we have all read the arguments - was it a cross or a stake?
The JW's teach it was a stake or pale, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_or_stake_as_gibbet_on_which_Jesus_died> however if you really examine the WTS teaching and logic behind this position you discover that it is not 'exact'. Rather, it becomes an assumption, a best guess. This is because the word "Stauros" from which 'stake' is derived (4th&5tBCE Greek), also meant 'cross' (at time of Christ). Even the WTS cannot deny this and use statements such as this one:
***g749/22p.28DidJesusDieonaCross?***So, the evidence indicates that Jesus did not die on the traditional cross
So why inisist it is a stake when you cant definitively prove it? Does it even matter? I mean really people, what changes? Even some JW's make this statement when debating cross vs stake. It is of no consequence becuase it was merely a murder weapon.
Well why do JW's like to demonize the cross and teach the stake?
EASY - to distance themselves from the christianity. They support this by dwelling on the pre-christian pagan use of the cross - that this in some way would mean a cross could/would not have been used. Well, considering the Romans were pagans, it would seem to make sense they would use a pagan symbol, or perhaps many pagan symbols in their society.
Does it matter? Well I came across an audio clip by Jay Hess which opened my eyes about this which I had never considered. http://www.jwinfoline.com/audio/jay_hess.m3u
(Ezekiel 43:18) And he proceeded to say to me: "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, 'These are the statutes of the altar on the day of its being made, in order to offer upon it whole burnt offerings and to sprinkle upon it blood.'
(Ezekiel 45:19) And the priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorpost of the House and upon thefour corners of the surrounding ledge belonging to the altar and upon the doorpost of the gate of the inner courtyard.
*** w76 4/15 p. 240 par. 5 Why We Need the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ***
5 In offering himself up as a sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ served as God's High Priest who was foreshadowed by Israel's first high priest, namely, Aaron of the tribe of Levi. All the further sacrificial high priests of ancient Israel descended from this Aaron the brother of Moses. That is another reason why all mankind needs Jesus Christ, for him to serve as the antitype of Israel's high priests in taking the blood of the sacrifices into the Most Holy of the temple on the annual Day of Atonement, YomKippur.
Its amazing how the OT passover parallels the NT passover and sacrifice of jesus.
- the lamb was sacrificed on passover - Jesus was sacrificed on passoever
- lamb was taken outside the ciy - jesus was taken outside the city
- no bones broken on lamb - no bones broken on Jesus
- Lambs blood used to cleanse the alter - Jesus blood cleansed the altar?In preparation for the passover the altar had to be cleansed:
(Ezekiel 43:20-22) ...And you must take some of its blood and put [it] upon its four horns and upon the four corners of the surrounding ledge and upon the border round about and purify it from sin and make atonement for it. 21 And you must take the young bull, the sin offering, and one must burn it in the appointed place of the House, outside the sanctuary. 22 And on the second day you will bring near a buck of the goats, a sound one, as a sin offering; and they must purify the altar from sin the same as they purified [it] from sin with the young bull.'
Where was Jesus' altar? Did he have one? Upon what was Jesus sacrificied? The Highpriest placed the lamb on the altar and placed its blood upon the four corners of the alter to cleanse it. Jesus represented the Highpriest and the lamb( w76 4/15 p. 240 par - above)
There had to be blood spilled. The lamb cleansed the altar and made atonement by way of itsblood. But there was more! The blood had to be placed upon the 4 corners of the altar to accomplish this.
One is forced to ask the question -if the Sacrificial Lamb upon its altar symbolized jesus, and so much attention was paid to the altar upon which the Lamb was sacrificed to the point that its inlcusion in the sacrifice was necessary for atonement, then in what way was Jesus blood placed upon His altars 4 corners? And what did that accomplish?
Where did Jesus bleed? Mounted to a cross he would have had peirced hands and feet - splattering blood on "3 corners" - BUT - with the placement of the crown of thorns (!) we now have blood on all 4 corners of the cross!
For a torture stake their is simply no connection between it and its anticedant.
If Stuaros can mean both "stake" and "cross", and cross was used in Greek at the time of Christ even secularly, and Romans were pagan thus justifying the use of a Pagan symbol, and the cross matches seemlessly the type/antitype relationship between the altar and the cross - THEN HOW CAN ONE CLAIM THAT "STAKE" IS A MORE ACCURATE GUESS THAN CROSS???!!!???!!
Oh BTW - FYI - the altar was "unclean". The unclean "pagan" cross would have been cleansed by that sacrifice in the same way the altar had to be cleansed by the sacrifice. For the WTS to point to the "unclean" pagan use of the cross does not discredit its propriety, but only serves to enhance it!!
Is the cross an unclean pagan symbol? ANSWER: not any more! It was the altar of Christ - cleansed by his sacrifice.