Titus....Why did you start a second thread on the same subject. Please see my comments here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/195232/1/Jesus-did-not-die-on-the-cross-Gunnar-Samuelsson
In Koine Greek [the new testament is written in Koine Greek which is Hellenistic] stauros means an upright stake with a cross beam above it, or two intersecting beams of equal length, or a vertical, pointed stake.
As I mentioned in the other thread, the physical form of the execution apparatus is not part of the word's meaning (other than a wooden object standing upright). It is more accurate to describe the word's history in these terms: first in early classical Greek (i.e. prior to c. 450 BC), stauros referred to a standing wooden timber or stake, as used in buildings, fences, and palisades. Then in later classical Greek and in koine Greek, a technical sense developed: stauros now referred to a particular kind of execution involving suspension on a wooden apparatus, as well as the device used in this kind of execution. This sense should be distinguished from the first. If the word refers to an execution apparatus, the fact that stauros originally meant "stake" does not mean that the execution apparatus must be a simple "stake". The form could be whatever the executioner wanted it to be, and in the case of Roman crucifixion, a crossbeam was very often used.
If Christ was killed on just an upright stake the writers of the new testament would probably have used the word Skolops.
Skolops is the word that evokes the image of the vertical pointed stake (as it also means "thorn"), but stauros could refer to the crux simplex as well; this is probably the case in Greek references to Persian crucifixion which probably did not involve crossbeams (the patibulum was a Roman invention). Also it should not be forgotten that the verbal form of skolops was interchangeable with the verbal form of stauros (so, for instance, Lucian used the verbal form of skolops to refer to crucifixion on a two-beamed cross).
Further evidence against the torture stake idea can be found in John 20;25 when Jesus is discribed as having prints of the nails in his hands.
This would contradict with Watchtower depictions of crucifixion on a crux simplex, but there is no reason why both hands need to be pierced by a single nail. We simply don't know how the Romans crucified people in the absence of patibula, so the value of this reference is somewhat ambiguous.
There is no evidence at all that Christ was killed on a stake, but plenty of art depicting Jesus on a cross. Additional archaeological evidence to support the crucifixion has been unearthed in the city of Herculaneum where a whitish stuccoed panel shows the imprint of a large cross, probably metallic, that had been removed...Before it are the remains of a small wooden alter charred by the lava from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79A.D.
This is debatable. This imprint is believed by some to have been left by a cabinet or shelf. Nor is there independent evidence that the residents of the apartment were Christian.
