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Crucifixion
Crucifixion (from Latin ''crucifixio'', noun of process from perfect passive participle ''crucifixus'', fixed to a cross, from prefix ''cruci-'', cross, + verb ''ficere'', fix or do, variant form of ''facere'', do or make )[AllWords.com]is an ancient method of execution (legal)|execution, whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead.
It was in use particularly among the Persian Empire|Persians, Seleucid Empire|Seleucids, Carthage|Carthaginians, and Ancient Rome|Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, when in the year 337 Emperor Constantine I abolished it in his empire, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.[Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: crucifixion][Crucifixion] It has sometimes been used even in modern times.
A crucifix, (from Latin ''crucifixus'' or ''cruci fixus'', past participle passive of ''crucifigere'' or ''cruci figere'', "crucify", "fix to a cross"),[Online Etymology Dictionary] an image of Crucifixion of Jesus|Christ crucified on a cross, is for Catholic Christianity|Christians the main symbol of their religion, but most Protestant Christians prefer to use a Christian cross|cross without the figure (the "corpus" - Latin for "body") of Christ.
Details of crucifixion
Crucifixion was almost never performed for ritual or symbolic reasons outside of Christianity, but usually to provide a death that was particularly painful (hence the term ''excruciating'', literally "out of crucifying"), gruesome (hence dissuading against the crimes punishable by it) and public (hence the metaphorical expression "to nail to the cross"), using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and time period.
The Greek and Latin words corresponding to "crucifixion" applied to many different forms of painful execution, from impalement|impaling on a stake to affixing to a tree, to an upright pole (what some call a ''crux simplex'') or to a combination of an upright (in Latin, ''stipes'') and a crossbeam (in Latin, ''patibulum'').[Seneca the Younger wrote: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet" (Dialogue "To Marcia on Consolation", 6.20.3).]
If a crossbeam was used, the condemned man was forced to carry it on his shoulders, which could have been torn open by flagellation, to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh well over 300 pounds (135 kilograms), but the crossbeam would weigh only 75-125 pounds (35-60 kilograms).[Crucifixion in the Ancient World] The Roman historian Tacitus records that the city of Rome had a specific place for carrying out executions, situated outside the Esquiline Gate,[Annales 2:32.2] and had a specific area reserved for the execution of slaves by crucifixion.[Annales 15:60.1] Upright posts would presumably be fixed permanently in that place, and the crossbeam, with the condemned person perhaps already nailed to it, would then be attached to the post.
The person executed may sometimes have been attached to the cross by ropes, but nails are mentioned in a passage of Josephus, where he states that, at the Siege of Jerusalem (70), "the soldiers out of rage and hatred, ''nailed'' those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest",[Jewish War V.II] and in . Objects, such as nails, used in the execution of criminals were sought as amulets.[Mishna, Shabbath 6.10, quoted in Crucifixion in Antiquity]
Frequently, the legs of the person executed were broken or shattered with an iron club, an act called ''crurifragium'' which was also frequently applied without crucifixion to slaves.Cross shape
- ''See also Cross or stake as gibbet on which Jesus died''
The gibbet on which crucifixion was carried out could be of many shapes. Josephus describes multiple tortures and positions of crucifixion during the siege of Jerusalem (70)
as Titus crucified the rebels;[Josephus, ''Wars of the Jews'', 5.11.1] and Seneca the Younger recounts: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet."[Seneca, Dialogue "To Marcia on Consolation", in ''Moral Essays'', 6.20.3, trans. John W. Basore, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1946) 2:69]
At times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin ''crux simplex'' or ''palus''. This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the criminals. Frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T (''crux commissa'') or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism (''crux immissa'').["The ... oldest depiction of a crucifixion ... was uncovered by archaeologists more than a century ago on the Palatine Hill in Rome. It is a second-century graffiti scratched into a wall that was part of the imperial palace complex. It includes a caption - not by a Christian, but by someone taunting and deriding Christians and the crucifixions they underwent. It shows crude stick-figures of a boy reverencing his "God," who has the head of a jackass and is upon a cross with arms spread wide and with hands nailed to the crossbeam. Here we have a Roman sketch of a Roman crucifixion, and it is in the traditional cross shape" (Clayton F. Bower, Jr: Cross or Torture Stake?). Some second-century writers took it for granted that a crucified person would have his or her arms stretched out, not connected to a single stake: Lucian speaks of Prometheus as crucified "above the ravine with his hands outstretched" and explains that the letter T (the Greek letter tau) was looked upon as an unlucky letter or sign (similar to the way the number thirteen is looked upon today as an unlucky number), saying that the letter got its "evil significance" because of the "evil instrument" which had that shape, an instrument which tyrants hung men on (ibidem).] Other forms were in the shape of the letters X and Y.
