tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/crucifixion-25852/articles
Crucifixion – The Conversation
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221071
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
The roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a pale sculpture of a bearded man's face, looking in pain or tired, with gold letters above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.
Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202348
2023-04-06T06:10:59Z
2023-04-06T06:10:59Z
The crucifixion gap: why it took hundreds of years for art to depict Jesus dying on the cross
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518695/original/file-20230331-28-lfvc1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C758%2C1099&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pavias Andreas, The Crucifixion, second half of the 15th century</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cross, or crucifix, is arguably the central image of Christianity. </p>
<p>What’s the difference between the two? A cross is just that - an empty cross. It stands as a statement that Jesus is no longer on the cross and thus symbolises his resurrection. </p>
<p>A crucifix, on the other hand, includes the body of Jesus, to more vividly remind viewers of his death. </p>
<p>Many contemporary Christians, from bishops to ordinary folk, wear some kind of cross or crucifix around their neck and it would be rare to find a church that did not have at least one prominently displayed in the building.</p>
<p>While a symbol of faith, it is not just the pious who wear crosses. Madonna famously wore crucifix earrings and necklaces constantly throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. She is quoted as doing so because she provocatively “<a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-does-madonna-wear-a-cross-necklace.html/">thought Jesus was sexy</a>”. </p>
<p>The recent ubiquity of the cross as a fashion item means it is sold at everything from cheap tween fashion stores to that jeweller renowned for its little turquoise boxes, where a diamond cross necklace can run <a href="https://www.tiffany.com.au/jewelry/necklaces-pendants/tiffany-co-schlumberger-ten-stone-cross-pendant-23926261/">in excess</a> of $10,000. </p>
<p>The 2018 Met Gala’s theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and Catholic Imagination, further bestowed religious imagery with fashion icon status by making it central to one of the fashion industry’s key events. </p>
<p>Yet the cross was not always the dominant symbol of Christianity that it is now, and would certainly not have been worn as a fashion accessory by early Christians. </p>
<p>In fact, it took centuries for Christians to begin to depict the cross in their art.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-wasnt-white-he-was-a-brown-skinned-middle-eastern-jew-heres-why-that-matters-91230">Jesus wasn't white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew. Here's why that matters</a>
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<h2>An undignified death</h2>
<p>While some want to credit <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/constantine">Emperor Constantine</a> for the use of the cross as becoming more widespread after the 4th century, it is not that simple. Part of the answer lies in the nature of crucifixion itself. </p>
<p>While crucifixion included some variety in antiquity, it was typically a form of execution reserved for non-elite, non-citizens in the 1st-century Roman Empire. </p>
<p>Slaves, the poor, criminals and political protesters were crucified in their thousands for “crimes” we might today consider minor offences. The types of cross structures might differ, but as a form of execution, crucifixion was brutal and violent, designed to publicly shame the victim by displaying him or her naked on a scaffold, thereby asserting Rome’s power over the bodies of the masses. </p>
<p>That Jesus suffered such an undignified death was an embarrassment to some early Christians. The apostle Paul describes Jesus’ crucifixion as a “stumbling block” or “scandal” to other Jews. Others would imbue it with sacrificial meaning to make sense of how the one claimed as God’s Son would suffer in this way. But the shame associated with this kind of death remained. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crude scratchings: a young man worshipping a crucified, donkey-headed figure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518657/original/file-20230331-24-3s01tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Alexamenos graffito in Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>A now infamous piece of graffito, dating to the early 3rd century in Rome, arguably mocks Jesus’ manner of death. Sketched on a wall in Rome, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito">Alexamenos graffito</a> portrays a donkey-headed male figure on a cross under which is written “Alexamenos, worship god”. The suggestion is that the parody was directed at Christians precisely because they worshipped a man who had died by crucifixion. </p>
<h2>Christian images</h2>
<p>Felicity Harley-McGowan, an expert on crucifixion and early Christian art, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/990202/Death_is_Swallowed_Up_in_Victory_Scenes_of_Death_in_Early_Christian_Art_and_the_Emergence_of_Crucifixion_Iconography%20https://www.academia.edu/1787622/The_Crucifixion">argues</a> Christians began to experiment with making their own specifically Christian images around 200 CE, roughly 100-150 years after they began writing about Jesus. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Carved wooden panel: Jesus appears to be nailed in a door frame." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518694/original/file-20230331-26-res9jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early works depicting Jesus’ death didn’t always show an overt cross, as in this 440 AD image from the Church of Santa Sabina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The slowness to depict Jesus on a cross was not about a general sensibility to the visual arts, although they do seem to have been very selective in what they did portray. Artwork typically depicted biblical stories and used bucolic imagery to show others being rescued from death or to tell the stories of biblical heroes like Daniel or Abraham. </p>
<p>In the 4th century, Christians began to depict other death scenes from the Bible, such as <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+8%3A52-58&version=NRSVACE">the raising of Jairus’ daughter</a>, but still not Jesus’ death. Harley-McGowan writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is clear that the earliest representations of deaths in early Christian art were pointed in their focus on actions after the event. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such depictions emphasised healing, new life and resurrection from death. This emphasis is one explanation for why Christians were slow to depict Jesus’ actual death. </p>
<p>One of the earliest extant depictions of Jesus can be found in the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1856-0623-5">Maskell Passion Ivories</a> dating to the early 5th century CE, more than 400 years after his death. These ivories formed a casket panel that includes one death scene amid a range of scenes telling the Jesus story. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Judas hangs from tree; below him the purse from which fall pieces of silver; to the right Christ is nailed by the hands only to the cross" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518658/original/file-20230331-28-vk7dlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maskell Passion Ivories, one of the earliest extant depictions of Jesus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like much previous Christian art, the emphasis remained on Jesus’ victory over death rather than any desire to depict the reality or violence of his crucifixion. One way to show this was to portray Jesus on a cross but with his eyes open, alive and undefeated by the cross; in the Maskell Ivory, Jesus’ alertness is contrasted with the clearly dead Judas.</p>
<p>While there is a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1787622/The_Crucifixion">3rd-century magical amulet</a> that includes crucifixion imagery (and there may have been other gems and amulets lost to history that associated his resurrection from death in magical terms), depictions of the cross only began to emerge in the 5th century and would remain rare until the 6th. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Green-brown jasper; oval with a crucified figure on a tall cross with a short base." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518690/original/file-20230331-24-vvzykw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This magical amulet, carved on jasper, dates to the 3rd century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As churches began to be built, crucifixes appeared on engraved church doors and would remain the more standard image until the Reformation emphasis on the empty cross.</p>
<p>The cross continues to have a complex history, being used as both a symbol of Christian ecclesial power and of white supremacy by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. </p>
<p>There can be beauty, intrigue, magic and terror in these cross traditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gold with loop and expanding arms which terminate in oval medallions; in the centre Christ crucified" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518696/original/file-20230331-20-ai013v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Early Byzantine pendant dates to the 6th or 7th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On one hand, it stands as a symbol of Christian belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection. On the other, it is a reminder of the violence of the state and capital punishment. </p>
<p>Perhaps, 2,000 years later, it is always both – even when diamond-encrusted. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/baby-jesus-in-art-and-the-long-tradition-of-depicting-christ-as-a-man-child-127812">Baby Jesus in art and the long tradition of depicting Christ as a man-child</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn J. Whitaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The cross was not always the dominant symbol of Christianity, and would certainly not have been worn as a fashion accessory by early Christians.
