Nothing Fiction about Crucifixion

March 12, 2008 by riverflowsdown

Crucifixion, The most horrific public display of punishment unto death imaginable. While researching Crucifixion on any search engine you will find sites with the phrase CRUCI-FICTION. Many people believe the bible is a book of myth's and Jesus was just a man if he ever lived at all. The truth is Archeology puts together more and more evidence to prove historical biblical events. One such article you will find below. For me I couldn't care less about evidence. I was strung out on drugs and no hope at all. Jesus broke into my life and I know He changed me and for 25 years now I find life worth living that is all the proving I need. If you are sinking in skepticism you need an encounter with the resurrected Jesus and he does not have a problem providing that. Taste and see that the Lord is good!


The biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ found in John 19:1-42

1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands. 4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him." 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" 6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him." 7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." 12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" 16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away. 17 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, 18 where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. 19 Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 21 Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'He said, "I am the King of the Jews." ' " 22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." 23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. 24 They said therefore among themselves, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things. 25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" 27 Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. 31 Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." 37 And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." 38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.

Below you can read an article “Crucifixion -- The Archaeological Evidence” an archaeologist working for the Israel Department of Antiquities, Tzaferis brings the evidence found in a tomb near Jerusalem that had been accidentally found by a construction crew. Bones of two generations of a Jewish family that lived in Jerusalem about the first century AD. A large nail piercing the heel bones of one skeleton led to the conclusion that this man had been crucified.


Tzaferis, Vassilios. “Crucifixion -- The Archaeological Evidence”, Biblical Archaeology Review 11, February, 1985: 44–53.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Many people erroneously assume that crucifixion was a Roman invention.

In fact, Assyrians, Phoenicians and Persians all practiced crucifixion

during the first millennium BC. Crucifixion was introduced in the west

from these eastern cultures; it was used only rarely on the Greek

mainland, but Greeks in Sicily and southern Italy used it more

frequently, probably as a result of their closer contact with

Phoenicians and Carthaginians.
During the Hellenistic period, crucifixion became more popular among

the Hellenized population of the east. After Alexander died in 323 BC,

crucifixion was frequently employed both by the Seleucids (the rulers

of the Syrian half of Alexander's kingdom) and by the Ptolemies (the

rulers of the Egyptian half).
Among the Jews crucifixion was an anathema. (2) The traditional method

of execution among Jews was stoning. Nevertheless, crucifixion was

occasionally employed by Jewish tyrants during the Hasmonean period.

At the end of the first century BC, the Romans adopted crucifixion as

an official punishment for non-Romans for certain legally limited

transgressions. Initially, it was employed not as a method of

execution, but only as a punishment. Moreover, only slaves convicted

of certain crimes were punished by crucifixion. Only in later times,

probably in the first century BC, did crucifixion evolve into a method

of execution for conviction of certain crimes.
Outside of Italy, the Roman procurators alone possessed authority to

impose the death penalty. Thus, when a local provincial court

prescribed the death penalty, the consent of the Roman procurator had

to be obtained in order to carry out the sentence.
Once a defendant was found guilty and was condemned to be crucified,

the execution was supervised by an official known as the Carnifix

Serarum. From the tribunal hall, the victim was taken outside,

stripped, bound to a column and scourged. Following the beating, the

horizontal beam was placed upon the condemned man's shoulders, and he

began the long, grueling march to the execution site, usually outside

the city walls.
Sometimes the victim was attached to the cross only with ropes . . .

If the victim was attached by nails, he was laid on the ground, with

his shoulders on the crossbeam. His arms were held out and nailed to

the two ends of the crossbeam, which was then raised and fixed on top

of the vertical beam. The victim's feet were then nailed down against

this vertical stake.
THE CRUCIFIXION OF YEHOHANAN
His remains reveal the horrible manner of his dying. From the way in

which the bones were attached [to the excavated nail], we can infer

the man's position on the cross.
The two heel bones were attached on their adjacent inside (medial)

surfaces. The nail went through the right heel bone and then the left.

Since the same nail went through both heels, the legs were together,

not apart, on the cross.
A small seat, or sedile, must have been fastened to the upright of the

cross. The evidence as to the position of the body on the cross

convinced the investigators that the sedile supported only the man's

left buttock. This seat both prevented the collapse of the body and

prolonged the agony.
Given this position on the cross and given the way in which the heel

bones were attached to the cross, it seems likely that the knees were

bent, or semi-flexed. This position of the legs was dramatically

confirmed by a study of the long bones below the knees, the tibia or

shinbone and the fibula behind it.
Only the tibia of the crucified man's left leg was available for

study. The bone had been brutally fractured into large, sharp slivers.

This fracture was clearly produced by a single, strong blow. . . The

angle of the line of fracture on these left calf bones provides proof

that the victim's legs were in a semi-flexed position on the cross.
The arm bones of the victim revealed the manner in which they were

attached to the horizontal bar of the cross. A small scratch was

observed on one bone (the radius) of the right forearm, just above the

wrist. The scratch was produced by the compression, friction and

gliding of an object on the fresh bone. This scratch is the

osteological (3) evidence of the penetration of the nail between the

two bones of the forearm, the radius and the ulna.
Christian iconography usually shows the nails piercing the palms of

Jesus' hands. Nailing the palms of the hands is impossible, because

the weight of the slumping body would have torn the palms in a very

short time. The victim would have fallen from the cross while still

alive. As the evidence from our crucified man demonstrates, the nails

were driven into the victim's arms, just above the wrists, because

this part of the arm is sufficiently strong to hold the weight of a

slack body.
The position of the crucified body may then be described as follows:

The feet were joined almost parallel, both transfixed by the same nail

at the heels, with the legs adjacent; the knees were doubled, the

right one overlapping the left; the trunk was contorted and seated on

a sedile; the upper limbs were stretched out, each stabbed by a nail

in the forearm.
Normally, the Romans left the crucified person undisturbed to die

slowly of sheer physical exhaustion leading to asphyxia. (4) However,

Jewish tradition required burial on the day of execution. Therefore,

in Palestine the executioner would break the legs of the crucified

person in order to hasten his death and thus permit burial before

nightfall. (5)
Several years ago while in Jerusalem we went to the back of the Arab bus station where the locals say Jesus was crucified at the place of the skull. Here is a picture we took, we made it to the top and Muslim men came running from everywhere to run us off. We did not know it but there was a cemetery on top of the skull.

Ironic or not at the eastern gate of the walls around Jerusalem where one day Jesus will return you find the gate bricked in with solid stone. In front of the gate again a cemetary. Death, hell and the grave will one day be swallowed up in Victory and no one will keep Jesus from sitting those nailed pierced feet down where they are destined to rule from.