6 Things You Didn’t Know About Jesus’ Crucifixion

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The crucifixion of Jesus is one of the single most important events in Christian history. To those who believe, it is the second most important moment in all of history behind only the Resurrection. Even non-believers, however, have to recognize the way the torture and execution of a single Jew from Galilee forever shaped world. Without Christ’s crucifixion, He does not rise from the dead. Without the Resurrection, there is no Christianity.

Most Christians know the story of Jesus’ execution and resurrection well, and millions practice the Stations of the Cross every year around Easter. Even non-Christians are probably reasonably familiar with the basic account of events. Few people, however, have an accurate view of Jesus’ crucifixion. Misunderstandings have been associated with the famous story for centuries, and most people are not even aware that they are dealing with false assumptions when they approach the story of Christ’s crucifixion. The truth of Jesus’ execution, however, only makes the chronicle more powerful. Here are six things you didn’t know about Jesus’ crucifixion and that few people truly understand.

Crucifixion was commonplace.

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One of the biggest misconceptions Christians tend to have about Jesus’ crucifixion is how much of an impact the event had at the actual moment it took place. Christians usually envision the world standing still as Christ died and numerous people watching His execution or being moved to either fear or pity by the sight of a man dying on a cross. In reality, however, crucifixion was horrifically mundane in 1st century Judea. During A.D. 7, Romans put down a small rebellion in Judea and crucified 2,000 captured Jews. Several hundred of them were nailed to the cross in one day. This was Rome’s usual response to rebellion. Crush the rebellion, and torture the captured survivors so severely and publically that no one else would dare to rebel. Against this backdrop, the crucifixion of one more Jewish troublemaker in A.D. 30 would not have caught the attention of anyone but Christ’s followers until after the fact.

The cross did not look like a modern cross.

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The cross is one of the most widely recognized symbols in the world. It is the preeminent emblem associated with Christianity. It is not, however, likely shaped like the cross on which Christ died. The cross most commonly associated with Christianity is called the Latin cross. This, however, was rarely used in Roman times. Christ was far more likely to have been killed on what is now called a Tau cross. A Tau cross was shaped like a capital letter T, and the unfortunates who were executed on it did not carry the entire cross. Instead, the vertical stave stayed in place at the execution site. The condemned would be tied to the crossbeam, also called the patibulum, and forced to carry the beam to the execution site where they would be nailed to the patibulum. This was then hoisted up and attached to the stave. The entire horrific production would give off an air of a well-oiled, efficient machine, a perception the Romans wanted to encourage.

He was nailed through the wrist.

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The most famous depictions of Christ show Him with nails driven through His palms to hold him to the cross. That, however, is most likely not how Christ was attached to the patibulum or cross. Instead, the nails were likely driven through the wrists of crucifixion victims. The delicate bones and thinner muscles in the hand simply cannot support the weight of a full grown man hanging from nails. The nails would have ripped straight through the flesh and the condemned would have fallen from the cross. The larger bones of the wrist and arm, however, could take the strain. The nail would have either been driven through a small, naturally occurring gap in the carpals or wrist bones called the Space of Destot. Surrounded by bone on all sides, the nail would have been stable enough to support a person’s weight. Alternatively, the nail might have been driven through the point where the wrist meets the arm so that the larger arm bones would take most of the strain. This would have been more risky for Roman soldiers who wanted to prolong a person’s agony as the nail could have hit the veins in the wrist causing the condemned to die a swifter death from blood loss. Done correctly, however, the nail would miss the large blood vessels but it would have been driven directly through the median nerve. This would have rendered the person’s hands useless while causing unbearable agony.

Christ died quickly.

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Crucifixion was more than simply a method of murder. It was a production. A crucifixion was a display of Rome’s power and cruelty. It was a warning to anyone who might have considered committing the same crimes as the condemned. As such, Roman crucifixions were meant to cause as much pain as possible for as long as possible. Those who were crucified were meant to die long, lingering deaths, and the Romans were very good at their jobs. There are many stories of crucified victims surviving for days on the cross. Jesus, meanwhile, died in a matter of hours. This was not what Rome would have intended for a man who had been claiming to be the Messiah in a region where yet another rebellion had only recently been snuffed out. Christ, however, defied them in death just as He did in both His life and His resurrection.

The actual cause of His death is debated.

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Considering that no one has seen, performed or suffered a full Roman crucifixion in millennia, modern scholars know a frighteningly large amount about exactly how Rome went carried out this horrific method of execution. Despite that fact, there is serious debate over what exactly killed crucifixion victims, especially Jesus. The most commonly posited theory is that the victims eventually succumbed to a slow form of asphyxiation as their position, their weight hanging on raised arms, rendered them unable to breathe properly. This, however, does not quite fit with the Gospel’s descriptions of Jesus’ final hours. Christ was lucid, speaking normally and capable of crying out at the end of His life. None of these would have been likely if He had died of suffocation. Another theory is that Christ’s organs were damaged during the scourging or His falls while carrying the cross. These fit better with the story in the Bible, but the entire matter remains something of a mystery.

Scourging alone was lethal.

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Crucifixion was a study in horror from the beginning to the end. One of the most painful and potentially lethal parts of the process, however, took place before a man even saw his crossbeam. Before being crucified, a man would be scourged, often translated in the Bible using the gentler word “flogged.” Flogging, however, implies that a person was hit with a traditional whip or a cat of nine tails. These were, of course, horrifically painful, but nothing can compete with the Roman flagrum.

When a man was scourged, two Roman soldiers would alternate blows using Roman flagrums, multi-tailed whips that were filled with bits of sharp bone, glass and metal to tear flesh while lead weights made the leather hit harder and faster. The flagrum would rend flesh down to the muscle and bone. Blood loss was severe enough to be potentially dangerous, and the experience was so painful that it was literally capable of killing a person. Assuming the man did not succumb to pain or blood loss, the flagrum would damage the lungs and kidneys, a death sentence even if the man were not already condemned. When the man was paraded through the streets and nailed to the cross, his back would not look like anything human.

The scourging was meant to bring further pain and horror to the crucifixion. As such, it was not meant to usually be lethal in its own right, at least not when combined with a crucifixion. Roman soldiers were, for the most part, very good at bringing a man to the edge of death without actually killing him. That said, the flagrum was such a brutal instrument that when the soldiers slipped, the whip could wrap around the condemned man’s body and tear at his flesh with such force that he would be literally disemboweled.