necessarily refer to hanging by the neck, and simply meant suspended in
some way or other. And in the second place the word translated "tree,"
though that always used in referring to what is translated as the
"_Tree of Life_," signified not only "tree" but also "wood."

It should be noted, however, that these five references of the Bible to
the execution of Jesus as having been carried out by his suspension
upon either a tree or a piece of timber set in the ground, in no wise
convey the impression that two pieces of wood nailed together in the
form of a cross is what is referred to.

Moreover, there is not, even in the Greek text of the Gospels, a single
intimation in the Bible to the effect that the instrument actually used
in the case of Jesus was cross-shaped.

Had there been any such intimation in the twenty-seven Greek works
referring to Jesus, which our Church selected out of a very large
number and called the "New Testament," the Greek letter _chi_, which
was cross-shaped, would in the ordinary course have been referred to;
and some such term as _Kata chiasmon_, "like a chi," made use of.

It should also be borne in mind that though the Christians of the first
three centuries certainly made use of a transient sign of the cross in
the non-Mosaic initiatory rite of baptism and at other times, it is, as
will be shown in the next two chapters, admitted that they did not use
or venerate it as a representation of the instrument of execution upon
which Jesus died.

Moreover, if in reply to the foregoing it should be argued that as it
is well known that cross-shaped figures of wood, and other lasting