1.) According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Lord Jesus was crucified on a torture stake and not the cross. Their view is not based on the latest historical work. It seems to be based on a simplistic idea about a Greek word.
* "Stauros can often mean a T-shaped object (or something silimar)..." (Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World by John Granger Cook).
* The standard work is now Ancient Jewish and Christian perceptions of Crucifixion:
“However, the "fundamental" references to an upright pole in σταυρός and its cognates, and to pointy objects in σκόλοψ and its cognates, does not rightly imply such that terminology in antiquity, when applied to crucifixion, invariably referred to a single upright beam. This is a common word study fallacy in some populist literature. In fact, such terminology often referred in antiquity to cross-shaped crucifixion devices. For example, Lucian, in a brief dialogue that employs most Greek crucifixion vocabulary, refers to the "crucifixion" of Prometheus, whose arms are pinned while stretched from one rock to another. Such a cross-shaped crucifixion position in the Roman era may actually have been the norm; nevertheless, the point to be sustained at this stage is that this position was not the only one to be designated with these Greek terms… In addition to recognizing the broader semantic ranges of these terms, it is helpful to note that different authors prefer certain terminology. Thus, while Philo knows “stauros” as a "cross." (Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion, David W. Chapman, Baker Academic, 2010, p. 11).
* Thus, falling prey to the etymological fallacy, some assume that σταυρός can only designate a single upright pole, as does W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, 4 vols. (London: Oliphants, 1939), s.v.
2.) On page 147 of the book written by Bible scholar, Larry Hurtado entitled, “The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins,” he clearly stated, “We have other evidence confirming that the Greek letter "tau" was viewed by Christians in the second century CE as a visual symbol of the cross of Jesus. Indeed, Justin Martyr (1 Apo. 55) indicates that second century Christians could see visual allusions to Jesus' cross in practically any object with even the remote shape of a T.
3.) In Luke 14:27 of Papyrus 75 we can read the Greek words bastazei ton stauron or “carry the cross.” The staurogram merges the Greek letters tau-rho representing parts of the Greek words for “cross” (stauros) and “crucify” (stauroō) in Bodmer papyrus P75. Staurograms are the earliest images of Jesus on the cross. They predate other Christian crucifixion images by 200 years.
4. It fits with the tradition that Jesus carried his cross: that would be the cross bar. The most common form of crucifixion involved a crossbeam. The upright beam was often left in the ground at the location and it was the cross beam that was carried to the site by the criminal, so they fact Jesus carried a cross points to a cross beam.
