Sign of the Cross

October 29th, 2007 · No Comments

Although I havent grown up in a community that practises this, I sometimes do it in personal prayer with not the most historical accuracy but its a symbol and a reminder to me that I am crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20) and now my identity is with him.

I happened across the wikipedia page dedicated to the practise and found out some interesting things about the practise. Firstly the common phrase "double crosser" was proposed to have come from and interesting story relating to Venetian traders and the east/west christian practise of performing the sign of the cross, but according to the wisdom of wikipedia that is fake etymology, and its from some horse racing thing, I prefer the first etymology though.

The English-language expression "double-cross" has led to some fake etymology: There was a period in the Middle Ages when some Venetian merchants would cross themselves in the Western fashion when meeting with Westerners, and in the Eastern fashion when meeting with Easterners. This duplicity supposedly led to the coining of the phrase "double crosser" to mean someone who professes to be aligned with one party, but in reality is aligned with an opposing party or with no party.The actual origin of the expression "double-cross" which dates in English from only 1834, has to do with "fixing" a horse-race in a pre-arranged swindle that is almost certainly unconnected with the Sign of the Cross.