Sacred Origins of Profound Things, page 14
In the fifth century, artists began to paint a lamb next to their rendering of a cross, for Jesus was the “Lamb of God,” slain for the sins of the world.
The Crucifixion. For centuries, Christ’s image was not shown on the cross.
CHRIST IS ADDED TO THE CROSS: LATE SIXTH CENTURY
The practice of placing the figure of Jesus on the cross began near the end of the sixth century, but even then, no artist dared to show him in his pain and humiliation. Jesus wore a long royal tunic, sometimes a golden regal crown, and only his hands and feet were bare to show in a stylized fashion the nails that pinned him to the wood. The image was one of triumph. Jesus, whose kingdom would come, reigned open-eyed and smiling.
The first image of a suffering Christ on a cross, which appeared in the tenth century and was not at all popular, was condemned by the pope as blasphemy.
Over the next three hundred years, artists began putting a suffering Jesus on the cross, gradually deepening his hand wounds, adding a torturous crown of thorns, and liberal drippings of blood. Jesus’ long tunic shrank in time to a skimpy loincloth, further revealing his body’s torment.
CHRIST’S LOINCLOTH AND THE ISSUE OF CIRCUMCISION
Interestingly, Jesus was never shown fully naked. Many art historians believe this had less to do with Middle Ages modesty, of which there was little, and everything to do with the fact that Jesus Christ, as a Jew, would have to be depicted as being circumcised. All European Christian men were uncircumcised. A Jesus without his foreskin would be an unpleasant reminder that the God they worshiped had been a Jew—the very people Christians now blamed for Christ’s arrest and death.
In fact, the Third and Fourth Lateran Councils of the Church (1179 and 1215) officially condemned Jews as “Christ killers,” and suggested they be made to wear arm badges of shame—another form of symbol. Jews in Christian England were forced to wear a saffron-colored band; in France and Germany, the color was yellow. In Italy, a Jew had to wear a small red hat of shame. As one modern-day author writes of the period:
Jews were forbidden all contact with Christians, barred from administration, deprived of lands, forbidden to own shops, herded into ghettos which were bolted at night…. A Jew who showed his nose on Good Friday was virtually committing suicide, even though the Man on the Cross had a Jewish nose. No system of apartheid was more rigorously enforced.
By the thirteenth century, the Christ who hung on a cross was a gory nightmare, drenched in bright red blood, a face of agony. The vogue was to capture in art as much of Christ’s torment as the artist was capable of rendering. Remarkably, at this time in history, specifically in the year 1224, Christian mystics, gazing at these gory crucifixes, began to experience the phenomenon of stigmata: spontaneous bleeding from the palms, feet, and one side; the locations of Christ’s five wounds. Was this the power of suggestion at work? (See Stigmata.)
Christ on the cross became a widely popular symbol only during the Counter-Reformation, when the Roman Church sought to reestablish its holy reputation, and its original ties to Jesus Christ, and at the same time distance itself from nascent Protestantism. The crucified Savior, in all his suffering, became the new image of “reformed” Roman Catholicism.
CROSSES FOR ALL OCCASIONS: ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES
According to tradition, the symbol painted in blood on an Israelite’s doorstep to spare the slaughter of the firstborn was in the form of the tau cross. In an instance of prophecy, this cross is also said to be the type Christ was nailed to, as suggested in the Gospel of John: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). This passage has led some to conclude that Christ must have been nailed to a tau cross and not a Latin cross.
There is a perfectly symmetrical cross, with four equal arms, that was known to the Greeks as the crux quadrata, because of its four equal quadrants; which became the geometers’ X-axis/Y-axis graph. Known also as the Greek cross, it is the symbol of the modern Red Cross organization.
If you take the Latin T-shaped cross and mount it on three marble steps—symbols of faith, hope, and charity—you have the Calvary cross. Usually a statuette of Jesus does not appear on the Calvary cross, since it celebrates not Christ’s suffering and death, but the glory of his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven.
CROSSES: Gammadion, tau (or Saint Anthony), and Calvary (top, left to right). Celtic, Greek (or Saint George), and Latin (middle). Maltese, papal, and patriarchal (bottom).
The crusader’s cross, also known as the Jerusalem cross, is a complex assemblage of five crosses: four tau crosses meet in the center to form a single large cross, and four Greek crosses occupy the four quadrants. The five crosses refer to the five wounds of Christ.
An emblem of John the Baptist is the Maltese cross. It has four arms of equal length, but each arm becomes progressively broader as it radiates outward from the center in slanting, rather than curved, lines. The cross has eight points in all, which are said to symbolize the Eight Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
The papal cross, scored with three unequal horizontal bars on the upper half, is used only to lead a procession in which the reigning pontiff plays a part.
The Celtic cross, which brings together a Latin cross and a circle in superposition, predates Christianity by many centuries. Its original symbolism was associated with fertility, the cross standing for male generative power and the circle for female receptivity. Within Christianity, it represents the union of Heaven and earth.
