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What did Romans do with crucified bodies?
What did Romans do with crucified bodies? : Part 1
My search to find out what happened to Jesus after his death begins here in the city of Jerusalem. He was crucified in a quarry to the west of the city, but the quarry is now covered by modern Jerusalem. It's almost impossible to imagine what Jerusalem was like 2,000 years ago. But just south of the modern city there's a valley which gives us a glimpse of the kind of place where Jesus died. It's called the Valley of Death. It would have doubled as a place of execution and of burial. In the Jewish faith the dead were buried outside the city walls, and when criminals were executed tombs were cut of the rock nearby to take the bodies.
The Gospels say that after his death Jesus' body was taken off the cross and it was brought to a tomb exactly like this. That's what the Bible says, but some sceptics beg to differ. They believe that the bodies of criminals were treated very differently. If they're right this would undermine one of the central pillars of the belief in the Resurrection.
Valleys outside of the city were used as crucifixion sites, but they were also used as vast rubbish dumps. So you have to try to imagine a place where scavenging dogs were running around while vultures were circling overhead.
Crucifixion was a deterrent; it was meant to put paid to any idea of rebellion, and that's why rebels were tortured in public. But even after death the Romans could heap more shame on Jewish troublemakers. When they took the bodies down, in theory, the soldiers had a choice. They could allow the body to be taken to a tomb or they could add insult to injury and leave the corpse to the mercy of scavengers. It's always been a contentious theory but the archaeological evidence seemed to back it up. Early excavations in Jerusalem uncovered many tombs but not one with a victim of crucifixion. The absence of crucified victims in the tombs convinced some experts that dead rebels were in fact just left out to rot. Is this what happened to the body of Jesus?
Miracles of Jesus
Part 3 The Resurrection 4
