Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Crucifixion
What You Didn’t Learn in Sunday School
When I mention the word “crucifixion,” chances are your mind immediately goes to the most famous figure ever associated with this brutal method of execution — Jesus Christ. Growing up in the church, my early perceptions of crucifixion were heavily influenced by the artistic representations and stories I encountered in Sunday School. In fact, I gleaned most of what I thought I knew about crucifixion from those early days in the evangelical pew.
How about you?
In more recent times, though, I decided to take a deeper dive into the most brutal form of capital punishment ever devised by men, and I discovered a whole world of information about crucifixion beyond the familiar narrative of Jesus on the cross. From the historical origins of this gruesome practice to some surprising variations in its execution methods, there’s a lot more to uncover. In fact, here are ten facts about crucifixion that I never learned in the safety of my Sunday School classroom.
Ancient Origins
It’s often assumed that crucifixion is synonymous with the Roman Empire because of Christ’s death. But it wasn’t the Romans who came up with this gruesome practice. Crucifixion predates them by quite a bit and was already in use by…
