Roman Crucifixion

The Roman crucifixion was a singularly painful method of Crucifixion which they imported from the Persians. But the scourge was, if anything even worse, with many criminals said to go mad from the torture, and others dying at the scourge itself, even before they could be crucified.

This is an excerpt from On The Physical Death of Jesus Christ, JAMA, March 21, 1986 – Vol 255, No. 11) W D Edwards, M N Wesley:“Flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution, and only women and Roman senators or soldiers (except in cases of desertion) were exempt.  The usual instrument was a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals.  For scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to an upright post.  The back, buttocks, and legs were flogged either by two soldiers (lictors) or by one who alternated positions.  The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lictors and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death.  As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues.  Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.  Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock.  The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.  After the scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim.”

Read the full article here:

This was a description of the torture of the Roman scourge. The reader may choose also to engage in further reading on the topic of “Roman Crucifixion” itself which is easily available on the internet, I have not included one here.

“but we do see Jesus,  (…) by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9-11). God, by the Grace of God, tasted death. Were he a human, he would not need a special grace to taste death, since humans die anyway.