Was Jesus Even Crucified? Part 3

Link to Part 1.
Link to Part 2.


Part 3 - The Latin Translation.

To perhaps get a better understanding of what Josephus meant, or perhaps not, we now turn to Jerome’s copy of the Latin translation of Josephus’ Antiquities, which he quoted in his De Viris Illustribus 13. Jerome, in contradistinction to what Origen said about Josephus not believing Jesus was the messiah, had this to say: “In the eighth [sic!] book of his Antiquities he most openly acknowledges that Christ was slain by the Pharisees on account of the greatness of his miracles, that John the Baptist was truly a prophet, and that Jerusalem was destroyed because of the murder of James the apostle. He wrote also concerning the Lord after this fashion:…” ₁

Let me note here that the Jamesian reference was not found in the extant manuscript copy of Josephus’ Antiquities, as Jerome assrets, but rather the 20^th, and Josephus does not attribute Jerusalem’s destruction to the murder of James therein or anywhere else in Antiquities.  Origen’s referrals to the Jamesian passage also appears to make the same error ₂.

The English translation from New Advent ₃ first:

“In this same time was Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be lawful to call him man. For he was a worker of wonderful miracles, and a teacher of those who freely receive the truth. He had very many adherents also, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, and was believed to be Christ, and when through the envy of our chief men Pilate had crucified him, nevertheless those who had loved him at first continued to the end, for he appeared to them the third day alive. Many things, both these and other wonderful things are in the songs of the prophets who prophesied concerning him and the sect of Christians, so named from Him, exists to the present day.”

The extant Latin, from the Documenta Catholica Omnia website ₄:

Eodem tempore fiut Jesus, vir sapiens, sit amen virum oportet eum dicere. Erat enim mirabilium patrator operum, et doctor eorum, qui libenter vera suscipiunt: plurimos quoque tam de judaeis quam de gentibus sui habuit sectatores, et credebatur esse Christus.  Cumque invidia nostrorum principum cruci eum Pilatus addixisset _a, nihilominus qui eum primum dilexerant, perseveraverant. Apparit eum eis tertia die vivens, multa et haec alia mirabilia carminibus prophetarum de eo vaticinatibus, et usque hodie Christianorum gens ab hoc sortita vocabulum, non defecit.

1. adfixisset, “affixed, attached.” ₅

And this is how I translate it (boldface emphasis mine) – footnotes flag certain Latin words that have multiple meanings:

There was at this time Jesus, a wise man, if nevertheless one ought ₆ to call him a man. Namely he was an effector ₇ of astonishing deeds and a teacher ₈ of men, who are pleased to accept the truth ₉: many even of the Jews as of the Gentiles he considered his own followers ₁₀, and he was believed to be the messiah. And by means of the hatred ₁₁ of our leading citizens Pilate sentenced him to the crux ₁₂, all the same those who loved ₁₃ him at first had continued to do so. For he showed up ₁₄ to them on the third day alive still ₁₅, and this and many other marvelous things in the oracles of the prophets having prophesied of him, and even unto this day the race ₁₆ of Christians, having chosen ₁₇ their name from him, are not extinct. 

Now if one looked closely at the Latin source (PDF) from Documenta Catholica Omnia, one would notice that the Latin runs side-by-side with the Greek. So it is probable that the Latin was translated from the Greek in Jerome’s day, because the extant Greek is identical to that in Antiquities 18.3.3! ₁₈ So we have the Latin, therefore, conforming to the “Testimonium Forgianum” that Eusebius quoted, i.e., the Christianized version, not the Josephan original. And the only word that doesn’t conform to Whiston’s English translation is vivens, which means “alive still, surviving, living, alive, being alive,” etc. It does not mean “alive again,” let alone “resurrected.” So even here we have a possible remnant of Josephus’ skepticism that the historical Jesus (Jesus the Nazarene) rose from the dead. Rather, he survived his “crucifixion” or avoided getting suspended by the Romans under Pilate in the first place.

Notes:

1.       Jerome, De Viris Illustribus (Illustrious Men) 13, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2708.htm2.       Origen, Commentary on Matthew 10.17. Cf. Contra Celsum 1.47 and 2.13. http://www.textexcavation.com/anaorigjos.html#matthew3.       Jerome (New Advent), ibid.
4.       Documenta Catholica Omnia, De Viris Illustribus Liber Ad Dextrum, Caput XIII, col. 663 (PDF p. 17). http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0347-0420__Hieronymus__De_Viris_Illustribus_Liber_Ad_Dextrum__MLT.pdf.html 

