This is the time of year Christians remember the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. This event includes his death on the cross, his burial, and his resurrection. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection are crucial to our faith. The Apostle Paul said, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).”
The truth of the death, burial, and resurrection is of first importance. It is foundational, fundamental, pivotal, and indispensable to our faith.
Now, if you are a Bible-believing Christian you probably accept the tradition that Jesus was nailed to a cross, but did you know that people with different religious backgrounds have different beliefs about the cross?
Very briefly, I’ll examine three views that oppose the traditional Christian view, and then I’ll examine the Bible.
First, Muslims do not believe Jesus was crucified on a cross. The Quran (An-Nisa’ 4:157-158) states: “But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. . . They certainly did not kill him. Rather God raised him up to himself.”[1]
Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, said: “Muslims believe that Jesus (peace be upon him) was not crucified. Allah saved and raised him, and someone else was crucified in his place.”[2]
Although there are variations, this statement reflects the beliefs of most Muslims.
Jehovah’s Witnesses also challenge the traditional Christian view of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was nailed to a cross. They believe he was nailed to a wooden post. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation says: “And those passing by spoke abusively to him, shaking their heads and saying: “Ha! You who would throw down the temple and build it in three days, save yourself by coming down off the torture stake (Mark 15:29-32).”
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe Jesus died on a cross because they believe the cross is a pagan symbol.
Another group of people who do not believe the traditional story of Jesus’ crucifixion are those who question the Bible’s historical reliability. They may be secular people or religious people. The thing they have in common is their doubts about the traditional view that Jesus was nailed to a cross. Some of them believe he was tied with ropes.
In his article, Nails or Knots—How Was Jesus Crucified? Jeffrey P. Arroyo García says: “Crucifixion was a common form of punishment in the Roman world. Yet when ancient texts and archaeological evidence are examined together, it appears that nailing a victim to a cross may not have been as common as most people think. And it might have been introduced in Judea only after the time of Jesus.”[3]
García and others like him suggest that Jesus was fastened to the cross with ropes.
Christian tradition says that Jesus was nailed to a cross. However, we follow the Bible, not traditions. The Bible even warns us about following tradition. Jesus says that people who follow tradition may be in danger of making “void the word of God by your tradition (Mark 7:13).”
We must follow the Bible not traditions. So, what does the Bible say about the cross and Jesus’ crucifixion?
Before we look at the Biblical evidence concerning Jesus’ crucifixion, we should examine a few secular literary sources. From these Greek and Latin writings, we find that the Romans executed criminals on various kinds of wooden structures. The words used to describe these wooden structures are: σταυρός, stauros; ξύλον, xulon, and patibulum. A stauros simply means wooden stake or pole. For example, the Bible says that God forgave “our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross [the stauros] (Colossians 2:13-15)”. In Latin, stauros is translated as crux, an instrument of torture. Roman historians and orators used the Latin word crux to describe crucifixion. Crux means a wooden frame on which criminals were crucified, especially a cross.
ξύλον, xulon, is the Greek word for wood or tree. Acts 5:30 says: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree [ξύλον, xulon].”
The crossbeam of the cross was called a patibulum. Concerning the carrying of the crossbeam, the patibulum, Ruben van Wingerden, professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands says, “cross-bearing in the ‘classical’ sense of carrying a patibulum is found in… four sources [that] stretch from the third century BCE to the start of the first century CE.”[4] Therefore, we can conclude that carrying a patibulum as part of the cross of crucifixion was common for at least three-hundred years. This evidence negates Jehovah’s Witnesses’ claim that a stauros only meant a wooden post, pole, or stake. Both the Latin word crux and the Greek word stauros were used to describe a cross-like frame on which criminals and rebels were executed.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the Romans used more than one type of stauros when they executed rebels. Josephus said that the Jews caught outside the walls of Jerusalem “were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city… the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest.”[5]
In addition, the first-century Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger, wrote that crucifixion took different forms: “I see before me crosses not all alike, but differently made by different peoples: some hang a man head downwards, some force a stick upwards through his groin, some stretch out his arms on a forked gibbet.”[6]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that soldiers crucified a slave “having stretched out both his arms and fastened them to a piece of wood which extended across his breast and shoulders as far as his wrists.”[7] Dionysius used the word “xulon” for the horizontal “patibulum.”
The Epistle of Barnabas reflects the author’s belief that the cross was shaped like the Greek letter tau, which is a “T” (Barnabas 9:7).
