Crucifixion: Bible: 3 Important Verses to look at closely: Acts: Was Jesus killed on a tree or on a stake?
[The above image is what impaling was normally like. This post relates to what Dr Christian Lindtner told me. I found these verses in Acts, which Dr Lindtner had pointed me to. I’ve put in screenshots from Biblehub where they show many different translations for each verse. Dr Lindtner said that the original Sanskrit word was a stake – that Jesus was impaled on a stake. You can see in Acts, that the translations do not all agree on the idea of a “cross” but that they mention a “tree” instead in many cases. They talk about Jesus being taken down from a tree. I’ve put the links to the url where I took the screen shots. I found 3 instances of this – but, there might be more. Jan]
Source: https://biblehub.com/acts/5-30.htm
Source: https://biblehub.com/acts/10-39.htm
the new testament is written in the Hellenistic (Attic) koine, made common by Alexander the Great. The Greek text at Acts 5:30 is ΚΡΕΜΑΣΑΝΤΕΣ ΕΠΙ ΞΥΛΟΥ — they hung him up on wood. Xylon is not wood in nature but wrought or prepared wood — especially firewood or timber ; they hung him on timber is probably the correct translation, so compatible with a stake or a wooden cross wrought for crucifixion, but not a tree.
10:39 has the same phrase : ΚΡΕΜΑΣΑΝΤΕΣ ΕΠΙ ΞΥΛΟΥ
13:29 where they take him down, the phrase is ΚΑΘΕΛΟΝΤΕΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΥ ΞΥΛΟΥ, so still the same sort of wood.
The old Greek for tree is ΔΕΝΔΡΟΝ or ΔΕΝΔΡΟΣ, whence English words like dendrochronology