Re: what is 'this hope'?
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 9:55 pm
My guess is that the source of the "stake" translation comes from Jehovah's Witnesses as Brenden suspects.
Lexicons all translate "σταυρος" as "cross." The Online Bible program lexicon says:
I think JWs render it "torture stake" only to be different from all the "religionists." I don't think there is any other reason to so translate it.
The early Christians understood "σταυρος" to be a cross.
"Barnabus" wrote:
Justin Martyr in his "Dialogue with Trypho" made the following statements:
Lexicons all translate "σταυρος" as "cross." The Online Bible program lexicon says:
I know of no translation other than the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses that translate the word other than "cross."A cross, a well known instrument of most cruel and ignominious punishment, borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians; to it were affixed among the Romans, down to the time of Constantine the Great, the guiltiest criminals, particularly the basest slaves, robbers, the authors and abetters of insurrections, and occasionally in the provinces, at the arbitrary pleasure of the governors, upright and peaceable men also, and even Roman citizens themselves.
I think JWs render it "torture stake" only to be different from all the "religionists." I don't think there is any other reason to so translate it.
The early Christians understood "σταυρος" to be a cross.
"Barnabus" wrote:
If Barnabus had thought that "σταυρος" was a stake, he would have suggested the letter I (iota)....the cross was to express the grace [of our redemption] by the letter Τ (tau)...
Justin Martyr in his "Dialogue with Trypho" made the following statements:
1. And the human form differs from that of the irrational animals in nothing else than in its being erect and having the hands extended...and this shows no other form than that of the cross.
2. Which things Plato reading, and not accurately understanding, and not apprehending that it was the figure of the cross, but taking it to be a placing crosswise, he said that the power next to the first God was placed crosswise in the universe.
3....that lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.