What Romans Said About Crucifixion

Uncover the reality of crucifixion in Roman times as we delve into what the Romans themselves said about this form of execution.

Bible writers weren't the only ones talking about crucifixions...or the crucifixion of Jesus. Roman writers did, too, with gritty detail. Jesus' crucifixion actually shows up in Roman history books and letters written in his own century.

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#romans #crucifixion #jesus

For the book on this topic, see Eyewitness to Crucifixion: https://stephenmillerbooks.com/books/...
And the video:    • Eyewitness to Crucifixion  

--AUDIO-IMPROVED VERSION of this video on Vimeo at this link: https://vimeo.com/stephenmmiller/cruc...
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HOW TO INSULT ME 101, December 2020
We get a fair number of hostile comments with this video, for some reason I don't understand. The topic seems to attract critics of Christianity. Which is wonderful, I think. I like hearing from folks of all beliefs. But let me ask a favor, if you're going to attack me on my own doggone channel, try to do it as politely as you can. Ditto for criticizing others. Keep it respectful so I don't have to vaporize your name, anonymous though it may be. I thank you. And my mother thanks you.

--DIED ON A CROSS OR A STAKE, April 23, 2019. I get a lot of notes from people saying Jesus died on a stake instead of a cross, because the Greek word the Bible writers used is stauros, which means stake. Homer used it that way hundreds of years before Jesus, when he wrote Greek legends. By Roman times, the word had a broader meaning. I've read everything I could find that scholars dug up on Romans writing about crucifixion in general. Context of some of the scenes suggests they used the word to mean a stake, the vertical part of the cross, then entire cross, and sometimes just the crossbeam. The word was used that diversely. Something more telling, as it struck me, are the crucifixion pictures and graffito I saw that date to Roman times, when crucifixions were still going on. All the pictures were of crosses. No stakes. But I'm sure there are other pictures to come and more Roman resources still underground.

--HEADS UP, April 2019. Please don't include links in your comments; I delete all of those comments now. This video has generated over 13,000 comments and I don't have time to screen the links. I'm sorry. I know there are a lot of good links out there.

--HEADS UP, Feb. 2019. I got so many inappropriate comments that YouTube turned off the comments for a time. I turned them back on but now I need to approve them before they are posted. Profanity and hate words will doom the comment. We can disagree with each other, but let's be kindly disagreeable. Thanks.

--UPDATED VIDEO. For slightly improved video, with corrections see: https://vimeo.com/stephenmmiller/cruc...

--CORRECTION: It was Spartacus' army that was crucified. His death was never confirmed.

--THE QUOTE FROM JOSEPHUS. A lot of viewers are saying that most historians discount Josephus' reference to Jesus as fake. Some do, but that's not the prevailing view. Even the well-known agnostic scholar, Bart D. Ehrman, seems to agree. (Search his blog for "Josephus.") Also, check out Wikipedia's "Josephus on Jesus." Most scholars say Josephus did, in fact, reference the crucifixion of Jesus. They disagree about how Josephus worded it, but the consensus is that his words were about Jesus.

--DID JESUS EXIST? “I don’t know of any trained classicists or scholars of ancient Rome who think that the reference to Jesus in Tacitus is a forgery.” —Bart D. Ehrman, bestselling biblical scholar, self-described agnostic, Did Jesus Exist?, p. 55.

--FOLLOWUP VIDEO. For a video responding to criticism that the Romans would never have allowed the body of Jesus to be removed from the cross, see "Crucifixion Q: Did the body of Jesus rot on the cross?" at    • Crucifixion Q: Did the body of Jesus rot o...  .

--PROFANITY AND NAME-CALLING. Folks, when you go to the trouble of writing a comment, I know you want others to read it.

So please don't use profanity, hate jargon, name-calling, or just plain ol' nastiness. Keep it civil. It's fine to disagree. Not fine to throw temper tantrums.

I delete that stuff.

I've had to delete threats, too. What a shame we talk like that to each other.

Please don't do that here. Thanks.

--BIBLE STUDY RESOURCES. For Bible study groups, check out the free discussion Qs at the http://www.casualenglishbible.com/.

For a PDF leader's guide and atlas of the story of Jesus, as reported in the Gospel of Luke, check out the Casual English Bible Leader's Guide & Atlas for Luke: http://www.casualenglishbible.com/cas...
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