Stauros Explained

Stauros (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: [[wiktionary:σταυρός|σταυρός]]) is a Greek word for a stake or an implement of capital punishment. The Greek New Testament uses the word stauros for the instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, and it is generally translated as "cross" in religious texts, while also being translated as pillar or tree in Christian contexts.

Etymology

The word stauros comes from the verb ἵστημι (histēmi: "straighten up", "stand"), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh2-u- "pole",[1] related to the root *steh2- "to stand, to set"[2]

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".[3]

In older Greek texts, stauros means "pole" and in Homer's works is always used in the plural number, never in the singular.[4] Instances are attested in which these pales or stakes were split and set to serve as a palisade pig sty by Eumaeus in the Odyssey or as piles for the foundation of a lake dwelling on the Prasiad Lake recounted by Herodotus.[5] [6]

From stauros was derived the verb ; this verb was used by Polybius to describe execution of prisoners by the general Hannibal at the siege of Tunis; Hannibal is then himself executed on the same stauros.[7] Also from stauros was the verb for impalement: anastaurizo .[8] The fifth century BC writer Ctesias, in a fragment preserved by Photios I of Constantinople in his Bibliotheca, describes the impalement of Inaros II by Megabyzus in these terms.[9] [10] Thucydides, also in the fifth century, likewise described the execution of Inaros in this way.[11] [12] The practice was called anastaurosis .[13] [14] 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 by the satrap of Lydia, Oroetus, as anastaurosis.[15] According to the authoritative A Greek–English Lexicon, the verbs for "impale" and "crucify" (or:) are ambiguous.[16] [17] Plato refers to the punishment, in his dialogue Gorgias, using anastauroó.[18] Plutarch, 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.[19] [20] Usually, Plutarch referred to stauroi in the context of pointed poles standing upright.[21]

From the Hellenistic period, Anastaurosis was the Greek word for the Roman capital punishment crucifixion . Polybius reports the crucifixion of a Carthaginian general by his own soldiers using the verb ἀνασταυρόω, while Plutarch, using the same verb, describes Hannibal as having thus executed his local guides in his Life of Fabius Maximus, though it is unclear what kind of "suspension punishment" was involved.[22] [23] In the first century BC Diodorus Siculus describes the mythical queen Semiramis as threatened with 'crucifixion' .[24] 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.[25] [26] 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 stauros (σταυρός) is not mentioned.[27]

Interpretation

Nineteenth-century Anglican 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".[28] In 1877 Bullinger wrote:[29]

Nineteenth-century Free Church of Scotland theologian Patrick Fairbairn's Imperial Bible Dictionary defined stauros thus:[30]

Henry Dana Ward, a Millerite Adventist, claimed that the Epistle of Barnabas, which may have been written in the first century and was certainly earlier than 135,[31] [32] said that the object on which Jesus died was cross-shaped, but claimed that the author of the Epistle invented this concept.[33] He likewise defined a stauros as a plain stake.

A similar view was put forward by John Denham Parsons in 1896.[34]

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:[35]

Chapman stresses the comparison with Prometheus chained to the Caucasus Mountains 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.[36] Presbyterian 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.[37] Anglican theologian David Tombs suggests the stauros referred to the upright part of a two-beam cross, with patibulum as the cross-piece.[38] Similar statements are made by Jack Finegan,[39] Robin M. Jensen,[40] Craig Evans,[41] Linda Hogan and Dylan Lee Lehrke.[42]

