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Culture / History
While I was visiting Batroun I was intrigued by the church under construction I think will be dedicated as Mar Boutros & Boulos.
Immediately conspicuous to me is the cross look. Not all Orthodox churches in Lebanon bear crosses that look like that. It is definitely not pertaining to Catholic denominations but online I see that it is classified as the Russian Orthodox style of cross.
Just curious if anyone knew the nuances of why you don't find this variation for all Orthodox churches unless this one in particular is different
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This is an orthodox cross not russian all orthodox use it lbar lmeyil men lmayle ltal3a betermouz lal less la yalli allo lal masi7 “ ouzkouni ya rab mata atayta fi malakoutik” w men lmayle lnezle lless li tmas5ar 3le lemen allo “iza kounta lmasi7 fa 5alis nafsaka w 5alisna w lbar lezim tkoun nezle bel 3akes maba3rif lech elbina
That's a true symbolic explanation as well for the tilted beam.
That's true, not all Orthodox churches depict the Cross like that. But nothing wrong with it.
At some point, the Russian church was the biggest and the most numerous Orthodox faithfuls, so the way they depicted the Cross was taken as the general form used by all Orthodox chruches. It is originally taken from Byzantine (eastern) church. Many Orthodox churches today use the simple figure of the Cross.
And the explanation for the 3 crossbeams are:
The upper crossbeam is the banner Pontius Pilate put on top on the cross and wrote on it what translates "Jesus of Nazareth King of Jews" (sometimes INRI as abbreviation of Latin words)
The middle one is where Jesus arms are stretched to and His hands nailed to it.
The (smaller) lower is the footrest where Jesus feet were nailed with 1 nail.
Looks like Byzantine cross not Russian. For the Russian cross the bottom bar would be slanted the other way
Edit: I'm actually unable to find much references to this bottom bar pointing upward other than Wikipedia. Not sure about the source either since its in Russian. Nonetheless typically the orthodox and Russian orthodox crosses point downward on the bottom bar. Sorry for the confusion.
it's just a typical Byzantine cross, you'll find it in Greek-Catholic (Melkite) churches as well. I saw one on the altar of the chapel of Zahle's cathedral when I visited.
Some orthodox churches in Lebanon are Syriac orthodox, which is oriental orthodoxy and not Eastern, which is not really orthodox at all and wasn't called such until recently. Those churches never use that cross. Some eastern orthodox churches also don't use it, but I don't which exactly or why
Can u explain why Syriac orthodox isn't orthodox at all? What would it be classified as? I don't know much about Syriac orthodox
The first major split in Christian churches was the one that split the branch that we now call the oriental church (which includes Armenians and copts too) from the eastern, which at the time was the one notably in Constantinople. For centuries that was the divide. Theologically it was about the nature of Christ and politically it was eastern side of the Roman empire VS its center/west. Later most of the oriental Christians became Muslims and the church wasn't as relevant anymore, consisting of pretty much only second class citizens of Muslim empires.
Catholics split from the eastern orthodox church and later the protestant split from the catholics and these are the splits that are better known in the West.
I've read about that but I'm asking why the Syriac orthodox in Lebanon aren't really orthodox? What should they be considered as?
The issue is that they're all independent churches with their own heads, so being oriental is what they have in common. They are all miaphysites and that is why they are different from the (eastern) orthodox, but no one is using that word anymore lol
I think the Orthodoxy practiced by Armenians as well as that of Coptics situated in Egypt is considered Oriental. They have slight differences from the predominant Greek Orthodoxy like celebrating Christmas in January instead of December.