Obelisk ~ common on Christian churches
towers, spires, and steeples were not a part of Christian buildings until c600 A.D.
Dr. John Harbaugh with Denise Styka
(September, 2007)
An obelisk (Greek obeliskos, "needle") is a tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which sometime ends in a pyramidal top. Ancient obelisks were made of a single piece of stone (a monolith).
We see the obelisk referred to in the Hebrew Old Testimant as 'kham-mawn'; a sun-pillar, translated into English, as "idol" or "image".
(Leviticus 26:30 KJV) "And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your ** images **, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you."
Or as 'mats-tsay-baw'; something stationed, i.e. a column or a standing image, a pillar.
(1 Kings 14:23 KJV) "For they also built them high places, and ** images **, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree."
(Exodus 23:24 KJV) "Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their ** images **."
Towers are a common element of religious architecture worldwide, and are generally viewed as attempts to reach skyward toward the gods. (Wikipedia)
(Genesis 11:4-6 KJV) "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. {5} And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. {6} And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
A "steeple", in architecture, is a tall tower or obelisk erected on a building. I have to notice the necessity of a "high place" for the erection of a steeple. It appears that when the obelisk emigrated from its pagan position in the courtyard to the Christian church building, it also mad its way back into the "high places". The more prominent that high place is, and the larger the pillar -the more spiritually impressive Christians believe it yo be.
Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure. In Europe, they also grace the court yards of prominent Christian churches and cathedrals as well as most heathen and pagan temples.
Towers were not a part of Christian churches until about AD 600, when they were adapted from military watchtowers. At first they were fairly modest and entirely separate structures from churches. Over time, they were incorporated into the church building and capped with ever-more elaborate roofs until the steeple resulted.
Towers are a common element of religious architecture worldwide, and are generally viewed as attempts to reach skyward toward the gods. (Wikipedia)
Because of its location and its well documented history, the most prominent obelisk would be the "Obelisco Vaticano" of St. Peter's Square
Universally emulated by many denominations, this "Christian symbol" Obelisco Vaticano -that graces the center of St. Peter's Square has a well documented and verifiable history that is unknown to most of the Roman Catholics, Worldwide.
Because of their understandable pride in such an antiquity. the history of this obelisk was well documented and verified by the Vatican. But they don't brag about the first 3500 years of this history.
Actually, few people really care (RCC, Baptist, Methodist, anybody). On my many trips to Rome, I have witnessed several otherwise fundamentalist friends of mine become awe struck by a "close encounter" with the Obelisco Vaticano, and many other heathen and pagan art treasures at Saint Peters.
Credible geological and anthropological sources say that the Obelisco Vaticano was quarried at Aswan in the reign of Nebkaure Amenemhet II (B.C. 19th Century), and erected at the pylon of the "Temple of the Sun" in Heliopolis (the center of sun worship in ancient Egypt). That is correct, almost 2000 years "Before Christ".
It was re-erected at the Julian Forum in Alexandria by the order of Octavianus (the first Roman Emperor Augustus who reigned B.C. 27 - A.D. 14.
The obelisk was moved to Rome in AD 37 by the Emperor Caligula, to stand in the central spina of the Circus Gai et Neronis, which lay to the left of the present basilica. It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V.
Before the Obelisco Vaticano graced Saint Peters Square -it graced the Temples of Rah and Isis in Egypt for around 2000 years. Then it graced the Circus Gai et Neronis in Rome, for another 1550 years.
The Circus was the site of the first organized, state-sponsored martyrdom of Christians. Tradition holds that two years later, Saint Peter and many other Christians shared their fate. The circumstances were described in detail by Tacitus in a well-known passage of "the Annals", (xv.44).
The site for crucifixions in the Circus would have been along the spina ("spine"), as suggested by early Acts of Peter describing the spot of his martyrdom as inter duas metas (between the two turning-posts), which would have been equal distance between the two ends of the circus). This identification is likely to be genuine given the trauma of the event for the Christian community. The Obelisco Vaticano found at the center of this circus's spina was re-erected in St Peter's Square in the 16th century by the architect Domenico Fontana.
The Circus was begun by Caligula on the property of his mother Agrippina on the Ager Vatican us (today's Vatican) and finished by Nero. The circus building's alignment is the same on the same axis as both new and old St Peter's, to the left as you look at the western front from the piazza. Excavation of the Circus is currently underway on the property of Saint Peters Square.
For almost 3500 years this tallest obelisk was a prominent pagan symbol. And for another 500 years, it has masqueraded as a prominent Christian symbol.
No one disputes the pagan utility of the obelisk as a "phallic symbol". But that is not the point of this paper. That will be another post.
References
THE TWO BABYLONS; Alexander Hislop, (Lifeline Printing, 1903)
King James 1611, AV Bible
WIKIPEDIA
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steeple_(architecture)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk#21st_century
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sicht_vom_petersdom_roma.jpg