The earliest writings that speak specifically of the shape of the cross on which Jesus died describe it as shaped like the letter T (the Greek letter tau),[Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter 9. The document no doubt belongs to the end of the first or beginning of the second century.http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/barnabas-intro.html] or composed of an upright and a transverse beam, together with a small ledge in the upright.["The very form of the cross, too, has five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which last the person rests who is fixed by the nails" (Irenaeus (c. 130–202), ''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Adversus Haereses'' II, xxiv, 4http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103224.htm).]
Location of the nails
In popular depictions of crucifixion (possibly derived from a literal reading of the translated description in the Gospel of John, of Jesus' wounds being 'in the hands'), the condemned is shown with nails in their hands. Although historical documents refer to the nails being in the "hands", the word usually translated as "hand", "χείρ" in Greek, referred to arm and hand together, so that, words are added to denote the ''hand'' as distinct from the ''arm'', as "ἄκρην οὔτασε χεῖρα" (he wounded the end of the χείρ, i.e. he wounded her hand).[Liddell and Scott on χείρ. Cf. The Science of the Crucifixion.]
A possibility that does not require tying is that the nails were inserted just above the wrist, between the two bones of the forearm (the radius (bone)|radius and the ulna).[Jewish Encyclopedia: Crucifixion][Crucifixion in Antiquity][The Cross] which could have served that purpose.
The remains of Jehohanan, possibly indicate that each heel was nailed separately to the side of the stake. Jehohonan, as he was called, had died around AD 7, and so was a close contemporary of Jesus, and his crucifixion was likely to have been carried out in a similar way. Jehohanan's remains were discovered in 1968 by a team of archaeologists led by Vassilios Tzaferis. The remains were that of a crucified man in cave-tombs at Giv'at ha-Mivtar, north of Jerusalem.
The key bit of evidence was a heel bone with a curved nail stuck through it.The nail was driven through the heel bones from the side, indicating to some that Jehohanan had been crucified in 'a sort of sidesaddle position'.Other experts, however, suggest that the length of the nail is too short for this and establishes that each heel must have been nailed separately to the sides of the cross. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thepassion/articles/crucifixion.shtml)
Cause of death
The length of time required to reach death could range from a matter of hours to a number of days, depending on exact methods, the health of the crucified person and environmental circumstances.
Death could result from a variety of causes, including blood loss and hypovolemic shock, or infection and sepsis, caused by the flagellation|scourging that preceded the crucifixion or by the nailing itself, and eventual dehydration.[[http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/255/11/1455 Edwards ''et al.'', ''On the physical death of Jesus Christ'' in ''The Journal of the American Medical Association'', March 21 1986][The history and pathology of crucifixion] A theory attributed to Pierre Barbet holds that, when the whole body weight was supported by the stretched arms, the typical cause of death was asphyxiation. He conjectured that the condemned would have severe difficulty inhaling, due to hyper-expansion of the chest muscles and lungs. The condemned would therefore have to draw himself up by his arms, leading to exhaustion, or have his feet supported by tying or by a wood block. Indeed, Roman executioners could be asked to break the condemned's legs, after he had hung for some time, in order to hasten his death.Archaeological evidence for ancient crucifixion
Despite the fact that the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, as well as other sources, refer to the crucifixion of thousands of people by the Romans, there is only a single archaeological discovery of a crucified body dating back to the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus which was discovered in Jerusalem in 1968. It is not necessarily surprising that there is only one such discovery, because a crucified body was usually left to decay on the cross and therefore would not be preserved. The only reason these archaeological remains were preserved was because family members gave this particular individual a customary burial.
