While there is some dispute among scholars as to the method by which Jesus was executed, it is thought to be by some that Jesus died on an upright pole or stake rather than a cross. The Roman method of execution had been that of impaling the criminal on a single beamed upright stake.
The original language words which were used in the Bible for the cross, are stavros, and xlyon. Stavros signifies an \”upright pale or stake,\” and xlyon means, tree. Therefore in accurate translations of the Bible, where the King James Version, and others, read that Jesus was crucified, some more careful Bible translations read that Jesus was \”impaled\”. Similarly, where some translations read that Jesus died on a cross, others read perhaps more accuately, according to the original Greek meanings of the noun, that Jesus died upon a \”tree\” or upon a \”stake\”.
One reference on this subject states, \”A tradition of the Church which our fathers have inherited, was the adoption of the words \”cross\” and \”crucify\”. These words are nowhere to be found in the Greek of the New Testament. These words are mistranslations, a \”later rendering\”, of the Greek words stauros and stauroo.\” Origin of cross The symbol of the cross had been a symbol of paganism many centuries before Christ and it was Constantine, a pagan ruler, who is the one who first began to attach the symbol of the cross with Christianity. Eventually, like many traditions of modern Chrsitianity, the cross became a fixture in nominal Christianity and also a symbol, viewed by many, as of idolatry.
Reverend Alexander Hislop in his scholarly work, The Two Babylons, provides evidence that the origin of the cross stems from the adoration of the Egyptian God Tammuz, identified with the Biblical Nimrod, represented by a \”T\”, the cross later being assimilated by the emerging Roman Catholic Church.
These are some other references on the the origin of the Christian cross: Dr. Bullinger, in the Companion Bible indicates, \”crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian Sun-god … It should be stated that Constantine was a Sun-god worshipper … The evidence is thus complete, that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed at any angle.\” p.162 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, states concerning the Christian cross, \”In the Egyption churches the cross was a pagan symbol of life borrowed by the Christians and interpreted in the pagan manner.\” Jacob Grimm, in his Deutsche Mythologie, says that the Teutonic (Germanic) tribes had their idol Thor, symbolised by a hammer, while the Roman Christians had their crux (cross). It was thus somewhat easier for the Teutons to accept the Roman Cross.\” 11th edition, vol. 14, p. 273. Both quotes are from Albatross.org
See also: Jehovah\’s Witnesses headlines (official site of Jehovah\’s Witnesses, not associated with this article) . http://www.albatrus.org/english/religions/pagan/was_jesus_crucified_on_cross.htm
