The cross: How and when did Christians start to depict images of Jesus on the cross?

General discussions about Christianity including salvation, heaven and hell, Christian history and so on.
Post Reply
PaulSacramento
Board Moderator
Posts: 9224
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:29 pm
Christian: Yes
Sex: Male
Creation Position: Theistic Evolution
Location: Ontario, Canada

The cross: How and when did Christians start to depict images of Jesus on the cross?

Post by PaulSacramento »

Some argue that the depictions of the crucifixion came much later and that early Christians would not have depicted Christ on the cross because of the shame associated with it ( which seems in direct conflict with Paul's statement that He boasts on nothing but the cross), but this article here shows that to be incorrect:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/dail ... =ZE7A4QZ00

How and when did Christians start to depict images of Jesus on the cross? Some believe the early church avoided images of Jesus on the cross until the fourth or fifth century. In “The Staurogram: Earliest Depiction of Jesus’ Crucifixion” in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Larry Hurtado highlights an early Christian crucifixion symbol that sets the date back by 150–200 years.
Larry Hurtado describes how a symbol known as a staurogram is created out of the Greek letters tau-rho: “In Greek, the language of the early church, the capital tau, or T, looks pretty much like our T. The capital rho, or R, however, is written like our P. If you superimpose the two letters, it looks something like this: . The earliest Christian uses of this tau-rho combination make up what is known as a staurogram. In Greek the verb to ‘crucify’ is stauroō; a ‘cross’ is a stauros … [these letters produce] a pictographic representation of a crucified figure hanging on a cross—used in the Greek words for ‘crucify’ and ‘cross.’”
Post Reply