He said the shape of the ecclesiastical form of a two-beamed cross "had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in Chaldea and nearby lands, including Egypt". 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". On such malefactors were nailed for execution. With regard to the "primary" or "original" meaning of the Greek word σταυρός, William Edwy Vine (1873–1949) wrote in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, published in 1940: " stauros denotes, primarily, 'an upright pale or stake'. The evidence is thus complete, that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed in any manner." He cited a letter from English Dean John William Burgon, who questioned whether a cross occurred on any Christian monument of the first four centuries and wrote: "The 'invention' of it in pre-Christian times, and the 'invention' of its use in later times, are truths of which we need to be reminded in the present day. even to imply two pieces of timber." Bullinger wrote that in the catacombs of Rome Christ was never represented there as "hanging on a cross" and that the cross was a pagan symbol of life (the ankh) in Egyptian churches that was borrowed by the Christians. There is nothing in the Greek of the N.T. Bullinger, in The Companion Bible (which was completed and published in 1922, nine years after his 1913 death), was emphatic in his belief that stauros never meant two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, "but always of one piece alone. "Stauros" interpreted as simple stake only Ĭrucifixion of Jesus, by Justus Lipsius: De cruce (1595), p. Bullinger, as well as Henry Dana Ward, considered that the "cross" (Greek stauros, in its original sense literally an upright pale or stake) had no crossbar, and that the traditional picture of Jesus on a cross with a crossbar was incorrect. Lipsius himself, as also Gretser and Godwyn, held that Jesus was nailed not to a crux simplex, but to a crux immissa. Lipsius then subdivided the crux compacta into three types: the crux decussata (X-shaped), crux commissa (T-shaped) and crux immissa (†-shaped). The victim could be affixed to the crux simplex or could be impaled on it. His basic twofold distinction was between the crux simplex (a simple stake) and the crux compacta (a composite of two pieces of wood). Justus Lipsius invented a specific terminology to distinguish different forms of what could be called a cross or crux. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of Wood fixed in the Earth, but also a transverse Beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof". 1660) wrote in his commentary on the Apostles' Creed that the Greek word stauros originally signified "a straight standing Stake, Pale, or Palisador", but that, "when other transverse or prominent parts were added in a perfect Cross, it retained still the Original Name", and he declared: "The Form then of the Cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple, but a compounded, Figure, according to the Custom of the Romans, by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. The ambiguity of the terms was noted by Justus Lipsius in his De Cruce (1594), Jacob Gretser in his De Cruce Christi (1598) and Thomas Godwyn in his Moses and Aaron (1662). They have known too that the words had that meaning also, and so have not considered necessarily incorrect the traditional picture of a cross with transom. Scholars have long known that the Greek word stauros and the Latin word crux did not uniquely mean a cross. Those words, which can refer to many different things, do not indicate the precise shape of the structure.
The Koine Greek terms used in the New Testament of the structure on which Jesus died are stauros (σταυρός) and xylon (ξύλον). Presence or absence of crossbar Ambiguity of terms used
3.3 Terminology used by ancient writers.1.5 "Stauros" interpreted as a cross in the case of Jesus.1.4 "Stauros" interpreted as ambiguous in meaning.1.2 "Stauros" interpreted as simple stake only.