Monday, January 17, 2011

The Romans NEVER CRUCIFIED the Way We Think They Did.



Part 1

My previous crucifixion articles, written back in June, are going in for a major rewrite. Since then, I have come to the realization that what the overwhelming majority of people think of as crucifixion was never done by the Romans: nail to a flat plane cross and lift up as a god. First of all, the physics are impossible. Second of all, the Romans were very religious and they saw the cross as a sign of victory, representing the Rays of the Sun. In fact, they had victory crosses and votive crosses all over the Roman Empire.

Here is how we define crucifixion:

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

crucifixion n. 1.a. The act of crucifying, execution on a cross. b. Crucifixion. The crucifying of Jesus on Calvary. Used with the. c. A representation of Jesus on the cross. 2. An extremely difficult and painful trial; tortuous suffering.

crucify v. -fied, fying, fies. 1. To put a person to death by nailing or binding to a [Ed-M: flat plane] cross. 2. To mortify or subdue (the flesh). 3. To subject to cruel treatment; torment: a candidate who was crucified by the press. [Middle English crucified, from Old French crucifier, alteration of Latin crucifigere : crux, cruc-, cross + figere, to attach.

To see how the Romans put their most noxious criminals to death, we have to figure out what exactly they did. I think the first thing we should look at is how the lexicons define CRUX, which is the Latin word for CROSS. And we need to find out what other word stood for CROSS, based not on Lexicons or Dictionaries, but on ancient epigraphic evidence.

And then we can go from there.

Part 2 - Crux

PREVIOUS CRUCIFIXION ARTICLES:

Crucifixion – The Bodily Support - Part 1.

Crucifixion – The Bodily Support - Part 2 - Archaeological Evidence.

Crucifixion - The Bodily Support - Part 3 - Manuscript Evidence and its Similarities to the Imagery of the Caesar Cult.

Crucifixion – The Bodily Support - Part 4 - Physics of Crucifixion.

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