- The Gospel writers felt little need to provide their readers with the mechanics of Jesus’ crucifixion. This horrific form of execution was well known in the Roman Empire.
- The victim was made to carry the crossbeam to the execution site, an entire cross being too heavy. This public parade ensured that many people would learn what was going to happen. Crucifixion, as a form of state control through terror, was meant to intimidate the masses into submission. Jesus’ route outside the city may have been fairly direct because the execution needed to conclude by sunset, which was the beginning of the Sabbath, and also, according to John’s chronology, was the first night of Passover.
- There is little reason to think that Jesus’ execution deviated very much from fairly typical Roman procedure. Upon reaching the small rocky hill outside the gates, the three victims were stripped naked and nailed to their crossbeams, which were then lifted up to the vertical posts that were permanently mounted at the execution site. The victims may have sat upon a small projecting peg, though since Jesus’ death was fairly rapid that may not have been true in his case. The feet were nailed through the ankles into either side of the vertical posts. The completed crosses stood little more than a foot or two off the ground.
- Jewish pilgrims entering the city for the Passover would thus be greeted by the grizzly spectacle of the pinioned men screaming in agony, their slightest movement sending spasms of pain through their pierced nerve endings. The capital offenses written on the crosses would warn potentially violent Passover travelers that the Romans were in firm control. The horror of crucifixion lay in the fact that – since no vital organs were damaged – pain was prolonged as intensely as possible over as long a time as possible. Thus, passersby would learn to fear Roman retribution. The duration of the torture could be regulated by the intensity of the preceding flogging and by whether nails were used in both hands and feet.
- The Marcan chronology of a crucifixion lasting six hours seems reasonable given the circumstances. Death would come inexorably from traumatic shock, blood loss, and circulatory collapse. It could be hastened by the procedure mentioned in John’s Gospel of breaking the legs of the victims.
