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The Non-Christian Cross - An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion by John Denham Parsons
page 23 of 159 (14%)
of the execution of Jesus.

It should also be noted that the head of the figure in this famous
graffito, is more like that of a jackal than that of an ass; and
appears to have been a representation of the Egyptian god Anubis, who
is so often to be seen upon relics of the past as a figure with a
jackal's head, with human arms extended, and with human legs and feet,
as in this drawing.

Upon all points, therefore, our claim concerning the graffito is an
ill-founded one; and it cannot be considered evidence regarding either
cross or crucifixion.

There thus being no opposing evidence of any weight, it is quite clear
from the fact that as late as the third century after Christ we find a
Christian Father who venerated the sign or figure of the cross
denouncing it as a symbol, that no material representations of that
sign or figure were recognised as Christian till an even later date.
And such a conclusion is borne out by the striking fact that when
Clement of Alexandria at the beginning of the third century made out a
list of the symbols which Christians were permitted to use, he
mentioned the Fish and the Dove but said nothing regarding the
Cross.[11]

As to the sign or figure of the cross referred to by the Fathers of the
second and third centuries, even so high an authority as the Dean of
Canterbury admits, as we shall see in the next chapter, that it was not
"mainly" as reminding them of the death of Jesus that the Christians of
the second and third centuries venerated it. If, therefore, not in the
main, and, it would follow, not originally as a representation of the
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