It's Greek to me...

IT'S GREEK TO ME...

This page would be helpful to overcome some superstitious beliefs.

CROSS	STAUROS (Greek)
	As W E Vine wrote, "STAUROS denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross. The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ. "As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, that letter was the initial of the word "Christ" and had nothing to do with "the Cross"... "The method of execution was borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians." (W E Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Oliphants Limited, London, 1967, pg.256) Please, note, that the victims were nailed on the stake completely naked. The executors liked to torture their victims with some purgitive stuff: it was the most shameful death for any human being.
TAMMUZ	WHY TAMMUZ? (The Son of Dragon)
	Tammuz was the Babylonian god of spring, the husband or lover of the goddess Ishtar (Astarta). The followers of his cult believed that every summer he descends into underwold of the dead to replace Ishtar - just as Christ has died in order to redeem His Church. Be careful: rejecting the sacrifice of Christ, people choose to worship the idol of Tammuz, not the real God of heaven and earth.

	"Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save." (Isa.45:20)

start-up page
what about Cain?
what about Abel?
what about us?
more about September 11
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations used on these pages are from the New International Version of the Bible.
Questions, comments? Please, feel free to contact me: Leonid Maharinsky
� Leonid Maharinsky 2002.