Robyn J. Whitaker, Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156369
2021-03-22T12:25:21Z
2021-03-22T12:25:21Z
Why Christianity put away its dancing shoes – only to find them again centuries later
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389675/original/file-20210315-21-tgpdyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C11%2C934%2C907&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Medieval Christians believed that heaven was a realm filled with dancing. Italian painter Fra Angelico's 'Last Judgment' showing dancing angels.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Angelico%2C_giudizio_universale_01.jpg">Fra Angelico's Last Judgment/Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the PBS documentary series “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/black-church/">The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song</a>,” scholar <a href="https://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/people/henry-louis-gates-jr">Henry Louis Gates Jr.</a> shows how African Americans introduced new rhythms, music and dance to Christianity from the days of slavery to the present. African American <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-a-song-in-a-strange-land-129969">spirituals</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-rhythms-ideas-of-sin-and-the-hammond-organ-a-brief-history-of-gospel-musics-evolution-90737">ring shout</a>, a type of religious dance, provided some enslaved people with hope and perseverance. </p>
<p>While the Black Church enlivened Christian worship, there is an even older story of Christian dance that I tell in my 2021 book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ringleaders-of-redemption-9780197527276?cc=us&lang=en&">Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred</a>.” </p>
<p>Evidence from the ninth through 15th centuries in Western Europe suggests that Europeans not only tolerated dance, but incorporated it into religious thought and practice. </p>
<h2>Authorizing dance</h2>
<p>The tradition of Christian dance did not happen overnight. For the first five centuries of Christianity, the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ringleaders-of-redemption-9780197527276?cc=us&lang=en&">church opposed dancing</a>. According to church leaders and early theologians such as Tertullian and Saint Augustine, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm">dance incited idolatry, lust and damnation</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, early Christians were more likely hostile to dance because it reminded them of their pagan counterparts in the Roman Empire, as Augustine’s book “<a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm">The City of God</a>” made clear. For example, Augustine wrote: “the worshippers and admirers of these (pagan) gods delight in imitating their scandalous iniquities… . Let there be heard everywhere the rustling of dancers, the loud, immodest laughter of the theater; let a succession of the most cruel and the most voluptuous pleasures maintain a perpetual excitement.” </p>
<p>Indeed, dance was an <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/performance-and-culture-in-platos-laws/8E36892BA00287007467A09ECB26BCB0">important part</a> of cultural and civic life in Greco-Roman antiquity. Christians, however, needed to distinguish themselves from pagans and set an example of pious behavior.</p>
<p>Much to the annoyance of medieval clergy, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674031920">some Christians would even skip Mass</a> for the theater or gladiatorial games, which formed a larger part of ancient dance and entertainment culture.</p>
<p>Despite centuries of dance prohibitions that came from church councils, ancient and medieval Christians would not stop dancing. Ritual manuals of the 13th century and beyond reveal how church authorities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640709990412">turned dance to the service of Christendom</a>.</p>
<p>Within the spaces of churches, cathedrals and shrines, dance could help generate collective worship. For example, following healing miracles that saints supposedly enacted, <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1735.html">community members would erupt into song and dance</a>. From the church’s point of view, such pious performances could actually enhance orthodoxy. In other words, dance could work in the service of conversion and rituals.</p>
<p>By the 12th century, Christian theologians would look to the Bible to obtain evidence that dance was permitted. For example, in <a href="https://vulgate.org/ot/exodus_15.htm">Exodus 15:20</a>, Miriam, the sister of Moses, dances with other Israelite women to praise God. For medieval Christians, Miriam’s dancing signified Christian worship and rituals.</p>
<h2>Dance of King David</h2>
<p>Additional biblical evidence for sacred dance came from King David, an Old Testament monarch. The Bible contains a scene in which David humbles himself before his subjects by <a href="https://vulgate.org/ot/2samuel_6.htm">dancing for the Lord</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="King David dancing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389681/original/file-20210315-21-1pdo9iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King David dancing. Victoria and Albert Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/David_dancing_before_the_Ark-Victoria_and_Albert_Museum.jpg">Yair Haklai via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the Latin Bible, <a href="https://vulgate.org/ot/2samuel_6.htm">David danced while he was naked</a>. Medieval commentators interpreted this dance as a Christian expression of humility.</p>
<p>In a 13th-century manuscript called the “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bible_Moralisee/h3u9wQEACAAJ?hl=en">Bible Moralisée</a>,” or The Moralized Bible, the dance of David, according to the author, “signifies Jesus Christ who celebrated Holy Church and celebrated the poor and the simple and showed great humility.” </p>
<p>Moreover, as I discovered in my archival research, an image from a 14th-century biblical picture book of sorts, juxtaposes the dance of David with the Crucifixion of Christ. </p>
<p>Although a Jewish figure from the Old Testament, medieval Christians began to see David and his dance as <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Futures_of_Dance_Studies/vPy9DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=futures+of+dance+studies&printsec=frontcover">prophesying the “Passion of Christ</a>.” Because David danced naked – in a way unbefitting of a king – they believed, it had a resemblance to the humiliation of one who had to suffer and die. </p>
<h2>Sanctifying dance</h2>
<p>Since at least the ninth century, dance became integrated into Christian devotion. During pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint Faith, a child martyr from the third century who had a strong following in medieval France, <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1735.html">Christians would break into dancing and singing</a>. </p>
<p>And 13th-century friar Francis of Assisi <a href="https://dmdhist.sitehost.iu.edu/francis.htm">was said to dance in a dramatic fashion while preaching</a>. For Francis, who was later canonized as a saint, it animated his image. </p>
<p>Actual dances began to be performed in churches and cathedrals during public worship. Ritual manuals from the 13th century testify to a variety of dances that Christians and clergy performed during sacred days, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801449567/sacred-folly/#bookTabs=1">especially during Christmas and Easter</a>.</p>
<p>From the 14th through 16th centuries at the Auxerre Cathedral in France, religious men danced and played a ball game on the cathedral’s labyrinth every Easter Monday. <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674013636&content=reviews">They sang a sacred hymn about Christ’s triumph over death</a>, as they danced.</p>
<p>Moreover, dance appeared in the literary arts as well. Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” composed in the 14th century, contains exquisite poetic renderings of dance in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HerF9O8UFb4C&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PT47&dq=dante+paradiso+divine+comedy+durling&hl=en&source=newbks_fb#v=onepage&q=dante%20paradiso%20divine%20comedy%20durling&f=false">purgatory and paradise</a>.</p>
<p>Medieval women enacted sacred dance too. Sister-books, or documents produced in German nunneries during the Middle Ages, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/By_Women_for_Women_about_Women.html?id=bgMaAAAAYAAJ">provide textual evidence for the existence of dancing at convents</a>. For example, one German sister-book tells how a nun named Irmendraut began to dance in a spiritual manner after she recovered from a long illness: “this sister became so deeply enraptured that she jumped off the pillow where they had laid her and into the middle of their circle with quick straight legs. And then, in the presence of the community, she danced so lovingly in God’s praise that all who saw and heard it felt longing and anguish for the joy that was so unknown to them.”</p>
<p>In the 13th century, female mystics such as Mechthild von Magdeburg and Agnes Blannbekin were <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ringleaders-of-redemption-9780197527276?cc=us&lang=en&">reported to have danced erotically with Christ or envisioned heavenly dancers</a>.</p>
<p>For medieval women, dance allowed them a proximity to divine presence during a time when no more women were being ordained into important ministerial and leadership roles. According to religion scholar <a href="https://www.scu.edu/cas/religious-studies/faculty--staff/gary-macy/">Gary Macy</a>, the church stopped ordaining women around the 13th century. As <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189704.001.0001/acprof-9780195189704">Macy writes</a>, “by the 13th century, it was assumed in both law and theology that women could not be ordained and indeed had never been ordained.”</p>
<h2>Lost in history</h2>
<p>By the 16th century, however, the cultural landscape of Christian dance changed dramatically. There were many reasons.</p>
<p>The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation began to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_chr%C3%A9tiens_et_la_danse_dans_la_Franc.html?id=fdsTAQAAIAAJ">critique dance and declare it idolatrous</a>, much like the early church did. Moreover, starting in the 14th century, women were suspected of, and persecuted for, practicing witchcraft. During the European witch trials, witches were accused of dancing with the devil during a <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3629693.html">satanic ritual known as the Witches’ Sabbath</a>.</p>
<p>By the time the first slave ships set sail to Virginia in 1619, <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/63tbp8dz9780252065903.html">Christian dance was largely lost to history</a>. Over time, enslaved Africans, with their traditions of sacred song and movement, would put the dance back into Christianity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156369/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Dickason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite opposition from the early church, dance was an integral part of Christian devotion for many centuries before falling out of favor.
