Posted by Gredees on March 22, 1999 at 13:41:13 {MW9hQZt3yw8IU}:
In Reply to: ***More Curiousity.... posted by WT explanation? on March 22, 1999 at 09:00:41:
You know, it is quite curious that we don't have some kind of evidence coming to us from artifacts or graves of how the executions were carried out.
I only know of one reference where the nail which went through the ankles of a corpse was found which establishes one nail through both ankles I believe.
It's amazing that we don't have something for definite to confirm this. There must have been thousands of executions.
Further, I suppose it would depend upon whether or not an upright stake would do the job. After all, they were placed on the torture stake in a way that if their legs were broken they immediately suffocated. Perhaps we should look to that for more clues.
Here's an idea. If it was
an upright stake, with nails in the feet upon which the impalee could lift himself and thus breathe while he was awake, and his hands were behind him in some way, or maybe nailed at the level of his head on either side of the stake, then
when his legs were broken, as his arms pulled up, it made it impossible for him to breathe. Seems as though something having to do with their legs prevented them from being suffocated in some way, suggesting they had no way to support
themselves with their arms, in fact, perhaps the way their arms were attached to the stake or cross, that facilitated the suffocation.
It also might have been extremely painful. Jesus did yell out when he finally died.
G.