Jesus did not die on a "cross", but died upon a torture stake, for the meaning of the Greek word
stauros is properly rendered as "stake" or "pale"(see Matt 16:24, whereby Jesus used
stauros, with the online interlinear
Scripture4all rendering it as "pale", but then submitting "cross" below it, which is
not the same as "pale"), and is used interchangeably by the Bible writers with the Greek word
xylon, translated as "tree" or "wood" by the
King James Bible.(Acts 5:30) There is a critical factor to be considered regarding Jesus manner of death.
The apostle Paul wrote that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:"("tree", Greek
xylon, Gal 3:13,
King James Bible) For Jesus to become the "accursed" one, to fulfill the Mosaic Law, remove it and replace it with "a new covenant"(Luke 22:20), it was required for him to die upon a "tree" or more literally a "stake". Any other means of death would not meet God's requirement as a "cursed" one under the Mosaic Law and therefore make void Jesus sacrifice for the Jews, in particular.
Paul quoted from Deuteronomy 21:22,23, which says: " And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree
Hebrew
‛ets´ ) His body shall not remain all night upon the tree (Hebrew
‛ets´ ), but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God
" (
King James Bible)
Thus, the Hebrew word
‛ets´ corresponds to the Greek word
xylon and means a timber, or a "beam". To show that this is the case, at 1 Kings 6:15, in building the temple, it said that Solomon, "from the floor of the house up to the rafters of the ceiling he overlaid (the walls) with timber (Hebrew
‛ets´) inside."
Hence, "timber" ("a large piece of wood, usually squared, used in a building, for example, as a beam",
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005) of cedar was used to overlay the walls, and was upright "timber" of wood (cedar), "from floor...to the rafters" and not "cross" forms. The online interlinear
Scripture4all renders
xylon as "wood".
Another Greek word used for the instrument Jesus died upon,
stauros, is at Matthew 10:38; 16:24; 27:32, 40, 42 and is rendered as "pale"(online interlinear
Scripture4all ), which means "fence stake: a pointed slat of wood for a fence."(
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005) That he died upon a "pole" or "stake", is that the apostle Peter said of Jesus, that "we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:"(Acts 10:39,
King James Bible; "tree", Greek
xylon)
The apostle Paul told the Jews in Antioch in Pisidia, that "when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him (Jesus) down from the tree." (Acts 13:29,
King James Bible; "tree", Greek
xylon) The apostle Peter wrote: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."(1 Peter 2:24,
King James Bible; "tree", Greek
xylon) Hence, Jesus died upon a "tree" or "pale", a "stake", not cross.
The Hebrews had no word for the traditional cross. To designate such an implement, they used warp and woof, alluding to yarns running lengthwise in a fabric and others going across it on a loom.(Lev 13:56-59) The French
Dictionnaire Encyclopédique Universel (Encyclopedic Universal Dictionary) says: For a long time we believed that the cross, considered a religious symbol, was specifically for Christians. This is not the case.
The book
Dual HeritageThe Bible and the British Museum (1986) states: It may come as a shock to know that there is no word such as cross in the Greek of the New Testament. The word translated cross is always the Greek word [
stau·ros´] meaning a stake or upright pale. The cross was not originally a Christian symbol; it is derived from Egypt and Constantine.
The New Strong's Concise Concordance & Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible states that the meaning of "
stauros (Strong's # 4716) denotes, primarily , "an upright pale or stake." On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb
stauroo, "to fasten to a stake or pale," are originally to be
distinguished from the
ecclesiastical form of a two beamed "
cross." The shape of the latter had its
origin in
ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the
churches had either
departed from, or had travestied,
certain doctrines of the
Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the
apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to
retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the "cross" of Christ."(
Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible, pg 75, 1999 edition)
Under the Hebrew word
‛ets´ (Strong's # 6086),
Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible says "tree; wood; timber; stick; stalk." It goes on to say that "this word may signify a single "tree," as it does in Gen. 2:9; or a genus of tree, Isa. 41:19.
‛ets´ can mean "wood as a material from which things are constructed, as a raw material to be carved, Exod. 31:5. Large unprocessed pieces of "wood or timber" are also signified by
‛ets´, Hag 1:8. The end product of wood already processed and fashioned into something may be indicated by
‛ets´, Lev 11:32. This word means "stick" or "piece of wood" in Ezek. 37:16..
.‛ets´ one time means "stalk," Josh. 2:6."(pg 387)
And under the Greek word
xylon (Strong's # 3586),
Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible says "wood, a piece of wood, anything made of wood," is used, with the rendering "tree,"....the tree being the
stauros, the upright pale or stake to which Romans nailed those who were thus to be executed, Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Pet 2:24."(pg 387-88)
Thus, whether it be
‛ets´,
xylon, or
stauros, the meaning was the same, that of a "tree", "timber", "wood", "stick", or "upright pale or stake" and
not a cross.