Kathryn Dickason, Visiting Scholar, School of Religion, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123250
2019-11-06T12:35:32Z
2019-11-06T12:35:32Z
Anti-Semitism in the US today is a variation on an old theme
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299898/original/file-20191101-88372-1sw2p4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite courting the Jewish vote, President Trump has used anti-Semitic rhetoric.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/a257317da4bc4e65ac9384b22e0fcfa3/20/0">AP/John Locher</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Senators Jacky Rosen and James Lankford, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/opinions/senate-task-force-to-combat-anti-semitism-rosen-lankford/index.html">who describe themselves</a> as “a practicing Jewish Democrat from Nevada and a devoted Christian Republican from Oklahoma,” are spearheading a new effort to fight an old problem: anti-Semitism in America.</p>
<p>The Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, wrote the senators in an opinion column for CNN, will “collaborate with law enforcement, federal agencies, state and local government, educators, advocates, clergy, and other stakeholders to combat anti-Semitism by educating and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/opinions/senate-task-force-to-combat-anti-semitism-rosen-lankford/index.html">empowering our communities</a>.”</p>
<p>They’ve got a big job ahead of them. </p>
<h2>Ancient roots</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299896/original/file-20191101-88382-1hey2gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After calls for her resignation, Trenton City Council member Kathy McBride had to apologize for using the phrase ‘Jew her down’ in a meeting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Anti-Semitism-City-Council/835f13fb21624a9092fda527c5610c7e/1/0">AP/Mel Evans</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In early September, Trenton’s City Council President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/nyregion/trenton-jewish-anti-semite-kathy-mcbride.html">Kathy McBride uttered the phrase “Jew her down</a>” in <a href="https://www.trentonian.com/news/local/audio-of-executive-session/audio_65bb331a-d8a5-11e9-9b4c-1f4b9168a8f5.html">a public discussion</a>. McBride said she was sorry 12 days later. The Associated Press ran the headline: “<a href="https://apnews.com/fb9f5c1ccea34da8a2b9be525f2daf05">Politician apologizes for use of anti-Semitic trope</a>.” </p>
<p>Congresswoman Ilhan Omar responded to GOP threats to censure her for denouncing Israel, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/11/its-all-about-benjamins-baby-ilhan-omar-again-accused-anti-semitism-over-tweets/">It’s all about the Benjamins baby</a>.” She was referring to the dollars <a href="https://www.aipac.org/">AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee</a>, purportedly throws at legislators standing up for Israel. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/politics/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism.html">Omar later apologized</a>. </p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-that-jewish-people-who-vote-for-democrats-are-very-disloyal-to-israel-denies-his-remarks-are-anti-semitic/2019/08/21/055e53bc-c42d-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html">Trump tells American Jews</a>: “If you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.” </p>
<p>Likely none of these politicians grasped in the moment the anti-Semitism underlying their remarks. This was not the first time on American soil that Jews were charged with financial cunning, government manipulation and questionable loyalty. </p>
<p>These canards, <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-from-the-early-church-to-1400">rooted in ancient and medieval anti-Judaism</a>, have a long history in America.</p>
<h2>Religious anti-Semitism</h2>
<p>There are different strains of anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>Religious anti-Semitism is the charge that the Jews were responsible for <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-from-the-early-church-to-1400">the crucifixion of Jesus</a>. In this formulation, their descendants must, forever, pay for that treachery – sometimes by being locked behind ghetto walls, other times with their lives. It dates to the split of Christianity from Judaism in the first century.</p>
<p>Fifteen centuries later, in 1654, New Amsterdam Governor <a href="https://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/jewish_life/">Peter Stuyvesant tried to expel the 23 Jews</a> fleeing persecution who had just landed in the colony. He called them a “deceitful race – such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ.” </p>
<p>Subsequently, American Sunday school primers, Bible mission tracts and popular novels recalled Jews’ complicity in the murder of Jesus and sought to convert them. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=C7ptAAAAMAAJ&q=tarnished+dream&dq=tarnished+dream&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjfgeqF_8blAhWEpFkKHRfvBFgQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg">Sabbath Lessons (1813)</a> taught Sunday school children about the “conspiracy of the Jewish rulers against Jesus Christ.” In the novel <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QiS1xQEACAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">“The Prince of the House of David” (1855)</a>, a part of a trilogy which reportedly sold over 5 million copies, the author, an Episcopal priest, called on “the daughters of Israel” to abandon Judaism and follow Christ.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300157/original/file-20191104-88409-uryu7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration from 1882 in the satiric magazine, The Judge, showing a line of women, seeking employment, standing before a lecherous man who was obviously Jewish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.05450">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335345/">The Passion of the Christ</a>” carried religious anti-Semitism into the 21st century. Its Jewish mob – the men’s beards and noses immense, their heads covered in prayer shawls – appeared on the wide screen screaming “Crucify him” to a bloodied Jesus standing before the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate.</p>
<h2>Money and power</h2>
<p>The anti-Semitism making headlines today doesn’t always replay the charge that the Jews killed Jesus. Instead it draws from a long roster of other anti-Jewish stereotypes. They depict the Jews as a people interested only in money, malevolently employing their wealth to undermine the political order.</p>
<p>In just six words, “about the Benjamins,” Minnesota’s Rep. Omar echoed age-old claims of Jewish cunning, financial manipulation and government control. Her remarks echoed those of an 1852 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1852/05/25/archives/jewish-disabilities.html?searchResultPosition=1">New York Times journalist</a> who wrote of Jews’ “sharp schooling in money-getting” and that, controlling all capital, they declared “empires solvent or bankrupt, at will.”</p>
<p>Later in the 19th century, in the January 1897 Atlantic Monthly a friend of Harvard professor and ambassador James Russell Lowell recalled how Lowell – a minister’s son who knew Hebrew – <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_tarnished_dream.html?id=C7ptAAAAMAAJ">decried Jewish bankers, brokers and the ones who had slipped into politics and diplomacy</a>. Lowell feared that they were poised to control “the Earth’s surface.” </p>
<p>Lowell’s sentiment was typical of many of his generation’s well-bred, well-educated public servants, intellectuals and civic leaders. </p>
<p>In 1890, the Reverend Charles F. Deems wrote of a segment of Jews whose only passion is “the greed of gain.” In novels, that love for money translated into the charge that Jews “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_tarnished_dream.html?id=C7ptAAAAMAAJ">control the money power of the world</a>.” </p>
<p>Lowell’s assertion of an international Jewish conspiracy predated the forgery known as the “<a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion">Protocols of the Elders of Zion</a>.” It first appeared in Russia in 1905 in a book about the coming of the Antichrist published by the mystic Sergei Nilus. Its anti-Semitic fantasies of Jewish leaders plotting to destroy Christianity and control the world <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion">inspired Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf</a>.”</p>
<p>The myth of a world Jewish conspiracy found a home in America in the 1920s thanks to publication of “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-the-international-jew-quot">The International Jew – The World’s Foremost Problem</a>.” Quoting liberally from the “Protocols,” this series in the <a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2013218776/">Dearborn Independent</a> newspaper was subsequently published as a multi-volume book. </p>
<p>“The International Jew” charged that the Jews controlled the world’s finances, that they were the “power behind many a throne.” </p>
<p>Circulation of the Dearborn Independent grew to 700,000 by 1924-1925 <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_tarnished_dream.html?id=C7ptAAAAMAAJ">as its publisher mailed thousands of copies around</a> the country, to bank presidents, Rotary clubs, women’s clubs, college presidents and the members of Congress. The publisher was the industrial tycoon <a href="https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-and-anti-semitism-a-complex-story">Henry Ford</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300153/original/file-20191104-88399-3o10lb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dearborn Independent front page, May 22, 1920.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2013218776/1920-05-22/ed-1/seq-1/">Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Forever outsiders</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-questions-sincerity-of-tlaibs-tears-as-she-talked-about-her-grandmother/2019/08/20/03d7b532-c339-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html">Donald Trump said American Jews</a> who opposed his policies were disloyal to the Jewish people and to Israel, he was saying that Jews held dual loyalty. </p>
<p>Forever outsiders and aliens, in this view, Jews put their devotion to the Jewish people above allegiance to their nation.</p>
<p>In 2015, NPR host <a href="https://dianerehm.org/audio/#/shows/2015-06-10/the-2016-presidential-race-a-conversation-with-democratic-candidate-and-vermont-senator-bernie-sanders/110376/@00:00">Diane Rehm</a> asked Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders whether his “dual citizenship” with Israel disqualified him to serve as U.S. president. Senator Sanders is not a citizen of the State of Israel.</p>
