Jehovah witnesses believe Jesus was impaled not crucified?

Question

From their official website
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200604a/article_01.htm

From Wikiedia

How is impalement done?

"The victim is forced to stand over a wide stake which was just tall enough that it penetrated the person's rectum deeply. This left them unable to remove themselves, or to sit. As their legs tired, they would slowly sink onto the stake, which eventually would cause mortal damage, but only over the course of hours, or even days"

Answer 1

When the term "crucified" is properly defined, Jehovah's Witnesses readily acknowledge that Jesus was crucified. For centuries, Christians have referred to the execution of Christ as "impalement", but admittedly there are alternate definitions of "impalement" which do not accurately describe the means of Christ's execution.

Interestingly, the term "crucify" comes from the Latin word "crux". The English word "cross" is a poor translation of both the Latin "crux" and the Greek "stavros", since both non-English words refer simply to a wooden instrument (rather than to a specific shape).

Jehovah's Witnesses do not distract from the message of the good news by going around denouncing the worshipful use of the cross and other idols. Instead, Witnesses believe that the bible plainly forbids idolatry of any kind, including the worshipful use of icons such as crucifixes.
http://watchtower.org/bible/1jo/chapter_005.htm?bk=1jo;chp=5;vs=21;citation#bk21
http://www.watchtower.org/bible/ac/chapter_017.htm?bk=ac;chp=17;vs=29;citation#bk29

(1 John 5:21) Guard yourselves from idols.

(Acts 17:29) We ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and contrivance of man


The exact shape of Christ's instrument of death is hardly a central doctrine of the faith, but Jehovah's Witnesses do happen to believe that Jesus was almost certainly impaled on a simple stake, rather than a cross of two intersecting beams. Of course the Romans had the ability to create a cross, and probably did. But ask yourself: why they would have bothered when a simple stake would have worked just as well or better?

The bible most assuredly does NOT offer any proof that the stake was actually a cross of two intersecting beams. The actual facts of the bible may be enlightening to examine...

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. The English word "cross" is an imprecise translation of the Latin word "crux". Note this image of crucifixion performed with a "crux simplex", such as seems to have been used to execute Jesus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Justus_Lipsius_Crux_Simplex_1629.jpg

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://watchtower.org/e/200604a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050508a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19960715/article_01.htm

Answer 2

No, that's not right. Jesus was hung upon a stake. His hands were impaled by nails onto the stake. As well as his feet.

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. Not impaled either.

Answer 3

Yes we do.
Luke 23:26-Now as they led him away, they laid hold of Simon, a certain native of Cy·re′ne, coming from the country, and they placed the torture stake upon him to bear it behind Jesus

John 19:17-19-And, bearing the torture stake for himself, he went out to the so-called Skull Place, which is called Gol′go·tha in Hebrew; 18 and there they impaled him, and two other [men] with him, one on this side and one on that, but Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate wrote a title also and put it on the torture stake. It was written: “Jesus the Naz·a·rene′ the King of the Jews.

The book The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons, states: “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.”—London, 1896, pp. 23, 24.

Answer 4

(the impaled definition doesn't sound to accurate, it was more of just hanging on a stake, like he would on a cross, just his hands nailed together on it....I don't know if it worked like the explanation says)
but anyways, I'm not sure if it even really matters whether he died on a stake or cross, but Jehovah's witnesses feel like being on the safe side and believing he died on a stake, for many reasons, the fact that the cross is pagan in origin, and a symbol of false religion, and that the bible translates that what he died on was a single beam, a tree, stake. not two beams forming into a cross. and that evidence points to the fact that they used stakes instead of crosses for the most part back than anyways, but alas you got fine article explaining it better than I can anyways.

basically, as far as i see it, since their are scriptures backing the stake idea, and history against the cross, its better to just go with that anyways, I mean the bible doesn't say that we had to worship what Jesus died on anyways, so its irrelevant. we should focus more on the fact that Jesus did die for us, not what he died on, and what his death did for us.

Answer 5

You are giving only one definition of the word "impale." It can mean simply to fix or fasten on a pole. The New Testament Greek word STAUROS means "a pole to be placed in the ground and used for capital punishment," and STAUROW means "to fasten on" such a pole. (BDAG, p. 941)

Even the Latin word *crux*, from which "cross" derived, originally meant simply a pole.

The Bible does not describe the shape of the instrument on which Jesus died.

Answer 6

Yes. Clearly there is no Scriptural support for the traditional cross as a symbol of Christianity. Then how can its adoption by professed Christians be accounted for? It was borrowed from the surrounding pagans. It is another one of the many paganisms that the early apostate Christians adopted so as to appeal to the pagans and to be more like them. In this they followed the example of the Israelites who wanted a king so as to be like the nations round about. Thus Dr. Killen, in his Ancient Church, writes:

“From the most remote antiquity the cross was venerated in Egypt and Syria; it was held in equal honor by the Buddhists of the East; and what is still more extraordinary, when the Spaniards first visited America, the well-known sign was found among the objects of worship in the idol temples of Anáhuac. It is also remarkable that, with the commencement of our era, the pagans were wont to make the sign of the cross upon the forehead in the celebration of some of their sacred mysteries.”

Answer 7

As recorded at Acts 5:30, the apostle Peter used the word xy′lon, meaning “tree,” as a synonym for stau·ros′, denoting, not a two-beamed cross, but an ordinary piece of upright timber or tree.

Impalement means to be stabbed. It can be done with the stau•ros or impaled with nails onto the stau•ros.

Answer 8

Why dont ´we ask Jesus the way he died? if you read John 3:14-15 he told the way , the same way the serpent was raised in the dessert (Number 21:7) and how was it? in an pole or an stake. So unless Jesus lies he died in a right pole.

Answer 9

Not the same, they say instead of a cross with the cross beam it was just a pole he was nailed to. Arms straight up above him. Fact is the Romans used both crosses and simple one piece poles to preform their executions by nailing and hanging. Could have been either, no one knows for sure.

Answer 10

That's in contradiction of scripture. There's a reference to "hanging on a tree" clearly referring to Jesus.