SAINT PETER’S CRUCIFIXION. The inverted cross comes from the legend of Saint Peter, the first pope, who supposedly was crucified upside down, feeling himself unworthy to be crucified on the upright cross of Christ. The inverted cross has come to symbolize humility.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI declared that the bones of his earliest predecessor, now in Rome, were authentically those of Peter. Vatican archaeologists who examined the mortal relics stated that the bones were those of a man between the ages of sixty-seven and seventy-two, which would make sense historically. However, Peter traditionally has been depicted as a toweringly tall, large-boned fisherman; the skeletal remains, now venerated relics and a huge tourist attraction, are those of a man five feet four inches tall.
“THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS”:
ENGLAND, SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Most Christmas hymns are straightforward carols containing no hidden imagery. One, though, is popularly believed to carry a cryptically coded message.
As the legend goes: Once Henry VIII broke with Rome over the issue of divorce, Catholics in England could not practice their faith openly. During this period, beginning in the sixteenth century, the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written. Tradition has it that the song was actually a secret catechism lesson for young Catholic children. In singing the song, children recited a creed of their faith’s main tenets. The “partridge in a pear tree” is Jesus Christ, and the twelve gifts of Christmas are symbols for gifts from God:
Two turtle doves—the Old and New Testament.
Three French hens—Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Four calling birds—the Four Gospels.
Five golden rings—the Five Books of Moses.
Six geese a-laying—the six days of Creation.
Seven swans a-swimming—the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Eight maids a-milking—the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus.
Nine ladies dancing—the nine classifications of angels.
Ten lords a-leaping—the Ten Commandments.
Eleven pipers piping—the eleven faithful apostles.
Twelve drummers drumming—the twelve beliefs stated in the Apostles’ Creed.
However, the song probably predates the sixteenth century. It’s believed that the original song, with slightly modified wording, derived from a “forfeits game” which was played on the Twelfth Night. Each player would have to remember and recite the objects named by the previous player and then add one more. The forfeits game played on the Twelfth Night is of Gallic origin.
“GOD THE FATHER” IMAGERY: OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
One has only to glance up at the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to glimpse the most recognizable symbol of God: the outstretched hand with pointed finger, the hand that sculpted Creation and imparts life to bodies of “clay.”
Hand imagery is commonplace in the Bible: “Thy right hand, O Lord, glorious in power” (Exod. 15:6); or “Thy right hand is filled with victory” (Ps. 48:10).
Early Christians like to depict God’s hand emerging from a fluffy cloud against nighttime’s starry backdrop. Or simply as a cloud studded with rays of light, nimbuslike. The cloud imagery is thought to originate with the story in Exodus, in which Mount Sinai was shrouded in clouds for six days.
Later Christians enriched the hand-cloud symbol by adding to the background a circle, which for most of the world’s religions symbolizes unbroken continuity, eternity.
There is other hand imagery. Sometimes, God’s hand, descending from a cloud, is cupped to cradle four or five human beings. The familiar picture comes straight from the Book of Psalms: “and thy right hand shall hold me” (Ps. 139:10).
Both the Greeks and Romans represented God with a single hand; sometimes, certain fingers were extended, while others were tucked inward toward the palm.
After the hand, the second most familiar symbol for God is a solitary eyeball, the all-seeing eye. God is omnipresent; everywhere; he misses nothing. Usually (as on the back of the one-dollar bill), God’s eye is enclosed in a triangle, symbol of the Trinity. Again, the ocular imagery originates in the Bible: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him” (Ps. 33:18).
“GOD THE SON” IMAGERY: NEW TESTAMENT
From the Hebrew practice of ritual sacrifice, the Christians borrowed the lamb as an image of Jesus. As John the Baptist declares: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” In fact, the Bible contains several references to Christ as a pure, innocent lamb to be sacrificed for people’s sins.
The image of Christ as a fish arose in the days when it was dangerous to be a Christian. Christ’s followers, many fishermen by trade, needed a secret symbol that was recognizable by other Christians but not by their foes. With a stick, a man might silently sketch a fish in the sand, saying, in effect, “I’m a Christian, too,” then quickly obliterate it.
Scholars claim that the Greek word for fish, ichtys (pronounced ichtus), was used as an acrostic by Greek-speaking Christians, for the phrase, in Greek, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” A single fish symbolized Jesus, and several fishes stood for his followers, imagery from the Bible: “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ ” (Matt. 4:19).
The importance of the fish symbol also stems from the Gospels’ miracles of multiplication, when Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, and the four thousand Christ fed with seven loaves and a few fish. The fish also became a favorite symbol for Christian baptism in catacomb art.
Many of the visual symbols for Christ have biblical sources:
Good shepherd: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep” (John 10:11).
Christ as a vine with branches representing his followers: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1). Christ himself used the vine symbol when he spoke of his Church as a vineyard (Matt. 21:33–41). In the Old Testament, Isaiah spoke of the Israelites as the vine of Yahweh (5:1–7).
Christ is also pictured as a door that people must pass through for salvation: “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).
Candles on the altar are symbols to remind Christians that: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
ALPHABETIC MONOGRAMS
Aside from pictorials and sacramentals, Christ is symbolized by four alphabetic monograms:
ALPHA AND OMEGA. Church art depicting the Greek symbols for alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, derive from Scripture that defines Jesus as: “the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).
