09-21-2008, 08:19 PM
Spyridon Wrote:Rafa Wrote:Quote:The crescent moon was originally the symbol of Byzantium. It's a Christian symbol.
Then what are they doing using the symbols of their hated enemies (the Byzantine Christians?) I thought the Midianites used this symbol as well according to scripture. Midian is Saudi Arabia, so what's the deal here? Yes, I looked that up, and indeed you are right- the crescent moon is the symbol of Hecate, it became the City's symbol (Constantinople, before it had that name) when they resisted the macedonians in 340 B.C.
hmm...perhaps Hecate was the Greek equivalent of an native Arabian Goddess. Allat, Manat or Al-Uzzah come to mind.
When the Muslims invaded modern-day Turkey, they took the symbol of Byzantium as their own, and turned the most beautiful church in Christendom into a mosque.
Rafa & Spirydon here's the real deal about the crescent, the crescent is mentioned explicitly in two Bible passages:
Judges 8:21-26 ...So Gideon went over and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels...And Gideon said to them, "I have a request to make of you: Each of you give me the earring he received as booty." (They had golden earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)...The weight of the golden earrings that he had requested came to 1700 shekels of gold; this was in addition to the crescents and the pendants and the purple robes worn by the kings of Midian and in addition to the collars on the necks of their camels.
Notice that although Zebah & Zalmunna were kings of Midian (modern northern Saudi Arabia) they were not Midianites they were Ishmaelites...
Isaiah 3:17-18 My Lord will bare the pates Of the daughters of Zion, The LORD will uncover their heads. In that day, my LORD will strip off the finery of the anklets, the fillets, and the crescents;
The crescent may have been the symbol of Constantinople but that does NOT make it a Christian symbol. What does a crescent have to do with Messiah??? The crescent is associated with a lunar deity - a moon god/goddess, its a pagan symbol and archaeology from Mesopotamia to Arabia to Asia Minor proves this:
In the classical Greco-Roman world, the crescent represented the virginal Greek goddess Artemis (the Roman Diana). Early Christians appropriated it to represent the Virgin Mary, and it appears as part of the ???Anchor Cross??? (left) to represent her purity.
The crescent often appears in medieval and early renaissance-era western European art along with unicorns (which also are associated with virginity). One example is the famous series of tapestries entitled ???The Lady and the Unicorn??? displayed at the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris (and reproduced at right).
The first known use of the crescent and star combination was in the Roman province of Illyricum (in the Balkans), to represent the god Jupiter during the reign of Hadrian. It later became the symbol for Byzantium, capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire after its division in the year 285 of the current era (CE). The crescent was retained as the city???s symbol after being renamed Constantinople to honor the first Christian emperor after his death in 337 CE.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://engagemn.com/2007/12/19/the-crescent-shines-for-all/">http://engagemn.com/2007/12/19/the-cres ... s-for-all/</a><!-- m -->
There's nothing Christian about this symbol, as you can see it's purely of pagan origin, Artemis was the moon goddess btw. The crescent symbol most probably originated in the Sumerian city Ur as a symbol for the moon god Sin, Harran in Asia Minor was also a major city for Sin worship.
The politically correct Wikipedia says:
The crescent and star, while generally regarded as Islamic symbols today, have long been used in Asia Minor and by the ancient Turks, earlier than the advent of Islam. According to archaeological excavations, G??kt??rks used the crescent and star figure on their coins. The 1500-year-old coin includes three crescent moon figures and a star near a person.
The crescent was the symbol of the Sassanian Empire of Persia (Iran) and is prominently displayed on the crowns of its rulers.[1] After the Arab conquest of that empire in 651 CE, it was gradually adopted by later caliphates and Muslim rulers as an established and recognized symbol of power in Western Asia. It was also a symbol of the Ottoman Empire. Though the crescent was originally a secular symbol of authority for Muslim rulers, it is now often used to symbolize the Islamic faith. However, it should be noted that the crescent was not a symbol used for Islam by Muhammad or any other early Muslim rulers, as the Islamic religion is, in fact, against appointing "Holy Symbols" (so that during the early centuries of Islam, Muslim authorities simply didn't want any geometric symbols to be used to symbolize Islam, in the way that the cross symbolizes Christianity, the menorah was a commonly-occurring symbol of Judaism, etc.). This is why early Islamic coins were covered with Arabic writing, but contained no visual symbols.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent</a><!-- m -->
That is not entirely true, crescent inscriptions have been found in Arabia, also please note that Muslims fast in the month of the crescent moon - just like the pagan Arabs did.