The death of Jesus Christ on a cross is an important truth of the Christian gospel. In fact, it is crucial to the gospel, the crux of the message, if we might employ additional English words derived from the Latin word crux, from which we also derive the English word "cross."
Stauros is the Greek word, which we translate into English as "cross." Stauros originally indicated a pointed, vertical stake firmly fixed in the ground. The word was used for "fence posts." Later the word was used in the Greek language for a wooden stake fixed in the ground and used as an instrument of torture or death. The primary meaning of the word thus became a reference to an execution instrument comprised of wooden timbers and affixed in the ground.
Sometimes the execution instrument was but a single pointed stake on which the offender was impaled. Sometimes the word was used of the timbers from which an offender was hanged. An example of this second usage may be found in the Greek text (Septuagint) of Esther 7:9 where Haman is ordered to be hanged on the gallows which he had constructed for Mordecai. The predominate form of the stauros death instrument was the crossing of two timbers. These were sometimes crossed in the form of a "T", sometimes in the form of an "X", and sometimes in the form of the perpendicular crossed timbers we are most familiar with in the West, "�".
There are abundant examples in history where most of the ancient cultures utilized the cross as an execution instrument. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, Persians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans all employed this death device. Although the Jews employed stoning as their primary method of execution, they were well acquainted with the use of the cross by other cultures to execute to their own people. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, records that Alexander the Great "did one of the most barbarous actions in the world" to a group of Jews he had conquered. He "ordered about 800 of them to be crucified." 1 On another occasion Varus sought out leaders of a Jewish revolt and "the number crucified on this account were 2000." 2 In another of his writings, Josephus notes that Titus crucified the Jews outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem; "the soldiers...nailed those they caught...to the crosses...their multitude was so great that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies." 3
Death by crucifixion was an especially cruel and agonizing way to die. The Romans employed this form of execution primarily for slaves, although it was also used for foreigners, traitors, and the most despicable of criminals. It was generally regarded as too degrading to be utilized for... Read Full Article...
1 Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews (book 13, chapter 14). Philadelphia: David McKay Pub., no date, pg. 410.
2 Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews (book 17, chapter 10). pg. 538.
3 Josephus, Flavius. Wars of the Jews (book 5, chapter 11). Philadelphia: David McKay Pub., no date, pp. 822-823.
