11-26-2012, 09:33 PM
I think honestly that it should be translated as "cross" or "stake". The reason I say this isn't because it has been traditionally translated as such, but because, Dukhrana actually shows the Syriac words for staff and cross to be different. Two native Aramaic speakers, George M. Lamsa and Paul Younan, along with at least four other (non-native) translators (Murdock, Etheridge, Bauscher, Magiera), have translated this word as "cross". Andrew Gabriel Roth is the only one that I know of who has translated this verse like he has.