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Sator Square
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====Adoption by Christians==== Irrespective of the theory of its origin, the evidence that the Sator square, particularly in its SATOR-form, became adopted into Christian imagery is not disputed by academics.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=Fishwick/> Academics note the repeated association of Christ with the "sower" (or SATOR),<ref name=MRS/> and the words of the Sator square have been discovered in Christian settings even in very early medieval times, including: * Jesuit historian [[Jean Daniélou]] claimed that the third century [[Irenaeus|Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons]] (c. AD 200) knew of the square and had written of "Him who joined the beginning with the end, and is the Lord of both, and has shown forth the plough at the end".<ref name=MRS/> Some academics link Irenaeus with creating the association of the five words in the square to the five wounds of Christ. * The [[Berlin State Museum]] houses a sixth-century bronze amulet from Asia Minor that has two fish turned toward one another on one side, and a Sator square in Greek characters in a checkerboard pattern on the other side. Written above the square is the word "ICHTHUS", which directly translates as a [[Ichthys|term for Christ]]; it is the earliest known Christian annotated Sator Square.{{efn|name=Coptic}}<ref name=MRS/> * An illustration in an early Byzantine bible gives the baptismal names of the three [[Magi]] as being: ATOR, SATOR, and PERATORAS.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Fishwick |first=Duncan |date=1959 |title=An Early Christian Cryptogram? |url=https://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1959/Fishwick.htm |journal=CCHA |publisher=[[University of Manitoba]] |volume=26 |pages=29–41 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114111747/https://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1959/Fishwick.htm |archive-date=2021-01-14 |access-date=13 October 2021}}</ref> * In [[Cappadocia]], in the time of [[Constantine VII|Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus]] (913–959), the shepherds of the [[Nativity of Jesus]] are named: SATOR, AREPON, and TENETON.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/> The Sator square appears in diverse Christian communities, such as in [[Abyssinia]] where in the '' [[Bandlet of Righteousness|Ethiopian Book of the Dead]]'', the individual nails in Christ's cross were called: Sador, Alador, Danet, Adera, Rodas.<ref name=MRS/> These are likely derived from even earlier [[Coptic Christian]] works that also ascribe the wounds of Christ and the nails of the cross with names that resemble the five words from the square.<ref name=MRS/> While there is little doubt among academics that Christians adopted the square, it was not clear that they had originated the symbol.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=Hemer/>
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