Ankh - decoration from Egypt (BIG)

Christian or Latin cross (†) is a cruciform shape with a longer vertical arm and a shorter horizontal. This is in contrast to the Greek cross, having equal arms. The Latin cross is considered the symbol of Christianity. Even before Christianity, the cross was a sacred symbol: the sun's wheel as a symbol of the sun, the swastika as a symbol of happiness; the handle cross as a sign of life. Because of the simplicity and symmetry of shape (horizontal and vertical bar) the letter was also a popular decorative element in almost all ancient beschavingen.Volgens the Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words would cross its origin in ancient Chaldea as a symbol of the god Tammuz, because it is shaped like 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. Pictures of a fish (the ichtus symbol), the monogram of Christ and enter the alpha and omega sign much more common in those days. One of the first times that the cross is called, is in the early 3rd century Stromateis writings of Clement of Alexandria. In it he speaks of του Κυριακου σεμειου τυπον, which is the symbol of the Lord. For non-Christians it was incomprehensible that Christians torture of a humiliating death accepted as a symbol. One of the first images of the crucifixion of Jesus is a graffito (2nd century) in which a man with the head of an ass on a cross is seen, adored by another man, with the text "Alexamenos worships his god." The cross was only under Emperor Constantine the Great introduced as a general symbol of Christianity, about the same time as their elimination as an enforcement tool. According to tradition, would have made the mother of Constantine, St. Helena, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem around the year 324 and there have to do excavations, said the Holy Cross would be discovered. of the cross sections were donated by Helena churches in Constantinople and Rome; some remained in Jerusalem. Reports from the 4th century, among others, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Socrates of Constantinople and Theodoret of Cyrrhus confirm this story.