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52-496: The basic forms of the cross are the Latin cross with unequal arms and the Greek cross with equal arms; there are numerous variants , partly with confessional significance—such as the tau cross , the double-barred cross , triple-barred cross , and cross-and-crosslets —and many heraldic variants , such as the cross potent , cross pattée , and cross moline , cross fleury . A version of

104-463: A nomen sacrum . The extensive adoption of the cross as a Christian iconographic symbol arose from the 4th century. However, the cross symbol was already associated with Christians in the 2nd century, as is indicated in the anti-Christian arguments cited in the Octavius of Minucius Felix , chapters IX and XXIX, written at the end of that century or the beginning of the next, and by the fact that by

156-550: A cost of 50 dollars as a set. They would contain scientific and unbiased articles on ancient and modern Jewish culture. This proposal received good press coverage and interest from the Brockhaus publishing company . After the House of Rothschild in Paris , consulted by Zadoc Kahn , offered to back the project with only eight percent of the minimum funds requested by Brockaus, the project

208-556: A few centuries the emblem of Christ was a headless T-shaped tau cross rather than a Latin cross. There are few extant examples of the cross in 2nd century Christian iconography . It has been argued that Christians were reluctant to use it as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution . A symbol similar to the cross, the staurogram , was used to abbreviate the Greek word for cross in very early New Testament manuscripts such as P66 , P45 and P75 , almost like

260-439: 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). His contemporary Tertullian rejected the accusation of Christians being "adorers of the gibbet" ( crucis religiosi ). In his book De Corona , written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads

312-414: A modern language were planned for the first time, the choice would undoubtedly have fallen upon English." The unedited text of the original can be found at The Jewish Encyclopedia website. The site offers both JPEG facsimiles of the original articles and Unicode transcriptions of all texts. The search capability is somewhat handicapped by the fact that the search mechanism fails to take into account

364-523: A more pronounced cross shape. The east end is the apse , which traditionally contains the choir, chancel , or presbytery. Many also have a narthex at the entry. The glyph has a unicode code point : U+271D ✝ LATIN CROSS The Jewish Encyclopedia The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from

416-455: A single upright torture stake rather than a two-beam cross, arguing that the Greek term stauros indicated a single upright pole. Although early Watch Tower Society publications associated with the Bible Student movement taught that Christ was executed on a cross, it no longer appeared on Watch Tower Society publications after the name Jehovah's witnesses was adopted in 1931, and use of

468-463: A work and could benefit thereby would have been better served if it were put out in Hebrew, German or Russian. The editors and authors of The Jewish Encyclopedia proved prescient in their choice of language, since within that same span of 25 years, English rose to become the dominant language of academic Jewish scholarship and among Jews worldwide. Wolfson continues that "if a Jewish Encyclopedia in

520-449: Is called St. Peter's Cross , because he was executed on this type of cross. When displayed sideways it is called St. Philip 's cross for the same reason. Many medieval churches are designed using the Latin cross plan. When looked at from above, it takes the shape of a Latin cross. A Latin cross plan primarily contains a nave, transept, apse, and narthex. In a broad sense, the Latin cross

572-663: Is captured by Harry Wolfson , writing in 1926: About twenty-five years ago, there was no greater desert, as far as Jewish life and learning, than the English-speaking countries, and English of all languages was the least serviceable for such a Jewish work of reference. To contemporary European reviewers of The Jewish Encyclopedia , the undertaking seemed then like an effort wasted on half-clad Zulus in South Africa and Jewish tailors in New York. Those who were then really in need of such

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624-649: Is considered to offer a level of scholarship superior to either of the more recent Jewish encyclopedias written in English." It was originally published in 12 volumes between 1901 and 1906 by Funk & Wagnalls of New York, and reprinted in the 1960s by KTAV Publishing House . It is now in the public domain . Singer conceived of a Jewish encyclopedia in Europe and proposed creating an Allgemeine Encyklopädia für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums in 1891. He envisioned 12 volumes, published over 10 to 15 years, at

676-399: Is evident by the encyclopedia's almost obsessive attention to manuscript discovery, editing, publication, comparison, and dating. These endeavors were among the foremost interests of Wissenschaft scholarship. The Jewish Encyclopedia is an English-language work, but the vast majority of the encyclopedia's contemporary sources are German-language sources, since this was the mother tongue of

728-441: Is known. The scholarly apparatus of citation is thorough, but can be a bit daunting to contemporary users. Books that might have been widely known among scholars of Judaism at the time the encyclopedia was written (but which are quite obscure to a lay reader today) are referred to by author and title, but with no publication information and often without indication of the language in which they were written. The Jewish Encyclopedia

