Orientation

Three positions for crucifixion.

As far as historians have been able to determine, the Persians invented crucifixion. From them the practice spread to other people in the ancient world as a means of instilling fear and deterring rebellious bandits, revolutionaries, and slaves. Alexander the Great crucified 2,000 Tyrians in the 4th century B.C. The Syrian ruler Antiochus IV crucified a number of Jews in 167 B.C. Jews sometimes even crucified other Jews, as Alexander Jannaeus, the Jewish high priest, did in 88 B.C. After Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., Varus, the Roman ruler stationed in the province of Syria, crucified 2,000 rebels. Jesus was merely one of many people crucified as criminals in antiquity.

In the Roman empire, crucifixion was normally only for non-citizens. If Roman citizens needed to be punished for some crime, they were usually fined, exiled to a remote location, strangulated in prison, or forced to commit suicide. Crucifixion was considered so despicable that Rome crucified its own citizens only under the most unusual of circumstances. For this reason the apostle Paul, a Roman citizen, was far less likely to be crucified after his arrest than Jesus was, who was not a Roman citizen.

The details of crucifixion varied somewhat, depending on the particular sadistic inclinations of the executioner. The procedure normally began by hanging a sign around the neck of the criminal which named the crime. The criminal then carried the top bar, or crosspiece, to the site of crucifixion, which was always located in a highly visible place to maximize the "terror effect" on the local population. There the criminal was stripped of clothing and flogged with a scourge, a whip made from a stout stick and leather thongs, with iron balls and sharpened bits of bone tied on the ends. Next the criminal's hands were either nailed or tied with rope to the crossbar, which was then raised and attached to an upright pole. Finally the feet were nailed or tied to the upright pole. Death came after several days, due to a mixture of blood loss, trauma, suffocation, exposure, and thirst. Once dead the body was left hanging on the cross, where it was attacked by wild animals, rats, flies, and bacteria.

Jesus' crucifixion departed from this typical pattern. He was flogged before carrying the crossbar to the site of crucifixion, rather than after. Instead of hanging the sign around Jesus' neck, Pilate had it fixed directly to the cross. Death came in about six hours, not several days. And influential friends saw to it that his body was respectfully laid in an expensive tomb hewn from rock, rather than left out in the open air.

Why was Jesus crucified? The answers are many, none of which are adequate by themselves but which considered together offer a more complete understanding of why Jesus was killed.

• Pilate had a political reason: since Jesus pretended to be a messiah, a "king of the Jews," he must be some kind of bandit and therefore was a threat to Caesar's rule. (See the session on Jesus and the Bandits.)

• The Sanhedrin had a religious reason: Jesus blasphemed the name of God, and had to die for it. (See Mark 14:61b-64.)

• Those with an on-going financial interest in the Temple had an economic reason: Jesus criticized the Temple's economy. (See the session on Jesus and the Temple.)

• Some had a status reason: as Jesus' honor increased in the never-ending game of challenge and response, their honor decreased. (See the session on Jesus and Honor.)

• Some had a power reason: as Jesus' network of clients grew larger, he was stealing clients. (See the session on Jesus and Patronage.)

• Some had a purity reason: Jesus rejected exterior purity laws and replaced them with interior purity (See the session on Jesus and Purity.)

• God had a pastoral reason: to experience the depths of suffering in order to empathize with human suffering. (See Hebrews 2:18.)

• God also had a salvation reason: to redeem humanity from sin. (See Romans 3:23-25a.)

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