Expert: Janko - 1/11/2005

Question
My response, you have this free choice stuff all wrong... Those J.W.'s who have died in error have no choice now... Charles Taze Russell, Judge Rutherford, and Nathan Norr (just to name a few) deceived many before they entered into a cold and Christless eternity... Their minds have been changed, but they cannot return and to you (Luke 16:19-31). They have no choice... You do Janko... But you won't respond to the Scriptures I've sent you? Your literature is in error... John 20:25 the translators didn't change this passage because the "cross" was not mentioned... The picture on your literature shows ****Jesus died on a pole or stake****... And your translators changed every original terms used were "CROSS"... But man is not able to change every thing without leaving some (evidence)... Janko, PLEASEEEE! ***(Answer this question with your translation of John 20:25)***... Read John 20:25 carefully... The pictures in your literature shows (1) nail thru Christ's hands... John said, "nails" plural and "hands" plural... technical mistake... Good enough for those who would turn their backs on that "False Prophet" and embrace Jesus as Savior...

Lastly, you may think you have a choice... But you don't... Paul said in Philippians 2:9-11:

2:9
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
2:10
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
2:11
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.

Since, Paul said, There is only one Jehovah (LORD) (1 Cor. 8:5-6)... Jesus LORDSHIP will be acknowledged by Believers and Non-Believers...

Either as Savior and LORD on this side or Judge and LORD on the other side... The later will have to lament eternally of this reality because the price for rejecting His Son will cost those an eternity:
1. For rebellious man to pay the penalty of their sins that the didn't allow Christ to pay will cost them a life time...
2. And if you think that The Father would allow His Son to suffer as He did mockery, humilation, pain in order that men would get off with a mere annilation and no memory of their sin, is absurd and un-Biblical... Rev. 1:7...
3. He did all He could to extend His grace, rejectors Jesus said will pay..Luke 16:19-31..

You may not bow now... Nor next week... Nor next month... But you see friend YOU! Will! BOW! The Father is not going to help you... John said in John 5:22... Jesus, the one your organization demoted, belittled, and kept millions from recognizing Him, will Judge righteously and justly in that day... You have a choice now, but Isaiah said, 55:6
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
They may have some light... But the Good News, Janko, is the only sufficient Light you need for now and eternity is Jesus... The Bad News is Jehovah's witnesses don't have enough light...  

Answer
You keep forgetting the BIG PICTURE.Past mistakes just as the Israelites are all forgiven and we now are God's Special
Property or Possession that you and all the rest of false religion will have to face up to very shortly.We are the only true Christians on the earth who are no part of this wicked world as we have conquered it along with our Master
Christ Jesus.Not you or anyone who believes as you do can change these facts which you will continue deny until your demise.The early Israelites and early Christians along with the apostles of Jesus made numerous mistakes that they were and we were totally forgiven of.

· Is it correct to conclude from John 20:25 that Jesus was impaled with a separate nail through each hand?

The Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, by M'Clintock and Strong, comments:

‘Much time and trouble have been wasted in disputing as to whether three or four nails were used in fastening the Lord. Nonnus affirms that three only were used, in which he is followed by Gregory Nazianzen. The more general belief gives four nails, an opinion which is supported at much length and by curious arguments by Curtius. Others have carried the number of nails as high as fourteen.'—Volume II, page 580.

Matthew 27:35 merely says: “When they had impaled him they distributed his outer garments by casting lots.” Little detail is given, as in Mark, Luke and John. After Jesus' resurrection, Thomas said: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will certainly not believe.” (John 20:25) So even though criminals sometimes were bound to a stake with ropes, Jesus was nailed. Some have also concluded from John 20:25 that two nails were used, one through each hand. But does Thomas' use of the plural (nails) have to be understood as a precise description indicating that each of Jesus' hands was pierced by a separate nail?

In Luke 24:39 the resurrected Jesus said: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” This suggests that Christ's feet also were nailed. Since Thomas made no mention of nailprints in Jesus' feet, his use of the plural “nails” could have been a general reference to multiple nails used in impaling Jesus.