780-476: Is suspended above the altar table and is a focal point of the chancel . In many Baptist churches, a large cross hangs above the baptistry . Although Christians accepted that the cross was the gallows on which Jesus died, they had already begun in the 2nd century to use it as a Christian symbol. During the first three centuries of the Christian era the cross was "a symbol of minor importance" when compared to

832-554: Is used to represent all of Christianity and Christendom , given that it teaches that Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity upon it, atoning for the sins of the world. It is especially used among the denominations of Western Christianity , including the Roman Catholic tradition and several Protestant traditions, such as Lutheranism, Moravianism, Anglicanism, Methodism, and Reformed Christianity, as well as by Anabaptists, Baptists, and Pentecostals. In certain periods, such as during

884-675: The Wissenschaft scholars and the lingua franca of Biblical scholarship in general in that period. Of all works cited not in German—usually the more classical works—the largest part are either in Hebrew or Arabic . The only heavily cited English-language source of contemporary scholarship is Schechter's publications in The Jewish Quarterly Review . The significance of the work's publication in English rather than German or Hebrew

936-642: The Central Conference of American Rabbis , which had been contemplating a competing project, agreed to discuss collaborating with Funk & Wagnalls—thus securing the position of the Jewish Encyclopedia as the only major project of its kind. Shuly Rubin Schwartz describes the payment scheme arranged at this time as follows: Members of the local executive committee, exclusive of Singer and, of course, Funk, would receive one thousand dollars per annum, while

988-586: The Church formally adopted an image inspired by Thorvaldsen's Christus statue underlain with the Church's name as an official symbol of the faith. In 2014, the Chinese Communist Party , which espouses a doctrine of state atheism , began a program of removing exterior crosses from church buildings "for reasons of safety and beauty." In 2016, 1,500 crosses were removed. In 2020, this campaign resumed, justified by

1040-564: The West during the Romanesque period. The ideal church plan tended to be symmetrical around a central point during the Renaissance . The longer arm of the Latin cross plan is the nave , which runs on an east–west axis and traditionally contains aisles or chapels . The transept crosses the nave, running north–south, and can be the same width as the nave, or extend further on both sides to create

1092-534: The sign of the cross . The crucifix, a cross upon which an image of Christ is present, is not known to have been used until the 6th century AD. The oldest extant depiction of the execution of Jesus in any medium seems to be the second-century or early third-century relief on a jasper gemstone meant for use as an amulet, which is now in the British Museum in London . It portrays a naked bearded man whose arms are tied at

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1144-605: The 16th century English Reformation of the Anglican Church , the Latin cross was disfavored by a minority of theologians such as Nicholas Ridley , though in the overall history of the Western Christian Churches, this was short-lived. A Latin cross plan is a floor plan found in many Christian churches and cathedrals . When looked at from above or in plan view it takes the shape of a Latin cross ( crux immissa ). Such cruciform churches were very common in

1196-642: The 16th century, theologians in the Anglican and Reformed traditions Nicholas Ridley , James Calfhill , and Theodore Beza , rejected practices that they described as cross worship. Considering it a form of idolatry, there was a dispute in 16th century England over the baptismal use of the sign of the cross and even the public use of crosses. There were more active reactions to religious items that were thought as 'relics of Papacy ', as happened for example in September 1641, when Sir Robert Harley pulled down and destroyed

1248-660: The Earliest Times to the Present Day is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the history, culture, and state of Judaism up to the early 20th century. The encyclopedia's managing editor was Isidore Singer and the editorial board was chaired by Isaac K. Funk and Frank H. Vizetelly . The work's scholarship is still highly regarded. The American Jewish Archives deemed it "the most monumental Jewish scientific work of modern times", and Rabbi Joshua L. Segal said "for events prior to 1900, it

1300-453: The Jewish Race . His radical ecumenism and opposition to orthodoxy upset many of his Jewish readers; nevertheless he attracted the interest of publisher Isaac K. Funk , a Lutheran minister who also believed in integrating Judaism and Christianity. Funk agreed to publish the encyclopedia on the condition that it remain unbiased on issues which might seem unfavorable for Jews. Singer accepted and

1352-669: The Original Name", and he declared: "The Form then of the Cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple, but a compounded, Figure, according to the Custom of the Romans , by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of Wood fixed in the Earth, but also a transverse Beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof". Frederick Elworthy claims that for