<p>The dual-loyalty accusations have dogged Jews across time and across the globe. <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-2/religion-loyalty-and-belonging">Napoleon put the question bluntly</a> to an assembly of Jewish notables in 1806: “Do Jews born in France, and treated by the law as French citizens, consider France as their country? Are they bound to defend it? Are they bound to obey (its) laws?” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299892/original/file-20191101-88394-e9l93g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1890 survey about anti-Semitism asks for the opinions of prominent U.S. figures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rG8fAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA176-IA1&lpg=PA176-IA1&dq=American+Hebrew+Prejudices+against+the+Jews+survey+Capen+Tufts&source=bl&ots=u8w2OFLKfS&sig=ACfU3U3U3A6oAeOFAmYCEzFxugV3AbcxxQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwwufLucnlAhURjVkKHSfVCPAQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Critic, Google Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1890, observing a spike in anti-Semitism that saw Jews excluded from summer resorts, blackballed as members of private clubs and denied admission to private schools, the editors of the New York Jewish newspaper the American Hebrew asked more than 50 clergy, college presidents, lawyers and politicians about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rG8fAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA176-IA1&lpg=PA176-IA1&dq=American+Hebrew+Prejudices+against+the+Jews+survey+Capen+Tufts&source=bl&ots=u8w2OFIQmO&sig=ACfU3U3EF7FkU3p5uOVGGTiU5m0MIv9Xuw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjl6O7ysMnlAhWDrFkKHX81APQQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=American%20Hebrew%20Prejudices%20against%20the%20Jews%20survey%20Capen%20Tufts&f=false">“Prejudices Against the Jews.”</a> They then published the responses.</p>
<p>Tufts College President E.N. Capen declared: The Jews could never “assimilate like other aliens; they are always Hebrew … They never can be Americans, pure and simple.” His was not the only response to state starkly that the Jews remained a nation within a nation.</p>
<p>After the state of Israel was established in 1948, its Prime Minister <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Mv2mjlwnR-0C&lpg=PA46&ots=cGbfeYwVMv&dq=%E2%80%9CThe%20Jews%20of%20the%20United%20States%2C%20as%20a%20community%20and%20as%20individuals%2C%20have%20only%20one%20political%20attachment%20and%20that%20is%20to%20the%20United%20States%20of%20America.%22&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CThe%20Jews%20of%20the%20United%20States,%20as%20a%20community%20and%20as%20individuals,%20have%20only%20one%20political%20attachment%20and%20that%20is%20to%20the%20United%20States%20of%20America.%22&f=false">David Ben-Gurion declared</a>: “The Jews of the United States, as a community and as individuals, have only one political attachment and that is to the United States of America. They owe no political allegiance to Israel.”</p>
<p>In charging Jews who vote for the Democratic Party – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/24/why-most-american-jews-vote-for-democrats-explained/">as the majority of American Jews do</a> – with disloyalty to their people and Israel, President Trump turns that principle on its head. </p>
<p>Once again an old charge is voiced. Jews can never be fully Americans. Their loyalty to the Jewish people and to Israel trumps their loyalty to America. </p>
<p>With anti-Semitism today bombarding American Jews from the right and the left, the moment appears new, but its language is not. It’s a very old theme.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela S. Nadell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A task force has been assembled in the US Senate to fight anti-Semitism. A specialist in Jewish-American history says the group has a big job ahead of it. Anti-Semitism has a long history in the US.
Pamela S. Nadell, Professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's & Gender History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program, American University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105194
2018-10-22T21:36:05Z
2018-10-22T21:36:05Z
The hypocrisy of Québec’s move to ban religious dress
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241673/original/file-20181022-105761-vx2xui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1284%2C1488%2C761&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The crucifix is seen inside the the National Assembly in Québec in November 2013. The Québec government has been criticized for pushing for a niqab ban while defending the presence of the crucifix in the legislature.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The newly elected government of Québec has indicated that it intends to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/quebec-considers-ban-on-religious-symbols-for-public-servants-1.4853362">ban civil servants</a> in positions of authority (including police officers and judges) from wearing religious dress or symbols such as the turban or hijab.</p>
<p>The new government views the wearing of religious dress by civil servants not as an act of personal religious or cultural expression but instead as a political act — an act of the state — that is incompatible with the requirement that the state remain neutral in matters of religion.</p>
<p>The ban will have the effect of excluding the members of certain religious minorities from civil service jobs. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/francois-legault-coalition-avenir-quebec-1.4846838">And it will, almost certainly, breach religious freedom under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.</a> </p>
<p>At the same time, the government has confirmed that a crucifix will continue to hang in the provincial legislature. The government insists that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-francois-legault-crucifix-religious-symbols-1.4858757">the crucifix is simply a “heritage object” and “part of our history”</a> and so its presence in the legislature doesn’t violate the requirement that the state remain neutral in matters of religion.</p>
<p>Even if this practice breaches religious freedom, the <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2001/2001canlii8549/2001canlii8549.html">Canadian courts have held that the internal operations of the legislatures in the various provinces are not subject to judicial oversight.</a></p>
<p>Several European countries have made similar arguments about the crucifix. <a href="https://strasbourgobservers.com/2011/03/22/lautsi-v-italy-the-argument-from-neutrality/">The Italian government, for example, has justified the hanging of crucifixes in public school classrooms</a> on the grounds that it’s a symbol of the country’s national identity, its Christian heritage and the civic values of its political community — values that are said to be traceable to Christian doctrine. </p>
<h2>Proponents argue it’s cultural</h2>
<p>Proponents say that the crucifix in the legislature serves as a symbol not of Christianity but of a secular community that has been shaped by Christianity. When the province hangs a crucifix in the legislative chamber, it is not favouring or supporting Christianity as the true faith, it’s simply recognizing the historic and conceptual link between Christian doctrine and the national identity and civic values of the community. Or so goes the argument.</p>
<p>In truth, the civic values of modern liberal democracies like Québec have other, more obvious precursors. </p>
<p>The Christian heritage argument conflates the plausible claim that certain elements of Christian doctrine made possible the separation of church and state in the West (secularism) with the more problematic claim that tolerance and democracy are Christian values that arose directly or significantly from Christianity — and so may be symbolized by the crucifix. </p>
<p>This link between religion or religious heritage and politics may help to reinforce the core principles of a political community and its connection to its members. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm">Christian rituals or values may serve as a civil religion</a> that inspires and binds citizens, contributing to a richer or more substantial form of national identity than one that is based simply on a shared commitment to democratic principles.</p>
<h2>Not just a side effect</h2>
<p>At the same time, the link between Christian morality and national identity or political community serves to exclude the members of some groups. Indeed, it appears that the exclusion of non-Christians or those who don’t identify with the Christian tradition is not simply a regrettable side effect of the attempt to bolster civic union and national identity.</p>
<p>The debate about hanging a crucifix in the Québec legislature is in some ways similar to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/449/39">the debate in the United States over the posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings</a>. </p>
<p>Supporters of the public display of the <a href="https://www.topmarks.co.uk/judaism/the-ten-commandments">Ten Commandments</a> argue that it’s an important historical document that helped to shape contemporary Western law and society. The identity of the political community, even if now understood in secular terms, is tied to a religious history that ought to be acknowledged.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241677/original/file-20181022-105782-s0z50v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A moving crew removes the Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., in 2003. A U.S. District Court judge ordered the monument moved from public view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bill Haber)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is something to this claim — that the political community has a history that its members should know about, if only to understand better their current circumstances.</p>
<p>The problem with this attempt to link the Ten Commandments to the contemporary legal order is that the Commandments do not appear to have had either a unique or even significant role in shaping contemporary Western law. </p>
<p>There seems little doubt that those hoping to post the Ten Commandments in public spaces want to affirm the Commandments’ truth as God’s law and to link the Christian or Judeo-Christian tradition to the American national identity. <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4061&context=flr">They realize, though, that if they don’t provide a secular reason for the posting, it will be found to breach the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the proponents regard the United States as a Christian nation and believe that its public institutions should reflect that, both symbolically and substantively.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-justices-in-the-pews-and-on-the-bench-and-where-neil-gorsuch-fits-in-74595">Supreme Court justices in the pews and on the bench – and where Neil Gorsuch fits in</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court recognized this as the motive behind the posting of the Ten Commandments <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/449/39/">when it ruled that the practice was unconstitutional</a>. </p>
