01-23-2012, 06:27 AM
Just to add something to the discussion and certainly not to get into any modern religious discussion, there is the text at Mat 27:40. There the original Greek word used is "stauros" which in classical Greek meant an upright stake or pale. Both the apostle Peter and Paul used the word "xylon" which also means an upright stake with no cross beam. In Latin a single stake for impalement of a criminal was called a "Crux simplex" and has been extensively portrayed in art as a simple upright stake. Here is a photo I took at the Capitoline museum in Rome of a condemned man tied to a simple upright stake. Granted it is not Christ but it does display the horrific death experienced by those condemned.
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"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones"
Antony
The good is oft interred with their bones"
Antony