Thus, it just is not possible at this point to state with certainty how many nails were used. Any drawings of Jesus on the stake should be understood as artists' productions that offer merely a representation based on the limited facts that we have. Debate over such an insignificant detail should not be permitted to becloud the all-important truth that “we became reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”—Romans 5:10.• In view of Thomas' statement in John 20:25, was Jesus impaled with a nail through each hand?—J. B., Taiwan (Republic of China).

After Jesus' resurrection he appeared to some of the disciples, but the apostle Thomas was not present. When told what had occurred, Thomas responded: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will certainly not believe.” (John 20:25) Since Thomas mentioned nails (plural), some have wondered whether a nail was hammered through each of Christ's hands.

If we read just the Bible accounts of the actual impalement, we would know very little about how Jesus was impaled. The Gospel writers state only that he was impaled or fastened to the stake. They do not say in their accounts of the impaling how this was accomplished, whether by Christ's being transfixed with the stake forced through part of the body, by being tied to the pole or by being nailed to it.—Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:25; Luke 23:33; John 19:18.

However, following Jesus' resurrection, Thomas' comment in John 20:25 indicates clearly that Jesus' hands were nailed to the stake. But in what way? We do not know. The Bible does not say whether his hands were nailed one on top of the other with a single nail through them both, or side by side with a separate nail through each. If the latter was the case, Thomas' remark could be understood as applying only to Jesus' hands.

There is, though, another possibility that cannot be ruled out. Many scholars believe that a nail or nails pierced Jesus' feet, fixing them to the post directly or to a small platform attached to the stake. Jesus himself may have referred to wounds in his hands and his feet on another occasion when he appeared to the disciples. So as to convince them that he really was the resurrected Jesus, he said: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” (Luke 24:39) Thomas did not specifically mention Jesus' feet. But his comment about “the print of the nails” may have included Christ's hands and feet, though only the hands were named.

Often in the Watch Tower Society's publications Jesus has been illustrated as being impaled with a single nail through his two hands and another nail piercing his two feet. This is only an artist's conception, but it is quite possible that this is how Jesus was impaled.

While such technical matters are of some interest, the major thing to keep in mind about Jesus' death is what it accomplished. One point is that it ended the obligation to keep the Mosaic law, for God took “it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake.” (Col. 2:14) By his integrity to God even during the agony and death on the stake, Jesus proved that out of love humans can serve Jehovah faithfully no matter what temptations and pressures Satan brings. And Jesus' death on the stake provided the ransom, the price to release believing mankind from bondage to sin and
Cross

Definition: The device on which Jesus Christ was executed is referred to by most of Christendom as a cross. The expression is drawn from the Latin crux.

Why do Watch Tower publications show Jesus on a stake with hands over his head instead of on the traditional cross?

The Greek word rendered “cross” in many modern Bible versions (“torture stake” in NW) is stau·ros´. In classical Greek, this word meant merely an upright stake, or pale. Later it also came to be used for an execution stake having a crosspiece. The Imperial Bible-Dictionary acknowledges this, saying: “The Greek word for cross, [stau·ros´], 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.

Was that the case in connection with the execution of God's Son? It is noteworthy that the Bible also uses the word xy´lon to identify the device used. A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott, defines this as meaning: “Wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, etc. . . . piece of wood, log, beam, post . . . cudgel, club . . . stake on which criminals were impaled . . . of live wood, tree.” It also says “in NT, of the cross,” and cites Acts 5:30 and 10:39 as examples. (Oxford, 1968, pp. 1191, 1192) However, in those verses KJ, RS, JB, and Dy translate xy´lon as “tree.” (Compare this rendering with Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23.)

The book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . 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.”—Pp. 23, 24; see also The Companion Bible (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.

Thus the weight of the evidence indicates that Jesus died on an upright stake and not on the traditional cross.

What were the historical origins of Christendom's cross?

“Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples . . . The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times and among non-Christian peoples may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship.”—Encyclopædia Britannica (1946), Vol. 6, p. 753.

“The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.

