Constantine symbol

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PainRack
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Constantine symbol

Post by PainRack »

Just a quick question for the history buffs here.

As we all know, Constantine was apparently "converted" to christianity after seeing the symbol of Jesus Christ in the sky. He thus proceeded to paint the symbol of Jesus on his soldiers shields and his soldiers won the battle, gaining access to Rome and thus power.


The question is:

Which symbol did Constantine use?

I had earlier read that what Constantine saw was the Chi Omega symbol, the symbol of the fish and loave, used by christians to symbolise Jesus breaking up the fishes and loaves to feed a multitude.

However, according to thispascal wager, its a cross instead.

So, which was it? I was under the impression that the early Christians, prior to the formation of the Catholic Church used the symbol of the phi chi omega as opposed to the Cross, which was used by the Church to focus on the fact that salvation was in the afterlife as opposed to here and now.
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FedRebel
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Re: Constantine symbol

Post by FedRebel »

The story I heard in Roman Catholic CCD was that it was a cross
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Frank Hipper
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Post by Frank Hipper »

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LadyTevar
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Post by LadyTevar »

I'd always heard it was the sign of the cross in the sky.
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Post by Gandalf »

LadyTevar wrote:I'd always heard it was the sign of the cross in the sky.
That would at least explain why he chose such an ironic logo for Christianity.
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Frank Hipper
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Post by Frank Hipper »

LadyTevar wrote:I'd always heard it was the sign of the cross in the sky.
Well, it was a cross, just not the one we're so familiar with, and with a "P" for pontifex, unless I'm mistaken.
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Vain
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Post by Vain »

The X + P symbol is Chi + Rho, or the first two letters in the Greek spelling of Christ. Chi Rho was a symbol for christianity long before Constantine, and is in fact the source of abbreviating Christmas as X-mas. It's not a secular abbreviation at all.
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PainRack
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Post by PainRack »

LadyTevar wrote:I'd always heard it was the sign of the cross in the sky.
which reminds me. Wasn't there an archaelogist who postulated that what he saw was some natural weather phemonena of some sort?

I'm just collecting some new ammo, especially after what the Da Vinci Code did.

The movie got it SO CLOSE, and Ian Mckellan was SO AWESOME. The apologists who claims that what the council of Niccea concluded was the question of whether Jesus was below or on par with god would be petarded so badly when they discover that it was a single man, Constantine who decleared it so.
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Frank Hipper
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Post by Frank Hipper »

Vain wrote:The X + P symbol is Chi + Rho, or the first two letters in the Greek spelling of Christ. Chi Rho was a symbol for christianity long before Constantine, and is in fact the source of abbreviating Christmas as X-mas. It's not a secular abbreviation at all.
Teach me to post guesses, won't it. :lol:
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