SPECIAL TOPIC: CRUCIFIXION

Historical Development
1. Herodotus (1.128.2; 3.125.3; 3.132.2; 3.159.1) mentions it was practiced in Persia (Dairus 512-485 B.C.)
2. There are historical accounts of it also being practiced by
  1. the India continent
  2. Assyria
  3. Scythians
  4. Taurians
  5. Thracians
  6. Celts
  7. Germans
  8. Britons
  9. Carthaginians
  10. Greece (Alexander the Great)
  11. Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (267 B.C.)
  12. Sadducean high priest Alexander Janneus (103-76 B.C.)
3. Victims
  1. usually slaves
  2. often captured soldiers
  3. political enemies
In Palestine of Jesus' day
1. Most of our information comes from
  1. Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews
  2. Dead Sea Scrolls
    1. Pesher of Nahum
    2. temple scroll
  3. Flaccus quoted by Philo
  4. Tacitus in Histories (2.72.2; 4:3.2; 4.11.3)
  5. Livy (22.33.2; 33.36.3)
2. Romans used crucifixion to control populations. They developed the procedure so that no vital organs were dmamged and victims stayed alive for several days, publically exposed.
The Procedure
1. A public stripping and beating (see SPECIAL TOPIC: SCOURGED
2. Victims had to carry the cross bar to the place of execution. The wooden apparatus could be
  1. a capital T
  2. a small t
  3. an X
  4. a scaffolding close to the ground holding several victims
3. The victims were attached to the wooden apparatus by
  1. nails in the wrist
  2. nails in the heel (usually one nail)
  3. ropes to secure the weight of the body
  4. a small wooden triangle (saddle) placed at the bottom of the spine, which allowed the victim to push up on his nailed feet to breathe and briefly sit on this outcropping of wood. Death usually occurred by asphyxiation.
  5. Often small amounts of wine were given to the victim to prolong death and increase the agony.
Jewish Understanding of the Procedure
1. They connected it to the curse of Deut. 21:23. They viewed it as being cursed by God.
  Originally this verse referred to the public exposure of a dead body on a spike. But by the time of Jesus, the rabbis had interpreted it as the curse of crucifixion.
2. This "cursing" is why the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus crucified. They charged Him with blasphemy, which according to the Mosaic Law, was to be death by stoning.
  The Sadduccean priests wanted Jesus to be seen as a pretender Messiah, cursed by God.
3. This cursing of Deut. 21:23 must have really bothered the Rabbi Saul of Tarsus. But he came to see it as a substitutionary act (cf. Isaiah 53) of redemption for all humans (cf. Gal. 3:13,14). Jesus had made these same claims (Mark 10:45) and later Paul (2 Cor. 5:21). See SPECIAL TOPIC: YHWH'S ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN