Why do religious leaders insist Jesus was executed on a cross, when he was not? It is either they do not know what they should know, or they are complicit with promoting an untruth.
When reading the Bible it must be pointed out, it was not written in English, it was translated into English from Hebrew and Greek. The two Greek words used by the writers of the New Testament to describe the instrument upon which Jesus was executed were "stauros" and "xylon". All reputable Biblical historians agree (footnote), the Greek word "stauros signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling." The Greek word xylon meant "tree". In fact, KJ, RS, JB, and Dy translations recognize "xylon" to mean "tree" as written in Galatians 3:13, where it says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree..." Acts 5:30 concurs, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree..." along with Acts 10:39, "And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree..."
The English word "cross", which refers to a stake with a crossbeam, is wrongly used in translating "stauros", which has already been pointed out means an upright, single stake.
The truth of the matter is, the "cross" was a pagan symbol. To pagan Rome, the "cross" represented the sun-god they called "Sol Invictus"--"Invincible Sun", whose birthday was on December 25, which was celebrated during their Saturnalia. Constantine worshipped the "Invincible Sun". It was during his reign that a corrupt form of Christianity was established and made the state religion of the Roman Empire.
(footnote)--The Imperial Bible-Dictionary states, "The Greek word for cross, [stau·rosʹ], properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [fencing in] a piece of ground. . . . Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole."—Edited by P. Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376.
The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: "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..."
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