Jesus's Path To The Cross: An 8-Day DevotionalSample

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Jesus Betrayed, Arrested, and Crucified

Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, was most likely named not because of the shape of the landscape but because skulls were prevalent there. Early Christian and pagan writers such as Justin Martyr, Juvenal, and Seneca give horrific detail about the act of crucifixion, stating that the flesh of bodies of those crucified was often consumed by birds and wild animals, with the bones left to fall to the ground. Nowhere in the Gospels is Golgotha called a hill.

There is some evidence that crucifixion derived from the Assyrian practice of impaling rebels and captives on long stakes. In contrast, the reference to being hung on a tree in Deut. 21:22 seems to be an act of public humiliation after the condemned had already been executed (cf. 1 Sam. 31:10). Crucifixion was adopted by the Greeks (including Alexander the Great) and the Phoenicians and was also used by some Jews to execute rebels and political opponents. The Romans mastered the practice of crucifixion, employing it to execute non-citizens, slaves, and (on occasion) even citizens who had run afoul of the empire. It was reserved especially for robbers, traitors, and persons condemned for insurrection. For instance, 2,000 Jews who had revolted against Rome at the death of Herod the Great were crucified, and mass crucifixions, with bodies in grotesque shapes, filled the perimeter of Jerusalem during the Roman siege in AD70. Josephus called crucifixion “the most miserable of deaths.”

The act of crucifixion typically included four stages: the condemned was scourged; he was forced to carry his crossbar (Lat. patibulum) to the site of execution; he was fastened to the crossbar by nails; finally, his crossbar was affixed to an upright beam that was already set into the ground. A great deal of variation was possible, much of which was intended to increase the suffering or humiliation of the condemned. Nails were driven through the hands or, more likely, the wrists, and also through the ankles. Sometimes ropes were used in place of nails. Josephus mentions one instance in which three people were removed while still clearly alive on the cross, and all received significant medical care; two died anyway, testifying to the intensity of the suffering involved. Persons could be crucified upright or upside down, with limbs outstretched in a variety of positions. Usually the person crucified was naked, though a loincloth was at times allowed. Crosses were often low to the ground to allow passersby to add to the agony. Animals and insects were drawn to the blood. Death was often drawn out, and certainly agonizing. The cause of death was likely due to a variety of factors, including asphyxiation, shock, loss of blood, and perhaps heart failure. A victim’s legs could be broken so that he would be unable to push himself up to take a breath, hastening death (John 19:31). An excavated burial cave from Givat Hamivtar north of Jerusalem contained an ossuary (bone box) with bones of a man who had a nail, 5–6 inches (12.7–15.2 cm) long, driven through his heel bone. Wood attached to the bone indicates that the upright of his cross was from an olive tree. Constantine reportedly abolished Roman crucifixion in the fourth century AD.