<p>The motivation behind the keeping the crucifix in the Québec legislature, however, seems more complicated.</p>
<h2>Anxiety about national identity?</h2>
<p>Many of the contemporary supporters of the crucifix in the legislature may believe that it symbolizes the sacrifice of Jesus and God’s mercy and that these spiritual truths should be affirmed in the civic sphere. But it seems clear that support for the practice comes also from those who no longer formally adhere to Catholicism. </p>
<p>The display of the crucifix appears to be a response to a general anxiety about national identity. For many Québecois, the crucifix may reaffirm the idea of a national culture in the context of a changing population and a perceived challenge to shared values.</p>
<p>The recognition of a link between Christianity and the identity and civic values of the Québec community may serve to strengthen the civic bond and to create a sense of identity among many Québecois.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-link-between-quebecs-niqab-law-and-its-sovereignty-quest-86200">The link between Quebec's niqab law and its sovereignty quest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But it seems sadly obvious that this link between Christianity and civic culture also serves to mark off as un-Québecois the members of some religious groups; to signal that they are not full or proper members of the civic community. </p>
<p>The message is that other religious traditions, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/anti-muslim-sentiment-higher-in-quebec-than-rest-of-canada-study-finds-1.4577746">and most notably Islam,</a> are incompatible with the province’s civic/secular culture. </p>
<p>The commitment to inclusion and religious neutrality becomes a basis for excluding the members of some religions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Moon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Québec is pushing to ban public servants from wearing religious garb even as the crucifix hangs in its legislature. It’s ironic and hypocritical for a province that prides itself on secularism.
Richard Moon, Distinguished University Professor, University of Windsor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102005
2018-08-30T13:30:18Z
2018-08-30T13:30:18Z
What was the first Bible like?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233897/original/file-20180828-86123-1cv3kot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Awaiting revelation. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/priest-old-bible-on-black-background-1031695462?src=RZ1zn94c0FWW52e5Jj2jNQ-1-23">Africa Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years after Jesus <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135894.The_Historical_Figure_of_Jesus">was crucified</a> at Calvary, the story of his life, death and resurrection was not immediately written down. The experiences of disciples like Matthew and John would have been told and retold at many dinner tables and firesides, perhaps for decades, before anyone <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">recorded</a> them for posterity. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians+1.11-20&version=NIV">St Paul</a>, whose writings are equally central to the New Testament, was not even present among the early believers until a few years after Jesus’ execution.</p>
<p>But if many people will have an idea of this gap between the events of the New Testament and the book that emerged, few probably appreciate how little we know about the first Christian Bible. The <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">oldest complete</a> New Testament that survives today is from the fourth century, but it had predecessors which have long since turned to dust. </p>
<p>So what did the original Christian Bible look like? How and where did it emerge? And why are we scholars still arguing about this some 1,800 years after the event?</p>
<h2>From oral to written</h2>
<p>Historical accuracy is central to the New Testament. The issues at stake were pondered in the book itself by Luke the Evangelist as he discusses the reasons for writing what became his eponymous Gospel. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">He writes</a>: “I too decided to write an orderly account … so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” </p>
<p>In the second century, church father Irenaeus of Lyons argued for the validity of the Gospels by <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103301.htm">claiming that</a> what the authors first preached, after receiving “perfect knowledge” from God, they later put down in writing. Today, scholars differ on these issues – from the American writer Bart Ehrman <a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062285201/jesus-before-the-gospels/">stressing</a> how much accounts would be changed by the oral tradition; to his Australian counterpart Michael Bird’s <a href="https://readingacts.com/2014/12/26/book-review-michael-bird-the-gospel-of-the-lord-part-1/">argument that</a> historical ambiguities must be tempered by the fact that the books are the word of God; or the British scholar <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7431/jesus-and-the-eyewitnesses-2nd-ed.aspx">Richard Bauckham’s</a> emphasis on eye-witnesses as guarantors behind the oral and written gospel. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Paul: numero uno.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg#/media/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first New Testament books to be written down are reckoned to be the 13 that comprise <a href="http://tyndalearchive.com/scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/letters.htm">Paul’s letters</a> (circa 48-64 CE), <a href="https://www.enterthebible.org/newtestament.aspx?rid=1">probably</a> beginning with 1 Thessalonians or Galatians. Then comes the Gospel of Mark (circa 60-75 CE). The remaining books – the other three Gospels, letters of Peter, John and others as well as Revelation – were all added before or around the end of the first century. By the mid-to-late hundreds CE, major church libraries would have had copies of these, sometimes alongside other manuscripts <a href="http://www.bible.ca/b-canon-rejected-books.htm">later deemed apocrypha</a>. </p>
<p>The point at which the books come to be seen as actual scripture and canon is a matter of debate. Some <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-formation-and-significance-of-the-christian-biblical-canon-9780567075468/">point to</a> when they came to be used in weekly worship services, circa 100 CE and in some cases earlier. Here they were treated on a par with the old Jewish Scriptures that would become the Old Testament, which for centuries had been taking pride of place in synagogues all over latter-day Israel and the wider Middle East. </p>
<p>Others emphasise <a href="https://standingonshoulders.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/where-did-the-term-old-testament-and-new-testament-come-from/">the moment</a> before or around 200 CE when the titles “Old” and “New Testament” <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0198.xml">were</a> introduced <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Tertullian.shtml">by the</a> church. This dramatic shift clearly acknowledges two major collections with scriptural status making up the Christian Bible – relating to one another as old and new covenant, prophecy and fulfilment. This reveals that the first Christian two-testament bible was by now in place.</p>
<p>This is not official or precise enough for <a href="https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/the-canon-debate-9780801047084">another group</a> of scholars, however. They prefer to focus on the late fourth century, when the so-called canon lists entered the scene – such as <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Athanasius.shtml">the one</a> laid down by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367 CE, which acknowledges 22 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. </p>
<h2>Bible #1</h2>
<p>The oldest surviving full text of the New Testament is the beautifully written <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">Codex Sinaiticus</a>, which was “<a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx">discovered</a>” at the St Catherine monastery at the base of Mt Sinai in Egypt in the 1840s and 1850s. Dating from circa 325-360 CE, it is not known where it was scribed – <a href="https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/codex-sinaiticus-discovered/">perhaps</a> Rome or Egypt. It is made from parchment of animal hides, with text on both sides of the page, written in continuous Greek script. It combines the entire New and Old Testaments, though only about half of the old survives (the New Testament has some fairly minor defects). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Codex Sinaiticus, Book of Matthew.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG#/media/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sinaiticus may not be the oldest extant bible, however. Another compendium of Old and New Testaments is the <a href="https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209">Codex Vaticanus</a>, which is from around 300-350 CE, though substantial amounts of both testaments are missing. These bibles differ from one another in some respects, and <a href="https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/studies/3/S00005-507d9078d7fe9Blumell.pdf">also from</a> modern bibles – after the 27 New Testament books, for example, Sinaiticus includes as an appendix the two popular Christian edifying writings <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html">Epistle of Barnabas</a> and <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html">Shepherd of Hermas</a>. Both bibles also have a different running order – placing <a href="https://bible.org/seriespage/4-pauline-epistles">Paul’s letters</a> after <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/gospels.html">the Gospels</a> (Sinaiticus), or after <a href="http://biblescripture.net/Acts.html">Acts</a> and the <a href="https://biblehub.com/library/schaff/history_of_the_christian_church_volume_i/section_87_the_catholic_epistles.htm">Catholic Epistles</a> (Vaticanus).</p>
<p>They both <a href="http://www.theologische-buchhandlung.de/bonwerke.htm">contain</a> interesting features such as special devotional or creedal demarcations of sacred names, known as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31183157/THE_FORMATION_AND_SIGNIFICANCE_OF_THE_CHRISTIAN_BIBLICAL_CANON_A_STUDY_IN_TEXT_RITUAL_AND_INTERPRETATION"><em>nomina sacra</em></a>. These shorten words like “Jesus”, “Christ”, “God”, “Lord”, “Spirit”, “cross” and “crucify”, to their first and last letters, highlighted with a horizontal overbar. For example, the Greek name for Jesus, Ἰησοῦς, is written as ⲓ̅ⲥ̅; while God, θεός, is ⲑ̅ⲥ̅. Later bibles sometimes presented these in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Codex%20Petropolitanus%20Purpureus&item_type=topic">gold letters</a> or render them bigger or more <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure">ornamental</a>, and the practice endured until bible printing began around the time of the Reformation. </p>
