A recent post at Brian’s Primordial Blog reminded me of somthing I’ve been meaning to discuss for a while. One of the most pervasive religious symbols in the world is the Christian cross – more universally recognisable than McDonald’s Golden Arches or the squiggly Coca-Cola logo. As a marketing tool, it’s a real coup, being an instantaneous shorthand for the religion. Crosses can be huge or tiny, with or without a little crucified Jesus on them, but they are everywhere in our social consciousness, and help Christians across the globe to explain their message.

The only slight problem, of course, is that crosses don’t get a mention in the Bible. Jesus wasn’t crucified on one. In fact, the long vertical/short crossbar image comes from the Babylonian cult of Tammuz, a shepherd raised to godhood who was the consort of Ishtar. It only appears in Christian artwork from about the seventh century onwards; prior to this Christan images tended to be based around the ideas of “The Good Shepherd” and the “Fishers of Men”. It is likely that the pagan converts to the early church were permitted to retain some of their symbols and imagery, including the “T”-shaped cross of Tammuz (in much the same way as pagan festivities were co-opted for the Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter.)

Jesus, according to the New Testament Greek, was crucified on a “σταυρóς” (“stavros“). The correct translation of σταυρóς, agreed upon by pretty much all students of the language, is “stake” or “pole”. The Romans did indeed use vertical stakes to crucify their prisoners – a structure known as the “crux simplex“, basically a pole stuck in the ground (or even an tree, if there was a suitable one in the vicinity). This was the standard mode of execution in the First Century CE, whilst the crossbar was a later addition. The advantage of the crux simplex was that it could also be used for impaling, or as a whipping post; a sort of Swiss Army knife of torture.

I should probably add that I’m not the first to notice this. The error has been known by the church for some time – indeed, there was a movement in Anglicanism in the 1700s to remove the cross altogether. Unfortunately, as noted in the first paragraph above, the cross is a potent memetic device, and has been central to the Christian consciousness for so long that it’s absence is inconceivable.

So next time you see someone wearing a cross or crucifix, remember that they’re unknowing carrying a pagan symbol with no relationship to their faith, and have a little chuckle at the con accidentally perpetrated by those long-dead Tammuz cultists.