The Staurogram
When did Christians start to depict images of Jesus on the cross?
The staurogram combines the Greek letters tau-rho to stand in for parts of the Greek words for “cross” (stauros) and “crucify” (stauroō) in Bodmer papyrus P75. Staurograms serve as the earliest images of Jesus on the cross, predating other Christian crucifixion imagery by 200 years. Photo: Foundation Martin Bodmer.
How and when did Christians start to depict images of Jesus on the cross? Some believe the early church avoided images of Jesus on the cross until the fourth or fifth century.
In “The Staurogram: Earliest Depiction of Jesus’ Crucifixion” in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Larry Hurtado highlights an early Christian crucifixion symbol that sets the date back by 150–200 years.
Larry Hurtado describes how a symbol known as a staurogram is created out of the Greek letters tau-rho: “In Greek, the language of the early church, the capital tau, or T, looks pretty much like our T. The capital rho, or R, however, is written like our P. If you superimpose the two letters, it looks something like this: 
. The earliest Christian uses of this tau-rho combination make up what is known as a staurogram. In Greek the verb to ‘crucify’ is stauroō; a ‘cross’ is a stauros … [these letters produce] a pictographic representation of a crucified figure hanging on a cross—used in the Greek words for ‘crucify’ and ‘cross.’”
The tau-rho staurogram is one of several christograms, or monogram-like devices, used by ancient Christians to refer to Jesus. However, Larry Hurtado points out that the staurogram only refers to the crucifixion, unlike others, which mention Jesus’ other characteristics. Also, the staurogram is visual—the tau-rho combinations create images of Jesus on the cross, making the staurogram the earliest Christian images of Jesus on the cross.
The tau-rho staurogram, like other christograms, was originally a pre-Christian symbol. A Herodian coin featuring the Staurogram predates the crucifixion. Soon after, Christian adoption of staurogram symbols served as the first visual images of Jesus on the cross.
Larry Hurtado writes: “In time christograms came to be used not only in texts but as free-standing symbols of Christ or Christian faith, for example on liturgical vestments and church utensils. This was probably also true of the staurogram, tau-rho; where it would represent simply an independent symbol of Christ or Christian faith. But the earliest use of the tau-rho was as a visual reference to Jesus’ crucifixion. As such, it is the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion.”
Subscribers: For more about the earliest Christian images of Jesus on the cross, read the full article “The Staurogram: Earliest Depiction of Jesus’ Crucifixion” by Larry Hurtado as it appears in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in March 2013.
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Jesus did not die on cross, says scholar
Jesus may not have died nailed to the cross because there is no evidence that the Romans crucified prisoners two thousand years ago, a scholar has claimed.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/7849852/Jesus-did-not-die-on-cross-says-scholar.html
Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion.https://www.exegetics.org/About_Me.html
I’m afraid I have nothing scholarly to contribute but I do remember reading speculations that the Romans sometimes used an X-shaped cross, nailing hands and feet to the four ends. This is also the first Greek letter in Christos.
Chris, I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing. I groaned when I thought it.
A Cross is a Cross.. As it says in the Word.. His blood was shed and Grace was given .. The End
Any visual image cannot be considered Christian as images in Christian religious activities is against God’s very first commandment.
Whoever or whatever group introduced and propagated the belief the cross is the symbol of Christianity had committed a grave error. Consider for a moment if Jesus lived years later when musketry was the common way of implementing a death sentence. The Christian symbol would have been a rifle. I could not imagine if Jesus lived years later when a convict was executed by electric chair.
Writing has a pagan origin. Greek has a pagan origin. Jerusalem – according to the OT – was “taken over” from the Jebusites. The argument that “X or Y or Z has a pagan origin” was possible to make only because the Protestant controversialists against Catholicism who used the argument began to use it in the 18th century when next to nothing was nothing was known about Ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and the other ancient cultures of the Biblical world.
Semi-Fundamentalist controversialists like the JWs who make that argument have widened it, to condemn Protestants as well as Catholics – but they are using arguments that have not been modified to keep up with the great increase in knowledge of the Biblical world that has taken place since 1800 or so. As a result, the “objection from paganism” strikes as heavily against the Bible as against Catholicism or Protestantism. The very word “Biblion” that is behind the Latin “Biblia”, “Bible”, is taken from the Greek name for the port of Byblos or Gubla. Which was a cult-centre of the goddess Isis. By the logic of the “objection from guilt by even remote association” that is used against the Cross, the Bible itself is tainted with associations of Isis-worship.
To avoid associations with paganism, the Church would have to be taken out of the world – Jesus sends it into the world, to change the world not by shunning non-Christians, but by living among them as a leaven. The totally paganism-free world that some people want is not an option. Instead, Christ has taken pagan, unclean things – & made them clean, & given them new & Christian meaning. The “pagan” Cross, with all its horrors, has been made the means by which God has become the Saviour of mankind – Christ did not dodge it: “He set His face to go to Jerusalem” to be crucified. If that was good enough for Him, it’s good enough for everyone else. As for the first commandment – it’s fulfilled by love of God & of neighbour. The law of Moses was not given to Christians, & has no authority for Christians. It is any case dead, finished, fulfilled by Christ.
Years ago while making arrests of drug dealers I observed persons calling themselves Catholics who were Santaria worshipers. In their homes they had shrines comprised of all sorts of junk that they thought would protect them from harm. I asked most of them if they believed in the Catholic religion. The answer was not really. They used statutes of saints, mary and jesus to represent the GODS they really believed in. Trying to connect symbols to things they are not connected to serves no purpose. Trying to push back Christian history is foolish. I once visited a Baptist church where the pastor stated the first true christians were Baptists who lived about 5000 years ago.
None of this is relevant to the crucifixion it was not a cross he was crucified on a tree. The symbol of the cross is another pagan symbol just as all pictures of Jesus with long hair are.
To James: That is an old argument, namely, that (apostate) Christianity can take pagan religious objects and somehow cleanse them for Christian use. This is entirely in conflict with the Scriptures. Ezekiel, in the book of Ezekiel Chapter 8, was given a vision of God’s temple in Jerusalem where he observed the priests and others had introduced pagan religious objects and practices into the temple of Jehovah. Ezekiel was told by Yahweh(verse 9,10): in the Catholic Jerusalem Bible:” ‘Go in and look at the filthy things they are doing inside,’ I went in and looked: all sorts of images of snakes and repulsive animals and all the idols of the House of Israel, drawn on the wall all around. Seventy elders of the House of Israel were standing in front of the idols.” Verse 14 continues” He next took me to the entrance of the north gate of the temple of Yahweh where women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.” The chapter concludes with Yahweh(Jehovah) promising to destroy Israel for introducing such symbols,idols and practices into the worship of God. The ancient god Tammuz with the first letter or ‘Tau’ is thought by many scholars to be the origin of the cross. God never said it was acceptable to have these disgusting things “cleansed”. Note also 2 Cor. 6:16: “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” Verse 17 says,”Therefore come out and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”(New International Version.) Clearly, there is a danger of losing our relationship with God, thus losing his favor and prospect of everlasting life.
Gene, You may not realize this, but the Tau was Jewish shorthand for God. I’d like to know one scholar who believed this was for Tamuz, outside of JWs who notices that Tamuz begins with the letter T.
When people were crucified was it a T type cross or an X type cross? I was watching a program that was telling of the x format. As the wood was reused and so were the spikes. Does anyone know the name of the program. I got sleepy and the rest is lost. Mike