Christian symbolism

These include early Jewish Christian sects, as well as some modern denominations such as Baptists that prefer to some extent not to use figures in their symbols due to the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry.

[1] At the end of the 2nd century, it is mentioned in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, rejecting the claim by detractors that Christians worship the cross.

[2] The cross (crucifix, Greek stauros) in this period was represented by the letter T. Clement of Alexandria in the early 3rd century calls it τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον ("the Lord's sign") and he repeats the idea, current as early as the Epistle of Barnabas, that the number 318 (in Greek numerals, ΤΙΗ) in Genesis 14:14 was a foreshadowing (a "type") of the cross (T, an upright with crossbar, standing for 300) and of Jesus (ΙΗ, the first two letters of his name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, standing for 18).

[4] In his book De Corona, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the sign of the cross.

An early example of the cruciform halo, used to identify Christ in paintings, is found in the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes mosaic of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (dated c. 504).Instances of the St Thomas cross, a Greek cross with clover leaf edges, popular in southern India,[6] date to about the 6th century.

[citation needed] It appears in the form of heavily sculpted, vertically oriented, ancient monoliths which survive in the present day, in various locations on the island of Ireland.

The heavily-worn stone sculptures likely owe their continued survival to their sheer size and solid rock construction, which coordinate in scale, and in composition, with Ireland's ancient megalith arrangements.

[7] The purported discovery of the True Cross by Constantine's mother, Helena, and the development of Golgotha as a site for pilgrimage led to a change of attitude.

The first depictions of crucifixion displaying suffering are believed to have arisen in Byzantine art,[9] where the S-shaped slumped body type was developed.

[14]: 166  Another more complicated explanation of this monogram was given by Irenaeus[17] and Pachomius: because the numeric value of iota is 10 and the chi is the initial of the word "Christ" (Greek: ΧΡΕΙΣΤΟΣ [sic]; proper spelling: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ) which has 8 letters, these early fathers calculate 888 [(10 × 8) × 10] + [(10 × 8) + 8], which was a number already known to represent Jesus, being the sum of the value of the letters of the name Jesus (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ) (10 + 8 + 200 + 70 + 400 + 200).

For this reason the dove became a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and in general it occurs frequently in connection with early representations of baptism.

However the more ancient explanation of the dove as a Christian symbol refers to it as a symbol of Christ himself: Irenaeus[20] in the 2nd century explains that the number 801 is both the numerological value of the sum in Greek of the letters of the word "dove" (Greek: περιστερά) and the sum of the values of the letters Alpha and Omega, which refer to Christ.

The peacock can also symbolise the cosmos if one interprets its tail with its many "eyes" as the vault of heaven dotted by the sun, moon, and stars.

In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood by wounding her own breast when no other food was available.

[25] Traditionally, the shamrock is said to have been used by Saint Patrick to illustrate the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity when Christianising Ireland in the 5th century.

The legend goes that St. Patrick used the shamrock – a clover with three leaflets, native to Ireland – to illustrate the tripartite form of the Christian deity.

The rare depictions of a lily crucifix in England include most notably a painting on a wall above the side altar at All Saints' Church, Godshill, Isle of Wight.

Other examples include: Christians from the very beginning adorned their catacombs with paintings of Christ, of the saints, of scenes from the Bible and allegorical groups.

[32] Early Christians accepted the art of their time and used it, as well as a poor and persecuted community could, to express their religious ideas.

[32] The use of deep, sometimes labyrinthine, catacombs for ritual burials are a product of the poverty of early Christian communities: the unusual, multileveled, burial chambers were, at surface-level, small plots of land used as entrances to the tiered catacombs below, by early Christians unable to afford large areas of land, nor the corresponding taxes sometimes levied on real estate, by regional authorities.

The Christian tombs were ornamented with indifferent or symbolic designs p alms, peacocks, with the chi-rho monogram, with bas-reliefs of Christ as the Good Shepherd, or seated between figures of saints, and sometimes with elaborate scenes from the New Testament.

An icon is an image, picture, or representation; it is likeness that has symbolic meaning for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics.

"Few historians still hold it to have been the greatest issue of the period..."[36][page needed] The Byzantine Iconoclasm began when images were banned by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian sometime between 726 and 730.

The traditional mortuary symbolism of the dome led it to be used in Christian central-type martyriums in the Syrian area, the growing popularity of which spread the form.

[39] The octagon, which is transitional between the circle and the square, came to represent Jesus' resurrection in early Christianity and was used in the ground plans of martyriums and baptisteries for that reason.

[43] The influence of Judaism upon Christian symbolism as early as the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, is apparent both in painting and in sculpture, the most frequent motives being those that occur in the Mishnah as formulas for prayer on fast-days.

The prayer beginning with the words "Mi she-'anah", which was included in the selihah at an early date, was adopted in the Christian ritual as the litany "Libera domine".

Job sitting among the ashes was the symbol of patience and of the power of resistance of the flesh; and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the fiery furnace typified steadfastness in persecution and faith in the aid of God.

Christian sarcophagi contained artistic representations of the fall of man, Noah and the ark, scenes from the life of Moses in three variations, Joshua, David, and Daniel.