Cross in St. Mark

[Jim_Baur]

In St. Mark 8: 32 it says: “pick up your cross and follow me.”

Cross (stauros) comes from *histēmi, *which means something about standing.

For Jesus to say “pick up your cross” before He died is kind of out of time.

Is the cross and standing connected to take a stand in difficult times?

Is it connected to: “stand and pick up your mat and go home”?

THANKS!

 

[Micosil]

Isn’t it Mark 8:34-35? I looked at Mark 8:32 and that’s Peter rebuking Jesus (followed by Jesus rebuking Peter in the following verse, 8:33).

Anyway, the NABRE seems to offer this explanation:

The Conditions of Discipleship. 34 He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said[a] to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel** will save it.

a. 8:34–35** This utterance of Jesus challenges all believers to authentic discipleship and total commitment to himself through self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of suffering, even to the sacrifice of life itself. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…will save it: an expression of the ambivalence of life and its contrasting destiny. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life.

b. 8:35 For my sake and that of the gospel: Mark here, as at Mk 10:29 equates Jesus with the gospel.

 

[Ignatius]

In St. Mark 8: 32 it says: “pick up your cross and follow me.”

Cross (stauros) comes from *histēmi, *which means something about standing.

For Jesus to say “pick up your cross” before He died is kind of out of time.

Is the cross and standing connected to take a stand in difficult times?

Is it connected to: “stand and pick up your mat and go home”?

THANKS!

It actually looks like it is related to the following words in Greek:
σταυρός, cross (it’s the same word used for Crucifix).
διασταύρωση, intersection
αστερίας, starfish

In Homeric and classical Greek, until the early 4th century BC, stauros meant an upright stake, pole, but came to infer the whole cross or Crucifix as well as the related words for intersection and starfish.
In Koine Greek, the form of Greek used between about 300 BC and AD 300, the word σταυρός was used to denote a structure on which Romans executed criminals. In the writings of the time, the word stauros is generally translated as cross.

Some 19th century writers took it to mean have the meaning in Homeric Greek, But they were written before the discovery of thousands of manuscripts in Koine Greek at Oxyrhyncus in Egypt revolutionised understanding of the language of the New Testament.

 

[Jim_Baur]

Yes! I made a mistake on the verse number.

THANKS!

Both answers really help!!!

Thanks!