The remains were found accidentally in an ossuary with the crucified man’s name on it, 'Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol'. Prof. Nicu Haas, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem, examined the ossuary and discovered that it contained a heel bone with a nail driven through its side, indicating that the man had been crucified. The position of the nail relative to the bone indicates that the feet have been nailed to the cross from their side, not from their front; various opinions have been proposed as to whether they were both nailed together to the front of the cross or one on the left side, one on the right side. The point of the nail had olive wood fragments on it indicating that he was crucified on a cross made of olive wood or on an olive tree. Since olive trees are not very tall, this would suggest that the condemned was crucified at eye level. Additionally, a piece of acacia wood was located between the bones and the head of the nail, presumably to keep the condemned from freeing his foot by sliding it over the nail. His legs were found broken, perhaps as a means of hastening his death as described in . It is thought that, since in Roman times iron was expensive, the nails were removed from the dead body to cut the costs, which would help to explain why only one has been found, as the tip of the nail in question was bent in such a way that it couldn't be removed.
Prof. Haas had also identified a scratch on the inner surface of the right radius bone of the forearm, close to the wrist. He deduced from the form of the scratch, as well as from the intact wrist bones, that a nail had been driven into the forearm at that position.
Important references for the ancient practice of crucifixion and an examination of archaeological evidence:
- Haas, Nicu. “Anthropological observations on the skeletal remains from Giv’at ha-Mivtar”, Israel Exploration Journal 20 (1-2), 1970: 38-59.
- Tzaferis, Vassilios. “Crucifixion -- The Archaeological Evidence”, ''Biblical Archaeology Review'' 11, February, 1985: 44–53.
- Zias, Joseph. “The Crucified Man from Giv’at Ha-Mivtar: A Reappraisal”, ''Israel Exploration Journal'' 35 (1), 1985: 22–27.
- Hengel, Martin. ''Crucifixion'' (Augsburg Fortress, 1977). ISBN 0-8006-1268-X.
History of crucifixion
Pre-Roman States
Crucifixion (or impalement), in one form or another, was used by Achaemenid Persia|Persians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Macedonians and Romans. Death was often hastened. "The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim."[ The history and pathology of crucifixion]
Some Christian theologians, beginning with Paul the Apostle|Paul Tarsus (city)|of Tarsus writing in Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians , have interpreted an allusion to crucifixion in Deuteronomy . This reference is to being hanged from a tree, and may be associated with lynching or traditional hanging. However, ancient Jewish law allowed only 4 methods of execution: stoning, burning, strangulation, and decapitation. Crucifixion was thus forbidden by ancient Jewish law.[See Mishnah, Sanhedrin 7:1, translated in Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah: A New Translation 591 (1988), supra note 8, at 595-96 (indicating that court ordered execution by stoning, burning, decapitation, or strangulation only)]
However, recent archaeological studies of the Dead Sea scrolls may throw this contention into doubt. The Aramaic Testament of Levi (DSS 4Q541) interprets in column 6: "God set right errors. will judge revealed sins. Investigate and seek and know how Jonah wept. Thus, you shall not destroy the weak by wasting away or by crucifixion. Let not the nail touch him."
Alexander the Great is reputed to have executed 2000 survivors from his siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre, as well as the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Alexander's friend Hephaestion. Some historians have also conjectured that Alexander crucified Callisthenes, his official historian and biographer, for objecting to Alexander's adoption of the Persian ceremony of royal adoration.
In Carthage, crucifixion was an established mode of execution, which could even be imposed on a general for suffering a major defeat.
Roman Empire
According to some, the custom of crucifixion in Ancient Rome may have developed out of a primitive custom of ''arbori suspendere'', hanging on an ''arbor infelix'' (unfortunate tree) dedicated to the gods of the nether world. William Oldfather, however, wrote a detailed study refuting the idea that this punishment involved any form of hanging or was anything other than flogging to death, and the claim that the "arbor infelix" was dedicated to particular gods.[Livy I.26 and the Supplicium de More Maiorum — TAPA 39:49‑72 (1908)] Tertullian mentions a first-century A.D. case in which trees were used for crucifixion,[''Apologia'', IX, 1] but Seneca the Younger earlier used the phrase ''infelix lignum'' (unfortunate wood) for the transom ("patibulum") or the whole cross.[After quoting a poem by Maecenas that speaks of preferring life to death even when life is burdened with all the disadvantages of old age or even with acute torture ("vel acuta si sedeam cruce"), Seneca disagrees with the sentiment, saying death would be better for a crucified person hanging from the patibulum: "I should deem him most despicable had he wished to live to the point of crucifixion ... Is it worth so much to weigh down upon one's own wound, and hang stretched out from a patibulum? ... Is anyone found who, after being fastened to that accursed wood, already weakened, already deformed, swelling with ugly weals on shoulders and chest, with many reasons for dying even before getting to the cross, would wish to prolong a life-breath that is about to experience so many torments?" ("Contemptissimum putarem, si vivere vellet usque ad crucem ... Est tanti vulnus suum premere et patibulo pendere districtum ... Invenitur, qui velit adactus ad illud infelix lignum, iam debilis, iam pravus et in foedum scapularum ac pectoris tuber elisus, cui multae moriendi causae etiam citra crucem fuerant, trahere animam tot tormenta tracturam?" - [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep17-18.shtml Letter 101, 12-14)] According to others, the Romans appear to have learned of crucifixion from the Carthage|Carthaginians.[The Physical Death Of Jesus Christ, Study by The Mayo Clinic]
Crucifixion was used for slavery|slaves, rebels, piracy|pirates and especially-despised enemies and criminals. Therefore crucifixion was considered a most shameful and disgraceful way to die. Condemned Roman citizens were usually exempt from crucifixion (like feudal nobles from hanging, dying more honorably by decapitation) except for major crimes against the state, such as high treason.
