by Christa Walker

Created on: August 11, 2009

Was Christ really crucified?

Well the simple answer is no and yes. If you are a Christian and believe that the scriptures were inspired by God then you believe what's written in them. The Bible, or the word of God, tells us that Jesus Christ did die for mankind's sin and that he was put to death. The word crucified is crucial to this debate though. Was he crucified? No! The original Greek word rendered "cross" is stauros. This word merely means an upright stake, or pale.

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary acknowledges this, saying: "The Greek word for cross, [stauros], 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.

The Bible also uses the word xylon to identify what Jesus died on. This word is generally translated in most Bible translations at Acts 5:30 and 10:39 as tree.

The historical origin of the cross is also of interest. "The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ."-An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

"Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus."-A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.

The introduction of the cross into Christianity comes from Pagan origin. Evidence indicates that Jesus died on an upright stake and not on the traditional cross. So was Jesus crucified? No! Was Jesus put to death? Yes.

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