The Tree - Crucifixion

 

Jesus was crucified on a tree with a thief and His left side and a thief on His right side.

Prophecy:

Deuteronomy 21:22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Fulfillment.

Acts 5:3 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.

Acts 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.

Acts 13:28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. 29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead.

Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

The cross Jesus transported was only the upper crosspiece

which was nailed to a larger and more substantial support. It was to this board plank that Jesus' arms or his wrists were affixed, and what Simon of Cyrene carried the final distance to Golgotha. Such crosspieces associated with crucifixions were given a technical name in Latin. This upper part of the cross was called a patibulum.

The Patibulum

When Golgotha was finally reached, Jesus then had his arms or wrists nailed to the patibulum. Both he and the patibulum were then hoisted upwards and the crosspiece was nailed to some substantial stock of wood large enough to support the person being crucified. It was also common to bend the victim's legs upwards and nail the feet to the stock of wood itself. Sometimes a wood block was attached to the main support near the midsection of the body on which the buttocks of the victim could rest.

There were also two robbers who were crucified with him. There can hardly be any doubt that the same procedure of crucifixion was adopted for them. This would mean that the two robbers were each affixed to an individual patibulum, and then each patibulum was nailed to a large stock of wood. But what kind of wooden support was this that Jesus had his patibulum and his feet nailed to? The Bible shows that it was something entirely different from what most people believe today.

The Stauros

In in the early second century. Ignatius referred to the stauros as a tree, and was alive and that it even bore fruit (Smyr. 1 :2) and that it had branches (Trall. 11). In the writings oflgnatius he said it was believed that the instrument of death on which Jesus was crucified represented the Tree of Life which was mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:7; 22:2,14), and of course that Tree of Life was a living xylon (tree) just as the apostles Peter and Paul said Jesus was crucified on a similar xylon (tree). There is no doubt that Christians up to the middle of the second century knew Jesus was crucified on a literal tree. Melito of Sardis consistently said the cross of Jesus was a tree. He said: 

Just as from a tree came sin, so also from a tree came salvation (New Fragment, III.4).

Early Christian art indicates a close relationship between the tree of life and the cross. The cross of Christ, the wood of suffering and death, is for Christians a tree of life. In the tomb paintings of the 2nd century it is thus depicted for the first time as the symbol of victory over death. It then recurs again and again. The idea that the living trunk of the cross bears twigs and leaves is a common motif in Christian antiquity" (Kittel, Theological Dictionary, Vol.V)

It may be surprising but the apostle John shows that Jesus and the two robbers were crucified together on ONE TREE, not on three separate trees. Notice what he recorded.

"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies [note the plural, BODIES] should not remain on the STAUROS [singular] on the sabbath day (for that day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs" (John 19:31-33).

σταυρός Staurós, stow-ros'; from the base of G2476; a stake or post (as set upright), i.e. (specially), a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment); figuratively, exposure to death, i.e. self-denial; by implication, the atonement of Christ:—cross.