<p>Though Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are both thought to have been copied from long-lost predecessors, in one format or the other, previous and later standardised New Testaments consisted of a four-volume collection of individual codices – the fourfold Gospel; Acts and seven Catholic Epistles; Paul’s 14 letters (including Hebrews); and the <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/rev?lang=eng">Book of Revelation</a>. They were effectively collections of collections. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Papyrus 46 extract.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in the absence of a single book prior to the fourth century, we have to content ourselves with the many surviving older fragments sensationally found during the 20th century. We <a href="https://larryhurtado.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/nt-papyri1.pdf">now have</a> some 50 fragmentary New Testament manuscripts written on papyrus that date from the second and third centuries – including the valuable <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P45">Papyrus 45</a> (fourfold Gospel and Acts), and <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P46">Papyrus 46</a> (a collection of Pauline letters). In all, these comprise almost complete or partial versions of 20 of the 27 books in the New Testament. </p>
<p>The quest will likely continue for additional sources of the original books of the New Testament. Since it is somewhat unlikely anyone will ever find an older Bible comparable with Sinaiticus or Vaticanus, we will have to keep piecing together what we have, which is already quite a lot. It’s a fascinating story which will no doubt continue to provoke arguments between scholars and enthusiasts for many years into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomas Bokedal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The curious case of Bible #1, and how much we actually know about it.
Tomas Bokedal, Associate Professor in New Testament, NLA University College, Bergen; and Lecturer in New Testament, University of Aberdeen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91812
2018-02-14T11:09:58Z
2018-02-14T11:09:58Z
#MeToo Jesus: is Christ really a good model for victims of abuse?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206293/original/file-20180213-44642-wdh029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C172%2C1125%2C635&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mattia Preti.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Doubting_Saint_Thomas#/media/File:Mattia_Preti_003.jpg">via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is the start of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent">Lent</a>, a time when Christians reflect on the upcoming Passion of Jesus. Jesus is held up as an example of steadfastness in the face of oppression by malevolent forces. He shows strength through his silence, approaching his suffering willingly. </p>
<p>Throughout the ongoing <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/world/who-tarana-burke-meet-the-woman-who-started-the-too-movement-decade-ago/i8NEiuFHKaIvBh9ucukidK/">#MeToo movement</a> Jesus has been invoked by Christian communities as a <a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz/ctpi/projects/2018/otago675463.html">co-sufferer</a> and promoted as a <a href="http://thinkingofgod.org/2017/08/bible-say-domestic-violence/">model for redemptive suffering</a>, particularly in the face of abuse. But is Jesus’s silence a troubling model for victims of sexual assault? </p>
<p>One of the hallmarks of Jesus’s portrayal in popular culture is his silence in the face of Pontius Pilate’s interrogation. This image of silence comes from the three Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke’s versions of Jesus’s trial. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rGZgG8Ub8k4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jesus Christ Superstar.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Jesus does speak, his words are brief, cryptic, and taken from the Gospel of John rather than the other three, where Jesus’s silence is emphasised. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A11-14%3B+Mark+15%3A2-5%3B+Luke+23%3A2-9&version=NRSV">Matthew and in Mark</a>, the entire trial scene takes place in four verses; in Luke, where there is slightly more input from “the multitudes” as well as a second trial in front of Herod, we are done in eight verses. Even so, in these gospels, Jesus makes no answer to the charges laid against him. </p>
<p>It’s likely that Matthew, Mark and Luke’s versions depict Jesus’s silence as a way of characterising him as the “Suffering Servant” of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+53:7">Isaiah 53:7</a>. In each case, whether in these gospels or in Isaiah, the image portrayed is one of virtue in silence, and of a pious sacrifice in the face of an unjust world. It is that silence that ultimately kills him.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206292/original/file-20180213-44651-yj649f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jesus Before Herod by James Tissot (Brooklyn Museum).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Life_of_Jesus_Christ_by_James_Tissot#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Jesus_Before_Herod_(Jésus_devant_Hérode)_-_James_Tissot.jpg">via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This contrasts with John’s depiction of the same scene, which takes place over ten verses, more than double the amount of text devoted to the trial in Mark and Matthew’s versions. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+18%3A29-38&version=NRSV">In John</a>, Jesus is clear about who he is and makes a direct response to accusations; he also corrects Pilate’s misunderstanding about his true identity. This is part of Jesus’ plan – he is clear about <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZaTCCQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=antagonism&f=false">his death being the will of God his Father</a>. </p>
<p>But whether he is silent as in Mark or whether he speaks in his own defence as in John, Jesus is sentenced to death and crucified. The end result – suffering, pain, and death – is the same.</p>
<h2>#MeToo Jesus</h2>
<p>Parallels have been drawn between Jesus’s response to his abuse during the Passion and the #MeToo movement. Not least because, like Jesus, the victims of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged abuse <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4979554/Harvey-Weinstein-scandal-shames-actresses-kept-quiet.html">have been condemned</a> whether they’ve spoken out or remained silent. </p>
<p>While the torture and crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible is widely accepted, the idea that his abuse included sexual assault is a less established aspect of the Passion narrative. </p>
<p>The work of <a href="http://shiloh-project.group.shef.ac.uk/?s=david+tombs">David Tombs</a> at the University of Otago shows that <a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz/ctpi/projects/2018/otago675463.html">Jesus’s torture included a sexual element</a>. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A27-31&version=NRSV">stripped three times</a> and his nakedness is part of his humiliation. Similarly, biblical scholar <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-wil-gafney-phd/crucifixion-and-sexual-violence_b_2965369.html">Wil Gafney</a> has suggested that the crucifixion of Jesus is a form of sexual assault: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I consider … the full range of torture and humiliation to which Jesus of Nazareth was subjected, physical and sexual. The latter is so traumatising for the Church that we have covered it up – literally – covering Jesus’ genitals on our crucifixes … The mocking, taunting, forced stripping of Jesus was a sexual assault. He was, as so many of us are – women and men, children and adult – vulnerable to those who used physical force against him in whatever way they chose.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A troubling model of suffering</h2>
<p>Throughout the ages, Jesus has been presented as a model of suffering. For instance, in the 18th century, <a href="http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-when-you-feel-the-assaults-of-passion-and-anger-then-is-the-time-to-be-silent-as-jesus-paul-of-the-cross-60-80-06.jpg">St Paul of the Cross</a> <a href="http://www.saintpaulofthecross.com/2009/10/st-paul-of-cross-on-sickness-suffering.html">declared</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The more deeply the cross penetrates, the better; the more deprived of consolation that your suffering is, the purer it will be; the more creatures oppose us, the more closely shall we be united to God.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Silence in the face of abuse, sexual assault and violence, then, becomes glorified and dignified. Some Christian communities have recognised the problems in constructing silence in the face of abuse as virtuous and have taken steps to challenge it. </p>
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<p>For example, the hashtags <a href="http://www.silenceisnotspiritual.org/">#SilenceisNotSpiritual</a> and <a href="http://time.com/5034546/me-too-church-too-sexual-abuse/">#ChurchToo</a> have been developed to offer a counter-narrative to the idea that silent suffering is an emulation of Jesus.</p>
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<p>But the backlash to these hashtags, which promote the voices of those who’ve experienced sexual abuse and violence, has included some more troubling connections between Jesus and the #MeToo movement. Some social media commentators have presented Jesus as the perpetrator of sexual assault rather than as the victim. </p>
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<p>By using sexual assault as a metaphor for Christ taking Christians by force, penetrating their sin with his righteousness, this view presents Jesus as a perpetrator of sexual assault, undermining the experience of survivors and victims of sexual violence and suggesting that sexual assault might be a potentially positive (or even necessary) experience.</p>
<h2>The virtue of speaking out</h2>
<p>The reaction to Jesus’s silence as well as his self-advocacy presents a troubling model for those who view Jesus as an exemplary victim of abuse, since both silence and speaking out lead to further pain and violence. </p>
<p>This should lead to an interrogation of how we as a society value suffering and especially silent suffering in the wake of #MeToo, but also challenges the notion that victims are obligated to speak out in order to be vindicated. In the end, the blame should still fall firmly on the abusers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Edwards works for the University of Sheffield. She receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>M J C Warren works for the University of Sheffield. </span></em></p>
In three Gospels, Christ suffers in silence, while in the fourth he speaks out. Either way, the result is the same: crucifixtion and death.
