THK GNOSTIC CONCEPTION OP THE CROSS. 



109 



of Christ. The luminosity of the Cross is, of course, a symbol 

 of the enhghtenment which Christ gives to the Gnostic. 



Such ideas as these may also have been current in popular 

 Christianity, where also arose a great reverence for the Cross as a 

 holy mystery. In a Coptic fragment the star in the east appears 

 in the form of a wheel, its figure being like a Cross sending forth 

 flashes of light. Letters are written upon the Cross : " This is 

 Jesus, the Son of God." * In another fragment, part of a sermon 

 on the festival of the Cross, ascribed to S. Cyril, the Cross is said 

 to have been buried in the tomb of Christ after His resurrection. 

 Rufus, son of Cleopas, was buried near by, and his father 

 mourned, saying that Jesus could have raised him up had He been 

 alive. At that moment the Cross comes forth from the tomb, 

 rests on the grave of Rufus, who is restored to life, while Cleopas 

 is cured of disease in the feet.f The Gnostic view of Christ and 

 His Cross as doubles may have influenced Christian art, in which, 

 when the Trinity was to be represented, a Cross without the crucified 

 Saviour is placed beside the Father and the Holy Spirit. " In 

 Christian iconography Christ is actually present under the 

 form and semblance of the Cross. "J 



In connexion with the passage cited from the Gospel of Peter, 

 in which Christ after His resurrection is followed by the Cross, 

 which speaks in His name, it is worth noting that in one Latin 

 version of the Gospel of Nicodemus, at the request of the saints 

 Christ sets up His Cross in Hades, and leaves it there as a sign 

 of victory and that the lords of Hades might not retain any 

 whom he had absolved. Again, in the curious Narrative of 

 Joseph of Arirmthea, the penitent robber goes to Paradise with 

 the undefiled Cross shining like lightning. Later, he reappeared 

 on earth with Christ, and was " like a king in great power, 

 having on him the Cross." In the Greek Gospel of Nicodemus, 

 the robber was seen at the gate of Paradise with the Cross on 

 his shoulder ; and the flaming sword, seeing the Cross, opened the 

 gate to him. Here, the Cross, if not a double of Christ, is invested 

 with all His power. 



* Texts and Studies, Cambridge, " Coptic Apocryphal Gospels," iv, 2, 

 165. 



t Ibid,, iv, 2, 185. 



% A. N. Didron, Christian Iconography, 1886, i, 369. 



