* conceptually / theologically 'releasing' Him to be glorified [as a sacrifice]*
eta
And it not need be a single issue, ie. release via a Semitic root does not preclude C.W. Leadbeater's proposal it was a play on Greek words, or vice versa
Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:02 amThe clause usually translated “suffered under Pontius Pilate” [could] be rendered “He endured [or descended into] the dense sea” [πόντος πιλητὸς] —that is to say, for us men, and for our salvation, he allowed himself to be, for the time, limited by and imprisoned in astral matter.
In tracing the symbolism of this Latin cross, or rather of the crucifix, back into the night of time, the investigators had expected to find the figure disappear, leaving behind what they supposed to be the earlier cross-emblem. As a matter of fact, exactly the reverse took place, and they were startled to find that eventually the cross drops away, leaving only the figure with uplifted arms. No longer is there any thought of pain or sorrow connected with that figure, * though still it tells of sacrifice; rather is it now the symbol of the purest joy the world can hold —the joy of freely giving—for it typifies the Divine Man standing in space with arms upraised in blessing, casting abroad his gifts to all humanity, pouring forth freely of himself in all directions [in a] "dense sea" of matter, to be cribbed, cabined and confined therein ...
.* "A sacrifice, truly (at least from our point of view), yet with no thought of suffering, but only of transcendent joy. For that is the essence of the law of sacrifice—the law which moves the worlds even down here ... when he gives himself fully and freely because, having once seen the glory and the beauty of the Great Sacrifice, there is for him no other course possible in the three worlds ... of that for which he is working; then, and then only, is his sacrifice perfect, for it is of the same nature as the sacrifice of the Logos, and partakes of the essence of that law of love which alone is the law of life eternal."
That the early Christian Church had some tradition of all this seems to be shown by the fact that in the paintings in the catacombs at Rome we frequently find just such a figure as the one described, with arms uplifted in the peculiar manner indicated, standing in the midst of the twelve apostles, exactly where the figure of the Christ would naturally be expected. This is generally spoken of as the " orante " or praying figure : it has sometimes been supposed to be feminine, and has given rise, I believe, to considerable speculation among ecclesiastical archaeologists. But the most natural explanation of it appears to me to be that which I have suggested above.
We see, then, that the cross has been used from very early periods as the symbol of matter and manifestation—of the material world. It was therefore by no means unnatural that the further descent of the Divine Man into matter should be symbolized by the binding of the body to the cross, which also signified accurately enough the extreme limitation of the action of the Logos by such descent—the extent to which His expression of Himself was curtailed on this physical plane. Of course, the nails, the blood, the wounds and all the ghastly horrors of the modern misrepresentation, are simply accretions ...
https://ia800901.us.archive.org/32/item ... 631291.pdf
"... the fifth-century gate of Santa Sabina at Kome and an ivory of the same date in the British Museum [are] the oldest known examples of the crucifix[ion], and [H. Marucchi, a well-known Catholic archaeologist, [said] in the new dictionary of the Abb^ Vigoroux], " It is to be remarked that the Christ is here represented as still living, with the eyes open and without any mark of physical suffering."
He goes on to say that in the sixth century the crucifix is more frequent, but still the figure is always living and clothed in a long tunic, and that it is only in the twelfth century that "they cease to represent the Christ as living and triumphant on the cross."
... The description given in the Acts of Judas Thomas, of the Christ standing in glory above the cross which separated the lower world from the higher, and that of the splendid vision of the cross of light, by looking into and through which all the manifested worlds were to be seen, while yet the aura of the Heavenly Man included all, interpenetrated all, and was the life of all, [is] evidence [of] earlier ages of our era ...