# Why do some faiths have Jesus on the Cross and others don't? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853 "2016-10-27T15:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/21 "2016-10-27T18:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > “And He became a man, and set His tent among us”. Interesting. The English translation of that is “…he dwelt among us”. Making the dwelling a tent seems like it makes it even more down-to-Earth, so to speak. I wonder what the original Greek has? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/22 "2016-10-27T19:06:59Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. From Wikipedia: On Sunday, December 10, Juan Diego talked to archbishop for the second time and he instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the lady for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The Archbishop carded the Holy Virgin! ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/23 "2016-10-27T19:52:40Z")
I once had a conversation with a fascinating and fantastic older priest in California a couple of decades ago. He was the youngest of 12 kids. His dad died when he was very young so his Mom’s mother came to live with them as well. His mother had converted to Catholicism and kids were all Catholic, but his grandmother used to chide them all half-heartedly, “You Catholics keep Jesus on the wall, we keep him in our hearts.” His retelling was awesome and he remembered the interaction incredibly fondly, but he used it to make a point about how Catholics get caught up in dogma instead of the intent of Jesus. I should mention that he joined the priesthood in his mid50s in order to fight for the rights of women and homosexuals in the Catholic church “from the inside.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/24 "2016-10-27T20:06:11Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > That’s always been my interpretation. Catholics are big on the suffering of Jesus as being The Most Important Thing. Protestants are more about the resurrection. As mentioned, His suffering, death and resurrection are all The Most Important Thing. _For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father._ ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/25 "2016-10-27T20:09:08Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > It’s always struck me as bizarre that Christianity has the instrument used to torture Jesus to death as their symbol. Scholars have considered this point in various [ways](http://www.bugmartini.com/comic/there-butt-for-the-grace-of-god/). ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/26 "2016-10-27T20:15:29Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > As mentioned, His suffering, death and resurrection are all The Most Important Thing. > > _For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, > he suffered death and was buried, > and rose again on the third day > in accordance with the Scriptures. > He ascended into heaven > and is seated at the right hand of the Father._ Come on! The Apostle’s creed is way more bad ass! . . . suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell . . . ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/27 "2016-10-27T20:46:49Z")
Christians (I am one) are shown the cross and scenes of crucifixion as reminders of Jesus’s sacrifice the way your mother will remind you of the 12 hours of labor she went through to bring you into this world. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/28 "2016-10-27T20:56:16Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Come on! The Apostle’s creed is way more bad ass! > > . . . suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. > He descended into Hell . . . Not that Hell, the other one 🙂 [http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/resua1.htm](http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/resua1.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/29 "2016-10-27T21:33:58Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Jehovah’s Witnesses, if you are willing to accept them under the tent. It’s one of their deliberate bits of separation from mainstream Christianity. The Cross is a pagan symbol to them–an indication that the mainstream Church has lost God. There is an [actual controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_of_Jesus%27_crucifixion) on it, though, as the Wikipedia article says, the earliest Christian writings all seem to presume it was a cross, and a man who lived when Jesus was born describes the horizontal beam. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/30 "2016-10-28T00:04:59Z")
So, there’s this Jewish kid who’s doing terribly in math. His teachers all say that he’s got a lot of potential, but that nothing motivates him to actually do his work. So his parents try offering rewards for him doing his homework. They try punishing him for bad grades. They try putting him in charter schools, and home school, and private schools. They try everything. Finally, they enroll him in a Catholic school. Imagine their surprise when, a month later, he comes home with a 97% on his first math test! They ask him what the Catholic school is doing that finally made the difference. “Well”, he says, “when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign on the wall, I knew they meant business!”. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/31 "2016-10-28T01:45:58Z")
