Peace, dear friends, brothers and sisters! Amen. Today we will study, fellowship, and share the origin of the cross
ancient roman cross
crucifixion , it is said that it was caused by Phoenicians Invention, the Phoenician Empire is the general name of a series of small city-states in the northern region of the east coast of the ancient Mediterranean. Its history can be traced back to the 30th century BC. The cross of the torture instrument usually consisted of two or three wooden stakes---or even four if it was a quadrilateral cross, with different shapes. Some are T-shaped, some are X-shaped, and some are Y-shaped. One of the great inventions of the Phoenicians was the execution of people by crucifixion. Later, This method was passed from the Phoenicians to the Greeks, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians and Romans. Especially popular in the Persian Empire, Kingdom of Damascus, judah Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel, Carthage, and ancient Rome, often used to execute rebels, heretics, slaves, and people without citizenship .
This cruel punishment originated from a wooden stake. At first, the prisoner was tied to a wooden stake and suffocated to death, which was both simple and cruel. Later wooden frames were introduced, including crosses, T-shaped frames and X-shaped frames. The X-shaped frame is also called "Saint Andrew's frame" because the saint died on the X-shaped frame.
Although the details of executions vary slightly from place to place, the general situation is the same: the prisoner is whipped first and then forced to carry a wooden frame to the execution ground. Sometimes the wooden frame is so heavy that it is difficult for one person to move it. Before execution, the prisoner was stripped of his clothes, leaving only a loincloth. There is a wedge-shaped piece of wood under the prisoner's palms and feet to prevent the body from sliding down due to gravity. Then insert the cross into the prepared fixed opening on the ground. To hasten death, the limbs of the prisoner were sometimes broken. The stronger the prisoner's tolerance, the longer the torture. The merciless scorching sun burned their bare skin, flies bitten them and sucked their sweat, and the dust in the air suffocated them.
Crucifixion was usually carried out in batches, so several crosses were often erected at the same location. After the criminal was executed, he continued to hang on the cross for public display. After the public display, it was customary to bury the cross and the criminal together. The crucifixion later underwent some improvements, such as fixing the prisoner head down on a wooden frame, which could make the prisoner lose consciousness quickly and actually reduce the prisoner's pain.
It is difficult for modern people to imagine the pain of crucifixion, because on the surface, just tying a person to a stake does not seem to be a particularly cruel punishment. The prisoner on the cross did not die of hunger or thirst, nor did he die of bleeding—the nails were driven into the cross, the prisoner eventually died of suffocation. The crucified man could only breathe by stretching his arms. However, in such a posture, coupled with the intense pain caused by driving the nails in, all the muscles will soon produce a violent back contraction force, so the air filled in the chest cannot be discharged. To speed up suffocation, weights are often hung on the feet of the strongest people, so that they can no longer stretch their arms to breathe. The consensus among scientists is that crucifixion was an unusually cruel method of execution because it slowly tortured a person to death over a period of several days.
The earliest crucifixion in Rome should be during the reign of Targan at the end of the Seven Kings. Rome finally suppressed three slave rebellions. And every victory was accompanied by bloody massacres, and thousands of people were crucified. The first two were in Sicily, one in the first and a half centuries BC and the other in the first century BC. The third and most famous one, in 73 BC, was led by Spartacus and six thousand people were crucified. Crosses were erected all the way from Cabo to Rome. Execution by cross or column was very popular in Roman times, but began to slowly disappear in the centuries after Christ was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Those in power no longer used the method of executing "sons of God" to execute criminals, and hangings and other punishments began to be widely used.
roman emperor Constantine exist 4th century AD "Discipline promulgated" Edict of Milan " abolish Crucifixion. cross It is a symbol of today's Christianity, representing God's great love and redemption for the world. 431 Beginning to appear in the Christian church in AD 586 It was erected on the top of the church starting in the year.
OK! Today I would like to share my fellowship with you all. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit be always with you all! Amen
2021.01.24
