What Are the Chances that Jesus' Corpse Was Left on the Cross?

With few exceptions, even the most skeptical scholars admit that Jesus was crucified—and with good reason. Not only Christian authors but also the Roman historian Tacitus mention the crucifixion of Jesus. It's highly unlikely that first-century Christians would have fabricated such a shameful fate for the founder of their faith. In the first century A.D., crucifixion represented the darkest possible path to death.

It is almost impossible for contemporary people to comprehend the full obscenity of crucifixion in the ancient world. Beginning as early as the third century B.C., the very word "crucify" was a vulgarism that did not pass freely between the lips of cultured people. In one ancient document, a Roman prostitute hurled this insult—perhaps the lewdest curse in her vocabulary—at an uncouth patron: "Go get yourself crucified!" The Roman philosopher Seneca described what he witnessed at a crucifixion with these words: "I see the stakes there—not of one kind but of many. Some victims are placed head down; some have spikes driven through their genitals; others have their arms stretched out on the gibbet."

That's why first- and second-century Romans referred to the Christians' worship of a crucified God as "foolishness," "insanity," and "idiocy." Read more