Cross - keychain 2018

The Christian or Latin Cross (†) is a cross shape with a longer vertical arm and a shorter horizontal. This is in contrast to the Greek cross, which has equal arms. The Latin Cross is the symbol of Christianity. Already before Christianity, the cross was a sacred symbol: the sunshine as a symbol of the sun, the crooked cross as a sign of happiness; the hinge cross as a sign of life. Because of the simplicity and symmetry of the shape (a horizontal and a vertical beam), the sign was also a favorite decorative element in almost all ancient civilizations. According to the Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, the cross would originate in the ancient Chaldea as a symbol of the god of Tammuz, because it is in the form of the Greek letter tau, the first letter of his name. During the first centuries of Christianity the cross was not the only symbol of that religion. Images of a fish (the symbol of the symbol), the Christ monogram and the alpha and omegat signs are much more common in that time. One of the first times the cross is mentioned is in the early 3rd century scripture Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria. In that he speaks of του Κυριακου σεμειου τυπον, or the symbol of the Lord. For non-Christians, it was incomprehensible that Christians accepted the torture of humiliating death as a symbol. One of the first images of the crucifixion of Jesus is a graffito (2nd century?) On which a man with a donkey's head can see a cross worshiped by another man, with the text "Alexamenos worships his god." The cross was only introduced to Emperor Constantine the Great as a common symbol of Christianity, at the same time as its abolition as a execution tool. According to the tradition, the mother of Constantine, Saint Helena, had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem around the year 324 and had excavations made there, in which the Holy Cross would be discovered. Parts of the cross were donated by Helena to churches in Constantinople and Rome; a part remained in Jerusalem. Messages from the 4th century, among others, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyrillus of Jerusalem, Ambrosius of Milan, Socrates Scholasticus and Theodoretus of Cyrrhus confirm this story.