5.       Roger Viklund, Jesus Granskad, “The Jesus Passages in Josephus, Part 2l, ‘Testimonium Flavianum’: The Church Fathers’ Knowledge, The Latin Translations, Jerome.” Rogerviklund.wordpress.com. Accessed 6-1-2013.
6.       Transl. “ought” – Latin oportet, “ought, has to, needs to, must.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
7.       Transl. “effector” – Latin patrator, “effector, achiever, accomplisher”. (Perseus) (Whitaker)
8.       Transl. “teacher” – Latin doctor, “teacher, instructor, trainer, doctor.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
9.       Transl. “truth” – Latin vera, “(adjective) of the truth, genuine, true, true things; (noun) the truth, that which is true truth, reality, fact; (noun) the spring, springtime of life, youth.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
10.   Transl. “followers” – Latin sectatores, “followers, pursuers, attendants, familiars, retinue, adherents.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
11.   Transl. “hatred” – Latin invidia, “hatred, envy, grudge, jealousy, ill-will.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
12.   Not translated but changed to the nominative – Latin crux (dative cruci = “to the crux”), “gallows, frame, tree, stake on which criminals were hanged or impaled, frequently cross [but not always so]; crucifixion; torture, torment, trouble, misery.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
13.   Transl. “loved” – Latin dilexerant, “loved, picked, selected, singled out, valued, esteemed, prized, appreciated.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
14.   Transl. “showed up” – Latin apparuit, “appeared, came into sight, made an appearance, was visible, was seen, showed himself.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
15.   Transl. “alive still” – Latin vivens, “living, being alive, having life, surviving, being still alive.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
16.   Transl. “race” – Latin gens, “race, swarm, brood, crew, herd, [a] people.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
17.   Transl. “chosen” – Latin sortita, “having drawn lots; having assigned, allotted  or obtained by lots; having shared, divided, distributed; having got by lot, obtained, received; having got by chance or as a lot, got, obtained, received.” (Perseus) (Whitaker)
18.   Subheading under the title at the first page of the PDF (pursue the link in note 4) we read, “Adjuncta versione antiqua Graeca quam sub Suphronii nomine Erasmus edidit,” meaning: “Attached to the ancient Greek version which under the name of the Suphronii Erasmus edited.”

Crucifixion the Bodily Support - The Acuta Crux in Patristic Writings (18)

Bloodstone magical gem / intaglio,
Eastern Mediterranean, ca. 2nd - 3rd C. CE.
Source: British Museum.

(Part 7r of the series: Crucifixion the Bodily Support)


Part 1        Part 2      Part 3       Part 4
Part 5a     Part 5b    Part 5c     Part 5d
Part 5e     Part 5f     Part 5g     Part 6a
Part 6b     Part 6c    Part 6d     Part 6e
Part 7a     Part 7b    Part 7c     Part 7d
Part 7e     Part 7f     Part 7g      Part 7h
Part 7i      Part 7j     Part 7k      Part 7l

Part 7m    Part 7n   Part 7o      Part 7p

Part 7q

Wrap-up.

This is a summation of what several Antenicene Fathers of the Church understood about Roman Crucifixion.

The first was (Pseudo-) Barnabas, (fl. between 70 and 131 CE) who understood the purpose of the penalty was for the destruction and ruin of the body to the point of death. The gear of execution was shaped like a 'T' and it was likened to a tree that was bent over and then made to stand upright, and which dripped with blood. The punishment was meted out so that the person so executed was suspended with his arms stretched out to the sides, similar to a tropaeum.

The next was Justin Martyr (103 - 165 CE), who in I Apology 55 compared the pole to various everyday objects like the mast of a ship with its crossarm, a plough, certain tools, a man standing upright with arms outstretched, and the Roman military's standards, vexillae (banners) and their tropaeums of victory. He even noted that the images of the Caesars were consecrated on (or with) this form at their funerals, and the Caesars themselves declared to be gods by inscriptions; compare to the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion and you'll see there is great similarity to the two.

Elsewhere in I Apology (ch. 35), Justin Martyr describes the crucifixion of Jesus by the Jews as fulfillment of prophecies midrashed out of the Septuagint (Isaiah 9:6: "The Government shall be upon his shoulders;" a mishmash of Isaiah 58.2 and 65:2: "I have spread out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk in a way that is not good, they now ask me of judgement, and dare to draw near to God;" Psalm 22: 17, 19: "They pierced my hands and feet, and for my vesture they cast lots."), narrating a sequence of events that conforms to the account in the Gospel of Peter.

In his Dialogue with Trypho 40, Justin Martyr discerns the crucifixion of Jesus in the Samaritans' (and perhaps the Jews') set-up for roasting their Passover lambs: a spit is inserted through the nether parts and fed through up to the mouth, transfixing the animal, while the front paws are spread out on a horizontal suspension beam. The weird thing is, this set-up is more indicative of one way to impale a person: suspend him by the wrists over an impaling stake; gravity will cause his arms to be stretched out and his torso to be rectally impaled, as in the conjectured example at left and possibly depicted in the gem at the top.

