In this post, I’ll highlight an early source attesting to the Christian practice of making the sign of the cross with the hand. The document in question is the Odes of Solomon, a fascinating and poetic text from the early Christian era.

📜 Dating the Odes of Solomon

Scholars generally date the Odes to the early second century, though some suggest a slightly later timeframe. Here’s a summary of scholarly views, as cited by James H. Charlesworth in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (vol. 6, p. 114):

• H. J. Drijvers places the Odes as late as the 3rd century.
• L. Abramowski suggests the latter half of the 2nd century.
• B. McNeil argues they are contemporaneous with 4 Ezra, The Shepherd of Hermas, Polycarp, and Valentinus (ca. 100 C.E.).
• Most scholars favor a mid-2nd-century date.
• If the Odes are heavily influenced by Jewish apocalyptic thought and the Dead Sea Scrolls, a post-100 C.E. date becomes less likely.
• Scholars such as H. Chadwick, Emerton, and Charlesworth reject the label “gnostic,” which would otherwise suggest a later date.

📚 Manuscript Evidence

Charlesworth also outlines the textual history of the Odes:

• The 11th Ode appears in a 3rd-century Greek manuscript from the Bodmer Papyri (no. 11).
• Five Odes (1, 5, 6, 22, and 25) were translated into Coptic in the 4th century and used in Pistis Sophia.
• Ode 19 was quoted by Lactantius in the 4th century (Divine Institutes 4.12.3).
• A 10th-century Syriac manuscript preserves Odes 17:7–42:20 (British Museum ms. Add. 14538).
• A 15th-century Syriac copy (John Rylands Library Cod. Syr. 9) contains Odes 3.1b–42:20, though the beginning is lost.

Source: Early Christian Writings – Odes of Solomon (bold emphasis mine)

✋ The Sign of the Cross in the Odes

Two passages in particular suggest an early Christian understanding of the sign of the cross as a physical gesture:

Ode 27

1. I extended my hands and hallowed my Lord,
2. For the expansion of my hands is His sign.
3. And my extension is the upright cross.
Hallelujah.

Ode 42

1. I extended my hands and approached my Lord,
   For the expansion of my hands is His sign.
2. And my extension is the upright cross,
   That was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One.

Translation by James Charlesworth: Early Christian Writings – Text of the Odes

🧠 Scholarly Commentary

Brian J. Arnold, in Justification in the Second Century (CPI Books, 2017, pp. 149–150), underscores the significance of these verses:

“Throughout the Odes, there is frequent reference to the Lord’s sign, and in most cases the ‘sign’ is explicitly connected to the cross. For instance, Ode 27 reads:

1. I extended my hands
And hallowed my Lord

2. For the expansion of my hands
Is His sign.

3. And my extension
Is the upright cross.

Hallelujah.

In this Ode, there is no doubt that the sign in verse 2 is the upright cross of verse 3, with the sign of the cross being graphically portrayed as the extension of the hands. Ode 42 likewise: ‘I extended my hands and approached my Lord, for the expansion of my hands is His sign. And my extension is the common cross, that was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One’ (vv. 1–2). The vocabulary is strikingly similar. The sign is the expansion of the hands in the outstretched position of the cross. Having just expressed his belief in the Messiah, it seems natural to take the ‘sign’ of Ode 29.7a as the cross of Christ, which is the instrument by which salvation came.”

(Bold emphasis mine)

I’ll be sharing more evidence from the early Church Fathers in the next installment: The Signing of the Cross in Early Christianity – Part 2

• Apologetics
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