Here is the Sunday School lesson I taught this Sunday. Jehovah's Witnesses argue that Jesus died on an upright stake with no crossbeam. His hands were nailed together above his head. This is because the Greek words stauros and xulon only mean one piece of timber.

They're actually right about what those words literally mean. Does that mean Jesus didn't die on a cross? Let's look at some evidence from the Bible and historical works before Constantine that strongly suggest a cross beam.

Sources Cited:

"Did Jesus Die on a Cross?" JW.org.

New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., s.v. "Cross, Crucifixion" (pp. 245-246).

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, vol. 1., s.v. "Cross."

E. W. Bullinger, The Companion Bible, Appendix 162 ("The Cross and Crucifixion").

William Wood Seymour, The Cross in Tradition, History, and Art (pp. 54,64,73,75).

Frederick Zugibe, The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry, 2nd ed. (New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2005), 104.

"The Epistle of Barnabas," NewAdvent.org.

"Dialogue with Trypho (Chapters 89-108)," NewAdvent.org.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Book VII.

Artemidorus Daldianus, Oneirocritica 1:76.

Lucian, Trial in the Court of Vowels, 12.4-13.