In chapter 72 of the same Dialogue, Justin Martyr makes a complaint that the Jewish religious authorities have conspired to remove various passages out of the Septuagint, for example, a passage that includes the phrase "that we shall humble him on a standard"  (the meaning of the Greek ταπεινοῦν "to humble" includes "sexually violate" as a rare occurrance) out of Esdras and "Let us lay wood on his bread" (lit.: "Let us throw wood into his bread") out of Jeremiah 11:19 (the second passage is still extant in Jer. 11:19 LXX). And these two passages Justin cites as prophecies of the Jews taking counsel together to crucify Jesus and to put him to death.

This is followed up in Dialogue ch. 73 with another complaint: Justin Martyr makes a charge that the Jews removed "from the wood" out of the 96th Psalm (he calls it the 95th); otherwise the first line of Psalm 96:10 "The LORD reigns" would have read "The LORD reigns from the wood." This, of course, Justin uses to invent another prophecy of the Crucifixion: that God in the person of Jesus was to reign from the wood of the pole. Which means Justin viewed the gear of Jesus' execution as a sort of throne. Well rulers sit on their thrones and the Roman poet Maceneas and rhetorician Seneca the Younger both knew, that the seat or sedile of the Roman execution pole consisted of or included an acuta crux (impaling stake or penetrating thorn).  

In chapter 91 of Dialogue, Justin Martyr compares the extremities of the Roman execution pole to the horns of a unicorn: its highest extremity (top end of the main pole, or the titulus signpost) and the ends of the transverse patibulum, applied to the pole as a yard arm to a mast, stuck up or out as "horns." Plus there was one last piece in the middle which actually stood out as a horn and resembled a horn when it was skillfully shaped and assembled with the other "horns," and upon which were suspended, or rather "rode" those who were crucified (ἐφ᾽ ᾧ ἐποχοῦνται οἱ σταυρούμενοι). The Greek verb ἐποχοῦνται is the 3rd person plural present middle/passive indicative of  ἐποχέομαι, itself the 1st person singular middle/passive indicative of  ἐποχεύω "spring upon, cover," as in the action "of the male animal [who is acting as a 'top']." (See this Greek verb chart.) This would indicate that the Roman execution pole itself crucified the criminal not only by suspension racking but also by penetration. Various Latin translations of Dialogue 91 strongly support this.

In Dialogue 105, Justin Martyr finishes up by claiming that even the design of the σταυρός (pole) was prophesied in the 22nd Psalm, v. 22: "Save me from the lion's mouth, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns (μονοκερώντων: plural of μονοκέρως, 'with but one horn, wild oxen,' or monokeros plinii)."

Irenaeus (130 - 200 CE), in Against Heresies 2.24.4, a chapter on numerology (!), notes that the device had five ends and high points. One of those was in the middle where the one who was affixed with nails found rest, found support or arrested his downward slump.

Pozzuoli Graffito. Dated to ca. 100 CE.

Tertullian (160 - 220 CE) himself was aware that the execution pole had a seat which penetrated the sufferer: he compared the palus (pale) in / from the middle of the stipes (main pole) as single-horned; the context indicates the comparison was to the front horn of the rhinoceros. (Against Marcion 3.18.3,4; An Answer to the Jews 10.2.7) He quotes Psalm 22:22 and notes, like Justin Martyr, that the horns were the apices (apexes: end points and high points) of the crux (An Answer to the Jews 10:13). He further stated that Jesus stuck fast (inhaerens) to the horns (cornibus) i.e., endpoints, of the device. We probably can rule out an extension of the central pole of the frame above the transverse beam as the single-horn, since Tertullian understands it to have been shaped like a capital T (Against Marcion 3.22.6). In his Apology 16.7,8 he notes that every beam set in the ground was a portion of a crux, and whereas he charges the Romans of worshiping gods made from parts of crosses, but Tertullian heaps scorn upon them, saying "we, as luck would have it, worship a god whole [or uninjured] and complete (integrum et totum)." In To the Nations 1.12.3,4 Tertullian notes that a complete execution pole (tota crux) included a projection / rising-above / aberration / transgression of a seat (sedilis excessu). This is the earliest written mention of the noun sedile used for the part of the frame that served to support the person who is nailed thereto, with sedilis denoting its purpose (seat) and excessu its nature (projection, rising, aberration, transgression, etc).

When Tertullian mentions the torture-execution of Regulus, he refers to a crux as both a siege-engine of the body and as a pointed item that pierced a person, noting Regulus was subjected to numerous cruces that were driven in a sort of stong-box which Regulus himself was stuffed into (To the Nations 1.18.10, To the Martyrs 4.6). 

Elsewhere (The Apology 9.2 and 12.3) Tertullian is aware of the similarity of the execution pole to the Roman tropaeum, noting the Priests of Baal-Hammon (Saturn of Africa) were hanged on trees as if on votive execution poles and that the body of the Romans' god was first dedicated on a patibulum (gibbet).