Although extra-biblical writings are helpful to understand the historical use of crosses, the most important source of our beliefs comes from the Bible.
The four Gospels simply say that Jesus was crucified (Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:25; Luke 23:33; John 19:18). The Romans used at least two kinds of posts to crucify people: An upright wooden post and a post with crossbars or crossbeams. Those with crossbeams could be in the shape of an X or in the shape of a T.
Although there is no definitive verse that tells us the shape of the cross, there is evidence that suggests it was in the shape of a T. The Bible says that Jesus carried his cross: “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him (John 19:16-18).”
Most Bible scholars believe that Jesus did not carry the main post of the cross. They believe that he carried the crossbeam, the patibulum. Craig Keener, for example, says: “A condemned criminal normally carried his own patibulum, or transverse beam of the cross, to the site of the execution, where soldiers would fix the patibulum to the upright stake (palus, stipes, staticulum) that they regularly reused for executions.”[8] This fact is recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch who said: “The malefactor who is to be crucified carries his cross with his own body [i.e. on his back].”[9]
Because Jesus carried at least part of the cross, I believe the wooden frame on which Jesus was was more than a single post as Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. I believe it had a crossbar. But was it in the shape of an X or a T?
John 19:19 says, “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ ”
But where on the cross did they hang the inscription? Matthew 27:37 says, “And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ ”
The inscription was hung above his head. Therefore, the only shape of the cross could be a T shape. This shape is the only shape described by early Christians.
But was he nailed or tied with ropes?
The Bible gives us compelling evidence that Jesus was nailed to the cross. Luke tells us that after his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to his disciples.
But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet (Luke 24:37-40).
The fact that Jesus showed his disciples his hands and his feet is strong evidence that he showed them wounds in his hands and feet to prove he was Jesus. The only reasonable conclusion is that these wounds would have been made by being pierced by nails.
During one of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples, Thomas was absent. When those who saw Jesus told Thomas about the appearance, Thomas replied:
Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:25-29).
Again, these are wounds. How did he receive wounds in his hands that Thomas could put a finger through? Wounds made with nails.
Finally, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus was crucified with nails. Paul said that God forgave “our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).
When the Romans nailed Jesus to the cross, he became our sin-bearer. 1 Peter 2:24 says that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
In conclusion, the Bible shows us that Jesus carried at least part of his cross. Historians and early Christians describe this part as the crossbeam of the cross. The Bible also indicates that Jesus bore wounds in his hands and feet that were made by nails.
The death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead is the basis on which God is able to forgive our sins. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Have you put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Believe in him today. Turn from your sin and believe that when he died, he died for you, and God will forgive your sins and give you new life.
[1] The Clear Quran. Editors: Abu-Isa Webb, Aaron Wannamaker, Hisham Sharif. Translated by Mustafa Khattab. Book of Signs Foundation. 2016
[2] Kutty, Ahmad. Do Muslims Believe Jesus Was Crucified? In About Islam. https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/muslim-creed/was-jesus-crucified/. 28 December 2024. Internet accessed: March 31, 2025.
[3] Arroyo García, Jeffrey P. “Nails or Knots—How Was Jesus Crucified?” Biblical Archaeology Review 51.1 (2025): 54–58. Online at: Biblical Archaeology Society Library. https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/nails-or-knots-how-was-jesus-crucified/. Internet Accessed April 7, 2025.
[4] van Wingerden R. Carrying a patibulum: A Reassessment of Non-Christian Latin Sources. New Testament Studies. 2020;66(3):433-453. doi:10.1017/S0028688519000481. Online at Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2020. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-testament-studies/article/carrying-a-patibulum-a-reassessment-of-nonchristian-latin-sources/6CFB251146E39995D5A088540E4DCFDA. Internet accessed: April 7, 2025.
[5] Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 5.11.1
[6] Seneca the Younger, “To Marcia on Consolation,” in Moral Essays, 6.20.
[7] Roman Antiquities, VII, 69:1-2
[8] Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John: a commentary, Vol. 2. Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. p. 1134.
[9] Plutarch, On the Delay of The Divine Justice, paragraph 9. Andrew P. Peabody, ed.; Andrew P. Peabody, trans.; Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1885. Available online by Project Gutenberg. Ebook, December 30, 2018. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58567/58567-h/58567-h.htm. Internet accessed April 9, 2025.
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