Cross
Also called Latin cross, crux
A world-shape; the Christian cross specifies an execution
Christian symbolsCross meaning
The Christian cross means the execution of Jesus and, in Christian telling, the resurrection that follows. Cross shapes are older and wider than that. This entry is the Christian one.
Two lines, and for Christians the particular death they say turned.
The name. Latin crux. The Greek cross has equal arms; the Latin cross lengthens the stem.
Where it comes from
Crossing vertical and horizontal is older than Christianity and wider than it: directions, the body, a crossroads. The Christian cross is specific. It is the Roman instrument on which Jesus was killed, then the sign of a resurrection claim — that the lowest point is where the story turns. Variants carry churches and centuries: Greek (equal arms), tau (Franciscan, and older), ringed or Celtic, Orthodox with a footrest. A crucifix holds a body. An empty cross stresses the rising over the corpse.
Christian
A scandal that became a standard
Paul calls the cross a stumbling block, not a logo. The obscenity of the method of death is part of the early meaning, which is why catacomb Christians often carved an anchor or a fish instead. Once the empire adopted the sign, it could bless armies. Both moments are in the history. Neither erases the other.
Christian
Which cross
If you cannot say whether the arms are equal, whether there is a ring, whether a body is on it, you are not yet looking at a particular cross. The ankh is not one of these, though the silhouette rhymes. The chi-rho is a monogram that people fold into a cross after the fact.
Near this
Sources
- The Gospels’ crucifixion narrative
- Early Christian use of the cross, later than the fish and the anchor
Named when the entry depends on a text, a date, or a standard. Catalog numbers are not invented.
Your margin
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symbol.wiki, edited as Sigilla. Last reviewed 2 October 2026. A reading of public tradition, not a ruling.