Tertullian talks of the Deuteronomic curse (Dt. 21:22-23), "cursed of God is everyone who would have been suspended on a tree (suspensus fuerit in ligno)" which last phrase could also mean "who would have been suspended by [anything made out of] wood." (An Answer to the Jews 10:1-3) He notes the peculiar atrocity of the Roman crucifixion, the nailing of hands and feet, noting line in Psalm 22 "They stabbed my hands and feet" (Answer 10:13) and admits that the hands and feet are not destroyed except for the one who is suspended on a tree / by an item made out of wood (Answer 13.11).

Tertullian further notes that Roman crucifixion (or impalement as in the Caucasus) was considered a harse, fierce death (Against Marcion 1.1.3), where the body is spread out on a gibbet or by it (in patibulo) (On Modesty 22.3). he also notes that the Romans tortured the person to be tortured first, and treated with every form of outrage. (To the Martyrs 6.1)  He also notes it was a shameful sort of death, upbraiding Marcion for attempting to destroy the only hope of the world, the indispensable dishonor of the Crucifixion wherein Jesus was suffigi: "suffixed" (fixed underneath, i.e., impaled) (On the Flesh of Christ 5.1, 3). He also notes that this sort of execution involved causing wood to go into a person's body, i.e., penetration, quoting Jeremiah 11:19 as a prophecy of the death of Jesus (Answer 10.12). Of course, Tertullian also found the union of two males to be utterly shameful (Against the Valentinians 11.1).

Likewise, Arnobius (fl. 284 - 305 CE) in Against the Heathen 1.36 and 1.40 acknowledges that crucifixion was a harsh, severe death that stained the convict with a mark of turpitude (shamefulness, baseness, foulness, indecency, etc.) and was unworthy for a free man even if he was found guilty, and a death where one died nailed to a patibulum (transverse beam, or cross-like execution pole)

Melito of Sardis (120? - 180 CE) in  his On the Passion 96, 97 notes that in the punishment the sufferer was hanged (or suspended), fixed (or fixed [with nails], or impaled) and firmly supported on (or made fast upon or firmly fixed to) some kind of "tree;" the sufferer was insulted by this punishment and  not allowed any covering to hide his nakedness. The firm support on this "tree" implies a three-dimensional shape to the gear, with some kind of strut, beam or hook to support the person who was completely exhausted or had passed on. If it was a near-vertical sharpened horn-like timber that penetrated the person, the rendered translations "made fast upon" and "firmly fixed to" which alternate with "firmly supported on" in the third phrase of line 96 make a lot more sense; so does the translation "impaled" that alternates with "fixed" and "fixed with nails" in the second phrase.

Origen (185 - 254 CE), in his eight-volume work Against Celsus noted or agreed that the Roman penalty was a most shameful death (Against Celsus 2.31, 6.10; Commentary on Matthew 27.22 1), a death in which the body was stretched as if on a rack (Against Celsus 8.41). He also noted that a crucifixion was a slow, lingering death that typically lasted thirty-six hours  unless they were stabbed first. (Commentary on Matthew 5.140). He also agrees with Celsus that the gear was a σταυρός (pole, either plain or crossarmed; also an upright pale) to which one was nailed (Against Celsus 6.34) and like Diodorus Siculus and Philo 2, uses σταυρός to denote the punishment rather than the instrument of the punishment (Against Celsus 2.69). He also, like Celsus, uses the word σκόλοψ (impaling stake or thorn) to described the execution gear that Jesus was attached to (Against Celsus 2.55, 2.58, 2.68, 2.69). Origen also used the verbs σταυρόω (fence with pales, drive piles, impale, crucify) and ἀνασκολοπίζω (fix on a pole, impale) even though he indicates in Against Celsus 2.69 that he understood ἀνασκολοπίζω etymologically as "to suspend upon something pointed (i.e., a thorn or pointed stake)" 3 (Against Celsus 2.36, 2.69, 3.32). Also as quoted by Eusebius (Church History 3.1), Celsus uses the verb ἀνασκολοπίζω to describe the method of Peter's death. 4

Vivat Crux. Dated 79 CE at the latest.

In Divine Institutes, Lactantius (240 - 320 CE) uses several terms to describe the suspension-attachment of a person on a crux. He uses suffigo (fix or fasten beneath) to denote the attachment of Jesus to the crux; the verb is used both to describe an attaching of a sail to a yardarm so it would hang below and an impaling of a head on a pike. Noting the figure in the Pozzuoli Graffito above and Vivat Crux to the right, cruci suffigo definitely meant both impale and attach to hang below. He also used affigo (affix as a brand), describes the suspension-attachment as suspensus atque affixus / suffixus (suspended and affixed / fastened beneath -- it appears the prisoner was suspended first), describes the suspension as in crucem sublatus (hoisted onto a crux and left suspended there), stated that the attached prisoner hangs on it and by means of it (qua pependit). He quotes Seneca in noting that the arms were stretched out along a transverse beam (extendiae per patibulum). He also used patibulum and crux interchangeably, indicating the first was not always merely a transverse attachment, nor the second just a stake or simple pole only. Lactantius also quotes an oracle by the Milesian Apollo who said that "γόμφοις καὶ σκολόπεσσι (with nails and pales / the crux)" Jesus endured a bitter death. He also understood Jeremiah 11:19 in the Septuagint "ἐμβάλωμεν ξύλον εἰς τὸν ἄρτον αὐτοῦ (let us throw wood onto / into his bread)" as a prophecy of the Crucifixion although it really describes a conspiracy of Jeremiah and modern scholars as far as I know see no connection with Jesus' crucifixion at all. Lactantius, like the rest of the ancient writers, saw the penalty as a manifestly infamous, notorious, polluted and shameful type of death; to inflict this on one who is not guilty of any crime or was of a station that would make him immune to the punishment was seen as a crime, an outrage, an insulting act and an enormity.

