All authorities agree that of all deaths crucifixion was the most abhorred. This was due not only to its pain, which was of the most intense character (see the account of Richter, quoted in .Smith, DB), but also to its shatne, which in the case of the Koman w.TS due to its servile association, in that of the Jew to its rendering the sufferer accursed. Cicero in his oration against Verres (v. 0(>) declares that it is impossible to find a fit word to descrilje such an outrage as the crucilixion of a Koman citizen. ' Fnrinus ent vinciri rivrm Uomnnum : scelus r^er- berari: prope. parriridinm ne.cari; quid dicam in cnicem loUif Verba nalis digiio tarn nefaria res appellnri nulla modn potest.'
The shame of this death is often referred to in NT. .So lie 12- 'Jesus, who endured the cross, de- spising shame ' ; He 13''' ' Let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach' ; cf. He U'^. With more particular reference to its relation to the ceremonial law, Gal 3" ' Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us ; fcu' it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree'; 1 Co 12" 'No man speaking in the Spirit of God saith Jesus is anathema.' Because of this character, the death I if Jesus upon the cro.ss, viewed in the light of His Messianic claims, became not merely foolish- ness to Greeks, but a stumbling-block to Jews (1 Co l'"-2», cf. Gal 6"). It was an outr.age to JewLsh propriety that He who had become accursed in the sight of the livw by His death on the cross should claim to be the .Messiah in whom the law was ful- filled. This element of ceremonial defilement has VOL. I. — -^d
been particularly emphasized by C. C. Everett in The Gospel of Paul (Boston, 18'.)3), as a clue to the understanding of St. Paul's view of the signi- ficance of Christ's death. This significance he finds not at all in its ])en,al character, but in its character as ceremonial defilement. Christ by His death on the cross became accursed (anathema). Those Christians who accepted this accursed sufferer as the Messiah of God, shared His curse, and were in like manner cut off by the law. But this cutting off by the law brought with it also freedom from the law, since those who were thus outcast were no longer within its realm. Thus Christ's death under the law, followed by His resurrection, was (iod's way of showing that the Jewish law was done away, and a new method of .salvation, even that through faith in Christ, ushered in.
The use of the word ' cross ' in a theological sense, as a brief designation of Christ's saving work, is char- acteristic of St. Paul. The gospel of salvation is ' the word of the cross ' (1 Co l'"). Those who suffer persecution because of their faith in the saving efficacy of Christ's death, do so ' for the cross of Christ' (Gal Ci-). They who refuse this gospel are ' enemies of the cross of Christ' (Ph 3'^). The cross is not only the instrument of the recon- ciliation between God and man (Col 1-', Eph 2"=), through the death of Him who there sutfered (Col 1-" ' the blood of the cross '), but also between Jew and Gentile (Col 2i'' the bond nailed to the cross), since by it the ' bond written in ordinances,' which up to that time had barred the way of the Gentiles to God, is put out of the way. " It was through the cross, i.e. acceptance of the crucified Christ as Saviour, that the world was crucified to Paul, and Paul to the world (Gal 0"). Thus cruci- fixion becomes not merely the means of salvation, but the type of that absolute renunciation of the world which characterizes the true Christian life (Gal 5-*).
LiTKHATURE.— The articles on Cronii and CniciJixio7ila9m\lb, his and In Ileraop, RE. Monopraphs by Lipslus, D» Vrtwe, Antwerp, I.'iU5; Nlc(iuetus, TUuIuk m.' Crticin, .\nt., lOTu ; Vilnius, JJeClaviiiJJominiciK, Ant., 107(1; UnnuMui, De Ci iice, Amsterdam, 1G70 ; and more recently by Zockler, fJatt Kreuz C/tristi, 1875, and Fnlda. />Uf, A'reiis itiid die Kreminung, I'-TS. Much informntlon Is contahied In the Lives of Christ of Keiin and liase. On the theological slpnlOeanco of the cross, cf. besides the ^iWicafrAeototrj'ea.Evereit, The Ooitpelof I'uul, l!..ston, 1SU3. W. ADA.MS BROWN.
CROW occurs once in Apocr. (Bar Q^*) , where the helplessness of idols is illustrated by tlie remark that ' they are * as crows (ko/jwtoi) between heaven and earth.' In Jer .3- the L.XX has wad Ko/iiip-q (pyjliovfiiuri for MT "'?';?? '?>;,." ('as an Arabian in tlie wilderness,' RV), which implies the punctua- tioi! 2-y': ('raven') instead of '?■;>:,(' Arabian '). The common LXX equivalent of aiV is /(6po{. See Havkx. j. A. SEMilK.
CROWN.— In OT (both AV and RV) Crown is used to translate .several llcb. words, the particular meanings of which must bo distinguished. 1. The golden fillets or mouldings placed around the ark of the covenant (Kx 25'i 37-), the table of shew- bread (Kx 2f)-'* 37") and its border (Kx 25-5 37'-), and the altar of incenst^ (Kx :!Of-'i 37-"-'''') in the Mosaic tahern.acle are called Crowns (RVm 'rim or monhliiig'). The Heb. word (i.!) means a cincture like a wreath, and describes rather the foliated appearance of the Ijand than its position on the object to which it was attached. (LXX tr. it by a phra.se meaning ' twisted golden wavelets ' \_Kvix6.Tia XpvaS. arpeirTi] or ' twisted golden crown ' [o-TpeirTJ)i> (TTttfiifriv xpfff^i"] ; Pal. Targ. by ''"? a wreath ; Vulg. by corona, whence Kng. translation. The later Rabbins also describe it as ""v? a crown). The • The Syr. VS roads 'are not.'