Someone nailed to a crucifix with their arms stretched out on either side could expect to live for no more than 24 hours. Seven-inch nails would be driven through the wrists so that the bones there could support the body's weight.
Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement.
Crucifixion was invented by the Persians between 300-400 B.C. It is quite possibly the most painful death ever invented by humankind. The English language derives the word “excruciating” from crucifixion, acknowledging it as a form of slow, painful suffering.
Within minutes of crucifixion Jesus became severely dyspnoeic (short of breath). 18,His movements up and down the Cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in His wrist, His feet, and His dislocated elbows and shoulders.
Since death does not follow immediately on crucifixion, survival after a short period of crucifixion is possible, as in the case of those who choose each year as a devotional practice to be non-lethally crucified.
To speed death, executioners would often break the legs of their victims to give no chance of using their thigh muscles as support. It was probably unnecessary, as their strength would not have lasted more than a few minutes even if they were unharmed.
In 1870, French architect Charles Rohault de Fleury catalogued all known fragments of the true cross. He determined the Jesus cross weighed 165 pounds, was three or four meters high, with a cross beam two meters wide.
Peter requested to be crucified upside down, as he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ.
Most experts agree, though, that what ultimately kills a crucified person is suffocation. Either the body loses so much oxygen that the person smothers, or the carbon dioxide level in the body goes up so much that the body tissues turn acidic and destroy their own cells.
Greco-Roman texts show that in certain cases the bodies of the crucified were left to decompose in place. In other cases, the crucified bodies were buried.
The Apostle John gives us Jesus' last words (John 19:30), but Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us Jesus cried with a loud voice (Matt. 27:50; Mark 15:37 and Luke 23:46). Jesus also said, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
The method of punishment is known in Saudi Arabia as a crucifixion, which the government says is sanctioned by Islamic law, and is reserved for only the most severe crimes in the kingdom.
Jesus died at the age of 33. For us that seems rather early and at the prime of life for many.
Stations of the Cross, also called Way of the Cross, a series of 14 pictures or carvings portraying events in the Passion of Christ, from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his entombment.
Crucifixion is still used as a rare method of execution in Saudi Arabia. The punishment of crucifixion (șalb) imposed in Islamic law is variously interpreted as exposure of the body after execution, crucifixion followed by stabbing in the chest, or crucifixion for three days, survivors of which are allowed to live.
The exact number of the Holy Nails has been a matter of theological debate for centuries. The general modern understanding in the Catholic Church is that Christ was crucified with four nails, but three are sometimes depicted as a symbolic reference to the Holy Trinity.
Crucifixion may be defined as a method of execution by which a person is hanged, usually by their arms, from a cross or similar structure until dead.
The theologian Tertullian reported that John was plunged into boiling oil but miraculously escaped unscathed. In the original apocryphal Acts of John, the apostle dies; however, later traditions assume that he ascended to heaven. Officially, the apostle's grave is at Ephesus.
It is one step, but looking to Jesus as the crucified, risen Savior for one's soul is what brings salvation, assurance of being in heaven for eternity. So from what Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, it would certainly appear that Judas is not in heaven.
Peter was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus Christ.
He may have stood about 5-ft. -5-in. (166 cm) tall, the average man's height at the time.
Eastern Christianity
According to the sacred tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church the True Cross was made from three different types of wood: cedar, pine and cypress.
As legend has it, the cross on which Jesus was crucified was made from a dogwood tree. God decreed that the dogwood tree would from that day forth never grow large enough to be used to make a cross. Thus, the dogwood tree is a small, under story tree.
Some crucifixes feature a skull and crossbones beneath the corpus (the depiction of Jesus' body), in reference to a legend that the place of the crucifixion was also the burial place of Adam or, more likely, in reference to the New Testament statement (King James Version: Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, and John 19:17) that ...
In Christian tradition, nailing the limbs to the wood of the cross is assumed, with debate centring on whether nails would pierce hands or the more structurally sound wrists. But Romans did not always nail crucifixion victims to their crosses, and instead sometimes tied them in place with rope.