Why does the King James use the word cross?

Answer 1

It comes from Latin crux. Crucifixion was the method the Romans used the execute Jesus. It was the most painful and degrading form of capital punishment in the ancient world.

Answer:

By the time of the rule of King James, the influence of the "Holy" Roman Empire, the Catholic church and its "Latin" slant on what "modern" Christianity had become, was well established in the professing Christian world [by then, predominantly Catholic].

The "translators" of the Scriptures commissioned by King James to create his "authorized version" of the "English" Scriptures used a number of previously translated sources from other languages to execute their work... not just the "originally inspired ancient manuscripts, in which the Greek word "stauros" [an upright pale, stake, tree trunk] was invariably inspired by the Holy Spirit wherever the word "cross" is found in today's KJV Bible.

The word "cross" was introduced into the KJV when King James' translators borrowed some of the translation from the "Latin Vulgate" where the Latin word "crux" -- English translation; "cross" -- [mentioned above] had been substituted for the inspired Greek "stauros."

The inspired word "stauros" in the original manuscripts had long been abandoned by the misled general public at the 4th century counsel command of the "mother church"... and the word "cross" [through the influence of the Latin-speaking Roman Empire] had long been used. And the King James translators, for one thing, the sake of convenience; just "went with the flow" on this and other issues, when their time came to create "his Majesty's" version.