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HOW WAS JESUS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS
Here is an interesting article that I wanted to share from an unknown source. Enjoy.
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First, the modern depiction of the crucifying cross is inaccurate.
What Jesus Christ carried on the way to Calvary was the “top beam”. It was a heavy rectangular shaped beam, probably about 7 ft in length (2.2m) and 6″ x 8″ sided (15cm x 20cm). It had a hole in the exact middle in which a metal loop was attached.
There were posts already set in the ground which had a metal hook attached near the top. and a “step” about 5 foot (1.5m) below it.
Once the person was attached, either by ropes or nails. The nails were not driven into the hands as generally depicted either because the hands would just rip apart under the weight of the body but were driven in at the wrist, right at the point where the ulna and the radius meet, that giving the bones and the tendons all the required strength to hold in place.
Once the arms were attached, the person was hoisted up and the metal loop was hung on the metal hook. There were multiple ways of hoisting, but most criminals were light in stature from spending time in prison with very little or nothing to eat while waiting execution, so 2–3 men would be on step stands that were part of the crucifixion set up. One either side about 4 ft (1.9m) from center, one in the back.
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They would receive the top beam from others lifting it to them and they would hang it on the hook.
The hook was long, probably around 22″-24″ (56cm) in length. That way no one being crucified could not lift themself off the hook. It also allowed the guards to “drop” the crucified which would cause their joints, the shoulder, arms, wrists, etc, out of place, causing more pain and limiting their ability to raise themself up to inhale.
Their feet were placed on the step and legs would be attached to the vertical post.
The weight of their own bodies would cause them to slump down from exhaustion, but in that position, they could not breathe. So they would press against the step to lift themselves up to get a breath. This would go on for hours, sometimes days before the shear exhaustion would not allow them to lift themselves up.
In order to hurry the process, the Roman Guards would break the legs which prevented the crucified from raising themselves up, thereby they would succumb to asphyxiation.
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That is why you read in the Bible that they break the legs of the 2, but seeing Jesus Christ already dead, stuck a spear into his lungs instead. ( Scripture states that no bones were broken on Him).
So when they went to take Jesus Christ down, they removed the nails in his feet and they then climbed the couple of steps on the stands and hoisted the top beam off the hook and handed Him down to others.
After removing the nails on the top beam, they quickly wrapped him in burial cloths without the usual spices because sunset was upon them and they had no time other than to place Him in the tomb.
(Note; this is why the Shroud of Turin cannot be Jesus Christ’s image as you read in the Bible, his body was wrapped in one cloth, and his head in another, called the “napkin”. Read in the Bible that when the Apostles looked in the tomb, there lay his burial cloth ( John 20: 7 ) “and the napkin, that was about his head, not laying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself”.
The Shroud of Turin is one whole cloth, the full length of a man.)
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William James Roop
Apostolic Church History Podcast
Brother Roop teaches the Bible
