Impaled on a stake — a result of sectarian bias?

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<strong>Impaled</strong> on a stake - a result of sectarian bias? 16 through an imposing enclosure wall. In the second half of the fifth century an octagonal church was built upon the house of St. Peter and remained in use until the seventh century. 50 It is argued that in this house one find one of the earliest examples of a “Christian” cross. As said in a discussion on the theme “The Date of the Cross” on the ANE- List 51 : ”According to the excavators, there are mid-1 st century A.D. graffiti at Capernaum in the House of St. Peter, including the cross as a Christian symbol 52 .” This graffiti was found on a wall that had been plastered several times. The graffiti was in several languages: Greek, Latin, Aramaic and Syrian. How certain can such graffiti be dated? Two answers on the ANE-list illustrate the problems of dating this particular finding: ”Due to the fact that there is graffiti in a number of languages in this house, I doubt that the graffiti itself dates from the mid 1st century (although the house itself dates from Hellenistic times)” 53 ”Also, the house has undergone many different structural phases (the latest being the modern church cum UFO-landed-on-the-shores-of-the-Sea-of- Tiberias Phase), so a piece of graffito would be very difficult to date precisely” 54 Snyder confirms this and gives this conclusion after having investigated the graffiti in this house: “An examination of the graffiti indicates all are later than the ‘peace’ 55 . Testa 56 is certain there are earlier ones to be discovered, but no positive results are forthcoming”. 57 The cross-symbol found in “The house of St Peter” cannot be used as evidence for the form of the instrument of Jesus’ death. 50 See Ancient Churches Revealed. Yoram Tsafrir. Israel Exploration Society 1993 Jerusalem. 51 ANE (Ancient Near East) –list: ane@oi.uchicago.edu 52 Fri, 26 Nov 1999 22:34:10 –0600 From: Donald R. Vance. 53 Sat, 27 Nov 1999 07:56:24 EST From: Virgil Brown 54 Mon, 29 Nov 1999 11:04:23 From: George Athas. 55 By ”peace” Snyder refers to the time of Constantine. 56 Emmanule Testa made this assertion in 1972 in “I graffiti della casa di S. Pietro”, Publicazione dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, No.19. Snyder wrote about this in 1985. We have not found anything that suggests any new discoveries. 57 Snyder, Ante pacem: archaeological evidence of Church life before Constantine, 72.
<strong>Impaled</strong> on a stake - a result of sectarian bias? 17 Staurograms in early manuscripts The staurogram, which is a contraction of stauros, is found in the early NT manuscripts ‰66 (c.150) and ‰75 (c. 175). The contraction is worked into a cross like symbol. Along with the Christogram (chi-rho monogram), the staurogram came into widespread use in Greek, Latin and Coptic. 58 In his discussion of the origin of the Christogram, 59 M. Black mentions the theory of J. Savignac 60 on the possibility of the staurogram being a Pagan borrowing, since that the staurogram closely resembles the Egyptian hieroglyph ankh, meaning “life”. This is seen as having contributed to this particular shape of the staurogram. Scriptural support for such a connection was sought in scriptures that make a connection between Christ and life. 61 “Savignac admits a difficulty in the acceptance of a pagan symbol by a religion born out of Judaism. Gnostic Christianity, however, had no such scruples, and provided the channel for the introduction of the “pagan” symbol.” 62 Nevertheless, even if p66 and p75 are very early and valuable as manuscripts, they are still late in relation to Jesus’ death. That they were both found in Egypt, fortifies the above argument that the staurograms could be a result of Gnostic influence, thus reducing their value as sources in this connection. How should stauros be translated in the NT today? A translator must take many factors into consideration when translating from an ancient language into a modern. It is a serious thing to translate the Word of God. In the foreword to the NWT we read: 58 B. M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981) 84. 59 M. Black, "The Chi-Rho Sign - Cristogram and/or Staurogram?" Apostolic History and the Gospel (ed. W. W. Gasque and R. P. M. Martin; Paternoster Press, 1970) 321. 60 P 75 “Les Papyrus XIV et XV” in Scriptorium XVII (1963), Chronique, 50 ff. 61 1 Cor 1:18, “For the speech about the torture stake is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is God's power”; Col 3:4, “When the Christ, our life, is made manifest, then YOU also will be made manifest with him in glory”; etc. 62 Black, "The Chi-rho sign - cristogram and/or staurogram?" 321.
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