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*** WARNING ***
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THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE VERBALLY
DEPICTS HUMAN DEATH UPON
A CROSS, SUCH AS
SUFFERED BY CHRIST. THIS ARTICLE
IS AS
ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE, EXPLAINING THE
ACTUAL EVENTS THAT
CAUSED SLOW DEATH. IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO CONFRONT
THESE FACTS AT THIS TIME, THEN
PLEASE DISCONTINUE...
Death on a Cross
----------------
In the first century, at a time when the
the known world, a
favored method of execution was to hang the
accused upon a cross
until death.
In executions today, at least within the free
world, death comes
quickly and is never
public. That is, not displayed in a
public
area, nor on
TV. There is little or no pain involved.
The
Romans believed that execution, when used as a means of
punishment, should
be as painful and as humiliating as possible, and
that death should
linger on to enhance the pain. They also
believed
that the execution
should be a public event.
All this was done with design and
purpose. For the death penalty
then, as now, was
used as a deterrent to crime. They
believed that
a public display of
such an horrible death as with crucifixion would
give a message to
the people that "crime does not pay".
Many of us still believe this today, and much
can be said concerning
both sides of the
debate.
Death upon a cross was the most hideous and
anguishing of any type
man could devise.
Scourging
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One cannot discuss crucifixion without
explaining scourging. Usually those
who were going to be
crucified were first SCOURGED.
Scourging is a form of beating with a type of
whip.
The Jews had a law that prohibited them from
beating the accused more than
40 times. Because of this law, they always stopped at
39, counting
carefully as they
went.
The Romans had no such law, and there were no
specific number of lashes
which could be
inflicted upon an accused, therefore the Romans commonly
called scourging,
"halfway death".
In the room of scourging, which was a room of
torture, there was a low
thick stump or
post. It was about knee high, or a
little higher. At the
base of the post
were four metal rings, used for tying the wrists and
ankles. The accused
was stripped naked. He was bent forward,
over the
post, and tied in
that position.
The instrument of torture was called a
flagellum. It was a piece of wood
from 14 to 18 inches
long, circular in shape, to which were tied long
leather thongs. To these thongs were sewn bits of glass,
bone, pellets
of lead, and pieces
of metal, adding weight to the flagellum.
The user of the flagellum was called a lictor. He was a
professional in
the grim art of
torture. The lictor
would place himself about 6 feet from
the accused. The flagellum was then brought all the way
back, over his
shoulder, then whistled forward, making a
dull drum sound as the strips of
leather smashed
against the back of the rig cage. The
bits of bone and
chain and glass
curled around the sides of the body, raising small
hemorrhages about
the back, chest, stomach, and sides.
The flagellum came back again, aimed slightly
lower, and again, aimed
higher, as it
crashed against the skin and flesh. The
flagellum now moved
in a slow heavy
rhythm - "flagellations".
One historian writes, "It reduced the
naked body to strips of raw flesh,
and inflamed
bleeding wounds."
It was not uncommon for a man to die on the
stump. It was also not
uncommon for a man
to go insane. Invariably the victim
passed out -
through pain. Blood came from all the holes in the face and
head during
flagellation. If one of the lead weights hit the face just
right, an
eye could be popped
out.
Victims would fall into spasms. Their bodies would shake uncontrollably.
Their teeth rattled audibly. Victims would be revived by buckets of salt
water, as the Romans
used pain to keep the level of pain conscious.
On to the Cross
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The accused was chained to the crossbeam, and
was forced to carry
this to the place of
execution. The crossbeam was a rough
piece of
timber 4 inches by 6
inches, and about 6 feet long. A board
was hung
from the victim's
neck, upon which was written his name and his crime.
The victim did not carry the upright
board. It would have been much
too heavy. He was led through the streets on the way to
the execution
place. He was forced to walk inside an imaginary
square - in the
hollow of the
square. A soldier walked at each corner
of this square
with a centurion in
the lead.
The actual upright portion of the cross was
already at the execution
site, and in place.
Crucifixion
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Facts about Death on the Cross:
Note that the normal practice for crucifixion
in those days was to
break the subject's
legs. This was so that the subject could not lift
himself up with his
legs to relieve the pain in the arms and chest. The idea
of the crucifixion
was really to induce death by suffocation, slowly but
Consider too, that the knees are a second
heart. When you move they
pump the blood back
up to the heart. When your legs are
immobilized, the
blood collects in
your legs, and with less and less blood to pump, the
body goes into
shock, where only the brain and lungs are getting blood.
Then, as there is even less blood, the lungs
fill with liquid. This
results in a person
loosing consciousness.
Those who have been trapped in cave-ins where
their legs are
immobilized are
treated by the medics for both of these problems; low
blood pressure and
pneumonia. Those who stand at attention
for long
periods of time will
also pass out if they fail to move their knees.
These, then, fall flat on their face, or the
other way.