Notorious mass crucifixions followed the Third Servile War in 73-71 BC (the slave rebellion under Spartacus), other Roman civil wars in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Josephus tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. He also says that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions. In Roman-style crucifixion, the condemned took days to die slowly from suffocation — caused by the condemned's blood-supply slowly draining away to a quantity insufficient to supply the required oxygen to vital organs. The dead body was left up for vultures and other birds to consume.
The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonour the body of the condemned. In ancient tradition, an honourable death required burial; leaving a body on the cross, so as to mutilate it and prevent its burial, was a grave dishonour.
Under ancient Roman penal practice, crucifixion was also a means of exhibiting the criminal’s low social status. It was the most dishonourable death imaginable, originally reserved for slaves, hence still called "supplicium servile" by Seneca the Younger|Seneca, later extended to provincial freedmen of obscure station ('humiles'). The citizen class of Roman society were almost never subject to capital punishments; instead, they were fined or exiled. Josephus mentions Jews of high rank who were crucified, but this was to point out that their status had been taken away from them. Control of one’s own body was vital in the ancient world. Capital punishment took away control over one’s own body, thereby implying a loss of status and honour. The Romans often broke the prisoner's legs to hasten death and usually forbade burial.
A cruel prelude was flagellation|scourging, which would cause the condemned to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock (circulatory)|shock. The convict then usually had to carry the horizontal beam (''patibulum'' in Latin) to the place of execution, but not necessarily the whole cross. Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding centurion and four soldiers. When it was done in an established place of execution, the vertical beam (''stipes'') could even be permanently embedded in the ground. The condemned was usually stripped naked - all the New Testament gospels, dated to around the same time as Josephus, describe soldiers gambling for the robes of Jesus. (, , , )
The 'nails' were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 inch (13 to 18 cm) long, with a square shaft 3/8 inch (1 cm) across. In some cases, the nails were gathered afterwards and used as healing amulets.
Constantine I|Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman Empire|emperor, abolished it in the Roman Empire in 337, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.[Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: crucifixion][Dictionary of Images and Symbols in Counselling By William Stewart 1998 ISBN 1853023515, p. 120][Archaeology of the Bible]
Crucifixion in the Qur'an
The Qur'an mentions crucifixion several times. In Surah 7:124, Firaun (Arabic for Pharaoh) says that he will ''crucify'' his chief wizards. Also, Surah 12:41 mentions Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) saying that the king (the current ruler of the land he was stranded in) would crucify one of his prisoners.
- 'And the wizards fell down prostrate, crying: "We believe in the Lord of the Worlds, The Lord of Islamic view of Moses|Musa and Harun". Firaun said: "Ye believe in Him before I give you leave! Lo! this is the plot that ye have plotted in the city that ye may drive its people hence. But ye shall come to know! Surely I shall have your hands and feet cut off upon alternate sides. Then I shall crucify you every one."' Surah 7:120-124
- 'O my two fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, he will pour out wine for his lord to drink; and as for the other, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head. Thus is the case judged concerning which ye did inquire.' Surah 12:41
In Surah 5:33, The Qur'an mentions crucifixion as a form of punishment for those who fight Allah and his messenger.
- 'The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.' Surah 5:33
Japan
Crucifixion was used in Japan before and during the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was called ''Haritsuke'' in Japanese. The condemned—usually a sentenced criminal—was hoisted upon a T-shaped cross. Then, executioners finished him off with spear thrusts. The body was left to hang for a time before burial.