Oye. Who else can you offend, already? ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/32 "2016-10-28T01:49:43Z")
I think that if the peace sign really were a broken cross it would be a great symbol for Christianty; the power of death is broken. Anyway, for me Jesus’ life is more important to me than death and resurrection (which I don’t take literally). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/33 "2016-10-28T03:36:13Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > It’s always struck me as bizarre that Christianity has the instrument used to torture Jesus to death as their symbol. Yeah yeah “his suffering was necessary to redeem our sins”, it’s all rather morbid. Your objection is not new. [1 Corinthians 1:23](http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/1-23.htm) “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness” > [@Chronos](#): > > Interesting. The English translation of that is “…he dwelt among us”. Making the dwelling a tent seems like it makes it even more down-to-Earth, so to speak. I wonder what the original Greek has? [John 1 (KJV) - And the Word was made](https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jhn/1/14/t_bibles_998014) (click on “tools/interlinear”: καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν" The verb is from σκηνόω. The father of Alice in Wonderland and his co-author give [this to start with](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dskhno%2Fw): > [@](#): > > A.pitch tents, encamp, ἐσκήνωσαν v.l. for -ησαν in X.An.2.4.14; σκηνοῖεν v.l. for σκηνῷεν (cj.) in ib.7.4.12. > 2. = σκηνέω (q.v. sub fin.), live or dwell in a tent, ἐν τῷ ὁμοῦ σκηνοῦν prob. cj. in Id.Cyr.2.1.25: generally, settle, take up one’s abode, “κατὰ τὰς κώμας σκηνοῦν” Id.An.4.5.23; -οῦν ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις ib.5.5.11; “ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλει, οὗπερ αὐτὸς ἐσκήνου” Id.HG5.4.56, cf. LXX Jd.5.17, al., J.AJ3.12.6: metaph., “ὁ λόγος . . ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν” Ev.Jo.1.14: The Vulgate reads “et habitavit in nobis” (click on “tools/bibles” and scroll down). ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/34 "2016-10-28T10:18:50Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Some faiths (Catholics?) Use crosses with Jesus nailed to them. Thats a crucifix. A cross would be called “Crux” in latin, but faiths which often have crucifixes also have crosses… Its just the sanitised sects avoid the morbid look of the crucifix. They also don’t have actual nails in hands any re-enactment… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/35 "2016-10-28T11:28:51Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I went in (what I assume to have been) an interdenominational chapel in a hospital once - in the high central position on the wall where you might normally expect to see a cross was a lifesize uncanny-valley figure of Christ, naked except a loincloth with arms sort of outstretched as if on the cross (but there was no cross), reaching forward a little, with this weird staring, yearning look on its face. Terrifying. Imagine that figure tweaked with animatronics. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/36 "2016-10-28T11:49:02Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Jehovah’s Witnesses, if you are willing to accept them under the tent. Hey, don’t forget us Latter-day Saints, either. I seem to recall, also, seeing a rather large crucifix hanging in a Protestant chapel. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/37 "2016-10-28T16:51:02Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Hey, don’t forget us Latter-day Saints, either. This wasn’t always the case. Early Mormons used the cross. The last time this came up, the author of a book documenting this registered to plug his work. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/38 "2016-10-28T19:56:10Z")
Jesus wasn’t on the cross ALL the time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/39 "2016-10-28T20:03:46Z")
Back in Bozeman, my Catholic parish bought a church building from a neighboring Lutheran congregation (they were moving to a new, larger building on the outskirts of town), and used it for a couple of years while our building was being renovated. It was interesting seeing the juxtaposition between Protestant and Catholic tastes in church decor. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853/40 "2016-10-29T19:18:50Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Your objection is not new. > > [1 Corinthians 1:23](http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/1-23.htm) “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness” > > [John 1 (KJV) - And the Word was made](https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jhn/1/14/t_bibles_998014) (click on “tools/interlinear”: καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν" > > The verb is from σκηνόω. The father of Alice in Wonderland and his co-author give [this to start with](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dskhno%2Fw): > > The Vulgate reads “et habitavit in nobis” (click on “tools/bibles” and scroll down). ‘Set his tent among us’ seems like a better literal translation, then. Interesting. I don’t know Greek so was unaware of that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-faiths-have-jesus-on-the-cross-and-others-dont/769853.md?page=3)