1404-463: The board, followed by Morris Jastrow , Frederick de Sola Mendes , and two published critics of the project: Kauffmann Kohler and Gotthard Deutsch Theologian and Presbyterian minister George Foot Moore was added to the board for balance. Soon after work started, Moore withdrew and was replaced by Baptist minister Crawford Toy . Last was added the elderly Marcus Jastrow , mostly for his symbolic imprimatur as America's leading Talmudist. In March 1899,

1456-464: The centre of a Christian family's home altar as well. Catholics , Orthodox Catholic , Oriental Orthodox , members of the major branches of Christianity with other adherents as Lutheranism and Anglicans , and others often make the Sign of the Cross upon themselves. This was already a common Christian practice in the time of Tertullian . The Feast of the Cross is an important Christian feast. One of

1508-554: The cross and crucifix in the Lutheran Church , which remains an important feature of Lutheran devotion and worship today. Luther wrote: Crux sola est nostra theologia , "The cross alone is our theology." On the other hand, the Great Iconoclasm was a wave of rejecting sacred images among Calvinists of the 16th century. Some localities (such as England) included polemics against using the cross in worship. For example, during

1560-463: The cross at Wigmore. Writers during the 19th century indicating a Pagan origin of the cross included Henry Dana Ward , Mourant Brock, and John Denham Parsons . David Williams, writing of medieval images of monsters, says: "The disembodied phallus is also formed into a cross, which, before it became for Christianity the symbol of salvation, was a pagan symbol of fertility." The study, Gods, Heroes & Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain states: "Before

1612-462: The cross symbol was used long before the Christian era in the form of the ancient Egyptian ankh . John Pearson, Bishop of Chester ( c.  1660 ) wrote in his commentary on the Apostles' Creed that the Greek word stauros originally signified "a straight standing Stake, Pale, or Palisador", but that, "when other transverse or prominent parts were added in a perfect Cross, it retained still

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1664-400: The cross was officially abandoned in 1936. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Jesus died on a cross; however, their prophet Gordon B. Hinckley stated that "for us the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the living Christ." When asked what was the symbol of his religion, Hinckley replied "the lives of our people must become

1716-657: The culmination of this movement, which sought to modernize scholarly methods in Jewish research. In the 20th century, the movement's members dispersed to Jewish Studies departments in the United States and Israel . The scholarly authorities cited in the encyclopedia—besides the classical and medieval exegetes —are almost uniformly Wissenschaft figures, such as Leopold Zunz , Moritz Steinschneider , Solomon Schechter , Wilhelm Bacher , Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport , David Zvi Hoffmann , and Heinrich Graetz . Its scholarly style

1768-562: The decision to maintain all diacritical marks in the transliterated Hebrew and Aramaic from the 1901–1906 text, which used a large number of diacriticals not in common use today. Thus, for example, to successfully search for " Halizah "—the ceremony by which the widow of a brother who has died childless released her brother-in-law from the obligation of marrying her—one would have to know that they have transliterated this as "Ḥaliẓah". The alphabetic index ignores diacriticals so it can be more useful when searching for an article whose title

1820-510: The early 3rd 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 apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas , that the number 318 (in Greek numerals , ΤΙΗ) in Genesis 14:14 was interpreted as

1872-515: The fact that some crosses were higher than the Chinese national flag. Latin cross A Latin cross or crux immissa is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam , giving the cross four arms. Typically the two horizontal and upper vertical arm are the same length, although sometimes the vertical is shorter, however the lower vertical arm is always much longer than any other arm. If displayed upside down it

1924-514: The feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican bishops place a cross (+) before their name when signing a document. The dagger symbol (†) placed after the name of a dead person (often with the date of death) is sometimes taken to be a Christian cross. In many Christian traditions, such as the Methodist Churches , the altar cross sits atop or

1976-473: The fourth century CE, the cross was not widely embraced as a sign of Christianity, symbolizing as it did the gallows of a criminal." This reaction in the Anglican and other Reformed Churches was short-lived and the cross became ubiquitous in these Christian traditions. Jehovah's Witnesses do not use the symbol of the cross in their worship, which they believe constitutes idolatry . They believe that Jesus died on

2028-437: The helm, Funk & Wagnalls appointed an editorial board to oversee creation of the encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls assembled an editorial board between October 1898 and March 1899. Singer toned down his ideological rhetoric, indicated his desire to collaborate, and changed the work's proposed title to The Jewish Encyclopedia . Despite their reservations about Singer, rabbi Gustav Gottheil and Cyrus Adler agreed to join

