We do not abhor crucifixion as the ancients did. For us, the cross is little more than a religious symbol, like a crescent moon or a menorah. The image is sanitized and mundane, it is no more affronting than a McDonalds sign or the Apple logo. Yet crucifixion was indeed a “scandal,” a word that conjured up terror, and deliberately so.
Hello, Michael. The Romans' society was an honor-shame based society where honor and shame was based on who was the penetrator/inflictor and who was penetrated/inflicted accordingly. Dr. David Tombs of the University of Otago in New Zealand, whose work on sexual abuse and torture of mid and late twentieth century and modern day dirty wars informed his sense on how the Romans treated their crucified, right down to the structure of the cross. Frequently those crucified were subjected to some kind of acuta-crux one had to sit on or a stipes driven through one's privates. His book just released last year, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross, is an indispensable companion to the four other sources you have listed at the end of your article.
Hi Michael - I wondered how you understood 'why' Jesus was executed by crucifixion, rather than some other method of killing. Was it necessary to reflect the awful consequences of mankind's sin put on the Messiah? And in connection with that, do you hold a penal substitutionary understanding of the cross, perhaps as well as Christus Victor?
I read Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion some time ago but it was hard-going!
Hello, Michael. The Romans' society was an honor-shame based society where honor and shame was based on who was the penetrator/inflictor and who was penetrated/inflicted accordingly. Dr. David Tombs of the University of Otago in New Zealand, whose work on sexual abuse and torture of mid and late twentieth century and modern day dirty wars informed his sense on how the Romans treated their crucified, right down to the structure of the cross. Frequently those crucified were subjected to some kind of acuta-crux one had to sit on or a stipes driven through one's privates. His book just released last year, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross, is an indispensable companion to the four other sources you have listed at the end of your article.
THANK YOU FOR THIS EMAIL TODAY! I'm using it in my Luke/Acts courses IMMEDIATELY!
Hi Michael - I wondered how you understood 'why' Jesus was executed by crucifixion, rather than some other method of killing. Was it necessary to reflect the awful consequences of mankind's sin put on the Messiah? And in connection with that, do you hold a penal substitutionary understanding of the cross, perhaps as well as Christus Victor?
I read Fleming Rutledge's The Crucifixion some time ago but it was hard-going!
Thanks, Peter