What is the meaning of the Chi-Rho symbol?
Answered from the commentary of For the Young
The Chi-Rho is a monogram for Christ’s name, formed from the first two letters of the Greek name *Christos*. It points to Christ, and on Constantine’s Labarum it appeared with the cross as an imperial standard.
Verses: Revelation 1:8, Revelation 22:13
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
A monogram very commonly found on the tablets taken from the catacombs, is meant to point out the name of Christ. It is formed of the first two letters of the name in Greek, CHRISTOS. The above symbol was supposed to have been first used by Constantine about A.D. 312; but as it is often found on the tablets from the catacombs, it is doubtful whether it did not exist long before, and he simply adopted it.
Many other symbols and monograms were found on the tablets. Perhaps one of the most curious is the symbol of a fish. It is thus explained. In Greek the word would be ICTHUS, and this word is supposed to represent (by containing the initials of) Jesus Christos Theou Hios Soter: Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour. It was thought that such a symbol would never be understood by their persecutors. Believers could use it while they lived as a symbol that they were Christians, and have it engraved on their tombs when they died.
In the month of March 313, the banns of the unholy alliance between the Church and the State were published at Milan. The celebrated edict of that date conferred on the Christians the fullest toleration, and led the way to the legal establishment of Christianity, and to its ascendancy over all other religions. This was publicly displayed on the new imperial standard — the Labarum. Besides the initials of Christ, and the symbol of His cross, there was also an image of the Emperor in gold. These signs, or mottoes, were intended as objects of worship for both heathen and christian soldiers and to animate them to enthusiasm in the day of battle. Thus he who is called the great christian Emperor publicly united Christianity to idolatry.
Verses
- Revelation 1:8I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith [the] Lord God, he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
- Revelation 22:13I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, [the] first and [the] last, the beginning and the end.