Now go and tell his...
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"Now go and tell his followers and Peter, 'Jesus is going into Galilee ahead of you' " (Mark 16:7, New Century Version). Always, Christ is out there ahead of us! Among Jewish-Christians of the first century, there was a remembrance of the star prophesied in Numbers 24:17: "I see someone who will come some day, I see someone who will come, but not soon. A star will come from Jacob. A ruler will rise from Israel." The symbol of the star assumed a cross-shaped appearance.
Jean Danielou wrote: "It looks very much as if in Jewish Christian symbolism the star of Numbers was transformed into the Cross of Light."1 This scholar refers to "the Cross of Light" mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter. This Cross of Light was said to have accompanied Christ in his ascent into heaven, and it was expected to precede him at his coming again. For this reason, Christians painted a cross on the eastern walls of their homes and meeting places. This cross was not put on the wall to remind them of the sufferings of Christ which had happened in the past.
On the contrary, it was placed on that particular wall to mark the East from which Christ was expected to come again "back from the future." He is ahead of us! Christians in later times forgot the reason for placing a cross on the east wall. So, they made it a memorial of Jesus' death in the past.
1. Jean Danielou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, page 342.
- Chinn
Jean Danielou wrote: "It looks very much as if in Jewish Christian symbolism the star of Numbers was transformed into the Cross of Light."1 This scholar refers to "the Cross of Light" mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter. This Cross of Light was said to have accompanied Christ in his ascent into heaven, and it was expected to precede him at his coming again. For this reason, Christians painted a cross on the eastern walls of their homes and meeting places. This cross was not put on the wall to remind them of the sufferings of Christ which had happened in the past.
On the contrary, it was placed on that particular wall to mark the East from which Christ was expected to come again "back from the future." He is ahead of us! Christians in later times forgot the reason for placing a cross on the east wall. So, they made it a memorial of Jesus' death in the past.
1. Jean Danielou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, page 342.
- Chinn