See also

Notes and References

  1. [Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]
  2. [Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]
  3. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2396298 Liddell and Scott: σταυρός
  4. http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/crux002.pdf Gunnar Samuelsson, Crucifixion in Antiquity, Mohr Siebeck 2011, p. 241
  5. Web site: Homer (c.750 BC) - The Odyssey: Book XIV. www.poetryintranslation.com. 2020-04-19.
  6. Web site: Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, chapter 16. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  7. Web site: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, σταυρ-όω. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  8. Web site: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Α α,, ἀνασπογγίζω, ἀνασταυρ-ίζω. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  9. Book: Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity. 2013. Mohr Siebeck. 978-3-16-152508-7. 273. en.
  10. Ctesias of Cnidus, FGrH 3c, 688 F 14.39
  11. Book: Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity. Mohr Siebeck. 2013. 978-3-16-152508-7. 59–61. en.
  12. Book: Thucydides, ''Historiae'', I:110:3. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, Volume I: Books 1-2.. Harvard University Press. 1919. Loeb Classical Library 108. Cambridge, MA. 184–185. Smith. C. F.. 10.4159/DLCL.thucydides-history_peloponnesian_war.1919.
  13. Book: Schiemann, Gottfried (Tübingen). Brill's New Pauly. 2006. 9789004122598. Cancik. Hubert. Damnatio in crucem. 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e12223450. Schneider. Helmuth.
  14. Web site: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ἀνασταύρ-ωσις. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  15. Book: Herodotus, ''Historiae'', III:125. Herodotus. The Persian Wars, Volume II: Books 3-4. Harvard University Press. 1921. Loeb Classical Library 118. Cambridge, MA. 154–155. Godley. A. D.. 10.4159/DLCL.herodotus-persian_wars.1920.
  16. Web site: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ἀνασταυρ-όω. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  17. Web site: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ἀνασκολοπ-ίζω. www.perseus.tufts.edu. 2020-04-19.
  18. Book: Plato, ''Gorgias'', 473C. Plato. Lysis. Symposium. Gorgias.. Harvard University Press. 1925. Loeb Classical Library 166. Cambridge, MA. 348–349. Lamb. W. R. M.. 10.4159/DLCL.plato_philosopher-gorgias.1925.
  19. Book: Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity. 2013. Mohr Siebeck. 978-3-16-152508-7. 42–43. en.
  20. Book: Plutarch, ''Artaxerxes'', XVII. Lives, Volume XI: Aratus. Artaxerxes. Galba. Otho. General Index.. Harvard University Press. 1926. Loeb Classical Library 103. Cambridge, MA. 166–167. Perrin. Bernadotte. 10.4159/DLCL.plutarch-lives_artaxerxes.1926.
  21. Book: Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity. 2013. Mohr Siebeck. 978-3-16-152508-7. 277. en.
  22. Book: Polybius, ''Historiae'', I:86. Polybius. The Histories, Volume I: Books 1-2.. Harvard University Press. Revised by F. W. Walbank and Christian Habicht. Christian. Habicht. F. W. Walbank. 2010. Loeb Classical Library 128. Cambridge, MA. Paton. W. R.. 10.4159/DLCL.polybius-histories.2010.
  23. Plutarch, Fabius, VI. 1916. translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Lives vol. III. Fabius Maximus. Loeb Classical Library 65. Harvard University Press. 136–137. 10.4159/dlcl.plutarch-lives_fabius_maximus.1916.
  24. Book: Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca historica'', II:18. Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, Volume I: Books 1-2.34.. Harvard University Press. 1933. Loeb Classical Library 279. Cambridge, MA. 408–409. Oldfather. C. H.. 10.4159/DLCL.diodorus_siculus-library_history.1933.
  25. Book: Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity. 2013. Mohr Siebeck. 978-3-16-152508-7. 273–274. en.
  26. Lucian of Samosata, de morte Peregrini, XIII. 1936. The Passing of Peregrinus. Loeb Classical Library 302. Harvard University Press. 14–15. 10.4159/dlcl.lucian-passing_peregrinus.1936.
  27. [Pseudo-]Lucian of Samosata, Iudicium Vocalium, XII.. 1913. translated by A. M. Harmon. The Consonants at Law. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA. LCL 14. 408–409. 10.4159/dlcl.lucian-consonants_law.1913.
  28. Book: Bullinger, E. W.. The Companion Bible. Oxford University Press. 1999. 9780825420993. Enlarged Type. 1970 & Appendix 162. 1922.
  29. [E. W. Bullinger]
  30. The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, edited by Patrick Fairbairn (London, 1874), Vol. I, p. 376.
  31. Book: John Dominic Crossan. The Cross that Spoke: The Origins of the Passion Narrative. 1 March 2008. Wipf and Stock Publishers. 978-1-55635-819-7. 121.
  32. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/barnabas.html Early Christian Writings: Epistle of Barnabas
  33. Book: Henry Dana Ward. History of the Cross: The Pagan Origin and Idolatrous Adoption and Worship of the Image. 1 April 2007 . reprint. Cosimo, Inc.. 978-1-60206-330-3. 27.
  34. Book: Parson, John Denham. The non-Christian cross; an enquiry into the origin and history of the symbol eventually adopted as that of our religion. 1896. London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton Kent & co., ltd..
  35. Book: Chapman. Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion. Mohr Siebeck. 2008. 978-3-16-149579-3. 11.
  36. Book: Chapman. Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion. Mohr Siebeck. 2008. 978-3-16-149579-3. 11–12.
  37. Book: John Granger Cook. Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World. 10 December 2018. Mohr Siebeck. 978-3-16-156001-9. 5–8.
  38. Book: Tombs, David. https://books.google.com/books?id=nR71BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA185. Religion and the Politics of Peace and Conflict. Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2009. 978-1-63087-823-8. Hogan. Linda. 185. Prisoner Abuse: From Abu Ghraib to The Passion of the Christ. Lehrke. Dylan Lee.
  39. Book: Jack Finegan. The Archeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church - Revised Edition. 14 July 2014. Princeton University Press. 978-1-4008-6318-1. 350–352.
  40. Book: Robin M. Jensen. The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy. 17 April 2017. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-08880-1. 15–17.
  41. Book: Craig Evans. Jesus and his World: The archaeological evidence. 17 February 2012. SPCK. 978-0-281-06794-7. 58–59.
  42. Book: Linda Hogan. Religion and the Politics of Peace and Conflict. Dylan Lee Lehrke. 1 January 2009. Wipf and Stock Publishers. 978-1-63087-823-8. 185.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stauros".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.