Katie Edwards, Director SIIBS, University of Sheffield
M J C Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56689
2016-03-23T14:12:50Z
2016-03-23T14:12:50Z
Why Judas was actually more of a saint, than a sinner
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116193/original/image-20160323-28182-niz4yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail Da Vinci's The Last Supper by Giacomo Raffaelli. Judas seated second right.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Detail_of_the_Da_Vinci%27s_The_Last_Supper_by_Giacomo_Raffaelli%2C_Vienna.jpg">Alberto Fernandez Fernandez [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Easter’s almost here, the time when Christian communities reflect on the death of Jesus and celebrate his resurrection. It’s also a time when the biblical character Judas Iscariot is remembered for his betrayal of Jesus. In many Orthodox and Catholic countries an effigy of Judas is burned as part of the Easter rituals, a custom continued in areas of Liverpool in the UK until as late as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/04/12/faith_judas_burning_feature.shtml">mid-20th century</a>.</p>
<p>Judas’s bad rap doesn’t only extend to religious ritual, however, call someone a Judas and you’ll soon see how much significance the name retains in contemporary culture. In football, for instance, the act of moving from one team to its arch rival is known as a “<a href="http://www.90min.com/posts/2288712-11-of-the-biggest-judas-transfers-of-all-time">Judas transfer</a>”. Following footballer Sol Campbell’s controversial transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Arsenal in the English Premier League, the central defender was known as “Judas” by Spurs fans, an accusation he still feels the need to address <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3179868/Sol-Campbell-claims-Arsenal-better-Tottenham-Hotspur-way.html">14 years later</a>. </p>
<p>The sting, then, from being labelled a Judas can last for decades – just ask <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/sep/13/bob-dylan-fans-judas">Bob Dylan</a>, who was branded a “Judas” when he switched from acoustic to electric.</p>
<p>Of course, the insult isn’t only reserved for footballers, musicians and MPs. Judas also been appropriated as a tool to incite and perpetuate prejudice and discrimination, including anti-semitism. Notoriously, Judas was embraced in Nazi propaganda as a vehicle to communicate stereotypes about Jews, as Peter Stanford explains in his 2015 book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hM6IBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT275&lpg=PT275&dq=judas+nazis&source=bl&ots=1QIPirWhb_&sig=qvVPbC853YMN6azguGhD5jE_DfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9s-u-y9bLAhUHtxQKHUaQC1wQ6AEIPTAH#v=onepage&q=judas%20nazis&f=false">Judas: The Troubling History of a Renegade Apostle</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116221/original/image-20160323-28187-1v61d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Red hair: the ‘Judas colour’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-265712927/stock-photo-young-hipster-red-bearded-man-looking-impared.html?src=LoWjpvwaDbWZbZ1pii0AJw-1-17">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even redheads haven’t escaped the curse of Judas. Medieval artists painted flame-haired Judases, contributing to gingerism, so much so that red hair was known as “the Judas colour”, referenced by Shakespeare in <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029961_2029964,00.html">As You Like It</a>.</p>
<h2>Time for a retrial?</h2>
<p>But while the name “Judas” may be synonymous with the most heinous of traitors, the wind maybe about to change for this much-maligned biblical character. As part of their Easter religious programming, on Good Friday the BBC will air In the Footsteps of Judas, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/12/in-the-footsteps-of-judas">a documentary focusing on Iscariot</a>. </p>
<p>Presented by Gogglebox vicar Reverend Kate Bottley, the programme promises to “reopen the case against the Bible’s most notorious villain”. The Catholic Herald <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2016/03/21/a-perfectly-good-word-exists-in-the-english-language-for-judas-action-evil/">has already taken exception</a> to the documentary, stating that “a perfectly good word exists in the English language for Judas’ actions: evil”. </p>
<p>But the Bishop of Leeds, Reverend Nick Baines, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12193826/Judas-has-had-a-lousy-press-as-prominent-clerics-call-for-a-reappraisal-of-the-disciple-who-betrayed-Jesus.html">proves far more sympathetic</a> to our biblical villain: “I feel a bit sorry for Judas,” he says. “He has gone down in history as the ultimate traitor who sells his friend for a few quid. Whether he is a traitor or a scapegoat he has had a lousy press.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116222/original/image-20160323-28192-96am6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Judas’s fault? The arrest of Jesus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-378764086/stock-photo-sebechleby-slovakia-july-the-arresting-of-jesus-in-gethsemane-garden-lithography-by.html?src=vW6EMBhf67ON6aN66d17hg-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The BBC documentary isn’t the first attempt to rehabilitate Judas. The tide’s been slowly turning for Iscariot since the 1960s with the English language publication of Nikos Kazantzaki’s controversial novel The Last Temptation of Christ and the subsequent <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095497/">filmic</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070239/">portrayals</a> of Judas as less archetypal evil villain and more complex political figure and friend of Jesus. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hIe8GA3VvYg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jesus Christ Superstar: a new look Judas?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The evidence</h2>
<p>The discovery of the <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/05/judas-gospel/cockburn-text.html">Gospel of Judas</a> in the 1970s was a further move towards re-imagining the character. The gospel offers a much more sympathetic character, a favoured apostle <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060408090737/http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/04/06/gospel.judas.ap/index.html">to whom Jesus says</a>: “You will be cursed by the other generations – and you will come to rule over them.”</p>
<p>Despite the centuries of denunciation, the biblical text itself is more ambiguous than we might expect, too. It isn’t clear if Judas is a thief who betrays Jesus or if he is a true disciple, who is a central agent in the fulfilment of God’s plan and does the dirty work that the other disciples won’t do. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116223/original/image-20160323-28182-1ejr7rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Betrayed with a kiss: Amiens, France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-246445918/stock-photo-amiens-france-february-stained-glass-window-depicting-jesus-being-betrayed-by-judas.html?src=pp-same_artist-130206347-2&ws=1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gospels can’t help us to reach a decision because, as with many biblical stories and characters, their evidence is conflicting and often contradictory. Matthew 26:47-56, for example, suggests that Judas is fulfilling a necessary duty. Jesus says to him: “Do what you came for, friend” (26:50).</p>
<p>Indeed, none of the apostles are presented in a heroic light in the text since they all desert Jesus (26:56). Indeed, most of the gospels suggest that Judas’s betrayal is essential to the fulfilment of God’s plan (John 13:18, John 17:12, Matthew 26:23–25, Luke 22:21–22, Matt 27:9–10, Acts 1:16, Acts 1:20). The Gospel of John also suggests that Jesus knows of Judas’s betrayal and allows it (John 6:64 and 13:27-28) but, far less sympathetically, that Judas also was a liar and a thief (12:1-6). </p>
<p>In Mark (14:10-11), meanwhile, it isn’t clear that money is a motivation for his betrayal of Jesus, while the gospels of Luke and John both agree that Judas betrays Jesus because Satan enters into him, suggesting perhaps that Judas may not have been acting of his own free will (Luke 22:3-6; John 13:27). </p>
<p>While Judas may never be fully rehabilitated from his reputation as treacherous villain, perhaps we could cut him a little slack – if the Bible isn’t clear on his character, then how can we?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Judas has had a 2,000-year raw deal. Here’s why it’s time for a rethink.
