and used to guard against fever and other diseases. Curiously the hexagram is not found among these signs. In the great magic papyrus[citation needed](Wessely, l.c. pp. 31, 112) at Paris and London there are twenty-two signs side by side, and a circle with twelve signs, but neither a pentagram nor a hexagram.
Usage by Jews
Main article: Star of David
The Star of David in the oldest surviving complete copy of the Masoretic text, the Leningrad Codex, dated 1008.
Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Judaism and Jewish identity and is also known colloquially as the Jewish Star or “Star of David”. Its usage as a sign of Jewish identity began in the Middle Ages, though its religious usage began earlier, with the current earliest archeological evidence being a stone bearing the shield from the arch of a 3-4th century synagogue in the Galilee . A more enduring symbol of Judaism, the menorah, has been in use since BCE.
Usage by Christians
The hexagram may be found in some Churches and stained-glass windows. An example of this is one embedded in the ceiling of the Washington National Cathedral. Because a similar-looking sign called the encircled pentagram is used in occultism, it was not used in church architecture until Christian architects, both Protestant and Catholic, began to accept the notion that the Star of David is an old Jewish sign.[citation needed] In Christianity it is often called the star of creation.
The Bible makes no direct mention of the Star of David, however, the Catechism of the Catholic Church of the year 528AD refers to the star which led the Magi to Christ as “the Star of David”. In the context, the phrase most likely meant “the star of the king of Israel” rather than