just marks made by the carpenter. I don't think they are necessarily symbols. I would be interested in anything that identified the Tau cross with Judaism.

Quote:

One theory was that it was the Hebrew letter tau and a symbol for the "sign" in Ezekiel 9:4...

ETA: One source for that view would be Yigael Yadin Pesher Nahum Reconsidered

That would be Yigal Yadin, "Pesher Nahum Reconsidered," IsraelExploration Journal, Vol. XXI, No. I, (1971), pp. 4-10 - not available online.

The Tau cross seems to be a Christian interpretation of Jewish scripture, associated with St. Francis in particular:

Ezekiel 9:4, "Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a TAU on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it."

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