Editing Sator Square (section)

===Christian symbol===

====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/>

====Paternoster theory====
[[File:Palindrom PATERNOSTER.svg|thumb|[[Lord's Prayer]] anagram from the 25 letters of the square, including the [[Alpha and Omega]] positioning of the residual ''A''s and ''O''s.<ref name=Fishwick/><ref name=History>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUFFAQAAQBAJ&dq=The+Rotas-Sator+Square%3A+a+New+Investigation&pg=PA1002 | title=Encyclopedia of Early Christianity | edition=2nd | first=Everett | last=Ferguson | author-link=Everett Ferguson | page=1002 | quote=Rotas Sator (first century): Although the result is striking, the interpretation rests on the unlikely assumptions, and a non-Christian meaning is more probable. | isbn=978-0815333197 | publisher=[[Routledge]] | date=1999 | access-date=16 September 2022}}</ref> There is an alternative layout proposed with the ''A''s and ''O''s positioned at the extreme ends of the Paternoster cross,<ref name=ENC/><ref name=NV/> and a Jewish option with the letters laid out in an X-shape (i.e. tau).<ref name=Fishwick/>]]

During 1924 to 1926, three people separately discovered,{{efn|Most notable and impactful of the three was German priest, Felix Grosser who published in 1926;<ref name=Fishwick/> German historian {{ill|Christian Frank|de|Christian Frank (Heimatforscher)}} published in 1924, and Swedish historian [[Sigurd Agrell]] published in 1927.<ref name=MRS/>}} or rediscovered, that the square could be used to write the name of the [[Lord's Prayer]], the "Paternoster", twice and intersecting in a cross-form (see image opposite).  The remaining residual letters (two ''A''s and two ''O''s) could be placed in the four quadrants of the cross and would represent the [[Alpha and Omega]] that are established in [[Christian symbolism]].<ref name=Fishwick/><ref name=M1/> The positioning of the ''A''s and ''O''s was further supported by the fact that the position of the ''T''s in the Sator square formed the points of a cross – there are obscure references in the ''[[Epistle of Barnabas]]'' to [[Tau cross|T being a symbol of the cross]] – and that the ''A''s and ''O''s also lay in the four quadrants of this cross.<ref name=":0"/>  At the time of this discovery, the earliest known Sator square was from the fourth century,{{efn|name=Coptic}}<ref name=MRS/> further supporting the dating of the Christian symbolism inherent in the Paternoster theory.<ref name=Fishwick/>  Academics considered the Christian origins of the square to be largely resolved.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=Hemer/><ref name=Fishwick/><ref name=Baines/><ref name=Conimbriga/>

With the subsequent discovery of Sator squares at Pompeii, dating pre-79 AD,{{efn|name=PS}} the Paternoster theory began to lose support, even among notable supporters such as French historian [[Guillaume de Jerphanion]].<ref name=":0"/><ref name=Conimbriga/>  Jerphanion noted: that (1) it was improbable that many Christians were present at Pompeii, that (2) [[Christianity in the 1st century|first-century Christians]] would have written the square in Greek and not Latin, that (3) the Christian concepts of Alpha and Omega only appear after the first century, that (4) the [[Christian cross variants|symbol of the cross]] only appears from about AD 130–131, and that (5) cryptic Christian symbols only appeared during the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecutions of the third century]].<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/><ref name=Conimbriga/>

[[Jérôme Carcopino]] claimed the Pompeii squares were added at a later date by looters. The lack of any disturbance to the volcanic deposits at the palestra, however, meant that this was unlikely,<ref name=":0"/><ref name=Hemer/><ref name=Conimbriga/> and the Paternoster theory as a proof of Christian origination lost much of its academic support.<ref name=MRS/><ref name=":0"/><ref name=Baines/><ref name=Conimbriga/><ref name=History/>

Regardless of its Christian origins, many academics considered the Paternoster discovery as being a random occurrence to be mathematically impossible.<ref name=DA/> Several examined this mathematical probability including German historian {{ill|Friedrich Focke|de}} and British historian [[Hugh Last]], but without reaching a conclusion.<ref name=MRS/> A 1987 computer analysis by William Baines derived a number of "pseudo-Christian formulae" from the square but Baines concluded it proved nothing.<ref name=Baines/>