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Re: Crucifixion in Josephus

On Thu, 21 Jul 1994, Peter Marksteiner wrote:

> There is a passage in Josephus' Jewish war (B. 5,446-451) from which a little
> bit may be deduced how crucifixions were carried out:
> In this passage, the Greek word for cross is "stauros". Admittedly, it does not 
> tell us whether "stauros" is a stake, a Latin cross, a T-shaped or an X-shaped
> cross or something else, but it shows that there was no fixed procedure so
> that presumably a cross could be any of the above. 

Yes, that is precisely the conclusion to which I have come regarding the
use of _stauros_ in the NT, and I have not been able to find any strong
evidence to the contrary.  The prevalent interpretation of _stauros_ as a
"Latin cross" seems to be the result of developed tradition with possible
influence from Egypt and the cross-like symbol of life (_ankh_).
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