The Greek word used in the New Testament to designate the instrument on which Christ was put to death is stauros, which all lexicographers admit means a stake, and not a cross. As there is no word in the Greek language to signify a cross, it has been assumed that stauros may be translated by the word cross, for the following reasons:—
The Romans put some of their criminals to death by nailing them to stakes. This was done by raising the arms of the criminal above his head, and there nailing up his hands, and then nailing his feet to the lower part of the stake. Other criminals the Romans put to death by putting them on an upright beam, with a transverse piece of wood, to which the extended arms were fastened by nails put through the hands. This is a cross. The historian Livy, who wrote before the birth of Christ, confounded these two kinds of instruments, by using the word crux, a cross, to signify a stake, without any transverse beam. Further, the impaling of a man's body by placing it on a sharp pointed stick was, by ancient authors, sometimes called crucifixion. Hence it has been alleged that the Greek word stauros, a stake, may be translated cross, on the assumption that there is no evidence in the Scriptures to show that this is a wrong translation.
DO THE SCRIPTURES WARRANT THIS ASSUMPTION?
Although the Greek language contains no word for a cross, the word stauros, a stake, is not the only word used in the New Testament to indicate the instrument on which Christ was put to death; it is also designated by the word xulon, tree. But here we are met by another assumption men have made, namely, that the word xulon does not literally mean a tree, but wood, and that tree may be a figurative meaning for a cross.
IS THIS WARRANTED BY THE GREEK LANGUAGE?
When we look at a large number of trees growing together, we call them, in our language, a wood; but the Greeks had a special name for trees growing, namely, dendron. This word occurs twenty-six times in the New Testament, and in every instance it refers to a living tree, and never to a tree that has been cut down. Again, the word xulon, tree, occurs nineteen times in the New Testament, and in every instance but four it is applied to trees that have been cut down. The four exceptions to the rule are in Rev. 22:2-14, and Luke 23:31. Again, there is the Greek word xulinos, which expressly means wood, or things made of wood. It occurs in 2 Tim. 2:20, and Rev. 9:20. Seeing that a cross is an instrument manufactured of wood, and that it is not a tree, the fact of the word xulon, tree, being applied to designate the instrument on which Christ was put to death, and not xulinos, wood, shows that the writers of the New Testament knew that it was not a cross, hut xulon, a tree, namely, stauros, a stake, the stem of a dead tree, on which Christ was put to death.
The foregoing evidence is sufficient proof that Christ was put to death on a stake or tree, and not on a cross; if it were not that, three of the instances of xulon in the New Testament have, by the translators of the Hampton Court version of 1611, and by the Westminster translators of 1881, been translated wood instead of tree. It is therefore necessary to investigate what the Scriptures teach us as to the meaning of the word xulon. Of the nineteen instances of the word xulon, it is unnecessary to refer specially to the four cases of it already noticed as being in Rev. 22: 2-14, and Luke 23:31, as these texts unmistakably show that the word there means a living green tree, and not a dead one. What we are to examine is the proofs that all the other instances of xulon, tree, are applied to dead trees.
In Rev. 18: 11,12, xulon is twice translated by the word wood in the versions of 1611 and 1881, therefore, a new translation of these verses is necessary. But, before making it, attention is required to a very proper marginal alteration made in the version of 1881. It is the word cargo, which is twice given instead of the word merchandise. Of course, the translators of 1881 don't give their reason for this change, but the cause of it is to be found in Acts 21:3, where the same Greek word is translated burden, which manifestly means the cargo of the ship. This has an important bearing on the meaning of Rev. 18: 11, 12, for of the various things there mentioned, each of them is as to quantity, intended to mean a ship's cargo. The last of them (verse 13) is "a cargo of bodies and souls of men," namely, a cargo of slaves.
There is another word in Rev. 18: 12, which requires to be noticed before giving a new translation of the verse, namely, skuos, which is twice translated vessel, both in the version of 1611 and that of 1881; but this translation is a mistake. In Acts xxvii. 17, the same word is translated sail in the version of 1611; and in that of 1881 it^is made gear. Whatever skuos means in the said verse, the context shows that it refers to something that was lowered down from having been above the heads of Paul and his companions in the ship. The same word occurs again in verse 19; it is there translated tackling in both the versions of 1611 and 1881. Now, the tackling of a ship includes every kind of thing on board it that lies above its deck, a great number of articles, a plurality, whereas the Greek word used is the accusative singular, and therefore cannot mean a plurality of articles, such as the tackling of a ship. The true meaning of the word skuos, as here used, is the yard, a long tree on which the sail was stretched. It was first lowered down, and after there was no hope of the ship being saved, the men threw it overboard.
