Crucifixion

== Detail ==
[[File:Gabriel Max 1866 St Julia img02.jpg|thumb|[[Gabriel von Max]]'s 1866 painting ''Martyress'' depicts a crucified young woman and a young man laying flowers at her feet]]

=== Cross shape ===
{{multiple image
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 | image1    = Justus Lipsius Crux Simplex 1629.jpg
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 | image2    = De Cruce Libri Tres 47.jpg
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 | footer = Two illustrations from editions of a book by [[Justus Lipsius]] (1547–1606): on left, a ''crux simplex'' (1629 edition, p. 19); on right, crucifixion of Jesus (1593 edition, p.47).
}}
{{See also|Instrument of Jesus' crucifixion|Crucifix}}

In the [[Roman Empire]], the [[gibbet]] (instrument of execution) for crucifixions took on many shapes. [[Seneca the Younger]] ({{Circa|4 BCE–65 CE}}) states: "I see crosses there, not just of one kind but made in many different ways: some have their victims with head down to the ground; some impale their private parts; others stretch out their arms on the gibbet."<ref name="Seneca 1946" /> According to [[Josephus]], during Emperor [[Titus]]'s [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)]], Roman soldiers nailed innumerable [[Jewish]] captives to crosses in various ways.<ref name="josephus-jewishwars-5.11.1" />

At times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin ''crux simplex''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBOqGJc6tpcC&pg=PA78 |first=William |last=Barclay |title=The Apostles' Creed |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-664-25826-9 |page=78|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press }}</ref> This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned. Frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T (''[[crux commissa]]'') or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism (''crux immissa'').<ref>"The&nbsp;... oldest depiction of a crucifixion&nbsp;... was uncovered by archaeologists more than a century ago on the [[Palatine Hill]] in Rome. It is a second-century [[graffiti]] scratched into a wall that was part of the imperial palace complex. It includes a caption&nbsp;– not by a Christian, but by someone taunting and deriding Christians and the crucifixions they underwent. It shows crude [[stick figure|stick-figures]] of a boy reverencing his 'God', who has the head of a [[donkey|jackass]] and is upon a cross with arms spread wide and with hands nailed to the crossbeam. Here we have a Roman sketch of a Roman crucifixion, and it is in the traditional cross shape." Clayton F. Bower Jr. [http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1991/9110fea1.asp "Cross or Torture Stake?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329020551/http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1991/9110fea1.asp |date=2008-03-29 }}</ref> The most ancient image of a Roman crucifixion depicts an individual on a {{Nowrap|T-shaped}} cross. It is a graffito found in a taberna (hostel for wayfarers) in Puteoli, dating to the time of [[Trajan]] or [[Hadrian]] (late 1st century to early 2nd century CE).<ref name="Cook">{{cite journal|last=Cook|first=John Granger|year=2012|title=Crucifixion as Spectacle in Roman Campania|journal=Novum Testamentum|volume=54|issue=1|pages=60, 92–98|jstor=23253630|doi=10.1163/156853611X589651}}</ref>

Second-century writers who speak of the execution cross describe the crucified person's arms as outstretched, not attached to a single stake: [[Lucian]] speaks of [[Prometheus]] as crucified "above the ravine with his hands outstretched". He also says that the shape of the letter Τ (the Greek letter [[tau]]) was that of the wooden instrument used for crucifying.<ref>"It was his body that tyrants took for a model, his shape that they imitated, when they set up the erections on which men are crucified" ([http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl1/wl110.htm Lucian, ''Trial in the Court of Vowels'', p. 30]</ref> [[Artemidorus]], another writer of the same period, says that a cross is made of posts (plural) and nails and that the arms of the crucified are outstretched.<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cMd9DwAAQBAJ&dq=artemidorus+posts&pg=PA289| title = Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World | isbn = 978-3-16-156001-9| last1 = Cook| first1 = John Granger| date = 10 December 2018| publisher = Mohr Siebeck |page=289; cf. pp. 7–8}}</ref> Speaking of the generic execution cross, [[Irenaeus]] ({{Circa|130–202|lk=off}}), a Christian writer, describes it as composed of an upright and a transverse beam, sometimes with a small projection in the upright.<ref>"The very form of the cross, too, has five extremities, two in length, two in breadth, and one in the middle, on which [last] the person rests who is fixed by the nails" ( Irenaeus, ''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Adversus Haereses]]'' II, [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103224.htmxxiv, 4]{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}).</ref>