Athanasius, (296 or 298 to 373 CE) who probably knew nothing of the σταυρός / crux that was the gear of Jesus' execution except as a cross, also used Jeremiah 11:19 "δεῦτε, καὶ ἐμβάλωμεν ξύλον εἰς τὸν ἄρτον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκτρίψωμεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ γῆς ζώντων. (Come, let us cast wood into His bread, and wipe [lit.: rub] Him out from the land of the living)." The Greek ἐκτρίψωμεν (ἐκτρίβω) could mean, "wear out by constant rubbing." This line in Jeremiah Athanasius takes as indicative only of a death that takes place on wood (ἐν ξύλῳ γινόμενος with  ἐν ξύλῳ having a possible double meaning "by means of wood").

A Roman tropaeum, representing Victory.
Even the godess Victoria (Nike) is present.

Minucius Felix (fl. between 160 - 270 CE) in Octavius, through his protagonist of the same name, when confronted with the charge from from his antagonist Caecilius, that Christians worshiped a criminal and his crux, simply dismissed it as one of several scurrilous charges, lodged in between and serving to link those which Caecilius thought or actually said were gross indecencies and cruel atrocities: "he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood 5 of the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that they may worship what they deserve." Octavius does not explain why Christians worship a perceived criminal and his crux, now cross, he denies the whole thing completely, essentially including them in those things it was not permissible for Christians to even hear, and that it was shameful (or defiling) to the person who has to defend against such charges with his own words, and that it was scarcely imaginable to be believed to be done by chaste and moral persons, unless, of course, it was done by Caecilius and his fellow Non-Christian Romans themselves. And with such crux-worship, as with the charge of cock-worship immediately previous, this Octavius proceeds to do, finishing up with the observation that the Roman tropaeums of Victory not only resembled what he called a simple crux (either crux simplex, crux commissa and/or crux immissa by Justus Lipsius' terminology), but also a man affixed to it! And as seen in the relief depicting a tropaeum above, the method of "affixion" appears to be impalement, for the armor surrounds the tree.

Conclusion:

Although only Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen give us enough information that explicitly describes the architecture or function of the typical Roman execution pole, and Lactantius appears to do so, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius and the others mentioned here who do not give sufficient information, with the exception of Athanasius, are in agreement that Roman crucifixion was the most humiliating death imaginable, carried out upon the suffer, stripped to utter nudity. We also know that these same authors used Jeremiah 11:19 "let us throw / cast / send wood into his bread" as a prophecy of the Crucifixion, wherein the wood was in reference to the Roman execution pole, and the bread the body of Jesus: which would mean that into the body of a person so suspended, an item of wood was caused to go. And since that item of wood, called acuta crux by Maceneas and Seneca the Younger, seems to have been described as a thorn or as the front horn of a rhinoceros or a monokeros plinii, the introduction of it would introduce three kinds of horrible pain (piercing, harsh rubbing and finally stretching), yet perhaps at the same time cause the sufferer's genitals to become prominent, thus increasing his shame. This is because the typical Roman method was a homoeroticized form of (mini-) impalement, wherein the impaled person was literally fucked on display and nailed to his gallows. And the compulsory dance of the execution only made it more shameful and more excruciatingly painful because every time he moves, the anal thorn would rub against and savage his tender membranes.

Notes:

1. "mors turpissima crucis (the most vile death of the crux)"
2. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 20.54.4, "ὥστε σταυρῷ παραπλησίανεἶναι τὴν ὕβριν ἅμα καὶ τὴν τιμωρίαν (the violence and the punishment was almost tantamount to a σταυρός-punishment);" Philo, In Flaccum 72, "ἡ τελευταία καὶ ἔφεδρος τιμωρία σταυρὸς ἦν (where the last and seated / reserved penalty was a σταυρὸς-punishment)." Nota bene:  a σταυρὸς-punishment was a Roman crucifixion.

3. "ἐπί σκόλοπος κρεμασθῆναι (to have been hanged upon a thorn [i.e., a short impaling stake])"
4. "ανασκολοπισθε κατά κεφαλης (he was impaled down upon the head)”
5. "crucis ligna feralia (dangerous timbers of the crux [or lethal woods of the crux])."

