The God Culture: The Old Rugged Stake
Having realized that his first video about the cross was inadequate Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has returned to give his audience a primer on the Greek work stauros. Like the previous video it is very short running at 16 minutes and is not as in-depth as he thinks.
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| The Greek Stake: How Did the Greeks Use the Word Stauros in 16 MINUTES |
Right away the problem with this video reveals itself in the title: "How did the Greeks use the word Stauros." Tim goes on to cite men who lived long before the Roman Empire such as Homer, Euripides, Thucydides, and Herodotus to prove that the Greeks always used stauros to mean a stake and never a t-shaped cross. But their testimony is not relevant as the REAL question is what Greek word would be used to indicate a Roman execution on a t-shaped cross.
Tim gets close to answering that question when he cites the testimony of Seneca who was a citizen of the Roman Empire.
9:48 However, very close to Yahusha's time, about 30 years or so after, very close, 65 AD Seneca the Stoic writes in Latin not Greek but he does something very telling. He lists different instruments of death and here he lists the Roman Crux or cross. Right? Oh but it's separately from a different implement of execution called the stake. A different Latin word pallus. Oops. In the same sentence. These are not the same thing. They are not synonymous as many try to say because because they are not the history is fraud.
This guy never ceases to amaze. Here is the full quote:
Picture to yourself under this head the prison, the cross, the rack, the hook, and the stake which they drive straight through a man until it protrudes from his throat.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_14
First of all Senca is writing in Latin and not Greek as even Tim notes so his testimony should not even be included in a video about a Greek word.
Second of all the stake Sencea writes about is not a pole someone is tied to but one which is thrust through a man's anus and out of his throat! And even Tim says Jesus was not impaled. So this instrument of execution would not even apply to Jesus Christ. Of course there is a difference between being nailed to a t-shaped cross or stake and being impaled.
Seneca is of no help to us at all.
Who is of help is Justin Martyr. In the Dialogue with Trypho he writes:
God does not permit the lamb of the passover to be sacrificed in any other place than where His name was named; knowing that the days will come, after the suffering of Christ, when even the place in Jerusalem shall be given over to your enemies, and all the offerings, in short, shall cease; and 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.
The Greek word being translated as cross is "σταυροῦ". Which is the same Greek word translated "cross" in the New Testament. Here is the Greek of Justin:
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| https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1874#p41235 |
The image of the roasted lamb with it being roasted on two sticks, one across the back and the other from the lower parts to the head, is clearly that of a cross. To describe a cross Justin used Stauros which can mean pole but in this case clearly does not.
Tim ends by showing a picture of how Jesus was "staked."
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| At the stake, at the stake where I first saw the light |
Can anyone tell me what is missing from this picture?
There is NO INSCRIPTION ABOVE HIS HEAD!
Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 19:20 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
21 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
If Jesus was nailed to a stake with his arms above his head and not crucified arms akimbo on a t-shaped cross where would there be room for this writing which was placed on the cross? It would have to have been very large since it was written in three languages whose letters were big enough for everyone to read.
Once again Timothy Jay Schwab has failed to make any case for Jesus dying on the old Rugged Pole. He asks "How did the Greeks use the word Stauros" when the proper question is what Greek word would be used to describe a Roman crucifixion.
The testimony of men who did not live under the Roman Empire and witness a crucifixion is irrelevant. Seneca, who makes a difference between crucifixion and impalement, is also no good because he is writing in Latin. But at least we learn from him there is a difference between crucifixion and impalement on a stake. Note that Seneca does not say tied or nailed to a stake but IMPALED on it which absolutely does not apply to Jesus Christ.
Being that this was another short video there will likely be more on the topic from Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture.
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