New Testament writings about the crucifixion of Jesus do not specify the shape of that cross, but subsequent early writings liken it to the letter T. According to [[William Barclay (theologian)|William Barclay]], because tau is shaped exactly like the ''crux commissa'' and represented the number 300, "wherever the [[Church Fathers|fathers]] came across the number 300 in the Old Testament they took it to be a mystical prefiguring of the cross of Christ".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barclay |first1=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBOqGJc6tpcC&dq=Noah+ark+300+prefigure+cross+Jesus&pg=PA79 |title=The Apostles' Creed |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-664-25826-9 |pages=79 |author-link=William Barclay (theologian)}}</ref> The earliest example, written around the late first century CE, is the ''[[Epistle of Barnabas]]'',<ref>[[wikisource:Epistle of Barnabas#Chapter 9|Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 9]]</ref> with another example being [[Clement of Alexandria]] ({{Circa|150|lk=off}}{{Snd}}c.&nbsp;215).<ref>{{cite web| url = http://logoslibrary.org/clement/stromata/611.html| title = Clement of Alexandria, ''The Stromata'', book VI, chapter 11}}</ref>

[[Justin Martyr]] ({{Circa|100|165}}) sees the cross of Christ represented in the crossed [[Rotisserie|spits]] used to roast the [[Passover lamb]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Justin Martyr, ''Dialogue with Trypho'', XL, 3 |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.xl.html |quote=That lamb which was commanded to be wholly roasted was a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb, which is roasted, is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.}}</ref>

=== Nail placement ===
In popular depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus (possibly because in translations of {{bibleverse||John|20:25}} the wounds are described as being "in his hands"), Jesus is shown with nails in his hands. But in Greek the word "χείρ", usually translated as "hand", could refer to the entire portion of the arm below the elbow,<ref>In the [[Homeric Greek]] of the [[Iliad]] XX, 478–480, a spear-point is said to have pierced the χεῖρ "where the sinews of the elbow join" (ἵνα τε ξενέχουσι τένοντες / ἀγκῶνος, τῇ τόν γε φίλης διὰ χειρὸς ἔπειρεν / αἰχμῇ χακλκείῃ).</ref> and to denote the ''hand'' as distinct from the ''arm'' some other word could be added, as "ἄκρην οὔτασε χεῖρα" (he wounded the end of the χείρ, i.e., "he wounded him in the hand".<ref>{{LSJ|xe/ir|χείρ|ref}}</ref>

A possibility that does not require tying is that the nails were inserted just above the wrist, through the [[soft tissue]], between the two bones of the forearm (the [[radius (bone)|radius]] and the [[ulna]]).<ref>{{cite news|first=Jonathan |last=Wynne-Jones |title=Why the BBC thinks Christ did not die this way |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/16/nrowan216.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080319214803/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/16/nrowan216.xml |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 March 2008 |newspaper=Daily Telegraph |date=16 March 2008 |access-date=2008-03-16 | location=London}}</ref>

A foot-rest (''suppedaneum'') attached to the cross, perhaps for the purpose of taking the person's weight off the wrists, is sometimes included in representations of the crucifixion of Jesus but is not discussed in ancient sources. Some scholars interpret the [[Alexamenos graffito]] (c.&nbsp;200), the earliest surviving depiction of the crucifixion, as including such a foot-rest.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The beauty of the cross: the passion of Christ in theology and the arts, from the catacombs to the eve of the Renaissance |last=Viladesau |first=Richard|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-518811-0|oclc=58791208|page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTFh4tm9cMwC}}</ref> Ancient sources also mention the ''sedile'', a small seat attached to the front of the cross, about halfway down,<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=905&letter=C|title=Crucifixion|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=2018-03-06|first1=Kaufmann|last1=Kohler|first2=Emil G.|last2=Hirsch}}</ref> which could have served a similar purpose.

