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Was Jesus Crucified on an X- Shaped Cross?

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **3/25/16 12:43 pm**

I have rarely had access to cable TV in my life. I'm staying somewhere with Dish Network right now. One of the channels had "Biblical Conspiracies" playing. I saw the tail end of one episode while exercising. It looked stupid, but the ad for the next episode was interesting so I watched it.

Basically, the show decribed scientists examining what they believed were the bones of Antigonus or Matthew, also known as Antigonus II Mattathias. He reigned in Judea for three years before the Roman Mark Anthony had him executed. Josephus said that he was crucified. Other sources said that he was beheaded.

An inscription at the ossuary where the bones were found was from Abba, a descendant of Aaron the Great, a priest, who had laid the bones of Matthew there. There were three nails in the ossuary and evidence that one of the hands had been crucified. The forensic evidence presented in the show demonstrated that the man had likely been beheaded as well. Presumably he was crucified and then beheaded.

I found the documentary maker's statements to be rather nonscientific. There was evidence that the man's name was Matthew and that he had likely been crucified and beheaded. But the narrator said they had 'proven' that this was Antigonus. The Romans could have crucified and beheaded a whole group of people after this rebellion. This wasn't proof.

But the part about crucifixion was interesting. The bones of this Matthew indicated that the nail had come from the back of the hand rather than the palm. They experimented on kadavers and a live model (not piercing his skin, just hanging him on a cross, and argued that the traditional method of crucifixion would not have worked. The victim would have been able to pullhis hand of the cross and his weight would have done it. They tried putting hands on the back of the cross and concluded the heart would have given out too quick. A T-shaped cross wouldn't have worked for various reasons.

Finally, they tried an X leaning against a pole. This made the most sense. A 1960's discovery of a heal bone with a nail through it was consistent with this type of crucifixion. (Christ would not have been crucified this way since none of his bones were broken, a detail not considered on this program.) Crucifixion on an X was consistent with the forensic evidence from Matthias' hand bone.

John tells us that Jesus was given a drink on a sponge on a hyssop, a short branch off of a bush. So the cross would not have been very tall like in the movies.

They also pointed out that the Romans crucified hundreds or thousands at a time. They probably wouldn't have taken the time to custom-make elaborate crosses.

Then the show got dumb and unscientific, acting like they'd conclusively proven their case when they hadn't tried a vertical stake or other possibilities.

It got interesting again when the documentary pointed out that in the early centuries of Christianity a chi rho, 'X R' joined together was a common Christian symbol. It showed an example at what was traditionally believed to be the home of Mary the mother of Jesus. This symbol looked like an X in front of an elongated rho. Rho looks like of like a capital letter P. So it looked like a crucified man on an X leaning against a post. The loop in the rho would have looked like a head.

X Rho are the first two letters of 'Christ' as well, so the symbol makes sense from that perspective.

They also argued that the t-shaped cross may have become popular after Constantine and the story of his vision. They argued that Christians used the chi rho symbol when crucifixions were going on, but adapted the t-shape after people had forgotten what Roman crucifixion looked like.
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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **3/25/16 12:51 pm**

This program also tried to associate the man who buried Antigonus with Barabbas. Somehow it tired to tie him to the Babbas family who had supported Antigonus. It theorized that the priest Abba who left the inscription that he had buried Antigonus may have been the father of Barabbas (son of Abbas). The would have made Barabbas from a 'revolutionary' priestly family. The chief priests convince the people to call for Barabbas' freedom rather than Jesus. It could also have made Barabbas popular. Jesus had just made the triumphal entry, so you think He'd have been popular with the people asked to call for their favorite's freedom.

It was an interesting theory, but certainly not conclusive.
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roughridercog

I would say no

Acts Mod Posts: 25305 **3/25/16 1:11 pm**

Simply because there had to be a space above Christ's head to hang the sign denoting him as king of the Jews
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Doctor of Bovinamodulation

Patrick Harris

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1323 **3/25/16 1:48 pm**

The best information I've read is by Alfred Edersheim in his book: The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.

"Three kinds of Cross were in use: the so-called St. Andrew’s Cross (x, the Crux decussata), the Cross in the form of a T (Crux Commissa), and the ordinary Latin Cross (+, Crux immissa). We believe that Jesus bore the last of these. This would also most readily admit of affixing the board with the threefold inscription, which we know His Cross bore. Besides, the universal testimony of those who lived nearest the time (Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and others), and who, alas! had only too much occasion to learn what crucifixion meant, is in favour of this view. "

maqqebet

The Cross

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1771 **3/25/16 4:34 pm**

The Persians introduced the Cross as an execution form, the Romans perfected it, executing hundreds of thousands of Jews by the time of the Temple's destruction in 70 AD.

The Cross used to execute Jesus was probably the T shaped He bore the upper part of the cross and upon his arrival to the execution point, nailed to the cross piece and fixed to the pole.

Unlike depiction in movies and TV, the Cross was not raised high off the ground but was low enough for people to come by to defame and spit upon the body. It was low enough for wild dogs to come by and pick at the dying or dead corpse.

It was death by asphyxiation. The mental and emotional agony of suffocation added to the cruelty of the cross.

Jesus bore His cross and then expects us as His disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. It is no wonder this is never included in altar calls.
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The Hammer
Mi kamocah ba'elim Adonai
"Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?" (Exodus 15:11, CJB)

maqqebet

Cross addendum

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1771 **3/25/16 6:53 pm**

After the Romans took Jerusalem in 70 AD, thousands of Jews were crucified, so many in fact, they didn't take time to make crosses, they simply delimited trees and nailed the Jews to the tree to execute them.
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The Hammer
Mi kamocah ba'elim Adonai
"Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?" (Exodus 15:11, CJB)

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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **3/26/16 8:33 am**