The Mount Holly news., 1914-08-04
RECORD OF THE CROSS
SYMBOL Is ONE OF MOST AN
GENT RECORDED IN HISTORY.
May Be Traced Back Five Thousand
Years, to the BabyIonian Era, az
Explained by Students Of
the Past.

The cross is so old that the records
of men do not go back to the first one,
Christianity took very ancient sym
boil and made 1t Christian. but nobody
knows just why.
To understand all there is to know
about the Cross we must go back four
or Ave thousand years to astronomy
and astrology as understood by the
ancient Babyfonians. Under their clay
tablets and stone monuments, and
upon the monuments of the Persians,
the Hittites and every other ancient
nation we find crosses of all shapes
and kinds. Even the Egyptians deco
rated their high priest when he was
officiating in the greatest of their
temples with the figure of the CROSS.
There must, therefore. be some great
and universal significance in this SYM
Dol or its use would not have been
80 widespread.
The Babylonians offer the clearest
explanation of this symbol IN their
expression, the four ends Of the
earth," which is also found In the
Bible. The people of Bible times
knew that the earth was round. for
Isaiah speaks Of the circle of the
earth" and then of the lends of the
earth" This makes the conception
plain that to the early Semites-for
Babylonians and Hebrews were all
Semitic and the Cuneiform and He
brew languages have many words in
common-the earth was round and
had four ends. or. as we put 1t today.
-four points Of the compass"
II the circle OF the earth Is drawn
and then bisected in either direction
by straight HINES the perfect cross Is
made. hus symbolizing the whole
earth.
The early Babylonians went further,
and in their polytheism established
one Of the gods as ruler over each of
these ends Of the earth, identifying
each god with one of the great planets.
whose motions they studied SO care
fully. The north was presided over
by Nergal and the planet which we
call Mars. The east had Marduh and
the planet Jupiter, the south had Mn
ib and the planet Saturn, while the
west was ruled by Nabu and his
planet Mercury. The names of the
stars were different in Babylonian,
but they corresponded to the planets
as we know them by these names.
The north was identified with winter
and midnight, the east with morning
and sping, the south with midday
and summer and the west with even
ing and autumn.
Some Of the Babylonian inscriptions
also show that the four phases Of the
moon were indicated by the cross.
The mystic quality of this symbol PEN
etrated the life and literature of the
people because they held that the d.
rect influence of the moon and stars
upon the affairs Of men was constant
ly felt.
Studying the inscriptions on ancient
tablets. monuments and bowls. we find
crosses of every shape, from the swas-
tika to the maltese, and even the Ro-
man cross with prolonged lower
part.
1t is more than suggested that there
is direct connection between this
four-fold division of earth and heav-
ems. as symbolized by the cross which
stood for the complete whole and the
so-called Tetragrammaton or four-let-
tered name for God of the Hebrews.
This is the word rendered in English,
Jehovah. or by advanced scholars.
Yahveh. The four consonants In the
Hebrew are YHVH, the vowels not be-
ing reckoned as of any significance.
1t is now suggested that because of
the monotheism of the Hebrews, be-
heving in one God and not in many,
they used the four consonants to indi-
cate the four ends of the earth and
heavens. and combining them into one
word made that stand for the one God
OF heaven and earth - Cleveland
Leader