According to one authority, the Greek word (stau•ros´) rendered “cross” in the King James Version “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. [It is] to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross….The latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz.” Far from being idolized, the instrument on which Jesus was impaled should be viewed with revulsion.
Most Bible translations say Christ was “crucified” rather than “impaled.” This is because of the common belief that the torture instrument upon which he was hung was a “cross” made of two pieces of wood instead of a single pale, or stake. Tradition, not the Scriptures, also says that the condemned man carried only the crossbeam of the cross, called the patibulum, or antenna, instead of both parts. In this way some try to avoid the predicament of having too much weight for one man to drag or carry to Golgotha.
Consider what the Bible writers themselves say about these matters. They used the Greek noun stau•ros´ 27 times and the verbs stau•ro´o 46 times, syn•stau•ro´o (the prefix syn, meaning “with”) 5 times, and a•na•stau•ro´o (a•na´, meaning “again”) once. They also used the Greek word xy´lon, meaning “wood,” 5 times to refer to the torture instrument upon which Jesus was nailed.
Stau•ros´ in both the classical Greek and Koine carries no thought of a “cross” made of two timbers. It means only an upright stake, pale, pile, or pole, as might be used for a fence, stockade, or palisade. Says Douglas’ New Bible Dictionary of 1985 under “Cross,” page 253: “The Gk. word for ‘cross’ (stauros; verb stauroo . . . ) means primarily an upright stake or beam, and secondarily a stake used as an instrument for punishment and execution.”
The fact that Luke, Peter, and Paul also used xy´lon as a synonym for stau•ros´ gives added evidence that Jesus was impaled on an upright stake without a crossbeam, for that is what xy´lon in this special sense means. (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galations 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24) Xy´lon also occurs in the Greek Septuagint at Ezra 6:11, where it speaks of a single beam or timber on which a lawbreaker was to be impaled.
An accurate translation, therefore, faithfully conveys to the reader this basic idea of the Greek text by rendering stau•ros´ as “torture stake,” and the verb stau•ro´o as “impale,” that is, to fasten on a stake, or pole. In this way there is no confusion of stau•ros´ with the traditional ecclesiastical crosses. The matter of one man like Simon of Cyrene bearing a torture stake, as the Scriptures say, is perfectly reasonable, for if it was 15 cm (6 in.) in diameter and 3.5 m (11 ft) long, it probably weighed little more than 45 kg (100 lb).-Mark 15:21.
