stauros

Being obviously derived in part from the word stauros, which primarily signified a stake or pale which was a single piece of wood and had no cross-bar, _sustauroo_ evidently meant affixion to such a stake or pale.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

As our Scriptures were written in Greek and were written in the first century A.C., the vital question is what the word stauros then meant, when used, as in the New Testament, without any qualifying expression or hint that other than an ordinary stauros was signified.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

Even as late as the Middle Ages, the word stauros seems to have primarily signified a straight piece of wood without a cross-bar.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

For various as are the different forms of 'death by the stauros' of which descriptions have come down to us from pre-Christian ages and the first three centuries of our era, no relic of that date bears a representation of an instrument of execution such as we cause to appear in our sacred pictures, and even if, regardless of the more exact meaning of the word stauros, we suppose the term staurosis to have included every form of carrying out the extreme penalty by means of affixion or suspension, we meet with no description of such an instrument of execution as we picture.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

Taking the whole of the foregoing facts into consideration, it will be seen that it is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as "cross" when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting "cross" in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

Granting, however, as all must, that most if not all of the earlier of the Fathers, and certainly all the later ones, rightly or wrongly interpreted the word stauros as meaning something cross-shaped, let us, remembering that this does not dispose of the question whether they rightly or wrongly so interpreted it, in this and the next two chapters pass in review the references to the cross made by the Fathers who lived before Constantine's march upon Rome at the head of his Gaulish army.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

That this last named kind of stauros, which was admittedly that to which Jesus was affixed, had in every case a cross-bar attached, is untrue; that it had in most cases, is unlikely; that it had in the case of Jesus, is unproven.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

It is also probable that in most of the many cases where we have no clue as to which kind of stauros was used, the cause of the condemned one's death was transfixion by a pointed stauros.

The Non-Christian Cross An Enquiry into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion John Denham Parsons

Pur, stauros, thēria, sunklasis osteōn, kai tōn melōn diaspasmos, kai pantos tou sōmatos suntribē, kai basanoi tou diabolou eis eme elthōsin, hina Iēsou Christou apolausō.

Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost 1616-1683 1965

Pur, stauros, thēria, sunklasis osteōn, kai tōn melōn diaspasmos, kai pantos tou sōmatos suntribē, kai basanoi tou diabolou eis eme elthōsin, hina Iēsou Christou apolausō.

Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost 1616-1683 1965