Expert: Maria - 5/24/2010

Question
Hi, I am wondering if there is ANY proof to where a person was nailed to the cross. Specifically the hands, which would have to be tied for support, or is there any proof that it was done through the wrists?

Answer
Hello,

Actually there is no primary source that tells us how exactly a condemned man was nailed to the cross, especially with regard to the hands.

Even the Greek historian Herodotus (5th.century BC) does not specify it in his “History of the Persian Wars” when he says that the Persians were the first to use crucifixion (Herodotus, book I, chapter 128; III,125; III,132; III,159).

The Romans seem to have adopted the custom of crucifixion  from Carthage and used it for slaves, rebels and criminals. For example they used it during the Spartacus rebellion (73-71 BC) when more than 6,000 captured slaves were crucified along the Via Appia, i.e. the  Appian Way from Capua to Rome.

The only details we have about the hands related to the crucifixion is in John 20:25 where Thomas says: “Unless I see in his HANDS the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe".

Anyway, since in the original Greek of this gospel there is a noun (χείρ, transliterated as “cheir”)  which can mean either “hand” or “arm”, and the ancients considered the wrist to be part of the hand and arm, it is possible that the condemned man was nailed through the wrist, in a space between four carpal bones which is the location shown in the Shroud of Turin.

There is in fact an archaeological evidence of this, as in the  1960s the remains of a crucified man were found in an ancient burial chamber in the northern portion of Jerusalem.
These remains which were from the time of Jesus,i.e. the first century A.D, have revealed that the nails had been driven, not through his palms, but through his wrists, between the radius and cubitus.

Nothing else I can tell you about this matter.
Best regards,
Maria