Crucifixion the Bodily Support – The Acuta Crux in Patristic Writings (1).

(Part 7a of the series: Crucifixion the Bodily Support)

Part 1            Part 2            Part 3            Part 4           

Part 5a         Part 5b          Part 5c          Part 5d

Part 5e         Part 5f           Part 5g          Part 6a

Part 6b         Part 6c          Part 6d         Part 6e

A. Introduction.

2nd/3rd century, Limes Museum, Aalen, Germany.

“In a Roman Triumph, captured weaponry would be mounted on a vertical stake or stauros, with a cross-member added to support shields, swords, etc.

“Long before Christianity emerged from the shadows, such a "crucifix" would be carried along the Sacred Way to the Forum.” (Source: Jesus Never Existed.com)

This “crucifix” was called a tropaeum by the Romans, τροπαῖον by the Greeks.

The first “crucifix” that actually was a crucifix was the wax image of Julius Caesar fastened to such a frame at his funeral on the 17^th of March, 44 BCE. Roman Emperors who didn’t die in disgrace continued to be honored by such images up until the times of Justin Martyr and Tertullian, at least.

Even so, early Christian writers, some of whom were prolific, described the gear of Jesus’ execution as some kind of crux compacta. Both “orthodox’ and “heterodox” writers claimed that the larger members of this frame were two pieces of wood (poles, beams, timbers). This is similar to the findings from the Greco-Roman polemicists against Christianity, who gave a sufficient amount for the torture frame that the most likely type was a tota crux comissa, that is, a T-shaped crossarmed stake that possessed an impaling stake (σκόλοψ), possibly short and stout, as its membrum virile, although there was an outside chance that a crossbeam between two posts was used to suspend him on a true impaling stake. This is totally unlike the gospels which, when each is taken analyzed singly, gave us a great deal of confusion except if the gospels are harmonized or the differing crux types were compared and the ones not mentioned in all four (five, counting Acts as separate from gLuke) are eliminated. Having done so, the same two types mentioned above conform to the requirements of gospels. So then, a review of pre-Nicene Fathers is in order: not all of them describe the architecture of the crux.

B. Pseudo-Barnabas (ca. 70-79 or 130 CE).

The following quotes are from the Epistle of Barnabas. The English translation is the J. B. Lightfoot Translation, available at Early Christian Writings.com, except for those in quotes inside parentheses, in which case they are mine, using the Perseus Greek Word Study Tool.

1) “For this end the Lord endured to deliver his flesh unto corruption, (παραδουναι τήν σαρκα εις καταφθοράν = “surrender his flesh into destruction, death, ruin”) that by the remission of sins we might be cleansed.

(Ep. Barnabas 5.1a)

2) And it [Isaiah 53:5 LXX] speaketh thus; He was wounded for your transgressions (Ετραυματίσθη διά τάς ανομιας ημων = “He was traumatized for our lawlessness”) and he hath been bruised for our sins (καί μεμαλάκισται διά τάς αμαρτίας ημων = “and he was weakened, softened, tenderized for our sins”); by his stripes we are healed (τω μώλωπι αυτου ημεις ιάθημεν = “by his welts and lashmarks / stripes we are made well”).

(Ep. Barnabas 5.2)

These two lines pertain to the destruction of the body of a crucified person and the softening up of a person prior to the actual suspension. Now the words καταφθοράν and μεμαλάκισται could refer to sexual abuse or assault,because the respective alternate meanings are “(metaphorically) confusion, perturbation” for the first and “made effeminate” for the second. Except the second is taken direct from the Septuagint and is a translation into Greek from the Hebrew מְדֻכָּ֖א (meduka, Pu’al participle, “having been crushed”). The Hebrew for ετραυματίσθη, “traumatized” מְחֹלָ֣ל (meholal, Po’al participle, “having been pierced, wounded”) may connote a shameful piercing or wounding, but according to the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, a sense of defiling, not to mention a sexual connotation, is absent. So there might be a sexual turpitude indicated in the Greek, as would be expected with a Roman suspension,₁ but it’s impossible to prove for certain, especially with the Hebrew connoting no sexual pollution whatsoever. And later on in chapter 5 we have a clear indication that nails were used: “fasten my flesh with nails” (Καθήλωσόν μου τὰς σάρκας, “nail down the flesh of me”). (Ep. Barnabas 5:13)

3)    But moreover when he was crucified he had vinegar and gall given Him to drink (Αλλά καί σταυρωθείς εποτίζετο όξει καί χολη = “And also having been paled [already] he was caused to drink vinegar and a disgust”). Attend carefully: And let all the priests alone eat the entrails unwashed with vinegar (Προσέχετε ακριβως. Καί φαγέτωσαν οι ιερις μόνοι πάντες το έντερον άπλυτον μετά όξους. = “Attend accurately: and the priests alone should eat the unwashed everything-that-should-be-otherwise [i.e., all the bad parts] along with vinegar.”) Wherefore? Since ye are to give Me, who am to offer My flesh for the sins of My new people, gall with vinegar to drink (μέλλετε ποτίζειν… χολήν μετά όξους = ye are to destine Me… a disgust amidst vinegar to drink), eat ye alone, while the people fasteth and waileth in sackcloth and ashes; that he might show that he must suffer at their hands.

