"skolops [estaca pontiaguda, espinho] 1. Este termo raro denota uma  `estaca pontiaguda,' tais como as usadas em armadilhas no chão ou paliçadas. Ser preso em tal estaca é uma forma de execução; A referência nada tem haver com um instrumento cruciforme ou em forma de T, mas à exposição em uma estaca fincada no chão. Corpos são tambem empalados em estacas como sinal de desgraça. 2. um outro significado encotrado na versão Septuaginta(LXX) é "espinho". Em Oséias 2:8 fala-se dos opressores e inimigos de Israel como sendo "espinhos" In the OT God blocks the way of Israel with thickets in Hos. 2:8, and oppressors are splinters in the eyes of Israel in Num. 33:55 or thorns in Ezek. 28:24. 3. In 2 Cor. 12:7 Paul is speaking about bodily afflictions, and among these he mentions a skolops that God sends, that acts as a messenger of Satan, and that is obviously painful. The idea is not that of a stake to which the apostle is impaled, nor of a barb of depression, e.g., at his failure to win the Jews to Christ, or in reaction from ecstasy. Physical ill-treatment or a physical disability seems to be in view, but there can be no saying what it is. Although it hampers his work, God uses it to keep him from arrogance and to point him to his true strength. 4. Only rarely do Christians use the group with reference to Jesus' execution (cf. Origen Against Celsus 2.55.68-69). It lies outside the usage that soon develops in relation to the cross (cf. the paucity of anastauroun)." (Kittel, G. & Friedrich, G., eds., 1985, "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in one Volume," Bromiley, G.W., transl., Eerdmans: Grand Rapids MI, Reprinted, 1988, p.1047).