Toto

Perhaps you need help in framing a Google search. This particular issue has been the subject of much comment - I think the wikipedia article is a good introduction.

Do not dismiss an argument because it is associated with Jehovah's Witnesses - their research can be good on basic linguistic issues like this.

If you want the summary, xylon means tree, but also is used for a wooden pole. Stauvos means stake (made of wood.) Crucifixion was gruesome and not necessarily always done the same way.

The reference to killing Jesus and hanging him on a tree (or pole) makes sense because a dead body would just hang there - this was the punishment described in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, if you are going to crucify a live person, you might need some extra cross board to hold the arms up, to prolong the agony, and there are ancient descriptions of crucifixions that refer to this cross board.

The words themselves are ambiguous, and the gospels are not specific. Scholars have written dissertations and books on the issue.

I have to ask why you ask this question, and if you care about the answer, why you can't even click on a link that gives you the information you want with full references and footnotes? What is missing?

Duvduv

What I was specifically Googling was on the ambiguity of the terms and whether the section in Sanhedrin 43a was ever translated into Greek. That's what I had trouble with.

Duvduv

I assume that in history the Christian clergy had taught that he was put on a cross and not a stake or a pole. I see that the verb stauroo can mean many things besides being placed on a cross but is ordinarily translated as crucify in English.
Was there ever a point in history when this was not so clear among Christians?
I presume from what I have read that the Greek rendering of what appears in the Talmud in Sanhedrin 43a would also use the ambiguous stauro as a root although of course Yeshu was not described as having been put on a cross.
It appears that stauros is the preferred word in the gospels asnd epistles, but in Acts both stauros and xylon are used.

Toto

Not in ancient history.

I can't think of any reason for the Talmud to be translated into Koine Greek. By the time it was written, Koine Greek was no longer the common language.

You could check the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 21:22, the basis for the "hanging on a tree."

Duvduv

Unfortunately I am not proficient enough in the Greek alphabet, but I don't think I see there the word stauros.
22 ἐὰν δὲ γένηται ἔν τινι ἁμαρτία κρίμα θανάτου καὶ ἀποθάνῃ καὶ κρεμάσητε αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ξύλου

stephan huller

Aramaic is equally ambiguous. There are a few terms which mean to impale or to raise and have been translated as 'crucified on a cross' as we see in the English translation of Targum Neofiti:

http://books.google.com/books?id=UQb...page&q&f=false

Duvduv

I guess the bottom line is that it is impossible to know whether the original understanding from the earliest years was actually crucifixion, although some archeological relics suggest that it was understood that way.

Toto

???

The earliest Christians seem to have assumed a crucifixion, although they did refer to the Deuteronomy passage. There are no archaeological relics of the event.

Duvduv

I wasn't referring to relics of the event but rather to symbols and representations.

stephan huller

The Epistle of Barnabas says it was T shaped. That's pretty convincing