Was Jesus crucified on the same cross he had carried to Calvary?

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Was Jesus crucified on the same cross he had carried to Calvary?

The Roman practice of crucifixion was that the victims carried the beam portion of their cross to the place of crucifixion.

Crucifixion

The Process

Based on Roman literature as well as descriptions in the provinces, crucifixion was an established routine. There were special military teams led by a centurion, and in the provinces, the soldiers were selected from the local auxiliaries (natives who had joined the Roman army). The victim was stripped and then lashed (scourged). As part of the public humiliation, he/she was led through the streets and remained naked. Christian art portrays Jesus with a decent loincloth on the cross, but the nakedness was maintained as part of the humiliation. There was a public plaque (titulus) indicating the crime. The shedding of blood and the concept of corpse contamination meant that the executions took place outside the city walls. The most popular spot was along one of the main roads leading into the city. This also served as propaganda purposes to demonstrate Roman law and order.

These killing fields contained permanent, upright poles. The victim did not carry the whole cross, but only the cross-beam. The combined pole and cross-beam weighed approximately 135-180 kg (300-400 pounds). After scourging (the trauma and the loss of blood), there was a risk that the victim could die before arriving at the site of execution. The necessity of keeping the victim alive led to the practice of the legions commandeering someone from the crowd to help carry the beam when the victim succumbed. This is the role of Simon of Cyrene in the gospel versions.

Upon arrival, the victim was either tied or nailed to the cross-beam which was then hoisted up and connected to the vertical pole (with ladders and pulleys). We have evidence of the use of nails from several sources. These were 13-18 cm (5-7 in) long tapered iron spikes. The application of the nails varied. Seneca reported that some were hung upside down, or with arms stretched out on either side. Josephus reported seeing crucifixion victims at the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE) where the soldiers positioned them in various poses to amuse themselves out of anger and hatred. Some people collected the nails as magical amulets.

Despite the iconography of later Renaissance art, the nails were not placed in the palms. In the Gospel of John, when doubting Thomas did not believe that Jesus was resurrected and wanted to see his "hands," the Greek for "hand" meant anything from the tip of the fingers to the elbow, but the literal understanding became incorporated in art. Several years ago, historians and scientists began experimenting on cadavers to fully understand how a crucifixion victim died. It quickly became apparent that nailing through the palm would result in the weight of the body immediately tearing through. Rather, the nail was inserted at the wrist, at the juncture of the ulna and radius. These experiments on cadavers have resulted in the understanding that the cause of death for a victim was a combination of bodily trauma, loss of blood, and ultimately asphyxiation, as it became harder and harder to lift the weight of the body up to breathe.

Thus Jesus carried only the cross- beam portion of his actual cross!

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