Questions and Answers

Q1. Why does Peter say in Acts 5:30, that Jesus died and was "hanged on a
tree"? He also says the same thing to Cornelius in Acts 10:39. I thought
Jesus died on a cross?

A1. Two Greek words are used in the New Testament which will help us to
understand. STAUROS meant a stake, as employed when one was crucified,
whereby we have the word cross. In Matthew 27:32 we are told that Simon of
Cyrene helped Jesus to carry his cross (Stauros). The word helps to identify
the use of the stake: to crucify someone. The other Greek word used is XULON
which simply identifies a piece of rough wood (a tree) and not it's use. Both
audiences that Peter spoke to, the Jewish council in Acts 5 and Cornelius and
his household in Acts 10, knew what type of death Jesus suffered. Peter is
not contradicting the fact that Jesus was crucified, but is just using a
simpler term to identify the
item upon which Jesus was hung: a stake or roughly cut tree.

Q2. Where in the Bible is the "Angel of Death" mentioned?

A1. There is no place in the Bible where one can find the term "Angel of
Death". Somehow this term has come to be used about the death of the
firstborn in Egypt, but a reading of the events in Exodus show that the Lord
Himself was the one who said He would execute those firstborn: "For I will
pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I
will execute judgment: I am the Lord." (Exodus 12:12)  Many times the Lord
used Angels as His way of accomplishing punishment. When David numbered the
people, God sent a pestilence which destroyed seventy thousand. The passage
in 2 Samuel 24:16 says that "... the angel stretched out his hand upon
Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the
angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand...."
Several other passages mention the Lord using an angel to destroy His
enemies, such as the Assyrians in 2 Kings 19:35, and also in Isaiah 37:36.
Revelation mentions several passages where the Lord used Angels to execute
His wrath. However, there is no passage saying that there is or was an "Angel
of Death".