Not only was crucifixion the most painful of
deaths, it was also the
most debasing.
The condemned was striped naked, and left
exposed in his agony.
Often the Romans denied burial to the victims
- allowing the body to
hang until it
disintegrated.
But death by crucifixion did not originate
with the Romans. It was
developed by the Phoenicians
much earlier in history. In
they believed in a
god "ORMUZD". The god of earth. The pure god.
No criminal would be allowed to contaminate
the earth with their
impure blood.
So they devised an ingenious plan where the
victim could be lifted
off the ground and
left in that position to die. This
allowed the
earth to remain
pure.
This type of death was passed on to the
Egyptians and then on to the
Romans. The Romans embraced it and developed it into
an actual art.
They devised the very best plan by which to
carry it out.
The Roman
Procedure
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The executioner laid the crossbeam behind the
accused and brought
him to the ground
quickly by grasping his arm and jerking him
downward. As the condemned fell, the beam was fitted
under the back
of his neck. On each side soldiers quickly knelt on the
inside of
each of the
elbows. Once again, the matter was done
quickly and
efficiently.
The executioner wore a leather apron with
pockets. He placed two
square five inch
long nails between his teeth, and a hammer in his
hand, kneeling
beside the right arm.
The soldier whose knee rested on the inside
of the elbow, held the
forearm flat on the
board. The executioner probed with his
hand,
the wrist and hand
of the victim, to find the little hollow spot,
meaning, where there
would be no vital blood vessel.
When he found it, he took one of the square
cut iron nails from his
teeth, held it
against the spot - directly behind the so-called
"lifeline". Often a piece of wood, such as olive wood,
was
fashioned into a
sort of washer to be fitted on the nail so that
the nail could not
be torn through the flesh.
He then raised the hammer over the nail head,
and brought it down
with force. As soon as he was satisfied that the victim,
in
struggling, could
not pull himself free, he did the same on the
other hand.
The two soldiers would then grab each side of
the crossbeam and as
the executioner
motioned, they lifted. As they pulled
up, they
dragged the victim
by the wrists. When the soldiers reached
the
upright, the four of
them began to lift the crossbeam higher, until
the feet of the
accused were completely off the ground.
By then, the accused writhed with pain.
When the crossbeam was set firmly, the
executioner reached up and
set the board which
listed the prisoner's name and crime.
Then the executioner knelt before the
cross. Two soldiers hurried
to help.
Each one took hold of a leg, at the
calf. The procedure was to
nail the right foot
over the left foot. This was probabaly the most
difficult part of
their work. If the feet were pulled
downward too
far, and nailed too
close to the foot of the cross, the prisoner
always died quickly.
Over the years, the Romans had learned to
push the feet upward,
buckling the knees
so the comdemned man could lean on the nails
through his feet and
stretch himself upward.
The victim was now in a "V"
position with his arms, and became
conscience of two
unendurable circumstances.
First; that the pain in his wrists was beyond
bearing, and that
muscle cramps
knotted the forearms, upper arms and the pads of his
shoulders.
Second; that the pectoral muscles at both
sides of his chest were
momentarily
paralyzed. This induced in him an
involuntary panic,
for while he found
that while he could draw air into his lungs, he
was powerless to
exhale.
Victims upon the cross were literally in
constant motion, so as to
keep breathing.
To hang strictly on the hands, long enough,
would prohibit the
breathing
process. And so, he literally rubbed
himself up and
down, up and down,
against the rough timber, in order to keep
breathing and stay
alive.
The victim would ultimately die, not from the
loss of blood, but
by suffocation. He no longer could breath
properly once he became
unable to lift
himself up.
With each second the pain mounted. The arms, limbs, torso screamed
with pain. The force of gravity pushing downward on the
body, with
the arms at the
"V" position, was using leverage to literally tear
muscles, tendons,
and flesh, and nerves, to where the length of the
arms would be
increased by several inches.
Slowly, but steadily, he was being
asphyxiated by his own loss of
strength and will to
raise himself for another breath.
On occasion when they wished the condemned to
die after a certain
time, they would merely
have to break the legs. Thus the victim
would no longer be
able to raise up to breath, but would sag, and
die.
It is recorded that some lived as long as
several days in this
position before
finally dying. Obviously, they would
have to
have been given
water in order to survive that long.
Eventually though, one would weaken, tire,
become overcome with
pain and struggle,
and involuntarily begin to sag and loose the
ability to raise
again.
Eventually one would cease movement, struggle,
and life.
Conclusion
----------
It is difficult to imagine a more
terrible suffering and death.
pain
thirst
torture
of insects
exposure
to brutal spectators
the
absolute horror of rigid fixation
all,
continuing interminably, and combining to
make death by
crucifixion a supreme humiliation and torture.
I wonder, after reading this, if I were
condemned to die upon a cross,
would any of you
volunteer to take my place?
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JESUS DID