Origins of the other three monograms:
IHS, “SON OF GOD.” This monogram means “Son of God,” and seven interpretations are given for its origin. Only the first is factual, but the others should not be entirely dismissed, as they came to be imbued with centuries of rich tradition. (The Council of Trent placed tradition on the same high ground as Scripture itself.)
IHC (or S), monogram of “Jesus.” X + P, called the “Chrismon,” appeared to Constantine. Chrismon + I + C, for “Jesus Christ, Savior.”
1. A contraction derived from the Greek word for Jesus: IHCOYC; where C stands in for the Greek letter sigma. The symbol was initially IHC, but over time and through mistranscription, C became S. Since IHS are the first three letters of a word, they have no periods after them.
Later Christians confused the issue further, placing punctuation after the letters: I.H.S. The error of punctuation turned an abbreviation for the word “Jesus” into many possible phrases about him:
2. Iesus Hominum Salvator, Latin for “Jesus, Savior of Men.
3. In Hoc Signo, Latin for “In This Sign (of the cross) shalt thou conquer.”
4. In Hac Salus, Latin for “In This Sign (of the cross) is Salvation.”
5. Iesus, Heiland, Seligmacher, German for “Jesus, Lord, Savior.”
6. Most recently in English: “I (Christ) Have Suffered.”
This retroactive matching of phrases with initials can be seen as an instance where a symbol has an evolving life of its own, and continues to generate and inspire meaning.
I.N.R.I., “JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS”: 30 C. E. The familiar symbol often stamped on Holy Communion wafers, I.N.R.I., refers to Jesus’ Latin title: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. John tells us: “Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS … and it was written in Hebrew, and Latin, and Greek” (19:19–20). Since the title derives from a phrase, the letters take periods after them.
The use of acronyms for gods was ancient, practiced by Greeks and Romans. I.O.M. was how the Latin-speaking populace spoke of “Jupiter, the Best, the Greatest”—Iupiter Optimus Maximus.
EASTERN SYMBOLS Animal imagery has often been associated with holy men. Whereas Christ is a “lamb” or a “fish,” in Buddhism, the Buddha himself is a white elephant. This is said to be the form he took when he entered his mother’s womb. The animal symbolism stands for Buddha’s patience, wisdom, and endless memory.
An alphabetic symbol in both Hinduism and Buddhism is om (pronounced a-u-m). It is not an acronym of a god’s name, but supposedly the eternal, sacred sound that accompanies creation and still echoes throughout the universe; not unlike the physicist’s concept of background radiation, the cosmic fingerprint of creation. Called a mantra, and possessing divine energy, it can be used for spiritual regeneration, either by being chanted aloud or sounded silently in the mind.
XPICTOC. Another popular symbol for “God the Son” is a superposition of the Greek letters chi and rho, that is, X and P, which appear chiseled into altars and embossed on priest’s stoles. The symbol derives from the first two letters of the Greek word XPICTOC, pronounced Christos, “Christ.” The symbol is at least sixteen hundred years old, since it’s known that the emperor Constantine had the monogram painted on the shields of his soldiers.
Xmas, meaning “Christmas” or “Christ’s Mass,” shows no disrespect for the Savior. X is not a pagan symbol in this case, nor a non-Christian slight. Simply, X is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ: XPICTOC.
“GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT” IMAGERY: NEW TESTAMENT
A descending dove, often depicted with a three-ray nimbus round its head, is the most commonly used symbol for the third member of the Christian Godhead. The image is suggested in the Gospel of Mark (and elsewhere) in relating Jesus’ baptism: “He saw the heavens open, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him” (1:10).
The dove and olive branch symbolize the end of a period of strife and the imagery originates in the biblical story of Noah and the Flood:
He sent a dove out of the ark … and the dove came to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off, so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth (Gen. 8:10–11).
The dove was a very common bird in the Near East. Today, the ringdove dwells in immense numbers in the wooded districts of Palestine, the stock dove is common in the Jordan Valley, and the rock dove roosts along the highlands west of Jordan and in Lebanon. The bird is shy, gentle, monogamous, and was often used by Old Testament prophets as a symbol of peace and purity. The birds were not eaten, we learn in Leviticus, but used for sacrifice. (Today, the bird is eaten as a delicacy and its ritual sacrifice is deplored.) In the New Testament, Mary and Joseph offer two turtledoves at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. It’s the dove’s homing instinct that Noah was banking on.
Tongues of fire is perhaps the Holy Spirit’s second most familiar pictorial. It, too, conies from the Bible: “And there appeared … tongues like as of fire…. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:3–4).
In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is “breathed forth” by the Father and Son for the purpose of performing works of love such as revelation, regeneration, and sanctification. At Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descends in the form of a dove (sanctification); at the Virgin Mary’s conception, it’s the Spirit that impregnates her (regeneration); after Christ’s Resurrection, the Spirit descends upon the apostles to embolden them to preach the Gospel and harvest souls (revelation).
We might well ask: How did imagery of a pure ephemeral Spirit originate?
