IPFS News Link • Religion: Believers
Jesus Did Not Die on the Cross
• The Atlantic WireThe crucifixion is apparently under review.
In his doctoral
thesis, newly graduated Swedish theologian Gunnar Samuelsson argues
that the cross Jesus supposedly died on may not actually have been a
cross. He explains in an interview with DRadio Wissen, a German station: "the New Testament said that Jesus died some way on something called a staurus
... that's a Greek name for a cross or a pole or something ... I call
it an execution device only to be [distinguished] from the common
notion that it must be a cross, because it mustn't be a cross--it could
be a pole, for instance, or a tree trunk, or something else."
3 Comments in Response to Jesus Did Not Die on the Cross
his arms where tied and nailed to long beam and that beam was hooked on to tree or olive tree at the mount of olives
This is nothing new. The Roman procedure for capital punishment was to tie a victim to a tree trunk. They did not typically use crosses nor did they typically nail a victim's hands and feet. They used rope. It was specifically designed as death by asphyxiation.
However, during the particular time in the province of Palestine, they did begin to use crosses. And in Jesus' case, they used nails and specifically NOT rope to purposefully cause additional pain. When the tendons and finger bones were worn and torn by the nails from continually pushing up from the feet and pulling up from the hands (natural avoidance of asphyxiation) they added the foot stoop and rope to hands and feet to prolong the painful death.
Jesus still did not succumb until the centurion Longines pierced Jesus' body with a spear. Interestingly, some have argued he did so to relieve Jesus of the pain of fluid in his lungs. Either way it was the final straw.
Based on the quality and characteristics of Jesus' followers, I'd say he was probably hung from a tree with a noose.