Crucifixion was intended to be a gruesome spectacle: the most painful and humiliating death imaginable. It was used to punish slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. According to Roman law, if a slave killed his or her master, all of the master’s slaves would be crucified as punishment.
Jesus of Nazareth , known as Jesus Christ to his Christian followers, was the spiritual founder of Christianity. Jesus was famously crucified in Jerusalem by the Roman authorities under the encouragement of the Jewish leadership because his teachings were heretical to the latter and politically dangerous to the former.
Instead of leading with the conviction for blasphemy, Caiaphas claimed that Jesus was guilty of sedition. Jesus , Caiaphas said, thought himself, or his followers thought, or people said that he was the King of the Jews. This was a capital crime against Rome and Pilate had to deal with it whether he wanted to or not.
Alexander Metherell, assert that Jesus having survived crucifixion is “impossible” and “a fanciful theory without any possible basis in fact.” Further example may be found in a thorough analysis conducted by the Journal of the American Medical Association, which concluded Jesus was very probably dead even prior to the
For them the death of Jesus was part of a divine plan to save humanity. The death and resurrection of this one man is at the very heart of the Christian faith. For Christians it is through Jesus’s death that people’s broken relationship with God is restored. This is known as the Atonement.
In 66 CE, the First Jewish –Roman War began. The revolt was put down by the future Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. In the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and, according to some accounts, plundered artifacts from the Temple, such as the Menorah.
But instead, Jesus was taken directly to the Jerusalem residence of the high priest Joseph Caiaphas .
“That can [kill in] 10 minutes to half an hour – it’s just impossible to breathe under those conditions,” Ward says. Someone nailed to a crucifix with their arms stretched out on either side could expect to live for no more than 24 hours.
These gospels were probably written in the mid to late 1st Century. They were accepted as either written by Jesus ‘ apostolic disciples or the followers of these disciples. Some of the lost gospels were written significantly later, in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries – and this would have counted against them.
When nails were involved, they were long and square (about 15cm long and 1cm thick) and were driven into the victim’s wrists or forearms to fix him to the crossbar. Once the crossbar was in place, the feet may be nailed to either side of the upright or crossed.