As for the cross:
The statement that Jesus
had to be crucified on a stake is a significant Jehovah's Witness claim in an attempt to claim that the Christian symbol of the plain cross is somehow "Pagan". It's a rather shallow argument as I'll try and explain.
The argument usually goes that the Greek word
stauros means "an upright stake", well sort of, it's the Greek word that was used to refer to the Roman
crux or cross. The Romans were rather inventive when it came to crucifixions, there was no single type of crux, the simplest cross was the crux simplex, the simple cross, and it was simply an upright pole. But very often the crux simplex was affixed with a
patibulum, the crossbeam. The result would be either a T-cross or a t-cross. The Romans also used X-shaped crosses to crucify their victims.
So what sort of cross was Jesus crucified on? Was it simply the crux simplex, a simple upright stake? While the New Testament doesn't spell it out, our historical knowledge and a few key details from the New Testament are perhaps quite relevant.
The Romans liked efficiency, if you're going to be crucifying people you're going to do it efficiently. It's not efficient to construct a brand new cross every time you have to go and crucify one of those uppity slaves or political deviants, that costs too much money and is a waste of resources. Instead you have a designated location and re-use the same instrument of execution. As such it's most likely that Golgotha had a set of fixed crosses ready to be used, simple upright stakes that remained and could be used again and again.
Now we are told that Jesus carried His cross to Golgotha. Christian art typically shows Him carrying an entire cross, that's unlikely for the reasons given above. So more than likely Jesus is carrying His patibulum, the crossbeam, which His executioners could use to lift Him up into place upon the simplex, thus the simplex plus patibulum would have created a T or t-shaped cross. It's the most likely scenario given the facts available to us.
Was it a T-cross or a t-cross? Well that's anyone's guess. It could be either.
In the end it doesn't matter, Jesus could have been crucified on a crux simplex, or an X-shaped cross and it wouldn't change anything--it's just unlikely given that He had to carry something to the place of execution and that Pilate had a plaque placed over His head reading out mockingly that He was King of the Jews.
So that's the story as far as the "upright stake" issue is concerned. Not impossible, but less probable than the more traditional T/t-cross view.
Now, while Christians didn't feature cross symbols in their iconography quite so often until the 3rd or 4th century, that doesn't mean the use of the cross as a symbol was absent. Ancient Patristic sources speak of Christians signing themselves with the cross during prayer from very ancient times, the most ancient way of crossing oneself was to do so upon the forehead, the lips, and then the heart, this would eventually become the sign of the cross used by Christians today across the world (among Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans/Episcopalians, and even some Methodists).
"
At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on count, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign [of the cross]" - Tertullian of Carthage, De Corona, ch. 3, circa 200 AD
Tertullian understands this to be an ancient and widespread practice, it's just one of those things Christians do and have seemingly always done. He says there is no biblical injunction to do it, but that it is the widespread tradition and custom found everywhere in his time.
The cross, therefore, seems to have been fairly significant as a potent symbol of faith, even without it being a dominant iconographic symbol.
There's also the interesting case of a piece of ancient anti-Christian graffiti, dated sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century,
The text says, "Alexamenos worships his God", which clearly shows a man worshiping a crucified figure.
The reason for the donkey head seems to be connected to an ancient bit of Greek ignorance concerning Jews and their religion, the Greeks were under the misconception that Jews worshiped the head of an ass, a view that seems to date back to the time when Judea was ruled by Greek powers, first under the Macedonian Empire, and then subsequently by the Ptolemaic kingdom and then the Seleucids, until the Maccabean Revolt of 164 BC. Exactly how this confusion came about is a matter of speculation, but is rather fascinating when coupled with this bit of graffiti.
As added trivia, near this was inscribed another graffito, reading simply "Alexamenos fidelis",
Alexamenos is faithful.
-CryptoLutheran