The foregoing translation of the word skuos agrees with the information which has been handed down to us, about the ships which the Greeks and Romans had in Paul's time. We have tolerably accurate representations of them on coins and monuments, so that we know with certainty, that the ships in Paul's day had one mainmast near the middle of the vessel. On this mast there was, hoisted up by its centre, a tree, which reached horizontally across the ship. This large tree our sailors call a yard, or spar; on this yard, the main-sail, a large square piece of cloth, was fastened by its top edge, the rest of the sail hung down towards the deck of the vessel, and was there fastened with ropes. It is therefore manifest that when the yard was lowered down, it brought the sail along with it, and then the wind thereafter could have comparatively little effect on the ship. It was this yard, skuos, which was first lowered down, and as it was a tree of great length, it was very heavy, and therefore, was ultimately thrown overboard to lighten the ship, when there was no hope of saving her. The foregoing translation of the word skuos, by that of yard, or spar, enables us to understand more clearly the meaning of Rev. 18: 11, 12, of which the following is a new translation:—
"And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, because their [ships'] cargo no one buys any more. Cargo of gold, and of silver, and of precious stones, and of pearl, and of fine linen, and of purple, and of silk, and of scarlet, and of every thyine tree, and of every tusk of ivory, and of every spar of most valuable tree."
It is only necessary to add, that the word skuos, translated vessels, in connection with ivory, in the version of 1611 and 1881, is manifestly wrong, because ship loads of ivory were in old times, and are in our day, brought in the form of various kinds of tusks. If the reader should feel inclined to cavil at the translation thyine tree, and most valuable tree, and, instead thereof, wish to make them thyine wood, and most valuable wood, he must bear in mind that he is precluded from doing so by the Greek, for the word in the verse is not xulinos, wood, but xulon, tree. These are valuable for spars when the stem is straight, without any bend in it.
I now turn to 1 Cor. 3:12, which, in the version of 1611, is made-—"If any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble." The version of 1881 follows the old version in having the word wood, but this is a blunder, for the Greek word is not xulinos, wood, but xula, tree, and is the accusative plural, trees. "If any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, trees, hay, stubble."
Turn now to Acts 16:24—-"And made their feet fast in the stocks." So read the versions of 1611 and 1881, but there is a mistake here, for the stocks which were used in Great Britain consisted of two logs, or stems of trees, one laid on the top of the other, and the prisoners' legs were fastened by being put between them. Now, if Luke, when writing the Acts of the Apostles, thought of these two stems of trees, laid one on the other, he would have used the plural word xula, but he does not do so, he employs the singular words, to xulon, the tree, showing that what Paul and Silas had their feet fastened to was one log, the stem of a tree.
There now remain for examination five texts, Matt. 26: 47, 55, Mark 16: 43, 48, Luke 22:52, in all of which the plural word xuloon, is translated "staves." It would have been more accurate to have translated it by our word clubs, which are stems of young trees. I have now gone over all the instances of this word in the New Testament, except the five texts where it is used regarding the instrument on which Christ was put to death. One of these is Gal. 3: 13—-"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," which is a reference to Deut. 21: 22, where the criminal was hanged, not on a cross, but literally on a tree, and corroborates the exclusive nature of the meaning which the Scriptures attach to the word xulon, a tree, namely (except the four texts wherein it is applied to living trees), in all texts it means a portion of the straight stem of a tree deprived of its branches. In Acts 16: 24, it was the stem of a tree to which the feet of Paul and Silas were fastened. In the five texts, Matt. 26: 47, 55, Mark 14: 43, 48, Luke 22: 52, the word xuloon means clubs, namely, the stems of young trees deprived of their branches. And in Rev. 18: 11, 12, xulon is used for ships' cargoes of the stems of trees deprived of their branches. The one cargo being that of thyine trees, the other of spars for making ships' yards, which are dead trees deprived of their branches.
The information we have now derived from the Scriptures stands thus:-—First, a cross is a stem of a tree to which men had manufactured artificial branches, and therefore it came under the category of things called wooden, namely, xulinos, so that if Christ had been put to death on a cross, the word xulinos, with some other Greek word conjoined, would have been employed to designate the cross. Second, the word xulon is used to designate the instrument on which Christ was put to death. Now the Scriptures teach us that xulon means a dead tree without branches, whereas a cross has artificial branches, therefore it is impossible that Christ could have been put to death on a cross. Third, the Scriptures tell us that Christ was put to death on stauros, a stake. Now a stake is a dead tree deprived of its branches, hence the two independent words which the Scriptures apply to the instrument on which Christ was put to death, stauros, a stake, or tree without branches, and xulon, a tree without branches, support and corroborate one another in proving that it was not a cross on which Christ died.
The cross was an emblem of various heathen religions for many centuries before Christ came into the world. It was the most common mark of heathenism at the time the Apostle John wrote in the Apocalypse about the mark of the beast, which is therein foretold was to be a mark of apostacy. And the cross was never used as an emblem of Christianity until it was employed in the false Christianity of the Popes. The tradition that Christ was put to death on a cross originated with the Papacy, and cannot be traced to an earlier date than about the death of Constantine. Hence it is wrong to represent that Christ was put to death on the heathen emblem a cross, by translating the word stauros by that of cross, instead of its right meaning, a stake, and thereby leading to the obscuration of the prophecy about "the mark of the beast" (Rev. 16:2, 19: 20), as fulfilled by the heathen mark of the cross being the mark and an object of worship of that antiChrist, the Papacy.
First published, 6th June 1881.
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