In 1597, twenty-six Christians were nailed to crosses at Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki, Japan. Among those executed were Paul Miki and Pedro Bautista, a Spain|Spanish Franciscan who had worked about ten years in the Philippines. The executions marked the beginning of a long history of Japanese Martyrs|persecution of Christianity in Japan, which continued until the United States of America and other Allies defeated Japan at war in 1945, ending World War II.
The acclaimed historical novel Silence (novel)|"Silence" by Japanese author Shusaku Endo gives an account of the 17th century Christian persecutions based upon the oral histories of contemporary Kakure Kirishitan communities.
Crucifixion as punishment in modern times
Sudan
In the Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (1994), local bishops reported several cases of crucifixion of Christian priests. Sudan's Penal Code, based upon the government's interpretation of Shari'a, provides for execution by crucifixion. The sentence has been passed as recently as 2002, when 88 people were condemned.[Sudan: Imminent Execution/Torture/Unfair trial | Amnesty International]
Yemen
As of 2000, Yemen provides for non-lethal crucifixion of criminals, though this punishment is apparently reserved for those also condemned to death.[Yemen: Fear of execution | Amnesty International]
Japan
In Japan, crucifixion was used as a punishment for prisoners of war during World War II. Ringer Edwards, an Australian prisoner of war was crucified for killing cattle, along with two others. He survived 63 hours before being let down.
Germany
During World War I, there were persistent rumors that German soldiers the Crucified Soldier|had crucified a Canadian soldier on a tree or barn door with bayonets or combat knives. The event was initially reported in 1915 by Private George Barrie of the 1st Canadian Division. It is generally believed to be an Allied propaganda invention; however, a 2002 programme for Channel 4's ''Secret History (television documentary series)|Secret History'' identified the soldier as a Harry Band, which has given arguable credibility to the story.Other
In 2002, a 23 year old man was found crucified to a fence in Northern Ireland. Despite the severity of his wounds he survived the attack. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,825136,00.html the Guardian]
Crucifixion as a devotional practice
Since at least the mid-1800s, a group of Roman Catholic|Catholic flagellants in New Mexico called Hermanos de Luz ('Brothers of Light') have annually conducted reenactments of Jesus Christ's crucifixion during Holy Week, in which a penitent is tied—but not nailed—to a cross.
Some very devout Catholics are voluntarily, non-lethally crucified for a limited time on Good Friday, to imitate the suffering of Jesus Christ. A notable example is the ceremonial re-enactment that has been performed yearly in the town of Iztapalapa, on the outskirts of Mexico City, since 1833. [RELIGION-MEXICO: The Passion According to Iztapalapa]
Devotional crucifixions are also common in the Philippines, even driving nails through the hands. One man named Rolando del Campo vowed to be crucified every Good Friday for 15 years if God would carry his wife through a difficult childbirth. (There is a video of the crucifixion here.) In San Pedro Cutud, devotee Ruben Enaje has been crucified 21 times, as of 2007, during Passion Week celebrations. [http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-philippines-crucifixions.html]
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In many cases the person portraying Jesus is first subjected to flagellation and wears a crown of thorns. Sometimes there is a whole passion play, sometimes only the mortification of the flesh.
The Crucifixion of Christ is one of the most important parts of any Passion Play, or Mystery Play, production. The story critically leads the audience through death to resurrection, the dividing of the resurrected into 'sheep' (the good, destined for heaven) and 'goats' (sinners, destined for hell), and to God and Christ in Glory. A typical account is in the York Waggon Plays performed by the Guilds of York, currently every four years. (next production summer 2010). This mediaeval set of plays includes two that depict Christ's Death (1) The Crucifixion (Christ is put on the cross) and (2) the Death of Christ. The second of these was traditionally played by the Butchers' Gild as the butchers took on a supplementary role in civic life as the city's executioners.
Crucifixion in popular culture
Singer Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna opened her concerts during her 2006 tour with a mock crucifixion, complete with a Crown of Thorns. This caused considerable controversy, especially when she did so at a concert near Vatican City in 2006. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=387254&in_page_id=1773
Professional wrestling
A mock crucifixion was staged by Extreme Championship Wrestling professional wrestling|wrestlers Scott Levy (wrestler)|Raven and Jim Fullington|The Sandman in 1996. In a 1998 edition of ''WWE Raw|WWF Monday Night RAW'', The Undertaker handcuffed Stone Cold Steve Austin, crucifix-style, to a large version of the Undertaker's symbol, a combination of a shovel, pick, and sickle which resembled a cross.
