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The Christian author Pseudo-Hippolytus describes the cross as a world tree whose top touches heaven and bottom is in the earth. Athanasius uses similar cosmic-cross imagery, saying Jesus on the cross opened a new way up into heaven.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pseudo Hippolytus Easter Homily 1:5
Early Christian
1 This tree is heavenly. It sprouted from earth toward heaven, an immortal plant set fast between heaven and earth. 2 It is the support of all things and the resting place of all things, the foundation of the inhabited world, the bond that binds the cosmos. 3 It holds together within itself every variation of human nature. 4 It is fastened by the invisible nails of the Spirit, that it may not break away from the divine. 5 Its top touches the heights of heaven; its feet are fixed in the earth; its measureless arms embrace the air between. 6 It was wholly in all places and through all things.
Date: 200-300 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Athanasius On the Incarnation of the Word 25:3
Early Christian
2 For if He came Himself to bear the curse laid upon us, how else could He have become a curse, unless He received the death set for a curse? And that is the Cross. For this is exactly what is written: Cursed is he that hangs on a tree. 3 Again, if the Lord's death is the ransom of all, and by His death the middle wall of partition is broken down, and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would He have called us to Him, had He not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. 4 For this is what He Himself has said, signifying by what manner of death He was to ransom all: I, when I am lifted up, He says, shall draw all men unto Me.
Date: 335 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... It is extremely interesting to underscore that the vertical axis which holds up the Cross and unites earth and heaven is traced from above to below, and not from below to above. The Cross reveals the divinity of the Son, it reveals his being Son. ... Athanasius will then link the figure of the Cross as revelation of the divinity and power of Christ to John 12:32 (Athanasius, De incarnatione 25: SC 199 254-255). Thus, in synthesis one can say that ‘here, once again, Gregory echoes an ancient Judeo-Christian symbolism, which he transposes to a Greek mindset’ (J. Daniélou, 1963, 35). Together with the theme of the cosmic Cross, the essence of the Nyssen’s theology of the Cross is represented by the following passage ...”
Maspero, Giulio
"Cross" in Mateo-Seco, Lucas Francisco; Maspero, Giulio (ed.) The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa
(pp. 193-194) Brill, 2010
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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