by Mark McFall

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society teaches that the cross is not a valid Christian symbol and that Jesus did not die on a cross but a "torture stake." I expect that many of you reading this article have encounter such an assertions made by a Witnesses standing at your door. The question is, how do you respond to such a claim?

The first step in understanding why this statement is made is to know that every where your Bible uses the word "cross," their Bible uses the word "stake." To confirm their position they will use partial quotes and references from scholars that seem to back up their claim that the Greek word stauros in the New Testament means "stake" or "pole" instead of its true meaning "cross." They also will say, "stauros" in both the classical Greek and Koine carries no thought of a "cross" made of two timbers, but instead it carries the notion of only an upright stake, a pale, pile, or pole.¹

 When the Greek lexicons are checked, however, one finds this is not the case. Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament states: "...a stake sunk into the earth in an upright position; a cross-piece was often attached to its upper part, so that it was shaped like a T or thus +². Let’s look at a few more Lexicon entries for "cross" (Stauros):

Friberg AGNT Lexicon:
"Stauros" lit. cross, an instrument of capital punishment, an upright pointed stake, oft. w. a crossbeam above it, or intersected by a crossbeam³.

Louw-Nida Lexicon:
["Stauros"] a pole stuck into the ground in an upright position with a crosspiece attached to its upper part so that it was shaped like a 'cross.'.....reference is probably to the crosspiece of the cross, which normally would have been carried by a man condemned to die⁴.

Barclay Newman Greek Dictionary and Thayer’s Lexicon both read simply: "Stauros" Cross^{5, 6}.

The Watchtower Society not only claims that Christ did not die on a cross, they further state that there is no evidence that a cross with a crossbeam was ever even used by Romans during the first century. They claim the stake was "the then customary usage of this means of execution in the Orient."⁷ They maintain, "The evidence is, therefore, completely lacking that Jesus Christ was crucified on two pieces of timber placed at right angles...The passing of time and further archaeological discoveries will be certain to prove its [torture stake] correctness."⁸ This last quote that I have underlined was first published in 1969. In 1968, perhaps at the same time the claim was being written, a discovery was made in a dig in Jerusalem that challenges the Watchtower’s argument. This was so devastating to their position, that in the later 1985 edition of the same appendix of the Kingdom Interlinear, the Society discontinued the claim that archaeology would vindicate their claim. I would like to reproduce both the 1969 and 1985 editions of their appendix here for your documentation when encountering a Witness on this:

This is the 1969 edition, notice on the right where the arrow is pointing the claim is made.

This below is the 1985 edition of the same appendix, with-out the claim that "further archaeological discoveries will be certain to prove its correctness."

What was it that happened that so impacted the archaeological world and caused the Watchtower to remove its claim. Well, in 1968 the remains of a crucified man named Yehoanan were unearthed in Jerusalem dating to the time of Christ.

The book, Archaeological Commentary on the Bible states: "Both heals had been pierced by a single large and crude iron nail. His open arms had been nailed in the way shown in the traditional crucifixion paintings..."⁹

Often in apologetic arguments such as the one I am making in quoting such an esteemed book that proves that he was nailed to a cross rather than a stake, IN THE WORD ministries has at times run into problems of logic used by other apologist. Meaning how can this archaeological discovery prove that his hands were spread apart in the traditional way? The book Archaeological Commentary on the Bible assumes that the hands were spread apart suggesting a cross. One of the education goals of this ministry, is to teach its readers to examine the evidence for your-selves (notice the evidence pictured below ¹⁰), simply quoting scholarly authoritative sources does not always mean that your case has been proven. The weight that this book carries in the archaeological world was enough for the Watchtower to discontinue their claim that "The passing of time and further archaeological discoveries will be certain to prove its [torture stake] correctness."

Although either "cross" or "stake" could be right without in any way affecting the fact that Jesus Christ was Crucified, there remains one more reasonable possibility. The very heavy and cumbersome upright post/stake may have already been in place, and it was the cross-section that is described as being carried to the site with Jesus. Once there, our Savior was nailed to the horizontal beam which was then lifted up and fastened to the upright stake, thereby forming the cross - the symbol of our Savior's Sacrifice.

So where do we go from here?

We have strong Biblical basis for assuming a cross beam:

NAS John 20:25 The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails [plural], and put my finger into the place of the nails [plural], and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.

You will notice in this passage the word "nails," this is in the plural suggesting each hand was nailed seperately to a cross beam. You might also notice in JW literature images of Jesus hanging on a cross with one (singular) nail through his wrist/hands. In the Kingdom Interlinear, on page 1150 their version of the cross/stake is presented by Justus Lipsiusin¹¹ (A.D. 1547 - 1606) in his book "De cruce libritres" (A.D. 1629, page 19). A smart Jehovah Witness will probably point out that the image of that person on the cross in their Kingdom Interlinear is not Jesus, this is correct. If you consult the Watchtower pamphlets 12, or any Watchtower books like the one pictured above (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 170) you will see this same image depicting Christ nailed to the cross by "one nail." This seems to go against what the Apostle John (who was an eyewitness; 1 John 1:1) saw and what the Apostle Thomas (Matt 10:3) examined (John 20:27), and what they saw was more than one nail, requiring Christ’s hands to be spread apart.

Footnotes

1) Insight on the Scriptures, (Brooklyn, NY: Watctower Bible and Tract Society, 1988): 2:1116; 1:1190.

2) Walter Bauer, William Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-Enclish Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Page 772.

3) BibleWorks 4.0 program.

4) Ibid.

5) Ibid.

6) Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Page 586.

7) "Did Christ Die on a Cross?" Watchtower, March 15 (1957), p. 57. The Society is quoting Hermann Fulda, The Cross and Crucifixion.

8) The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, 1969 edition, p. 1157.

9) Gonzalo Baez-Camargo, Archaeological Commentary on the Bible, (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1984): 211. Note: This evidence indicates that the man was crucified with his legs bent at the knee rather than outstretched as in traditional crucifixion portraits.

10) V. Tzaferis, "Jewish Tombs at and Near Giv'at ha-Mivtar," Israel Exploration Journal 20:31, 1971. In 1968 a 1^st Century Jewish tomb was accidentally uncovered North of Jerusalem. A Jewish ossuary bearing the inscription" Johohanan son of HGQWL" contained the skeletal remains of a man in his twenties who had been crucified. The nail through the heel bone was bent, making it difficult to remove prior to burial. This is the only physical evidence of crucifixion that has been recovered to date.

11) The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Edition, says: "Lipsius and other writers speak of the single upright stake to which criminals were bound as a cross, and to such a stake the name of crux simplex has been applied."

12) "What God Has Promised," Awake! April 8 (1974), p. 14.