[[File:Hombre de Giv'at ha-Mivtar..jpg|thumb|1st century calcareous heel bone with a nail]]
In 1968, archaeologists discovered at [[Giv'at ha-Mivtar]] in northeast [[Jerusalem]] the remains of one [[Jehohanan]], who was crucified in the 1st century CE. The remains included a heel bone with a nail driven through it from the side. The tip of the nail was bent, perhaps because of striking a knot in the upright beam, which prevented it being extracted from the foot. A first inaccurate account of the length of the nail led some to believe that it had been driven through both heels, suggesting that the man had been placed in a sort of sidesaddle position, but the true length of the nail, {{Convert|11.5|cm|abbr=off|frac=4}}, suggests instead that in this case of crucifixion the heels were nailed to opposite sides of the upright.<ref name=":5">{{cite web|url=http://chesterrep.openrepository.com/cdr/bitstream/10034/40813/1/Some%20Notes%20on%20Crucifixion.pdf|title=Some Notes on Crucifixion|access-date=2009-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718171841/http://chesterrep.openrepository.com/cdr/bitstream/10034/40813/1/Some%20Notes%20on%20Crucifixion.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-18|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=EdbdQ-5fMr0C David W. Chapman, Ancient Jewish and Christian perceptions of crucifixion] (Mohr Siebeck, 2008), pp.&nbsp;86–89</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=http://www.joezias.com/CrucifixionAntiquity.html|title=Joe Zias, Crucifixion in Antiquity&nbsp;— The Anthropological Evidence|publisher=Joezias.com|access-date=2009-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040311065035/http://www.joezias.com/CrucifixionAntiquity.html|archive-date=2004-03-11|url-status=dead}}</ref> As of 2011, the skeleton from [[Giv'at ha-Mivtar]] was the only confirmed example of ancient crucifixion in the archaeological record.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/2011/11/line-on-left-one-cross-each.html |title=The Bioarchaeology of Crucifixion |publisher=PoweredbyOsteons.org |access-date=2011-11-04}}</ref> A second set of skeletal remains with holes transverse through the [[calcaneum]] heel bones, found in 2007, could be a second archaeological record of crucifixion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324496883|title=A multidisciplinary study of calcaneal trauma in Roman Italy:a possible case of crucifixion?|access-date=2021-06-01}}</ref> The find in [[Cambridgeshire]] ([[United Kingdom]]) in November 2017 of the remains of the heel bone of a (probably enslaved) man with an iron nail through it, is believed by the archeologists to confirm the use of this method in ancient Rome.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archaeologyuk.org/static/1693fb3b-1b3a-4d2d-b28b53059f7f3822/Crucifixion-in-the-Fens-Life-and-Death-in-Roman-Fenstanton.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.archaeologyuk.org/static/1693fb3b-1b3a-4d2d-b28b53059f7f3822/Crucifixion-in-the-Fens-Life-and-Death-in-Roman-Fenstanton.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Crucifixion in the Fens: life & death in Roman Fenstanton|access-date=2021-12-10}}</ref>

=== Cause of death ===
The length of time required to reach death could range from hours to days depending on method, the victim's health, and the environment.<ref name="patho" /><ref name="StroudSimpson1871">{{cite book|author1=William Stroud|author2=Sir James Young Simpson|title=Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ and Its Relation to the Principles and Practice of Christianity|url=https://archive.org/details/b21987877|access-date=12 March 2013|year=1871|publisher=Hamilton, Adams & Company}}</ref>

