Crucifixion

CRUCIFIXION was used by many nations of the ancient world, including Assyria, Media, and Persia. Alexander the Great of Greece crucified 2,000 inhabitants of Tyre when he captured the city. The Romans later adopted this method and used it often throughout their empire. Crucifixion was the Romans’ most severe form of execution so it was reserved only for slaves and criminals. No Roman citizen could be crucified. Before being impaled, the victim was stripped naked and scourged with a flagellum, a whip with rock and bond bound to leather thongs, and act which tore the skin and muscle down to the bone.

Often, victims to be crucified were disemboweled during the scourging process, yet their bodies were still publicly displayed on the cross. After being scourged, the victim was forced to carry the cross-beam of his cross outside the city to the place of crucifixion. During the process, the victim was led by a herald with the “title,” the written accusation against the victim. Upon reaching the place of execution, the victim was laid on the ground, the beam placed under his shoulders, and his arms or hands tied and/or nailed to it. This cross-beam was then attached to an upright beam just high enough so the victim’s feet could not touch the ground. The victim’s feet were then tied and/or nailed to the upright beam; the main weight of the body was supported by a peg projecting from the upright beam called a “sedile.”

The victim was usually left to die of starvation or exhaustion, though sometimes the death process was hastened by breaking the victim’s legs. This hastened the death process; during scourging, the diaphragm was usually damaged, forcing the victim to physically lift himself in order to breathe. Breaking the victim’s legs prevented this, so in effect the victim would die of suffocation.

THE SUFFERINGS IN THE PASSION The sufferings of Christ in His death have been labeled His passive obedience in classical Protestant theology. This passive obedience stands in contrast to Christ’s active obedience which refers to the obedience exhibited during His lifetime. His life was, of course, one of obedience, beginning with His willing acceptance of the Incarnation (Heb. 10:5-10), and continuing throughout His entire life on earth (Luke 2:52; John 8:29). Through suffering He learned obedience (Heb. 5:8).

The sufferings of Christ’s life, though real, were not atoning. Nevertheless, the merit of His atoning death is inseparable from the sinlessness and perfection of His life which was attested to by His life of obedience. Thus while theologians have made this distinction between life and death sufferings (active and passive obedience), it fails to be very significant, since only the sufferings of His death and His obedience in being the sacrificial Lamb were atoning.

Strictly speaking, then, only the sufferings on the cross were atoning. It was during the three hours of darkness when God laid on Christ the sins of the world that Atonement was being made. The abuse and scourgings that preceded His time on the cross were part of the sufferings of His life (Isaiah 53).

NLT Deuteronomy 21:23 the body must never remain on the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone hanging on a tree is cursed of God. Do not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession.

ESV Mark 15:13-15 And they cried out again, "Crucify him." 14 And Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him." 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

KJV Mark 15:23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.

NLT Mark 15:25 It was nine o'clock in the morning when the crucifixion took place.

NIV Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-- which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

NLT Mark 15:37 Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last.

ESV John 19:31-33 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

NLT 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it's all nonsense. 24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God.

ESV Hebrews 10:5-10 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" 8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

NLT Hebrews 5:8 So even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.