HEXAGRAM
Star of David
The hexagram is often supposed to
be an ancient charming symbol consisting of a triangle meaning ‘Water’ and
another triangle meaning ‘Fire’. So much is certain in any case, that it is
thought that the hexagram was on
the shield of the Israelian king David (1010-970) and that is the reason why
it is on the flag of present Israel. [1] To the
qualification of the emblem as ‘Shield of David’ or רּוֹרּ ךּגּמּ
(„Magen David”) little objections can be put. David is well known to
have been one of the most belligerent kings of Israel (I & II Samuel) and
a martial meaning of the emblem for that reason is obvious. The hexagram may be considered as a cypher
of the first letter and last greek letters of his name: Δ and Δ (of „Δ[αβι]Δ”) united to a Y. This
assumption would place the origin of the hexagram
in the hellenistic era which began in Israel in the time of Alexander the
Great (336-323) and was continued
in the Ptolemy-era (323-30 BC). Probably not by coincidence the symbol also
can be interpreted as the doubling of the Moabite letter or which also has the worth ‘D’. [2] This would reduce the period of
the creation of the symbol to the era that Moab was a part of the Israelian
monarchy (1020-723 BC). [3] Most likely however is that the
symbol originates from the time of the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties (166
BC-92 AD) because the kings of this dynasties bore greek as well as hebrew
names and consequently were highly hellenized. For a long time however, the
jews have used the latin as well as the greek alphabet so that a later era of
origin is also probable. This is also suggested by the late appearance of the
symbol, in itself a confirmation of the hypothesis that the star of David is in
fact a greek monogram. [4] Hexagram. 2nd-3rd century AD Frieze from the synagogue of
Kfar Nahum. The symbol has undoubtedly a
martial meaning and can be considered to have been a symbol of the jewish
armed forces. This is also the opinion of several authors about the subject even
when the common opinion is that the symbol has a magical or cosmological
meaning. The martial meaning for the rest does not rule out the the magical
meaning, nor the use that has later been made of it. The finding that the
hexagram is a cypher of the name of David and has to be considered as a
martial symbol in this way is more an addition than a contradiction of the current
theories about the ‘shield of David’. A consequence of this is that a
six-pointed star, nor the pentagram
can be considered to be graphic versions of the hexagram. On the contrary, these are better thought to be
representations of the stars which are in the same relation to the sun as provinces
to the empire. [5] Also, six-petalled flowers
deserve no consideration as versions of a star of David. In the time of the diaspora there
cannot have been a jewish army but only jewish armed groups. For that reason
the symbol usually is placed on movable objects and no representations are
known where it is supported by angels or other supporters. [6] The
symbol could be used by all those accepting the religious authority of the
Old Testament. For that reason it can be seen as a symbol of Jewish as well as of Christian and Muslim
armed forces. In general however, the Christians preferred the XP-cypher and
the Muslims the Sword of
Islam as the symbol of armed authority. The hexagram understood as the ‘coat of
arms’ of king David can be considered to be the arms of his family up to
Jesus as written in Matthew
1: 1-17: The Genealogy of Jesus the
Messiah. [7] Consequently the hexagam can be also considered to be
the arms of Jesus. This argument apparently is at the base of the use of the hexagram by the monophysites. |
The monophysites separated from the main
church at the Council of Chalcedon (451). The matter in dispute was the
divine and human beings of Christ who, according to the monophysites were
united after his incarnation into one single being but, according to what was
decided by the Council, had remained two different qualities of him. The
creed of Council about the matter was “Jesus Christ[...] has been revealed in
two beings, without confusion, without change, without separation, without
division and the difference between the beings is in no way annulled by the
union.” Monophysitism became at the Monophysite
Schism the official docrtrine of the Syrian churches: the Jacobite-, the
Armenian-, the Coptic- and the Etiopian churches. The hexagram appeared in the Middleages in the whole range of the
monophysite churches (a narrow but united strip from the Black Sea to
Ethiopia), reason why this symbol can be associated with this creed. In the monophysite world the hexagram
usually replaced the christogram. The hexagram
was a symbol of the Nubian eparchs and kings. It can be seen on the crown of Georgios II (969-979/1002)
but it seems to be obvious to think that it was used befor. A continous use
can be postulated because in modrrn times it was also displayed on the flag
of the negus of Ethiopia but the lack of representations of high military
officials of imperial Ethiopia does not encourage this hypothesis. Later, on flag-charts of the 14th cenury, we
see hexagrams at Libya and in Asia
Minor and Armenia. A hexagram was also the emblem of the
caliph of Morocco and,
for unknown reasons, the emblem of Nigeria in the time of
British rule. |
Parapet Relief Slab. Byzantine
(Constantinople), 10th or 11th century. [8] * This style of carving appears in 907 at the Church of the Virgin in the Lips Monastery in Constantinople. On the basis of parallels with the ribbon-lozenge design at the Church of Hosios Loukas, Phokis, Greece has been suggested as the place of origin. Marble plaques of this kind were commonly used in churches to form the
templon, which separated the sanctuary from the nave. [9] ** On this marble slab three
symbols are united: in the middle is a 12-pointed sun-symbol which can be the
symbol of the Byzantine Empire, two square crosses, symbols of the
administrative authority and two hexagrams symbols of armed authority. The
occurrence of both the symbols of adminsistrative- and armed authority can be explained by the
fact that both authorities were combined in a Byzantine thema. The square crosses of a peculiar form may have been the
symbol of the adminstrative authority of the thema Hellas where Phokis was situated. (H.d.V.) |
© Hubert de Vries 2006-06-13. Updated 2014-02-27
[1] Oegema, Gerbern S.: The
History of the Shield of David. Frankfurt a/Main, 1996.
[2]
Faulmann, Carl: Das Buch der Schrift. Wien 1880/Nördlingen 1985, p.78.
[3] Today with the same name a
part of Jordania east of the Death Sea.
[4] The oldest example quoted by Oegema
is a stone frieze from the synagogue of Kfar Nahum (Kafernaum) from the 2nd or 3rd
century AD (ill.)
[5] A pentagram in this way is
better to be considered to be a symbol of Assyrian, Seleukian and Roman
stadtholders in Palestine than as a Seal of Salomon.
[6] Also see: Oegema, op.cit.
1996. Angels were used in the jewish world in the same sense as elsewhere. For
example there is a representation of a menorah, symbol of the jewish religious
authority, supported by two angels.. (Illustrated in Rutgers, Leonard:
Onderaards Rome.) In this way we have detected the symbols of the armed- and
the religious jewish authority and also the symbol of the adminsitative
authority which was probably the greek- or square cross.
[7] And also Luke 3 : 23-38 but
he does not mention David as an ancestor of Jesus.
[8] Marble, 68.5
Î 80 cm. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. Fletcher Fund 1947 (47.100.47).
[9] Evans, Helen C. & William D. Wixom. Eds.: The Glory of Byzantium. Art and
Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843-1261. The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, 1997. P. 38.