Everything about Christian Symbolism totally explained
Christian symbolism is defined as the investing of outward things or actions with an inner meaning the expression of
Christian ideas. In a greater or less degree symbolism is essential, to every kind of external worship.
Christianity has borrowed, without hesitation, from the common stock of significant symbols known to all periods and to all regions of the world.
Religious symbolism is effective precisely in the measure in which it's sufficiently natural and simple to appeal to the intelligence of the people. The choice of suitable acts and objects for this symbolism isn't so wide that it would be easy to avoid the appearance of an imitation of other traditions even if there had been a deliberate attempt invent an entirely new ritual.
Symbols drawn from pre-Christian traditions
Common in most
Christian religious symbolism are emblems, figures or ideas drawn from the cultures which saw the origin of Christianity. These symbols existed in those cultures and have been adopted and imbued with Christian meaning. The
phoenix would come to stand for the
Resurrection, the
Egg represented rebirth. These are two examples of the incorporation of pagan symbols for use in Christian art and customs.
Many Christian symbols were derived from specific allegories found in the
Hebrew scriptures of the
Old Testament. Their use in
Judaism predated the birth of Christ. Trees appear with symbolic meaning throughout Hebrew tradition. From the tree of knowledge of
good and
evil, through which the
Fall of man and the curse of death came, to the
tree of life - access to which mankind has been cut off - to promises concerning the
root of Jesse, the branch, the Messiah, who would be hung on a tree to bear the curse, and would be raised up again for the healing of the nations. The symbol itself may have been suggested by the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes or the repast of the seven Disciples, after the Resurrection, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Its popularity among Christians was due principally, it would seem, to the famous acrostic consisting of the initial letters of five Greek words forming the word for fish (Ichthys), which words briefly but clearly described the character of Christ and the claim to worship of believers:
Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, meaning,
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. 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. From the second half of the first century to the time of
Constantine the Great they buried their dead and celebrated their rites in these underground chambers. The Christian tombs were ornamented with indifferent or symbolic designs -- palms, 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. and by the fact that by the early third century the cross had become so closely associated with Christ that
Clement of Alexandria, who died between 211 and 216, could without fear of ambiguity use the phrase
τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον (the Lord's sign) to mean the cross, when he repeated the idea, current as early as the
Epistle of Barnabas, that the number 318 (in
Greek numerals, ΤΙΗ) in was a foreshadowing (a "type") of the cross (T, an upright with crossbar, standing for 300) and of Jesus (ΙΗ, the first two letter of his name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, standing for 18), and his contemporary
Tertullian could designate the body of Christian believers as
crucis religiosi,
for example "devotees of the Cross". 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.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states:
» The cross as a Christian symbol or "seal" came into use at least as early as the second century (see "Apost. Const." iii. 17; Epistle of Barnabas, xi.-xii.; Justin, "Apologia," i. 55-60; "Dial. cum Tryph." 85-97); and the marking of a cross upon the forehead and the chest was regarded as a talisman against the powers of demons (Tertullian, "De Corona," iii.; Cyprian, "Testimonies," xi. 21-22; Lactantius, "Divinæ Institutiones," iv. 27, and elsewhere). Accordingly the Christian Fathers had to defend themselves, as early as the second century, against the charge of being worshipers of the cross, as may be learned from Tertullian, "Apologia," xii., xvii., and Minucius Felix, "Octavius," xxix. Christians used to swear by the power of the cross.
Although the cross was known to the early Christians, the
crucifix, didn't appear in use until the fifth century. At the very least, the rite is seen as a symbol of the spiritual change or event that takes place. In the Eucharist, the bread and wine are, at the least, symbolic of the broken body and shed blood of
Jesus, and in Roman Catholicism, believed to be the
actual Body and Blood of
Jesus which in turn are representative of the death of Jesus which brings
salvation to the recipient. The rite of baptism is, at the least, symbolic of the cleansing of the sinner by God, and, especially where baptism is by immersion, of the spiritual death and resurrection of the baptized person. Opinion differs as to the symbolic nature of the sacraments, with some
Protestant denominations considering them entirely symbolic, and
Roman Catholics, Orthodox, some Anglicans, and some Lutherans believing that the outward rites truly do, by the power of God, act as media of grace. Nonetheless, popular favor for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons yet existed.
Though significant in the history of religious doctrine, the Byzantine controversy over images isn't seen as of primary importance in Byzantine history. "Few historians still hold it to have been the greatest issue of the period..."
The Iconoclastic Period began when images were banned by Emperor
Leo III the Isaurian sometime between 726 and 730. Under his son
Constantine V, a council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria near Constantinople in 754. Image veneration was later reinstated by the
Empress Regent Irene, under whom another council was held reversing the decisions of the previous iconoclast council and taking its title as
Seventh Ecumenical Council. The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, for example those who held that veneration of images constitutes idolatry. Then the ban was enforced again by
Leo V in 815. And finally icon veneration was decisively restored by
Empress Regent Theodora.
Today icons are used particularly among
Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox,
Coptic and
Eastern Catholic Churches.
Examples of other symbols
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