2080-399: The late second or early third century, most likely in conventional Christian contexts". The Jewish Encyclopedia says: 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

2132-528: The only meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship." Prophet Howard W. Hunter encouraged Latter-day Saints "to look to the temple of the Lord as the great symbol of your membership." Images of LDS temples and the Angel Moroni (who is found in statue on most temples) are commonly used to symbolize the faith of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . In April 2020, under President Russell M. Nelson ,

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2184-539: The power of the cross[.] In Christianity, communicants of the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches are expected to wear a cross necklace at all times; these are ordinarily given to believers at their baptism . Many Christians, such as those in the tradition of the Church of the East , continue the practice of hanging a Christian cross in their homes, often on the east wall . Crosses or crucifixes are often

2236-545: The project. Article assignments were shuffled around and communication practices were streamlined. Joseph Jacobs was hired as a coordinator. He also wrote four hundred articles and procured many of the encyclopedia's illustrations. Herman Rosenthal , an authority on Russia, was added as an editor. Louis Ginzberg joined the project and later became head of the rabbinical literature department. The board naturally faced many difficult editorial questions and disagreements. Singer wanted specific entries for every Jewish community in

2288-504: The prominence given to it later, but by the second century it was closely associated with Christians, to the point where Christians were mocked as "adorers of the gibbet" ( crucis religiosi ), an accusation countered by Tertullian . and it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the sign of the cross. Martin Luther at the time of the Reformation retained

2340-426: The rest of the department editors would receive five hundred. All collaborators, editors included, would be paid five dollars per printed page of about one thousand English words. If the article was written in a foreign language, payment would be only $ 3.50 per page. Singer's compensation was forty dollars a week (thirty-five plus five for a life insurance premium). His salary was considered an advance, since Singer alone

2392-624: The twelve Great Feasts in Orthodox Catholicism is the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, which commemorates the consecration of the basilica on the site where the original cross of Jesus was reportedly discovered in 326 by Helena of Constantinople , mother of Constantine the Great . The Catholic Church celebrates the feast on the same day and under the same name ( In Exaltatione Sanctae Crucis ), though in English it has been called

2444-659: The world, with detailed information about, for example, the name and dates of the first Jewish settler in Prague. Conflict also arose over what types of Bible interpretation should be included, as some editors feared that Morris Jastrow's involvement in " higher criticism " would lead to unfavorable treatment of scripture. The scholarly style of The Jewish Encyclopedia aligns directly to the Wissenschaft des Judentums , an approach to Jewish scholarship and religion that flourished in 19th-century Germany. The encyclopedia may be regarded as

2496-505: The wrists by short strips to the transom of a T-shaped cross. An inscription in Greek on the obverse contains an invocation of the redeeming crucified Christ. On the reverse a later inscription by a different hand combines magical formulae with Christian terms. The catalogue of a 2007 exhibition says: "The appearance of the Crucifixion on a gem of such an early date suggests that pictures of the subject (now lost) may have been widespread even in

2548-464: Was abandoned. Following the Dreyfus affair and associated unpleasantness, Singer emigrated to New York City . Initially believing that American Jews could do little more than provide funding for his project, Singer was impressed by the level of scholarship in the United States. He wrote a new prospectus, changing the title of his planned encyclopedia to Encyclopedia of the History and Mental Evolution of

2600-499: Was established in an office at Funk & Wagnalls on 2 May 1898 . Publication of the prospectus in 1898 created a severe backlash, including accusations of poor scholarship and of subservience to Christians. Kaufmann Kohler and Gotthard Deutsch , writing in American Hebrew , highlighted Singer's factual errors, and accused him of commercialism and irreligiosity. Now considering that the project could not succeed with Singer at

2652-513: 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

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2704-782: Was to share with the company in the profits. Other editors participating in all 12 volumes were Gotthard Deutsch , Richard Gottheil , Joseph Jacobs , Kaufmann Kohler , Herman Rosenthal , and Crawford Howell Toy . Morris Jastrow, Jr. and Frederick de Sola Mendes assisted with volumes I to II; Marcus Jastrow with volumes I, II, and III; Louis Ginzberg with the first four volumes; Solomon Schechter with volumes IV through VII; Emil G. Hirsch with volumes IV through XII; and Wilhelm Bacher with volumes VIII through XII. William Popper served as assistant revision editor and chief of translation for volumes IV through XII. The editors plunged into their enormous task and soon identified and solved some inefficiencies with

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