The Ankh and the Upright Cross: A Gnostic Reading of Ode 27
In Ode 27 of the Odes of Solomon, a striking image appears — the outstretched hands of the speaker become a sign, an offering, and ultimately a cross. The passage reads:
1) I extended my hands, and I sanctified my Lord.
2) For the expansion of my hands, is His sign.
3) And my extension, is the upright cross.
This mystical utterance resonates deeply within Gnostic theology and early Christian symbolism. The reference to the extended hands forming the “upright cross” invites comparison with the Gnostic ankh — a cross crowned by a circle, representing divine fullness (pleroma) and the cosmic structure through which salvation is enacted.
1. “I extended my hands, and I sanctified my Lord”
The gesture of stretching out hands in reverence or supplication is deeply rooted in the Hebrew scriptures. It is a posture of prayer, intercession, and identification with divine action. As Moses intercedes during the plague in Egypt:
“And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased” (Exodus 9:33).
Solomon, too, stretches out his hands in dedication:
“And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven” (1 Kings 8:22).
“What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man... and spread forth his hands toward this house” (1 Kings 8:38).
Likewise in Ezra 9:5 and 2 Chronicles 6:12–13, the spreading of hands is a liturgical act symbolizing openness, offering, and divine alignment. In Ode 27, this gesture not only echoes these scriptural acts but is transfigured — the outstretched hands become not just a prayer, but a sign, a revelation.
2. “For the expansion of my hands, is His sign”
This “sign” (semeion) is an emblem of identification and participation in divine mystery. In Exodus 13:9:
“And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand... that the LORD’s law may be in thy mouth.”
And again:
“And it shall be for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes” (Exodus 13:16).
The “lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2) reinforces this association between gesture and sacred offering. But in the Gnostic understanding, the sign of the hands is not only ritual — it is revelatory. It is the structure of the cross, and more than that, the cosmic cross — the Gnostic ankh — that bridges heaven and earth, fullness and deficiency.
3. “And my extension, is the upright cross”
Here, the speaker identifies their own body with the stauros — the cross. In Aramaic and Syriac, the term translated “beam” or “tree” can mean wood, stake, cross, or even the Tree of Life. In fact, the Syriac word used for “cross” in Ode 27 is the same one used in Revelation to translate “tree”:
“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7).
The cross here is not merely an execution stake — it is the righteous tree, the upright tree on which, as the commentary notes, “the Righteous died for the unrighteous.”
The metaphor connects this upright cross with the Tree of Life described throughout scripture:
“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water” (Psalm 1:3).
“He shall be as a tree planted by the waters... her leaf shall be green” (Jeremiah 17:8).
“All trees for meat... the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf for medicine” (Ezekiel 47:12).
“On this side of the river and on that side [there were] trees of life... yielding their fruits each month” (Revelation 22:2).
These trees grow beside the waters of life — symbols of divine nourishment and healing. The upright cross of Ode 27, then, is no longer a sign of death alone, but of life and restoration — a transformation of the cursed tree into the Tree of Life itself.
The Ankh as Cosmic Cross
In Gnostic tradition, the ankh serves as a visual counterpart to this theology. The T-cross represents the earthly body — the form stretched in suffering, in offering, and in service. The circle above represents the pleroma — the fullness, the Name, the angelic archetype, or Christ as the Head.
As Theodotus teaches:
“The Cross is a sign of the Limit in the Pleroma, for it divides the unfaithful from the faithful... Therefore Jesus by that sign carries the Seed on his shoulders and leads them into the Pleroma. For Jesus is called the shoulders of the seed and Christ is the head.”
The ankh thus becomes a diagram of redemption:
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The circle = divine unity, the Name, the angel, the fullness of the Pleroma.
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The horizontal bar = the Limit, the boundary between heaven and earth.
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The vertical stem = the descent of divine Wisdom and the return of the Seed.
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The whole structure = the upright cross — the path of Gnosis, union, and resurrection.
In Ode 27, the speaker becomes this structure: arms outstretched, body extended, sanctifying the Lord through the act of embodiment itself. As Christ took up the cross and ascended through death, so too must the faithful be “extended” — not just in body, but in consciousness. The cross is not only behind us but within us.
Conclusion
Ode 27 presents a mystical vision of the believer as both priest and sacrifice, reflection and reality. Through the gesture of open hands, one enters the divine pattern — the upright cross — which is at once the Tree of Life and the cosmic structure of salvation. In the language of the Gnostics, this is the ankh: the sign of descent and ascent, of the One becoming Two, and the Two returning as One.
In stretching out our hands, we enact not only a prayer, but a mystery — one that reveals the true form of the cross: living, upright, and redemptive.
Would you like a visual version of the ankh diagram with these interpretive layers labeled?
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