Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CRUCIFIXION

A particularly horrible mode of punishment by which a person (or sometimes the corpse of an executed victim) was nailed or bound to a cross (Gk. staurós, †; also in the form of an X- or T-shaped structure), or to a stake or tree.

Crucifixion (from Lat. crux, “cross,” and a form of the verb figere, “attach” or “fasten”) was widely practiced in antiquity. Herodotus mentions it as a Median and Persian form of execution (Hist. 1.128.32; 3.132.2) and says that Darius crucified 3000 inhabitants of Babylon (3.159.1). Ancient sources with varying degrees of accuracy mention crucifixion among the Assyrians, peoples of India, Carthaginians, Celts, Britons, and Germans. Alexander the Great after the siege of Tyre had 2000 people crucified (Curtius Rufus Hist. Alex. 4.4.17); after Alexander’s death rebellion against his successors was suppressed with mass crucifixions (Diodorus Siculus Hist. 19.67.2). Josephus reports that Antiochus IV Epiphanes after his capture of Jerusalem in 168 b.c.e. scourged and crucified Jews who resisted his forced Hellenization “while still alive and breathing” (Ant. 12.5.4 [256]; the corresponding account in 1 Macc. 1:54-65 does not mention crucifixion).

Under Hellenistic influence during the Hasmonean period crucifixion was practiced among the Jews. Alexander Janneus (103-76) had 800 Pharisees crucified (anastaurṓsas) and their wives and children killed while they watched from the crosses, which Josephus calls “the most savage of all acts” (Ant. 13.14.2 [380-83], BJ 1.4.6 [97]). This act is also alluded to in the Qumran pesher on Nahum, where Alexander is called “the Lion of Wrath” who hanged living men (4QpNah 3-4:7-8 = 4Q169). The Temple Scroll from Qumran in commenting on Deut. 21:22-23 (“for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse”) seems to refer to crucifixion as an Essene punishment for treason (11QT 64:6-13), though some authors interpret this text, as in Deuteronomy, in reference to the public hanging of an already executed person.

Under the Romans crucifixion increased in both extent and severity. Cicero (106-43) called it a “most cruel and disgusting penalty” (In Verrem 2.5.64[165], 66[169]; cf. Heb. 12:2). With rare exceptions, Roman citizens and the upper classes were spared crucifixion, and it came to be classed as the “the slaves’ punishment” (supplicium servile; cf. Phil. 2:7-8). The most famous instance is the crucifixion of 6000 slaves on the Via Appia between Capua and Rome by Crassus, the victor over Spartacus in the slave revolt of 73-71 b.c.e. Crucifixion was also employed against the lower classes for treason (e.g., desertion from the army) and as a horrible public example against subject people perceived to be a threat to Roman rule. After the abortive revolt following the death of Herod (4 b.c.e.) Varrus, the Roman governor of Syria, crucified 2000 Jews (Josephus Ant. 17.10.10 [295]); during the reign of Caligula (37-41 c.e.) Flaccus, the Roman prefect of Egypt, tortured and crucified Jews in the amphitheater of Alexandria as a form of entertainment (Philo In Flaccum 83-86), and shortly before the outbreak of the Jewish War (66-72 c.e.) the procurator Gessius Florus had Jewish citizens who were also Roman knights tortured and crucified (Josephus BJ 2.14.9 [306-7]). Nero is the first Roman emperor to engage in mass crucifixion of Christians (Tacitus Ann. 15.44).

As a public mode of execution crucifixion gave free vent to the sadistic impulses of the executioners (Josephus BJ 5.11.1 [451]; Seneca Dial. 6.20.3; Ep. 101). It was preceded by scourging and other forms of torture. Criminals were often required to wear a placard around their necks listing the reason for execution (Suetonius Caligula 32.2; Domitian 10.1; Eusebius HE 5.1.44; cf. Mark 15:26 par.). Victims were nailed with long spikes or tied in various painful positions to crosses or wooden planks. There is some evidence for a saddle or sedile to support the body of the crucified one, which served to prolong the punishment and prevent death by asphyxiation. Often crucified people lingered for days, and death came ultimately from loss of blood or asphyxiation. Both men and women were crucified. Normally as a horrible deterrent to future criminals, the bodies were left on the crosses to decompose.

Though virtually all the ancient sources on crucifixion are literary, the discovery in 1968 of the tomb of a crucified man NE of Jerusalem near the Nablus Road slightly north of Mt. Scopus (Givʿat ha-Mivtar) provided invaluable archaeological evidence for crucifixion. The tomb is dated to the 1st century c.e. and contained the bones of an adult male between 24 and 28 years old, most likely about 1.65 m. (5 ft. 5 in.) tall, identified by an inscription as Yehoḥanan. Though some details remain disputed, both heel bones had been transfixed by a large nail and apparently his shin bones were broken as a coup de grace. Though this discovery is historically unrelated to the crucifixion of Jesus, it gives good confirmatory evidence for the Gospel accounts of crucifixion.

The crucifixion of Jesus in the Gospels, though narrated with considerable reserve, reflects the ancient literary and archaeological sources. Jesus is scourged (Mark 15:15; Matt. 27:26; John 19:1) before the crucifixion. He is expected to carry the transverse beam of the cross (Mark 15:21 par.) and, though not explicitly mentioned, he is nailed to a cross (Luke 24:39; John 20:27). He is publicly crucified with lēstaí, “social bandits” (Mark 15:27; cf. Matt. 27:23; Luke 23:33, kakoúrgoi, “evil-doers”) who might have been seen as a threat to the social order. Despite the general custom of denying burial to those crucified, because of Roman sensibility to Jewish laws prohibiting leaving victims exposed overnight and on a feast day, Jesus is buried. The example of Yehoḥanan shows also that friends or relatives were given permission to buy a crucified person; Josephus says that Jews are so careful about burial rights that guilty crucified people were taken down from the cross and buried before nightfall (BJ 4.5.2 [317]), and Philo mentions that in Alexandria the Roman governor allowed the bodies of crucified people to be removed prior to a festival (In Flaccum 83).

The personal loathing and public disgrace associated with crucifixion are reflected in Paul’s proclamation of Christ crucified as a “stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23). The paradox at the heart of Christian faith follows immediately: the Crucified One is “to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24; cf. v. 18).

Bibliography. J. A. Fitzmyer, “Crucifixion in Ancient Palestine, Qumran Literature, and the New Testament,” CBQ 40 (1978): 493-513; M. Hengel, Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross (Philadelphia, 1977).

John R. Donahue

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CRUCIFIXION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)