Eyewitness to Crucifixion: The Romans, the Cross, and the Sacrifice of Jesus

Many insights and historical accounts.

This book is great for getting inside the Romans mind set on crucifixion. Well worth the buy.

This is not a book for the squeamish. Many of the descriptions and eyewitness accounts of crucifixions are gruesome and revolting, but historically accurate. If you're interested in how the punishment of crucifixion originated, the various types of crucifixion (a wooden cross wasn't always used), and all the peoples who practiced it (the Romans were not the only ones), you should find this book very interesting and enlightening. I found it particularly interesting that since there is no surviving written eyewitness account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, what we Christians have been led to believe about his crucifixion may not be accurate. There were many types of crucifixion practiced by the Romans -- they used not only T-shaped crosses, but straight poles, logs, or even a tree. Nails were not always used to affix the victim to the wooden object. Often victims were just tied to the fixed object to prolong their agony. And victims were not always affixed to the object with their arms spread wide, as Jesus is always depicted. Sometimes arms were bound above the head, and sometimes the victim was hung upside down. In some cases, the victims were impaled on sharpened poles. No matter how the victim was crucified, there is no doubt that it was a slow, horrible way to die.The Bible does not describe the manner in which Jesus was crucified, and none of the disciples was an eyewitness to the crucifixion. Moreover, none of the gospel writers said that Jesus was hung on a T-shaped cross, or that he was nailed to anything. It has been presumed by almost everyone -- from the people of that era right up to today -- that Jesus was nailed to a T-shaped cross and died on that cross. That is how it has always been depicted in books, art, sculpture, religious artifacts, and Hollywood movies. But did it really happen that way?This is a very interesting, well-written book that held my attention until the very last page. The author, Stephen Miller, obviously researched the topic very thoroughly and did a commendable job presenting his detailed findings in his book. There are numerous color pictures and drawings throughout the book's 205 pages that enhance the narrative. There is a topical index and an illustrated timeline of crucifixion that are very helpful to the reader. If you have a passion for history as I do, or a keen interest in the Bible and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, you will very likely find this book to be a worthwhile read.

At first glance, I thought this was mainly about the crucifixion of Jesus. But it’s more a history of crucifixion and different ways they did it. It gets into the gory details. Which is what I wanted. But it’s like something so horrible it’s disturbing. Like a bad wreck. You can’t bear to watch but at the same time you can’t look away. It does refer to Jesus a lot in comparison and what he went through. It also talks about the disciples deaths. The part I never knew about was how some people were crucified and left until they basically starved to death. The author did such a wonderful job in his research. I was happy to find this. As bad as it is, it is history and not something that can be sugar coated or glossed over. Life was brutal back then where it all happened. There are a lot of charts with timelines and who said and did what. And the different rulers or whoever gave their account of things. The justice system wasn’t fair at all back then. Nonexistent.This would be a great book for history buffs or anyone wanting to know about biblical people who were crucified. I thought it would be more about the body’s reaction and death process on the cross. Focusing more on that aspect. I know that sounds morbid. I work in the medical field and understand some of the processes of the body’s reaction to some deaths and how it causes death. I was curious about the biological process of death on a cross. Not in a morbid way but medical way. My pastor once gave us a handout of how someone died on the cross. It told the body’s breakdown and how at the end, the cause of death was suffocation. Because the victim had to raise themselves up to catch a breath due to how the body is hanging and the weight. Of course, this was really painful each time because of the nails. I’m glad this method of death was done away with.

A historical view of the practice of crucifixion, a form of degrading painful torture that plays a central role in Christian theology. Christ was not only executed, he was crucified, a punishment reserved for those who were thought to be especially shameful and degrading. What does crucifixion really mean? We see the Catholic crucifix on our friends' walls or in famous churches. We see pictures representing the Crucifixion but how and why was this form of torturous execution used? Pictures and discussion and incidences in history provide answers.One thing that came out of this book and others discussing terrible tortures of the past: a society that treats other human beings in this way never thrives. Morally, to institutionalize the degradation and pain and destruction of a living body of a fellow human is something that causes deep moral and societal collapse. (George Stinney, June 14, 1944 --a fourteen year old black youth who was falsely accused of murder and long after, sadly, exonerated. Photos show him being strapped into a diabolical device to execute him. How could we ever have thought that was justice?) That picture tells it all. And changed my mind years ago about administering capital punishment.Yes, this is a book for Christians to understand history behind the religion but it also has revelations for anyone. Even if you are NOT a Christian, this book should provide interesting clarification about a word, crucifixion, that has lost the sense of its meaning.