''Stauros'' () is a
Greek word for a stake or an implement of capital punishment. The Greek
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
uses the word ''stauros'' for the
instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, and it is generally translated ''
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...
'' in Christian contexts. This article covers the use of the word for ''other'' contexts.
Etymology
The word ''stauros'' comes from the verb ἵστημι (''histēmi'': "straighten up", "stand"), which in turn comes from the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
root *''steh
2-u-'' "pole", related to the root *''steh
2-'' "to stand, to set"
In Antiquity
In ancient Greek ''stauros'' meant either an "''upright
pale'' or ''stake''", a "''cross'', as the instrument of crucifixion", or a "''pale for impaling'' a corpse".
[Liddell and Scott: σταυρός](_blank)
In older Greek texts, ''stauros'' means "pole" and in Homer's works is always used in the plural number, never in the singular. Instances are attested in which these pales or stakes were split and set to serve as a
palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade.
Etymology
''Palisade ...
pig
sty
A sty or pigsty is a small-scale outdoor enclosure for raising domestic pigs as livestock. It is sometimes referred to as a hog pen, hog parlor, pigpen, pig parlor, or pig-cote, although pig pen may refer to pens confining pigs that are kep ...
by
Eumaeus
In Greek mythology, Eumaeus (; Ancient Greek: Εὔμαιος ''Eumaios'' means 'searching well') was Odysseus' swineherd and friend. His father, Ktesios son of Ormenos was king of an island called Syra (present-day Syros in the Greek islan ...
in the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Iliad'', ...
'' or as piles for the foundation of a
lake dwelling on the
Prasiad Lake recounted by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...
.
From ''stauros'' was derived the verb ; this verb was used by
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
to describe execution of prisoners by the general
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...
at the
siege of Tunis; Hannibal is then himself executed on the same ''stauros''. Also from ''stauros'' was the verb for
impalement: ''anastaurizo'' ().
The fifth century BC writer
Ctesias, in a fragment preserved by
Photios I of Constantinople
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
in his
''Bibliotheca'', describes the impalement of
Inaros II by
Megabyzus in these terms.
Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
, also in the fifth century, likewise described the execution of Inaros in this way. The practice was called ''anastaurosis'' ().
As described by Herodotus in the fifth century BC and by
Xenophon of Ephesus in the second century AD, ''anastaurosis'' referred to
impalement.
Herodotus described the execution of
Polycrates of Samos
Polycrates (; grc-gre, Πολυκράτης), son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant.
Sources
The main source for Polycrates' life and activi ...
by the
satrap
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.
The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with cons ...
of
Lydia
Lydia ( Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish pro ...
,
Oroetus, as ''anastaurosis''.
According to the authoritative ''
A Greek–English Lexicon'', the verbs for "impale" and "crucify" (, or: ) are ambiguous.
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
refers to the punishment, in his dialogue ''
Gorgias
Gorgias (; grc-gre, Γοργίας; 483–375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several ...
,'' using ''anastauroó''.
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, at the beginning of the second century AD, described the execution on three stakes of the eunuch Masabates as ''anastaurosis'' in his ''Life of
Artaxerxes''.
Usually, Plutarch referred to ''stauroi'' in the context of pointed poles standing upright.
From the
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
, ''Anastaurosis'' was the Greek word for the Roman capital punishment
crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
().
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
reports the crucifixion of a
Carthaginian general by his own soldiers using the verb ἀνασταυρόω, while Plutarch, using the same verb, describes
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...
as having thus executed his local guides in his ''Life of
Fabius Maximus'', though it is unclear what kind of "suspension punishment" was involved.
In the first century BC
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which ...
describes the mythical queen
Semiramis as threatened with 'crucifixion' ().
Diodorus elsewhere referred to a bare bronze pole as a ''stauros'' and no further details are provided about the ''stauros'' involved in the threat to Semiramis.
Lucian of Samosata instead uses the verb ''anaskolopizo'' to describe the crucifixion of Jesus.
Elsewhere, in a text of questionable attribution, Lucian likens the shape of crucifixions to that of the letter T in the final words of ''
The Consonants at Law - Sigma vs. Tau, in the Court of the Seven Vowels''; the word σταυρός is not mentioned.
Interpretation
Nineteenth-century
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
theologian
E. W. Bullinger's ''Companion Bible'' glossed ''stauros'' as "an upright pale or stake", interpreting crucifixion as "hung upon a stake ... ''stauros'' was not two pieces of wood at any angle". In 1877 Bullinger wrote:
Nineteenth-century
Free Church of Scotland theologian
Patrick Fairbairn's ''Imperial Bible Dictionary'' defined ''stauros'' thus:
Henry Dana Ward Henry Dana Ward (January 13, 1797 - February 28, 1884) was an American preacher, abolitionist, anti-Masonic campaigner, and Millerite Adventist.
Early life
Ward was born in 1797 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts to Thomas and Elizabeth Ward. He was ...
, a Millerite Adventist, claimed that the
Epistle of Barnabas
The ''Epistle of Barnabas'' ( el, Βαρνάβα Ἐπιστολή) is a Greek epistle written between AD 70 and 132. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century ''Codex Sinaiticus'', where it appears immediately after the New Testament ...
, which may have been written in the first century and was certainly earlier than 135, said that the object on which Jesus died was cross-shaped, but claimed that the author of the Epistle invented this concept. He likewise defined a ''stauros'' as a plain stake.
A similar view was put forward by
John Denham Parsons
John Denham Parsons (1861 – 14 September 1936) was an English writer and Shakespeare authorship theorist.
Biography
Parsons was a proponent of the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship.Friedman, William F; Friedman, Elizabeth S. (1957). ''T ...
in 1896.
In the 20th century,
William Edwy Vine also reasoned that the ''stauros'' as an item for execution was different to the Christian cross. ''
Vine's Expository Dictionary''
's definition states that ''stauros'':
In the 21st century, David W. Chapman counters that:
Chapman stresses the comparison with
Prometheus chained to the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
made by the second century AD writer Lucian.
Chapman identifies that Lucian uses the verbs άνασκολοπίζω, άνασταυρόω, and σταυρόω interchangeably, and argues that by the time of the Roman expansion into Asia Minor, the shape of the ''stauros'' used by the Romans for executions was more complex than a simple stake, and that cross-shaped crucifixions may have been the norm in the Roman era.
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
theologian John Granger Cook interprets
writers living when executions by ''stauros'' were being carried out as indicating that from the first century AD there is evidence that the execution ''stauros'' was normally made of more than one piece of wood and resembled cross-shaped objects such as the letter T. Anglican theologian David Tombs suggests the ''stauros'' referred to the upright part of a two-beam cross, with ''patibulum'' as the cross-piece. Similar statements are made by Jack Finegan, Robin M. Jensen, Craig Evans, Linda Hogan and Dylan Lee Lehrke.
See also
*
Christian cross
*
Descriptions in antiquity of the execution cross
*
Instrument of Jesus' crucifixion
*
Staurogram
The staurogram (⳨), also monogrammatic cross or ''tau-rho'', is a ligature composed of a superposition of the Greek letters tau (Τ) and rho (Ρ).
Early occurrence and significance
The symbol is of pre-Christian origin. It is found on cop ...
* Staurology, or
Theology of the Cross
*
Stavros, the modern Greek name derived from ''stauros''
References
{{Reflist
New Testament Greek words and phrases
Cross symbols