On Sunday, I was looking at the cross in front of our church and thinking about crucifixion in general. I understand that crucifixion was a fairly common punishment for non-Roman criminals sentanced to death. I believe Josephus spoke of a million Jews crucified during the Jewish Wars. In Israel, with few actual citizens, it must have been practiced often amongst the rebellious Jews around Christ's time. Be that as it may, this series of thoughts led me to some questions:
1) Were crosses routinely re-used in executions? I mean, in a semi-arid Palestine, that would run into a fair amount of wood that would have to be imported from Syria.If every perpertrator had their own cross.
2) We know that Christ carried His own cross up Golgotha. Did the criminals crucified beside him carry their crosses? Or were crosses already on Golgotha for use in executions?
3) We assume that ,for ease of use, all criminal's crosses were laid on the ground in a standard way, the criminal placed spread-eagled ,and the nails applied.Then the cross was raised, fit into a hole (a re-used hole or new hole for each execution?) and the prisoner then gasped out his (or perhaps,her?) last hours. The criminal nailed to a cross would be raised,and the cross fall with a thud into the hole,which was no doubt a shock in itself. It may be that this shock alone was enough to finish a percentage of criminals,especially the starved, beaten long-term prisoner.
But Christ was likely a special case. We believe that He had an un-used cross, which fits nicely into the story and the prophecies. But others...would a penny-pinching Roman government re-use crosses? Perhaps even nails?
Also, I wonder if the cross was left in an upright position, or commonly laid down in order to facilitate the removal of the messy corpse?
What do you think?
Julian of York
1) Were crosses routinely re-used in executions? I mean, in a semi-arid Palestine, that would run into a fair amount of wood that would have to be imported from Syria.If every perpertrator had their own cross.
2) We know that Christ carried His own cross up Golgotha. Did the criminals crucified beside him carry their crosses? Or were crosses already on Golgotha for use in executions?
3) We assume that ,for ease of use, all criminal's crosses were laid on the ground in a standard way, the criminal placed spread-eagled ,and the nails applied.Then the cross was raised, fit into a hole (a re-used hole or new hole for each execution?) and the prisoner then gasped out his (or perhaps,her?) last hours. The criminal nailed to a cross would be raised,and the cross fall with a thud into the hole,which was no doubt a shock in itself. It may be that this shock alone was enough to finish a percentage of criminals,especially the starved, beaten long-term prisoner.
But Christ was likely a special case. We believe that He had an un-used cross, which fits nicely into the story and the prophecies. But others...would a penny-pinching Roman government re-use crosses? Perhaps even nails?
Also, I wonder if the cross was left in an upright position, or commonly laid down in order to facilitate the removal of the messy corpse?
What do you think?
Julian of York
