A '''crucifix''' is a [[cross]] which has an image of the crucified [[Christ]] upon it, as mentioned in Galatians 3:1 "''before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified''" (RSV). In earlier centuries, the unadorned cross was the primary Christian emblem, but crucifixes began to be used during the early Middle Ages, primarily as a means of countering certain [[heresy|heresies]] based on forms of [[Gnosticism]] and [[Manicheanism]] which denied that God could be incarnate and suffer actual [[death]].
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