Jesus and the two fingered salute
Posted on: October 30, 2008 - 5:28pm
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Jesus and the two fingered salute
Is anybody aware of the origins of the hand gesture Jesus is often depicted as making in many artistic representations?
I'm talking about the little finger and ring finger being pressed to the palm while the other two fingers are held together and the palm is pointing in the general area of the place to be blessed.
Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:
Little Jebus doing his thing from an early age:
http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A4180/41800/300_41800.jpg
Freaky Byzantine Christ: http://mattstone.blogs.com/photos/celtic_icons/christ_byzantinec550.jpg
A slightly smaller image:
http://www.holyland-wholesale.com/prodimages/Jesus%20blessing%20icon_tn.gif
Why this particular hand configuration?
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It's a Coptic hand position meaning the artist probably was also.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Anyone have a picture of Jesus giving the finger?
In North American Sign Language that hand gesture means, the number three (3), since it is religious art I would grant that it refers to the holy trinity.
This is not mere speculation, standardized sign language was invented by cloistered monks under a vow of silence. A normal (3) would be three fingers, but monks would do two fingers and a thumb for the purpose of granting a blessing.
Four btw is four (4) fingers -- no thumb. Five (5) uses the thumb.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Might be one somewhere, but I heard he had a hard time getting it up.
That reminds me of that "he is risen" online game where you keep feeding Jesus Viagra until his dick explodes.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Funny! I haven't seen that on-line game and I couldn't find it with a brief search. Can you recall the website, Matt? I'd like to check that out.
It's HERE.
You have to click on "games" and then "he is risen."
When education was restricted to the wealthy few, yet the churches wanted to have large congregations to fill the offering, they had graphical symbolism to help the congregation recognise characters in illustrations. Some people often had a lamb with them; Mary is often depicted in blue though she would almost certainly have worn brown; apostles or saints usually had halos behind their heads. As Joseph was a carpenter and Jesus only began his ministry at 30 he likely would have had a similar trade and so one way to set him apart (other figures of disciples, etc, had been fishermen or tax collectors, etc) was to consistently show his right hand with Dupuytren's contracture as it can be caused by sustained irritation and trauma to the tendons of the hand, specifically the right hand when using planes, saws, and other carpentry tools.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupuytren%27s_contracture#Risk_factors_and_possible_causes
What a great question. I was pondering this the other night when BBC FOUR had a feature on religious art.
i've always heard it was just a traditional gesture of blessing. it's probably one of those things whose origin is untraceable, but people have hundreds of theories about it.
as regards it being a symbol of the trinity, it is interesting to note that in central europe to this day counting on the hands starts with the thumb and not the index finger like in america. so this would definitely signify three to a central european, but whether or not that was the original intention is another question. it's important to recall that religious art was heavily regulated by the church from the earliest byzantine icons down to modern cheap jesus air fresheners, so it's probably impossible to say for sure why this gesture began to be painted.
"I asked my father,
I said, 'Father change my name.'
The one I'm using now it's covered up
with fear and filth and cowardice and shame."
--Leonard Cohen
It may be linked to the hand position in Jewish blessing (which you might recognize as Spock's Vulcan salutation) - with a slight variation to show that Jesus is not the same as the Jewish priests or Kohans.
I knew this symbol was meaning HISPANIA in Latin, which is the ancient name for Spain. It meant "land of rabbits". You know Spain has a very strong catholic tradition and if you check closely those fingers, they look like a skipping rabbit. It's possible most of Jesus pictures were designed in Spain. Also I think this is the reason why in America there's the legend of the Easter Rabbit.
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Easter is an ancient fertility festival celebrated by meny cultures,[under various names] probably since the onset of farming. Easter and estrogen are from the same base word, meaning "female reproduction". Rabbits are symbolic of fertility, "breed like a rabbit" is a saying more ancient then farming. Interesting take on the meaning of Hispania; is that what the Romans called it or is that only the Roman word for what the locals called it?
I still think the sign is 2 fingers and a thumb representing the holey trinity.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
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I think that it is an archaic version of heavy metal horns.
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