From: Notes on the Gospels, critical and exegetical. St. Matthew
By Samuel Albert Griffiths 1879
"They crucified Him.”—The cross was an upright beam, intersected by a transverse one at right angles, generally in the shape of a T. In this case from the title being placed over the head, the upright piece probably projected above the horizontal one. To this cross our Saviour, being stripped of His clothes, was fastened by nails, driven through His hand and feet (although the feet were not always nailed). The body was not supported entirely by the nails, but rested on a piece of wood as a seat (sedilia) lest the hands should be torn from the nails. The upright post would only be sufficiently high to raise the body a foot or two from the ground.
In the preceding note I have given the common and traditional interpretation of the kind of cross used at the Crucifixion. But I ought to say that the Greek word STAUROS literally means a “pole” or “stake," and is generally used in this sense by Greek writers. So that it is quite possible, or I may say probable, that Jesus was crucified on a bare, upright stake or pole without any transverse beam, which would also entail less labour and trouble on the Romans, who commonly used this kind of death punishment.
From: Simon, Son of Man: A Cognomen of Undoubted Historicity By John Ira Riegel, John H. Jordan 1917
The word stauros, in classical Greek does not at all mean “cross,” but “stake,” “pole,” or “pale.” The word stauroein usually translated “to crucify,” meant in Attic Greek merely “to drive stakes," “to impalisade.” Only in ecclesiastical Greek has it come to designate one of the Roman methods of execution, “to gibbet,” “impale,” or “crucify.” It is not improbable that a temporary stauroma, a pale or palisaded enclosure, made of stauroi, or stakes, and which embraced a sanis, a scaffold or stage, with a trap door, was erected at the place of execution. Upon the trap door the condemned man was pushed out (anothein), and at the word, “Aphete!” “Let go!” the trap door was sprung and the unhappy victim was hurled down the Tarpeian rock.
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