To jehovahs witnesses ?or anybody else?

Question

A jehovah's knocked on my door,i was on a hurry but i've alwasy believed in the cross and he told me to look up in a dictionary the word that appears in the bible were jesus was hunged: "crux" in hebrew does anybody know the meaning of it??

Answer 1

The expression is drawn from the Latin crux.
The Greek word rendered “cross” in many modern Bible versions (“torture stake” in NW) is stau·ros′. In classical Greek, this word meant merely an upright stake, or pale. Later it also came to be used for an execution stake having a crosspiece. The Imperial Bible-Dictionary acknowledges this, saying: “The Greek word for cross, [stau·ros′], properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground. . . . Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole.”—Edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376.
Was that the case in connection with the execution of God’s Son? It is noteworthy that the Bible also uses the word xy′lon to identify the device used. A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott, defines this as meaning: “Wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, etc. . . . piece of wood, log, beam, post . . . cudgel, club . . . stake on which criminals were impaled . . . of live wood, tree.” It also says “in NT, of the cross,” and cites Acts 5:30 and 10:39 as examples. (Oxford, 1968, pp. 1191, 1192) However, in those verses KJ, RS, JB, and Dy translate xy′lon as “tree.” (Compare this rendering with Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23.)
The book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . It is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ‘cross’ when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting ‘cross’ in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.”—Pp. 23, 24; see also The Companion Bible (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.

Thus the weight of the evidence indicates that Jesus died on an upright stake and not on the traditional cross.

If you would like further information, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit http://www.watchtower.org
Jehovah's Witnesses also offer free home Bible studies at a time convenient for you.

Answer 2

Jesus almost certainly died while impaled on a simple stake, rather than a cross of two intersecting beams. Of course the Romans had the ability to create such devices, and probably did. But ask yourself: why they would have bothered when a simple stake would have worked just as well or better?

It is also enlightening to examine other relevant Scriptures.

You may be interested to see how your own copy of the bible translates Acts 5:30, Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:22, 23, and Acts 10:39. The King James, Revised Standard, Dyaglott, and Jerusalem Bible translate the instrument of Christ's death simply as "stake" or "tree" because the original wording simply does not support the idea that this was more than a piece of upright wood.

It is also eye-opening to examine how the first-century Christians felt about idols of any kind, much less one that glorified an instrument of death.

Learn more:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2005/5/8a/article_01.htm

Answer 3

Michelangelo and the Cross

• Italian government art experts are said to be “90 percent sure” that a sculpture recently found in a monastery in Lebanon is the work of the famous Italian artist Michelangelo. The small wooden carving is said to be worth $2.5 million (U.S.) if it actually is Michelangelo’s work. According to an Associated Press report, “the figure is unusual because it represents Christ with his hands stretched out above his head instead of to the side, as he usually is depicted on the cross.”

Whether the wooden sculpture is the work of the 16th-century artist Michelangelo or not, it illustrates that the impalement of Christ on a cross frame has not always been so certain as Christendom’s leaders today would have people believe. For example, the 16th-century Roman Catholic scholar Justus Lipsius illustrated impalement on an upright stake in his book “De Cruce Liber Primus.” This fits the meaning of the Greek word used in the Bible to describe the impalement of Christ—“stauros”—which “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake.”—“An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words,

Answer 4

The Latin dictionary by Lewis and Short gives as the basic meaning of crux “a tree, frame, or other wooden instruments of execution, on which criminals were impaled or hanged.” In the writings of Livy, a Roman historian of the first century B.C.E., crux means a mere stake. “Cross” is only a later meaning of crux. A single stake for impalement of a criminal was called in Latin crux sim′plex. One such instrument of torture is illustrated by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) in his book De cruce libri tres, Antwerp, 1629, p. 19.
In the Bible the Greek word usually rendered cross is stauros. Its Latin equivalent is crux.
The Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature says that the crux simplex was a “mere stake ‘of one single piece without transom [crossbar].’”
On Egyptian sculptures and paintings the sacred symbol, the crux ansata, occurs very frequently. This so-called sign of life looks like the letter “T” with an oval handle on top and probably represented the male and female organs of reproduction combined. The Egyptian deities are often depicted as holding the crux ansata.
I hope this information helps.

Answer 5

There are two Greek words used for the executional instrument on which Christ died—staurós and xýlon.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible gives as the primary meaning for staurós “a stake or post,”
and for xýlon “timber,” “tree” or “wood.”
The New Bible Dictionary says:
“The Gk. word for ‘cross’ (staurós, verb stauróo) means primarily an upright stake or beam, and secondarily a stake used as an instrument for punishment and execution.”

The Latin word used for the instrument on which Christ died was crux which, according to Livy, a famous Roman historian of the first century C.E., means a mere stake.
The Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature says that the crux simplex was a “mere stake ‘of one single piece without transom [crossbar].’”

In confirmation of this, appendix No. 162 of The Companion Bible states concerning staurós that it “denotes an upright pale or stake, to which the criminals were nailed for execution.
It never means two pieces of timber placed across one another at any angle, but always of one piece alone.”
The appendix concludes:
“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.”

Answer 6

Jesus died on a cross.

If a stake were used, instead of a cross, then Jesus' hands would have been placed above His head with a nail driven through His wrists.

The Bible talks about nails which is plural. If a stake was used it would have been one nail through both wrists. Nails would mean both wrists separately indicating a cross structure and not a single 'stake'.

Answer 7

We're not sure what Jesus was hung on. Ancient Romans used the stereotypical crucifix as well as a X shaped cross.

Answer 8

Jesus died on a STAKE, not a cross people get mislead by the devil thinking that a cross is what god wants you to love and think that jesus dies on but he is wrong. God wants you to belive that jesus dies on a stake

Answer 9

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crux