(Ep. Barnabas 7:3-5)

Now this is strange. Here the writer is talking about the one suspended having to take vinegar polluted with a disgusting substance, and the writer equates it with an alleged command of Yahweh (it is nowhere found Leviticus or Numbers) that the priests consume the unwashed entrails of the sacrificed goat steeped in or washed down with vinegar on the Yom Kippur while the people without fast and wail in ashes and sackcloth. We know where this is leading to: the Filthy Roman sponge. There’s a video about this thing produced and narrated by a Mr. Mark Driscoll, who is Pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Garday-loo!

Alexamenos graffito.

Despite this portraying a crucifiction, the mythical person is suspended on a typical T-shaped crux commissa. Nota bene the suppedaneum, absent in literature prior to 400 CE. This may portray a preliminary stage of the Roman suspension.

4)   For the scripture saith, ‘And Abraham circumcised of his household eighteen males and three hundred.’ What then was the knowledge given unto him? Understand ye that he saith the eighteen first, and then after after an interval three hundred. In the eighteen ‘I’ stands for ten, ‘H’ stands for eight. Here thou hast Jesus (Ιησους). And because the cross in the ‘T’ was to have grace (ο σταυρός εν τω ταυ ήμελλεν έχειν τήν χάριν = “The stauros in the ‘T’ [he] destined to convey the grace”), he saith also ‘three hundred’. So he revealeth Jesus in the two letters, and in the remaining one the cross (σταυρόν).

(Ep. Barnabas 9:7)

Here the writer states that the number 300, which in Greek numerals is expressed by the Greek letter ‘Tau’ (Latin letter ‘T’), which in the passage signified the σταυρός: Roman execution pole. This is reverse gematria, as far as the number is concerned. But the ‘T’ signifying the execution pole, that can only be discerned by its usual shape as seen head-on, at the time of the letter’s writing. Which means the pole was generally in the shape of a ‘T’ ca. 70-79 or 130 CE.

Three execution poles each with a person suspended on it.

From the Roman Colosseum, constructed 80 CE.

5)   In like manner again he defineth concerning the cross (περί του σταυρου) in another prophet, who saith, “And when shall these things be accomplished?” saith the Lord, “whenever a tree shall be bent and stand upright (Οταν ξύλον κλιθη καί αναστη = “When a tree is made to slope and stand upright”), and whenever blood shall drip from a tree (καί όταν εκ ξύλου αιμα στάξη. = “and when a tree is dripping with blood”). Again thou art taught concerning the cross (περί του σταυρου), and Him who was to be crucified (σταυρουσθαι μέλλοντος = “being destined to be paled”).

(Ep. Barnabas 12:1)

A tree made to slope and stand upright reminds one of the Native Americans’ Trail Marker Trees! For when Native Americans, before the arrival of the European Americans in their area, and even for some time after until they were displaced, would bend over saplings and secure them down to indicate the direction of the trail, like this:

Bending a sapling.

The saplings, of course, would reorient their trunk so that they would grow up toward the light. The end result is a trail tree like this:

Trail trees.

Now a tree that is caused to bend and stand upright like this, when related to the σταυρός, can mean none other than the sedilis excessu / acuta crux of the pole: like the one shown in the Vivat Crux graffito, here:

Vivat Crux graffito, Pompeii, Insula 13 (Regio I).₂

If you consider the above sketch as a crude three-dimensional drawing, one can see that in the sign of the sedile, the support beam will pass from back to front, and the vertical restraint, which is the acuta crux, cornu or σκόλοψ, will stand almost completely upright.

Of course, the writer is a Christian, so he may be thinking something more on the order of being nailed to the σταυρός while it’s lying assembled and flat on the ground, and then raised aloft. The modern Christian, of course, would assume a flat plane cross like a Roman tropaeum, but the ancient writer may not have assumed such a two-beam (only) structure.

Then he talks about a tree dripping with blood. That is easy enough. When the hands / forearms and feet are nailed to the σταυρός, there will be considerable bleeding, depending where on the foot and the hand or forearm is nailed.₃ Of course, the Romans may not have nailed the extremities in order to draw blood, but to secure them with as little blood loss as possible.₄ In which case, an acuta crux, sharpened or with a blunt point, would then be the ideal instrument to draw blood from the crucified person. And again, everyone knows that except for palm trunks and Spanish Dagger Plant trunks, trees are three-dimensional. So one would think the σταυρός would have been three-dimensional too. Those of the architecture indicated by the Vivat Crux were.

