CRUCIFIXION

Bible Study Resource

                                        See end of page for 'The Process of Crucifixion'

INTERESTING WEBSITES                                                                       SCROLL DOWN FOR IMAGES

However in 1968 an ossuary (box in which bones were placed after the flesh had decomposed) was found in Giv'at ha'Mivtar in Jerusalem (see opposite). It contained the bones of a crucified man, and one of the bones still had a nail lodged in the heel bone. This has allowed archaeologists to speculate about the technique used by the Romans when they crucified a man.

See BIBLE WOMEN: MAJOR EVENTS for information about death and burial in ancient times - what happened to the body of a family member who had died.

Artists usually sanitize images of the Crucifixion - see Giotto's 'Crucifixion' above left. There is very little evidence of the torture Jesus endured during his Passion and death. One artist who gave a more graphic picture of reality was Matthias Grünewald - see the detail of his 'Crucifixion' above right. See also BIBLE ART: MARY MAGDALENE

Films have often been sanitized. The image on the left from Pasolini's 'The Gospel According to St Matthew' shows a calm and dignified Jesus as he makes his way to Calvary. 
Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' was much closer to reality. For more on these two films, go to 
BIBLE TOP TEN: FILMS

THE PROCESS OF CRUCIFIXION

After a prisoner was arrested, he was held in a cell then brought before a court which decided what to do with him. If he was found guilty of the charges and condemned to die by crucifixion, he was often flogged beforehand.

Flogging involved stripping the prisoner and tying his hands to an upright post. A soldier stepped forward with the flagrum in his hand. This was a whip with a short wooden handle and leather thongs with small pieces of metal attached to the end of each thong. The whip fell repeatedly on the condemned man's head, shoulders and body.

The metal pieces on the flagrum first bruised, then cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.

Finally the skin of the back would be gaping open and the entire area would become an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. This flogging was meant to punish, terrify and weaken the condemned man.

When it was time to go to the place of execution, a heavy beam of wood, the crossbeam, was placed across the man's shoulders, probably attached there by leather straps to prevent the weakened man from dropping it. The route taken by the procession of soldiers and condemned man was along a crowded street, so that his suffering was evident to as many people as possible - crucifixion was used as a deterrent to other citizens who might be tempted to commit the crime for which the condemned man was being punished.

At the place of execution, the condemned man was stripped naked, a further humiliation, and the beam across his shoulders was lowered to the ground. This threw his body backwards, because the straps or ropes tying him to the beam would still be in place. A soldier drove a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist, deep into the wood. When both wrists had been nailed, the beam was lifted into place at the top of posts already lodged upright in the ground.

Many condemned men were left in this position, with their legs tied to the upright beam, but Jesus seems to have had his feet nailed to the wood as an extra punishment. It made his death more brutal, but it also made it quicker, since the additional agony sent him into shock, while also making it more difficult for him to push his body upwards, to breathe. He also lost more blood, weakening him further.

Since he was effect hanging by his arms, his chest muscles began to go into cramp. He could breathe in, but it became increasingly difficult to breathe out. Carbon dioxide built up in his lungs and in the blood stream.  He was horribly dehydrated. The pericardium, the sac surrounding his heart, filled with fluid, compressing his heart, and he died of heart failure and suffocation.

Francis Bacon's painting titled 'Crucifixion' captures something of the horror of that event.
For other paintings of the crucifixion, go to BIBLE TOP TEN: PAINTINGS

INTERESTING SITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions, information

BIBLE PEOPLE: MARY
A short version of the life of Mary of Nazareth, said by John's Gospel to have been present at the Crucifixion of Jesus

BIBLE ART: MARY MAGDALENE
Paintings of Mary Magdalene at the crucifixion

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: THE DA VINCI CODE
Was Mary Magdalene married to Jesus? Did he really die on the cross?

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: MARY MAGDALENE
Putting the crucifixion of Jesus into its historical context

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: MARY OF NAZARETH
A closer examination of the life of Jesus' mother, Mary

BIBLE WOMEN: MAJOR EVENTS
What happened to the body of someone who died?

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Crucifixion  - Archaeology of The Bible - Bible  Study Resource
Crucifixion: the process, the evidence