A theory attributed to [[Pierre Barbet (physician)|Pierre Barbet]] held that, when the whole body weight was supported by the stretched arms, the typical cause of death was [[asphyxiation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/barbet.html|title=Columbia University page of Pierre Barbet on Crucifixion|website=columbia.edu|access-date=2009-12-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211204031/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/barbet.html|archive-date=2009-12-11|url-status=dead}}</ref> He wrote that the condemned would have severe difficulty inhaling, due to hyper-expansion of the chest muscles and lungs. The condemned would therefore have to draw himself up by the arms, leading to [[Fatigue (medical)|exhaustion]], or have his feet supported by tying or by a wood block. When no longer able to lift himself, the condemned would die within a few minutes. This theory has been supported by multiple scholars.<ref name=Habermas>{{cite journal|first1=Gary|last1=Habermas|first2=Jonathan|last2=Kopel|first3=Benjamin C.F.|last3=Shaw|title=Medical views on the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ|journal=Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings|volume=34|issue=6|pages=748–52|date=July 30, 2021|pmc=8545147|doi=10.1080/08998280.2021.1951096|pmid=34733010 }}</ref> Other scholars, including [[Frederick Zugibe]], posit other causes of death. Zugibe suspended test subjects with their arms at 60° to 70° from the vertical. The test subjects had no difficulty breathing during experiments, but did suffer rapidly increasing pain,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zugibe|first=Frederick T|author-link=Frederick Zugibe|title=The cross and the shroud: a medical inquiry into the crucifixion|publisher=Paragon House|location=New York|year=1988|isbn=978-0-913729-75-5}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref><ref name=Zugibe2005>{{Cite book |author=Zugibe, Frederick T. |title=The Crucifixion Of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry |publisher=M. Evans and Company |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-59077-070-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/crucifixionofjes0000zugi }}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> which is consistent with the Roman use of crucifixion to achieve a prolonged, agonizing death. However, Zugibe's positioning of the test subjects necessarily did not precisely replicate the conditions of historical crucifixion.<ref name="Maslen2006" /> In 2023, an analysis of medical literature concluded that asphyxiation is discredited as the primary cause of death from crucifixion.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Thomas W.|last1=McGovern|first2=David A.|last2=Kaminskas|first3=Eustace S.|last3=Fernandes|title=Did Jesus Die by Suffocation? An Appraisal of the Evidence|journal=Linacre Quarterly|volume=90|issue=1|pages=64–79|pmid=36923675|date=February 2023|doi=10.1177/00243639221116217|pmc=10009142 }}</ref>

There is scholarly support for several<ref name=Maslen2006>{{cite journal|last=Maslen|first=Matthew|author2=Piers D Mitchell|title=Medical theories on the cause of death in crucifixion|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|date=April 2006|volume=99|issue=4|pages=185–188|doi=10.1177/014107680609900416|pmid=16574970|pmc=1420788}}</ref> possible non-asphyxiation causes of death: [[Cardiac arrest|heart failure]] or [[Heart arrhythmia|arrhythmia]],<ref name=Edwards>{{cite journal|last=Edwards|first=WD|author2=Gabel WJ|author3=Hosmer FE|title=On the physical cause of death of Jesus Christ|journal=Journal of the American Medical Association|year=1986|volume=255|issue=11|pages=1455–1463|doi=10.1001/jama.255.11.1455|url=http://www.creativeyouthideas.com/resources/crucifixion_of_christ.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.creativeyouthideas.com/resources/crucifixion_of_christ.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}<!--|access-date=13 March 2013--></ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Davis|first=CT|title=The Crucifixion of Jesus. The Passion of Christ From a Medical Point of View|journal=Arizona Medicine|year=1962|volume=22|page=182}}</ref> [[hypovolemic shock]],<ref name="Zugibe2005" /> [[acidosis]],<ref name=Wijffels>{{cite journal|last=Wijffels|first=F|title=Death on the cross: did the Turin Shroud once envelop a crucified body?|journal=Br Soc Turin Shroud Newsl|year=2000|volume=52|issue=3}}</ref> [[dehydration]],<ref name="patho" /> and [[pulmonary embolism]].<ref name=Brenner2005>{{cite journal|last=Brenner|first=B|title=Did Jesus Christ die of pulmonary embolism?|journal=J Thromb Haemost|year=2005|volume=3|issue=9|pages=1–2|doi=10.1111/j.1538-7836.2005.01525.x|pmid=16102134|s2cid=38121158|doi-access=free}}</ref> Death could result from any combination of those factors, or from other causes, including [[sepsis]] following infection due to the wounds caused by the nails or by the [[flagellation|scourging]] that often preceded crucifixion, or from stabbing by the guards.<ref name=patho>{{cite journal|vauthors=Retief FP, Cilliers L |title=The history and pathology of crucifixion |journal=South African Medical Journal|volume=93|issue=12|pages=938–941|date=December 2003|pmid=14750495}}</ref><ref name="Habermas" /><ref name="Edwards" />

=== Survival ===
Since death does not follow immediately on crucifixion, survival after a short period of crucifixion is possible, as in the case of those who choose each year [[#As a devotional practice|as a devotional practice]] to be non-lethally crucified.

There is an ancient record of one person who survived a crucifixion that was intended to be lethal, but was interrupted. Josephus recounts:<blockquote>I saw many captives crucified, and remembered three of them as my former acquaintances. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician's hands, while the third recovered.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/autobiog.htm The Life Of Flavius Josephus], 75.</ref></blockquote>Josephus gives no details of the method or duration of the crucifixion of his three friends.