Crucifixion of Jesus in cinema
Movies dating back to the days of the silent films have depicted the crucifixion of Jesus. Most of these follow the traditional (and often inaccurate) pattern established by medieval and Renaissance artists, though there have been several notable exceptions. In ''The Passover Plot'' (1976) the two thieves aren't shown to either side of Jesus but instead one is on a cross behind and facing him while the other is on a cross in front of and facing away from him. ''Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur (1959)'' may be the first Biblical movie to show the nails being driven through the wrists rather than the palms. ''Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries)|Jesus of Nazareth'' is one of the first movies to show Jesus carrying just the crossbeam to Calvary rather than the entire cross. ''The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ'' is the first movie to show Jesus naked on the cross. In ''The Gospel of John (film)|The Gospel of John'' (2003), Jesus' feet are shown being nailed through the ankle to each side of the upright portion of the cross. In ''The Passion of the Christ'' (2004), the crucifixion scene depicts Jesus's hands being impaled, and the centurions dislocating his shoulder in order to impale his right hand, and impaling his feet, and then turning the cross over to block the nails from coming out.
Famous crucifixions
- In the best-known case, the Crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth was condemned to crucifixion[ That this was the manner of his death is not only recounted in the four first-century canonical Gospels, but it is referred to repeatedly, as something well known, in the earlier letters of Paul of Tarsus|Saint Paul, for instance five times in his First Letter to the Corinthians, written in AD 57 (1:13, 1:18, 1:23, 2:2, 2:8). Pilate was the Roman governor at the time, and he is explicitly linked with the condemnation of Jesus not only by the Gospels but also by Tacitus, ''Annals', 15.44.] (most likely in AD 30 or 33) by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Iudaea province. According to the New Testament, this was at the instigation of the Jewish leaders, who were scandalized at his claim to be the Messiah, see Responsibility for the death of Jesus for details. The civil charge was a claim to be King of the Jews, see also Titulus.
- The rebel slaves of the Third Servile War: Between 73 BC and 71 BC a band of slaves, eventually numbering about 120,000, under the (at least partial) leadership of Spartacus were in open revolt against the Roman republic. The rebellion was eventually crushed, and while Spartacus himself most likely died in the final battle of the revolt, approximately 6,000 of his followers were crucified along the 200 km road between Capua and Rome, as a warning to any other would-be rebels.
- Saint Peter, Christian apostle: according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down at his own request (hence the Cross of St. Peter), as he did not feel worthy to die the same way as Jesus. Note that upside-down crucifixion would not result in death from asphyxiation.
- Saint Andrew, Christian apostle: according to tradition, crucified on an X-shaped cross, hence the name St. Andrew's Cross
- Simeon of Jerusalem, 2nd Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem#Bishops of Jerusalem (62 – 451)|Bishop of Jerusalem, crucified either 106 or 107
- Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln was an English boy whose disappearance in 1255 prompted a blood libel against the local Jews. A Jewish man was tortured until he confessed to killing the child. The story of Little Saint Hugh became well known through medieval ballad poetry.
- Archbishop Joachim of Nizhny Novgorod|Archbishop Joachim of Nizhny Novgorod: reportedly crucified upside down, on the Royal Doors of the Cathedral in Sevastopol, Russia in 1920
- Wilgefortis was venerated as a saint and represented as a crucified woman, however her legend comes from a misinterpretation of the full-clothed Volto Santo of Lucca|crucifix of Lucca.
References
See also
External links
- New Scientist article on cause of death in crucifixion.
- "Forensic and Clinical Knowledge of the Practice of Crucifixion" by Dr. Frederick Zugibe
- Jesus's death on the cross, from a medical perspective
- "Crucifixion in antiquity - The Anthropological evidence" By Joe Zias
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Crucifixion
- Crucifixion in Ancient Egypt at Islamic-Awareness.org
- Crucifixion of Joachim of Nizhny-Novgorod
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Category:Ancient Rome
Category:Jesus
Category:Corporal punishments
Category:Execution methods
Category:Torture
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Related Images- "Crucifixion of St. Peter" by Caravaggio
- Explanation of Construction (Crucifixion): Homage to Mondrian
- Devotional crucifixion in San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines, easter 2006
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