crucify

The Greek that is translated into English as “crucify” is translated in various ways:

  • Naro: xgàu or “to stretch” (as is done with a skin after slaughtering in order to dry it. The word is also widely accepted in the churches.) (Source: Gerrit van Steenbergen)
  • Balinese / Toraja-Sa’dan: “stretch him” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Rendille: lakakaaha or “stretched and nailed down” (source: Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 33)
  • Ghari: “hammer to the cross” (source: David Clark)
  • Lambya: “to nail on a cross” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Loma: “fasten him to a spread-back-stick” (source: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Sundanese: “hang him on a crossbeam” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Aguaruna: “fasten him to the tree”
  • Navajo: “nail him to the cross”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “fasten him to the cross” (source for this and two above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125)
  • Noongar: “kill on a tree” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Apali: “nail to a tree piece put cross-wise, lift up to stand upright (for the crucified person) to die (and in some contexts: “to die and rise again”)” (source: Martha Wade)

In British Sign Language it is signed with a sign that signifies “nails hammered into hands” and “arms stretched out.” (Source: Anna Smith)


“Crucify” or “crucifixion” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

See also the common sign language sign for Jesus.

Following is a painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):

Housed by Société des Auxiliaires des Missions Collection – Whitworth University
(click image to enlarge)

Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing how crucifixion was done in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also cross, hang on a tree, and this devotion on YouVersion .