Did Jesus Die On A Cross Or A Stake?
This quoted text from Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words, written by a Protestant clergyman in 1940, provides a background of the Greek meanings of the word cross, as well as the historical origins of the cross.
Cross, crucify - Stauros
Definitions and history from Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
Noun - Stauros (Greek) denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both he 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 the name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt.
By the middle of the 3rd century 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 (the Catholic type priest) 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.
As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, the letter was the initial of the word "Christ" and had nothing to do with "the Cross" (for xylon, a timber beam, a tree, as used for stauros, see under TREE).
The method of execution (death on a single upright beam or tree) was borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians."
The judicial custom by which the condemned person carried his stake to the place of execution, was applied by the Lord to those sufferings by which His faithful followers were to express their fellowship with Him, e.g. Matt 10:38.
Cross- Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words
Cross, crucify - Stauros
Definitions and history from Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
Noun - Stauros (Greek) denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both he 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 the name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt.
By the middle of the 3rd century 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 (the Catholic type priest) 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.
As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, the letter was the initial of the word "Christ" and had nothing to do with "the Cross" (for xylon, a timber beam, a tree, as used for stauros, see under TREE).
The method of execution (death on a single upright beam or tree) was borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians."
The judicial custom by which the condemned person carried his stake to the place of execution, was applied by the Lord to those sufferings by which His faithful followers were to express their fellowship with Him, e.g. Matt 10:38.
Cross- Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words
