The Crucified Man of Giva’at ha-Mitvar

Historians estimate that as many as 100,000 people might have been crucified during the Roman Empire . Crucifixion was the preferred execution by the Romans because its gruesome slow death instilled the maximum fear in the hearts of the suppressed people. During the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD alone, as Josephus reports, thousands of Jews were crucified (as many as 500 a day for several months) by the Roman army along the walls of Jerusalem .[1]

In 1968 an ancient burial site at Giva’at ha-Mitvar, near the Nablus road outside of Jerusalem was uncovered containing 35 bodies. Most of these died violently in the uprising against Rome in 70 AD. One was a man named Yohanan Ben Ha’galgol (Yehohanan, son of Hagakol). He was about five foot six inches tall and between 24 and 28 years old. He had a cleft palate, and a seven-inch nail was still driven through both his feet. The feet had been turned outward so that the square nail could be hammered through at the heel, just inside the Achilles tendon. This would have bowed the legs outward as well so that they could not have been used for support on the cross. The nail had gone through a wedge of acacia wood, then through the heels, then into an olive wood beam. There was also evidence that similar spikes had been put between the two bones of each lower arm. These had caused the upper bones to be worn smooth as the victim repeatedly raised and lowered himself to breathe (breathing is restricted with the arms raised). Crucifixion victims had to lift themselves to free the chest muscles and, when they grew too weak to do so, died by suffocation.[2]

Further study revealed Yohanan’s lower leg bones had been broken. The left tibia and fibula bones and the right tibia bone were apparently crushed by a common blow, with the legs sawed off later.[3] This “breaking of the legs” is consistent with common Roman practice of crucifragium mentioned in the Gospel of John: “Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.  The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other” (John 19:31-32).

By breaking the leg bones, death was hastened because the victim was not any longer able to push himself up to breath.

Numerous liberal scholars[4] accept the fact that Jesus was crucified, but take the position that after his crucifixion, his body was devoured by wild animals or tossed into a common grave. They claim this was the Roman practice; therefore the burial by Joseph of Arimathea (recorded in all four gospels) is mere fiction. These scholars insist that this explains why Jesus’ body was never produced. The man Yohanan gives factual evidence that disproves this theory. The fact that he was crucified by the Romans but subsequently buried according to Jewish tradition establishes the legitimate possibility that Jesus’ body was buried just as described in the New Testament.