Christian Symbols...and next week's preview

Hey All,

I thought I’d write a few lines about different Christian symbols we see. Well, other than the cross that is – that’s too obvious!

First up is the ichthus, which is what we call the Jesus Fish these days. The name comes from the abbreviation of the following (English transliterated) Greek words: Iesous, Christos, Theos, Uios, Sotar which basically translates to Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior. During times of Christian persecution, this symbol would be used to identify other Christians. One person would draw an arc, and if the other person was a Christian, they would recognize this as the first half of the fish and complete it.

Next is the Chi-Ro. This became a Christian symbol when it was adopted by Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor. As the story goes, Constantine saw this symbol in a dream, and heard a voice say something to the effect of “By this, conquer”. The symbol represents the first two letters in the Greek spelling of Christ interposed. This is also the root of how X became an abbreviation for Christ…like in Xmas.

Lastly, I have a hand-sign for you. Take your right hand and hold it up, palm forward. No take your pinky and ring finger and touch them to your thumb. So now your hand basically looks like a peace sign, right? Your right hand now sums up the most important parts (in my opinion) of Christian theology. The two fingers and thumb all touching represent the three members of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The two fingers sticking up represent the dual nature of Jesus Christ: fully human and fully divine. It’s a neat way to show your faith, and it also carries the crucial Gospel message of PEACE!

Some of you have probably noticed that there’s some buzz in the news about people claiming to have found the tomb of Jesus’ family…including his wife and son. There’ll be a documentary about it Sunday night at 9pm on the Discovery Channel. I’ll post a response about it next week giving you my thoughts.

Have a great week!

Peace,

Kevin

Will You Be My...Valentinus?

Hey Gang,

I’m a couple weeks into school now, and none of my classes have killed me yet (hooray!). So, I thought it time for another update. And since Valentine’s Day is on Wednesday, I thought we could chat about that.

Have you ever stopped to think about Valentine’s Day? To begin with, let’s start with the name. Just who was Saint Valentine (he’s the one with the circle around his head in the pic). Well, we don’t really know. There are three different saints who were purportedly martyred on February 14^th and were named either Valentine or Valentinus…and oddly enough, they all died around the year 270. All this stuff about romantic love did not get associated with the day until about 1000 years later.

The pope declared St. Valentine’s Day to be a feast day around the year 500. This day was then dropped in 1969. So, Valentine’s Day as we know it today does not have any official religious ties.

In 1929 there was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Five members of Al Capone’s mafia family gunned down 7 members of a rival family on the North Side of Chicago. One of the guys who got shot was known as “Tight Lips.” Before he died he was asked who shot him and he replied “nobody shot me”…at least he lived up to his name.

There’s more info to be had at HowStuffWorks and Wikipedia on this stuff. Beware, though – they contradict each other on some points. There’s a good lesson on quality of sources and authorship there (meaning don’t cite either one in your papers!).

Have a good one,

Kevin