Christianity Today is a well-funded bastion of liberal Christianity, even the biggest coordinators with Evangelicals For Harris. So, it’s not a surprise they would run an article on Holy Week denying the crucifixion, insisting that nails were not used. An article titled, Was Jesus Crucified with Nails? uses one liberal scholar’s illiteracy in an attempt to undermine Christianity.
Telling the story of Christ’s death, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John simply say that Roman soldiers crucified him. They don’t say how. Each of the Gospels include specific detail about the soldiers’ method of dividing Jesus’ clothes—a lottery—but none describe the way the soldiers put him on the cross. There are no nails mentioned in any of the four accounts.
Even this opening hook isn’t accurate.
So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
John 20:25 NASB1995
Both the Greek hēlōn and the context of Thomas sticking his fingers through a former wound corroborate the use of nails.
The article contends that a lack of primary sources describing the practice in detail. The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, is a line that comes to mind.
There are a few other examples of nails found in tombs that are possibly connected with crucifixion. Archaeologists found skeletal remains in Italy and Egypt with holes in their heels, consistent with crucifixion by nails. And a few nails have been found in the bones of people killed in Greece, including one with a nail that was about four and a half inches long and one with a hole in the femur that “probably ruptured the femoral artery, resulting in a quick death,” according to an expert.
The Jewish writer Josephus, who was born around the time Jesus died, is also explicit about the Romans use of nails in crucifixion, García said. He emphasizes the horror of death on the cross. Unlike generations of Roman writers, he wasn’t vague about how it worked.
But García thinks it’s also possible that Josephus is describing an evolution in the practice of crucifixion. The shift in vocabulary could reflect a shift in real-world methods.
The article then confronts primary source evidence of nails being used in crucifixion, and this scholar is saying, “nah, we don’t really know that nails were used.”
Christianity Today is apparently devolving to rage bait.
One Response
“But García thinks it’s also possible that Josephus is describing an evolution in the practice of crucifixion.”
The Romans may have only used nails when crucifying Jews. Did the genius think of that? Would explain why Josephus mentions it. I mean, Jews are pretty nasty, so I can imagine the Romans wanting to inflict extra pain on them.