Hello, my name is Dr. Mark Fielding.   I want to discuss the topic of The Cross of JESUS with you in this Article.

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Horrifying -  The act of crucifixion frightened even the greatest men on earth.

Crucifixion was a method of execution used by the Romans to punish slaves and foreigners. Hung from a crossbar astride an upright peg, the naked victim was allowed to hang as a public spectacle until dead.  No vital organs were damaged, and death was slow agony. Prior to crucifixion, the victim was scourged and made to carry the crossbar to the execution site. 

Though closely associated with Rome, crucifixion originated with the Phoenicians and Persians. It was practiced from the 6th century BC until the 4th century AD. The Roman emperor Constantine I banned crucifixion in 337.

 

Herodotus mentions crucifixion three times in his histories, Curtius Rufus says Alexander the Great had 2,000 survivors from the siege of Tyre crucified on the shores of the Mediterranean, Sanhedrin 6.5 says Simeon B Shetah had 70 or 80 witches hung in the city of Ashkelon, and Josephus mentions it several times in his different works. He introduces it when telling how Antiochus, around 165 BC, robbed the temple of its treasure supplied in the previous century by the Ptolemies. He had wanted to try to conquer Egypt but had been warned off by the Romans, and, piqued, decided to take it out on the temple the Egyptians had favoured. He imposed stringent conditions on the Jewish population and many refused to obey them. His punishment was crucifixion. Many Jews there were who complied with the king’s commands, either voluntarily, or out of fear of the penalty that was denounced. But the best men, and those of the noblest souls, did not regard him, but did pay a greater respect to the customs of their country than concern as to the punishment which he threatened to the disobedient; on which account they every day underwent great miseries and bitter torments; for they were whipped with rods, and their bodies were torn to pieces, and were crucified, while they were still alive, and breathed. They also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king had appointed, hanging their sons about their necks as they were upon the crosses. Josephus (Whiston), Antiquities 12:5:4   The social stigma and disgrace associated with crucifixion in the ancient world can hardly be overstated. It was usually reserved for slaves, criminals of the worst sort from the lowest levels of society, military deserters, and especially traitors. In only rare cases were Roman citizens, no matter what their crime, crucified. Among the Jews it carried an additional stigma. Deut. 21:23, "A hanged man is accursed by God," was understood to mean that the very method of death brought a divine curse upon the crucified.  Bodies of the crucified were often left unburied and eaten by carnivorous birds and beasts, thus adding to the disgrace.

The method, the suffering and the stigma of disgrace that accompanied crucifixion broke even the lionhearted among men.  Since no more horrible means of murder could be imagined by man, crucifixion was the way and means to eliminate one's enemies.

"This man was handed over to you by GOD'S set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, [ Or of those not having the law (that is, Gentiles)] put HIM to death by nailing him HIM to the cross." Acts 2:23

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Historical Fact -  The act of the crucifixion of JESUS is a proven historical fact. NEXT