Did Jesus Christ died on a torture stake or cross?

Question

The right answer take some research. The Greek work at Matthew
27:40 is stauros'.

Answer 1

I don't remember exactly where, but I learned in bible college that Jesus was tortured to death, but the Rome's hung him on the cross to been shown. However, Jesus was reported alive while hanging on the cross. And thus, died on the cross.

Here's a site that explains that a stauros is a crossed stake. But I can't find any original document from my studies.

Answer 2

Aside from any research the assertion, mainly by the JW writings, of death by impalement would make the gospels and the writings of the Greek new testament a complete fabrication. Of course they are right and some of the world's best scholars and translators are wrong.

Let us assume that someone grabs you by your arms and ankels and seats you on a sharp pointed stake. The stake sinks through your guts up through your throat in -- how long do you think?--

Long enough for the seven last words? Long enough for the hours the gospels said it took?. Do you take a body down from an impalement or lift it off?" Do you get somebody to carry the stake up the hill because it is so heavy?

Do you break the legs of an impaled person whose legs are already stretched out in front of them? Do you need to pierce their side to see if they are dead? Did Pilot tape the sign "King of the Jews" onto his head? Did Matthew lie when he said the chief priests and scribes said, "let him now come down from the cross,..?" And so on and on...

This idea is a perversion of Scripture and history by people who were never Christians and who not knowing Christ do not know Jehovah. They have their own bible, their own god and their own end, while denying the very creator that made them.

When Jesus showed himself to the Apostle Thomas He told him to thrust his hand to his side and to behold his hands. Luke also records Jesus as showing his hand and feet to the disciples. Were John and Luke and Thomas also liars; not to mention Jesus.

So first no cross bar for a cross. Then no nails. Then a "created son." The Pinocchio of the New Testament no doubt; rather than the Word made flesh or the great I AM as testified by the Apostle John and by Jesus himself.

Enough is enough.

Answer 3

No one knows the “right” answer. Anyone who has really studied the cross vs. stake question, knows that there is no way to be sure if Jesus torture stake had a crosspiece or not. It is only people with limited knowledge or biased viewpoints that think it HAD TO BE a cross, or HAD TO BE a stake.

A stauros is basically a stake. A stake with a crossbar was also called a stauros. (Originally, torture stakes didn‘t have crossbars but the evidence seems to indicate that by the time of the first century, they did, and they were called stauroses).

Jesus lived from 3 to 6 hours on the stake. Some individuals believe this means that Jesus couldn’t have died on a cross, because it SOMETIMES took days for a prisoner to die on a cross.

The Journal of the American Medical Association, March 21, 1986, wrote an extensive paper on “The Physical Death of Jesus Christ” which has, interestingly, been quoted by the Watchtower Society on occasion.

Here’s a quote they didn’t share, as to why Jesus died within six hours: “Jesus’ death may have been hastened simply by his state of exhaustion and the severity of the scourging, with its resultant blood loss and preshock state. The fact that he could not carry his patibulum supports this interpretation.”

One of the foremost, if not THE foremost authority on crucifixion, Mr. Joseph Zias, tells us that as a result of experiments carried out by an American medical examiner and pathologist, the conclusion was reached that death on the torture stake can be due, not just to asphyxiation, but also as a result of the victim going in hypovolemic shock. Death in this manner can be in a manner of HOURS OR days, depending on the manner in which the victim is affixed to the torture stake.

He also says “If, however, the victims are tied with their hands extended over their heads and left hanging, death can occur within an hour or, in minutes, if the victims legs are nailed so that he cannot use his arms to elevate the body to exhale. …Eyewitness accounts by prisoners of war in Dacchu during WWII reported that victims suspended from beams by their wrist, which were tied, expired within ten minutes if their feet were weighted or tied down and within one hour if their feet were unweighted and the victim was able to raise and lower himself to permit respiration.”

Because Jesus lived from three to six hours on the torture stake, Mr. Zias concluded that it’s unlikely Jesus was put to death with his arms directly over his head. But because Mr. Zias is very knowledgable and not biased one way or the other about whether Jesus died on a cross or a stake (because he is Jewish, not Christian), he does not draw a positive conclusion as to whether Jesus’ death stake had a crosspiece or not.

Such unbiased honesty is indeed refreshing.

Answer 4

According to Strong's Lexicon:

1- an upright stake, esp. a pointed one
2- a cross
a well known instrument of most cruel and ignominious punishment, borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians; to it were affixed among the Romans, down to the time of Constantine the Great, the guiltiest criminals, particularly the basest slaves, robbers, the authors and abetters of insurrections, and occasionally in the provinces, at the arbitrary pleasure of the governors, upright and peaceable men also, and even Roman citizens themselves
the crucifixion which Christ underwent

Answer 5

Yes, Romans preferred slow deaths that is why they used crosses.

But because of the Sabbath laws the Jews couldn't wait days for the criminals to die, so they had to die quickly. this means they used the first definition of stauros, or stake.

even by breaking the legs of criminals on a cross doesn't speed up death, only makes it more painful.

to suffocate Jesus and make death come quicker, the 3 who died that day had to be hanging with their arms straight above them. Not out to the side as on a cross.

Answer 6

The Romans didn't use torture stakes at the time or so I'm told.

Also, hanging from wood whether from a tree or a cross was considered the fit punishment for a criminal as seen when Judas hung himself from a tree.

Answer 7

The cross is a torture stake.

Answer 8

A CROSS!

The Jw's preach HE died on a Stake because the slang word for WOOD was used in the bible when they said == He died on a TREE.

Answer 9

He didn't die on the cross to "destroy" sin. No. He died on the cross so that all the sin on the world could be put onto him in sacrifice, so that mankind could go to heaven after death. Because of Jesus' death on the cross, it was possible, through Jesus of course, for Christians to go to heaven when they die. That's why Satan got really angry, and hence why he's out in the world today with his fallen angels to influence, nudge people on to sin, to change the true meaning of Christmas and Easter, and to, in general, get people to not believe in God and to go to hell. In general, Jesus died on the cross so that all sin could be forgiven.

Answer 10

the cross is the torture stake