“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolised to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.

“The cross in the form of the ‘Crux Ansata' . . . was carried in the hands of the Egyptian priests and Pontiff kings as the symbol of their authority as priests of the Sun god and was called ‘the Sign of Life.'”—The Worship of the Dead (London, 1904), Colonel J. Garnier, p. 226.

“Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus.”—A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.

“These crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god, [See book], and are first seen on a coin of Julius Cæsar, 100-44 B.C., and then on a coin struck by Cæsar's heir (Augustus), 20 B.C. On the coins of Constantine the most frequent symbol is [See book]; but the same symbol is used without the surrounding circle, and with the four equal arms vertical and horizontal; and this was the symbol specially venerated as the ‘Solar Wheel'. It should be stated that Constantine was a sun-god worshipper, and would not enter the ‘Church' till some quarter of a century after the legend of his having seen such a cross in the heavens.”—The Companion Bible, Appendix No. 162; see also The Non-Christian Cross, pp. 133-141.

Is veneration of the cross a Scriptural practice?

1 Cor. 10:14: “My beloved ones, flee from idolatry.” (An idol is an image or symbol that is an object of intense devotion, veneration, or worship.)

Ex. 20:4, 5, JB: “You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Notice that God commanded that his people not even make an image before which people would bow down.)

Of interest is this comment in the New Catholic Encyclopedia: “The representation of Christ's redemptive death on Golgotha does not occur in the symbolic art of the first Christian centuries. The early Christians, influenced by the Old Testament prohibition of graven images, were reluctant to depict even the instrument of the Lord's Passion.”—(1967), Vol. IV, p. 486.

Concerning first-century Christians, History of the Christian Church says: “There was no use of the crucifix and no material representation of the cross.”—(New York, 1897), J. F. Hurst, Vol. I, p. 366.

Does it really make any difference if a person cherishes a cross, as long as he does not worship it?

How would you feel if one of your dearest friends was executed on the basis of false charges? Would you make a replica of the instrument of execution? Would you cherish it, or would you rather shun it?

In ancient Israel, unfaithful Jews wept over the death of the false god Tammuz. Jehovah spoke of what they were doing as being a ‘detestable thing.' (Ezek. 8:13, 14) According to history, Tammuz was a Babylonian god, and the cross was used as his symbol. From its beginning in the days of Nimrod, Babylon was against Jehovah and an enemy of true worship. (Gen. 10:8-10; Jer. 50:29) So by cherishing the cross, a person is honoring a symbol of worship that is opposed to the true God.

As stated at Ezekiel 8:17, apostate Jews also ‘thrust out the shoot to Jehovah's nose.' He viewed this as “detestable” and ‘offensive.' Why? This “shoot,” some commentators explain, was a representation of the male sex organ, used in phallic worship. How, then, must Jehovah view the use of the cross, which, as we have seen, was anciently used as a symbol in phallic worship?
“JESUS DIED ON A ‘CROSS'”

“I know Jesus died on a cross,” one may say. “I've read it many times.”

But, much to the surprise of many persons, there is nothing in the Bible that indicates that the stake on which Jesus was executed had a crossbar. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary. Louis Réau, the famed French authority on religious art, wrote: “The Gospels tell us nothing specific about the shape of the cross. The Greek word stauros can mean a simple post, and does not imply, as the Latin crux does, the crossing of two beams. It seems that originally Christ was represented attached to a post.”—See Acts 5:30; 10:39.

The “cross” was a religious symbol long before the time of Christ. A French Catholic dictionary admits: “It cannot be denied that the cross had been employed as a religious symbol by the pagans. It is found in different forms on a large number of Asiatic, European, and even American monuments.”

Since the Bible gives no description of its shape, and the Greek words the Bible used meant “stake,” “post” or “tree,” rather than “cross,” then the burden really rests upon those who say that the post that Christ died upon had a crossbeam to prove that it did. And since no “cross worship” was described in the writings of Jesus' apostles, but this was a “sacred” symbol to the pagans, its worship cannot be recommended for true Christians today.