6)   And He saith again in Moses [Exodus 17:8-12], when war was waged against Israel by men of another nation, and that He might remind them when the war was waged against them that for their sins they were delivered unto death; the Spirit saith to the heart of Moses, that he should make a type of the cross (τυπον σταυρου) and of Him that was to suffer, that unless, saith He, they shall set their hope on Him, war shall be waged against them for ever. Moses therefore pileth arms one upon another in the midst of the encounter, and standing on higher ground than any he stretched out his hands (εξετεινεν τας ξειρας), and so Israel was again victorious. Then, whenever he lowered them, they were slain with the sword.

(Ep. Barnabas 12:2)

Now here we have a strange occurrence in Exodus. Moses’ piling arms one upon another is not found in the JPS Tanakh, but it does portray Moses as standing, then sitting, with his arms out to the sides.₅ Ditto the LXX.₆ Even so, the above piling of arms suggests a tropaeum, in this case, an appeal to the gods for a victory. This has been known to the Romans, too, at the very least in the Celts’ habit of standing erect with the arms extended out to the side, holding weapons of war in their hands.

Briton Celt Chariot and Rider.

Note how the rider is a human tropaeum.

The above painting and diorama are based on this Roman coin.

7)     And again in another prophet He saith; The whole day long have I stretched out My hands (ἐξεπέτασα τάς χεῖρας μου “spread out the hands of me”) to a disobedient people that did gainsay My righteous way.

(Ep. Barnabas 12:4)

And the stretching out of the hands, of course, is the enforced spreading out of the hands on the crossarm of the execution pole, shown in the Alexamenos graffito and the epigraph from the Roman Colosseum, above.

So Barnabas’ understanding of Roman crucifixion procedures is this: (1) the body of the sufferer was destroyed, (2) one was pierced, wounded, and tenderised, and perhaps made effeminate (3) one had to consume a disgust with a drink of vinegar, possibly from a roman toilet sponge, (4) the larger structure was shaped like a T, (5)(a) something about the execution pole was similar to a tree being made to bend over and stand upright, i.e., a native American trail tree, (5)(b) the pole was a “tree” that dripped blood, no matter if the wounds in the hands and the feet bled much or not, or even if they were pierced or not, (6) the tropaeum of the σταυρός was prefigured by the legend of Moses holding out his arms and (7) the procedure of the suspension was spreading out the arms.

Of course, the similarity to a trail tree may only have been superficial: Barnabas may have thought Jesus was made to lay on a fully assembled cross lain on the ground and nailed to it, then raised on high.

So all in all, Barnabas knowledge of the the σταυρός was that it was in the shape of a T, one was suspended with one’s arms extended out to the side, one was wounded – pierced (with nails at the very least) and beaten or flogged beforehand, and bled enough to cause the pole itself, likely a two- or three-dimensional construction, drip blood. And the Christians even at this early date was confusing it with the tropaeum.

Notes.

1. Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucillium 101:13: quid sibi vult ista carminis effeminati turpitudo? “What does he wish for himself with such turpitude of effeminate verse?”
2. Gino Zaninotto, [discussion on crucifixion graffiti], Piero Savarino and Silvano Scannerini (eds.), The Turin Shroud past, present and future, International Scientific Symposium Torino 2-5 March 2000, Torino, Effatà Editrice (2000) (webpage), pp. ??-??, also n. 35. Images in grayscale of the Vivat Crux and explanatory text may be viewed in the Pozzuoli here and the Alexamenos here (except in Windows IE, which only shows the black).
3. Dr. Frederick T. Zugibe, The Crucifixion of Jesus, A Forensic Study. New York, M. Evans and Co. (2005), p. 54: “I recently corresponded with a missionary from Delhi, India, and had been visting in Nuba, Sudan, when he came across and observed several crucifixions. He informed me that a minister named Reverend Aroon from the Anglican Church appears to have been one of the victims, but Aroon’s bishop had fortunately absconded. He reported that the hands of the victims had been nailed through the forearms and concommitantly tied, and the feet were nailed to the upright. There was no suppadenum [sic] (foot rest) or sedile (saddle). They screamed in pain and there was much bleeding from the hands and feet until they died on the cross.” It appears to me that the Sudanese executioners knew enough not to depend solely on the nails to keep the person up on the cross: if the sedile or suppedaneum are not used, one had better use ropes.
4. Hulu.com video, National Geographic Channel Mysteries of the Bible, The first Jesus? Note discussion at 34:40 to 38:40 of the nailed calcaneus (heel bone) of Jehohanan ben Hagqol (d. 21 CE). The University of Tel Aviv researcher, Dr. Israel Hershkovitz notes to Prof. Byron R. McCane of Wofford College, that this nail was located for minimal blood loss.
5. Jewish Virtual Library, JPS 1917 Tanakh, Shemot (Exodus) 17:8-12: “[8] Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. [9] And Moses said unto Joshua: 'Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of G-d in my hand.' [10] So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. [11] And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. [12] But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”
6. E.C. Marsh.com, English Translations of the Septuagint Bible, Exodus.