Katie Edwards, Director, SIIBS , University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56321
2016-03-16T13:39:02Z
2016-03-16T13:39:02Z
Was Jesus really nailed to the cross?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115173/original/image-20160315-9276-a95c0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Gertner Crucifixion Walters</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Jesus’s crucifixion is probably one of the most familiar images to emerge from Christianity. Good Friday, one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marks the event. But what was crucifixion? And why was Jesus killed that way?</p>
<p>Crucifixion was a Roman method of punishment. Suspended from a large cross, a victim would eventually die from asphyxiation or exhaustion – it was long, drawn-out, and painful. It was used to publicly humiliate slaves and criminals (<a href="http://ehrmanblog.org/why-romans-crucified-people/">not always to kill them</a>), and as an execution method was usually reserved for individuals of very low status or those whose crime was against the state. This is the reason given in the Gospels for Jesus’s crucifixion: as King of the Jews, Jesus challenged Roman imperial supremacy (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matt27%3A37&version=NRSV">Matt 27:37</a>; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+15%3A26&version=NRSV">Mark 15:26</a>; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23%3A38&version=NRSV">Luke 23:38</a>; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A19%E2%80%9322&version=NRSV">John 19:19–22</a>). </p>
<p>Crucifixion could be carried out in a number of ways. 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. In fact, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/12/08/this-one-bone-provides-the-only-skeletal-evidence-for-crucifixion-in-the-ancient-world/#19a93c6e5bff">the only archaeological evidence</a> for the practice of nailing crucifixion victims is an ankle bone from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehohanan">the tomb of Jehohanan</a>, a man executed in the first century CE. </p>
<p>So was Jesus <em>nailed</em> to the cross?</p>
<h2>Gospel accounts</h2>
<p>Some early Gospels, such as the <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas.html">Gospel of Thomas</a>, don’t include the narrative of Jesus’s crucifixion, choosing instead to focus on his teaching. But Jesus’s death by crucifixion is one of the things that all four canonical Gospels agree on. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all include the crucifixion event in their own slightly different ways.</p>
<p>None of the Gospels in the New Testament mentions whether Jesus was nailed or tied to the cross. However, the Gospel of John <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A24%E2%80%9327&version=NRSV">reports wounds in the risen Jesus’s hands</a>. It is this passage, perhaps, that has led to the overwhelming tradition that Jesus’s hands and feet were nailed to the cross, rather than tied to it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115176/original/image-20160315-9262-cl4p6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelpeter-brown.html">Gospel of Peter</a>, a non-canonical gospel from the first or second century CE, specifically describes in verse 21 how after Jesus had died, the nails were removed from his hands. The Gospel of Peter also famously includes the cross itself as an active character in the Passion narrative. In verses 41-42 the cross speaks, responding with its own voice to God: “And they were hearing a voice from the heavens saying, ‘Have you made proclamation to the fallen-asleep?’ And an obeisance was heard from the cross, ‘Yes.’” Tradition is clearly of paramount importance to this text.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, several people have claimed to have found the actual nails with which Jesus was crucified. Each time, biblical scholars and archaeologists have rightly <a href="https://robertcargill.com/2011/04/12/no-simcha-you-didnt-find-the-nails-of-the-cross-of-christ-a-week-before-easter/">pointed out</a> <a href="https://robertcargill.com/2010/03/02/no-its-not-a-nail-from-the-cross-of-christ/">the assumptions</a> and misinterpretations of evidence behind these claims. Curiously, this fixation on the nails persists, despite the fact that the earliest gospels make no mention of Jesus being nailed to the cross.</p>
<h2>Depictions of the crucifixion</h2>
<p>It isn’t surprising that Christians took a while to embrace the image of Christ on the cross, given that crucifixion was a humiliating way to die. What is surprising is what the earliest image of the crucifixion turns out to be. Rather than the devotional icons with which we are familiar – pictures that glorify Jesus’s death – this earliest image appears to be some late second-century graffiti mocking Christians.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115156/original/image-20160315-9262-18sewyi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexamenos Graffito, Vector traced from Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries (1898) by Rodolfo Lanciani.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito">Alexamenos Graffito</a>, the image shows a figure with the head of a donkey on a cross with the words: “Alexamenos worships his God.” This was apparently a common accusation in antiquity, as <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0410.htm">Minucius Felix</a>(<em>Octavius</em> 9.3; 28.7) and <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm">Tertullian</a> (<em>Apology</em> 16.12) both attest. Since the graffito was clearly not made by a Christian, this image suggests that non-Christians were familiar with some core elements of Christian belief as early as the second century.</p>
<p>Gemstones, some used for magical purposes, also provide some of our earliest depictions of the crucified Jesus. This <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=59616&partId=1">second or third century piece of carved jasper</a> depicts a man on a cross surrounded by magic words. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115174/original/image-20160315-9262-vy4siz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Magical gem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum CC BY-NC-SA 4.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another very early image of the crucifixion is found carved into the face of a carnelian gemstone made into a ring.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115175/original/image-20160315-9279-116kcd5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Constanza gemstone with the crucified Christ, surrounded by 12 apostles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Musem CC BY-NC-SA 4.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/1788713/The_Constanza_Carnelian_and_the_Development_of_Crucifixion_Iconography_in_Late_Antiquity">Scholars think that the Constanza gemstone</a>, as it is known, dates from the fourth century CE. In <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=59062&partId=1">this depiction</a>, Jesus’s hands do not appear to be nailed to the cross, since they fall naturally, as if he is tied at the wrists.</p>
<p>Since the evidence from antiquity doesn’t provide a clear answer as to whether Jesus was nailed or tied to his cross, it’s tradition that dictates this common depiction. Those who have seen the film The Passion of the Christ will recall how much time the director, Mel Gibson, devoted just to the act of nailing Jesus onto the cross —- almost five whole minutes. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L4m1u7ZSA9Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Passion of the Christ.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the relative silence on the act of crucifixion in the Gospels, this stands out as a graphic expansion. One of the only films that does not assume that crucifixion involved nails is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRJlo2WRDbw">Monty Python’s Life of Brian</a>, which shows multiple crucifixion victims, though not Jesus, tied to their crosses.</p>
<p>Eventually, Emperor Constantine put an end to crucifixion as a method of execution, not for ethical reasons, but <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/crucifixion-capital-punishment">out of respect for Jesus</a>. But in the end, it is the enduring image of the cross, and not the matter of whether nails or ropes were used, that most firmly evokes the death of Jesus in art and tradition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>M J C Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The sources offer an intriguing – and surprising – insight.
M J C Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.